Tag Archives: philosophy

Misc Musings on the surety of science or why I am skeptical of ‘Well-Established’ facts.

by DAVID BROWN | CLEARNFO.com | December 12, 2014

Math-for-Piano-PerformanceNewton’s 3 Laws of Motion were proven science for 100s of years and helped put a man on the moon and are still used today … only one problem: they are incorrect. Newton’s laws of motion, together with his law of gravitation, provide a useful basis for explaining the motion of everyday objects under everyday conditions. However, when applied to extremely high speeds or extremely small objects, Newton’s laws break down.

How about the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle? It put a big crack down the middle of the well-behaved universe.

How about Zeno’s paradox Achilles and the tortoise? How about the a priori? The fallacy of logic: If A=B and B=C, then A=C, right? But the entire logic is based on an unexamined assumption of the IF which is the a priori which can never be proven.

How about the Precambrian explosion of life forms in the geologic record?

How about the three sets of laws that don’t agree? The big laws (Relativity), the medium laws (Newtonian) and the really small laws (Quantum). They are all correct except when they are not.

In ancient times mathematicians ran into a logical brick wall which no one could overcome. This had to do with the interplay of the linear, logical, discontinuous mind-set of the day –that many of us today still possess– and the reality of infinity. Corollaries to this conundrum would be the asymptote (y – 1/x), Zeno’s paradox or just trying to find the area under a curve for y = x^2 or y equals x squared.

The area of a square or rectangle is easy enough to determine. If the box is 4 ft. by 5 ft. you just multiply 4 X 5 and the area is 20 sq. ft. If however you want to determine the area under a curve defined for example by the equation of y = x^2 (Note: y is also called the function at x or f(x)), you can subdivide the area under the curve into smaller and smaller boxes but you can never determine the exact area under the curve because you can never make the boxes small enough since there are an infinite number of box sizes before you can get them small enough to determine the exact area under the curve.

The Calculus solved this problem by saying that the limit of f(x) is exactly = to the area as the change in x goes to zero. So, we never really get there, we just say that the limit or the point beyond which it can go is limited by the curve.

Mathematics…is man’s way of cutting up and compartmentalizing the world he is able to experience into digestible units and then describing relationships that seem to have some meaningful use. The result of this activity can produce useful understanding and some ability to control / manipulate our environment.

Science…I believe in the empirical method. I also believe that many in our scientific community have let their emotions and political point of view turn their science into a religion. You either believe certain “well-established facts” or you do not get tenure or you are ridiculed or…. These “well-established facts” represent a dogma or a credo similar to any religion. The result is that many place their minds in a box and their ability to take in new information and process this information critically and honestly is therefore necessarily aberrated.

 Related ClearNFO Topics

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On Religion…

Feynman: Mathematicians versus Physicists …

Additional reading …

“However, accelerating expansion requires a mysterious source of energy in space acting against gravity, dubbed “dark energy.” Calculations show that the energy required is equivalent to 73% of the total mass-energy of the universe! Historians will look back at science today with disbelief and amusement at the ‘science’ of today. Following equally mysterious ‘black holes’ and ‘dark matter,’ if we continue to discover darkness at the present rate we shall soon know nothing!”  A Nobel Prize for the Dark Side

Defying textbook science, study finds new role for proteins

On Religion…

by DAVID BROWN | CLEARNFO.com | October 18, 2009
David Brown
“There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.”
― William Shakespeare, Hamlet

Many of us claim to know the most about that which we know the least. This aberration can result in feeling and acting self righteous. Self righteous thought manifests as a temporary or sometimes chronic condition of being “self-righteous”; the particular target of this self righteousness can be related to an emotional charge that hasn’t been thoroughly processed through the intellect…in other words, some people may have a predisposition to this state of mind due to partially processed information. Whether a character defect, lazy-brain or an uninformed brain I think most would see self righteousness as disagreeable despite the source or the object of self righteousness. I would guess that we all could be or have been subject to this repugnant state of being. Not sure the mechanics of how we succumb but it might be that it can reside beneath our awareness, bypassing our normal “bull shit protector” criteria for knowledge also known as our epistemic system; possibly through acceptance of faith as a legitimate source of knowledge or scientific theory as immutable fact. In defense of religion, I hope to prove, that faith is a normal and necessary condition of man while scientific theories are tools to improve man’s condition.

I believe that I can also prove that much of science is a religion.

Someone once said that “all politics are local”. If we peal back the obvious meaning of this statement a bit, there is more to see. First, the obvious meaning is that people vote on what is directly effecting them before considering the broader dynamics of national or global politics, for example. A second derivative might point to our tendency to myopic points of view wherein we are limited by our own personal experiences. If we, for example, have had limited experiences with one partition of a particular religion and this experience was not a satisfying experience we would naturally tend to leverage this direct experience and along with our judgment or invalidation therein include the entire offending belief system of which our experience is merely a part—possibly an aberrant part. This judgment could be accurate or not but this method definitely saves time. This experience may have produced fear, disgust or even hatred if you have felt bamboozled. If however after this limited, unsatisfactory experience there still exists somehow an interest in further evaluation, more data must be gathered to make a more accurate assessment.

If you accept my premise that roughly 80% of any population are “sheeple” or followers, then you might share my appreciation that weekly “Church-going” offers an incredible reoccurring opportunity for the work-a-day average folk to partake in a pause to consider something outside of their normal diet of sitcoms, football and movies…to consider the profound, the supernatural, the philosophical…to ask questions and to contemplate their existence. Of course they have guides on this weekly tour and they have structure. In Christiandom we call the guides preachers and the structure is a combination of tradition, dogma and liturgy. Of course there are many out-of-band sub-currents weaving in and out of this dynamic weekly communion of the “sheeple”. Examples would be the tour guide’s need for money and validation from an ever-increasing flock and you have the social element of friendships, etc.

So what are some of the benefits of church going? The first one I have already mentioned…the meeting once a week to ponder matters of the profound. You might consider your fellows uninformed, unenlightened or buffoons but you share much with these mere mortals, I assure you. For the astute, there is much more, I think. The astute have the opportunity to directly observe, appreciate and try to understand the interplay of the archetypes on display; to breathe the aroma of the sublime and seek to understand the emotional and metaphysical content. Other benefits are a sense of belonging to a group, joy, happiness and opportunities to interact socially. For me, the “be attitudes” and the sermon on the mount represent pearls of wisdom that have produce much good thought and understanding in my life and have also stimulated my intellectual curiosity on my quest for understanding.

Ah…but you say this stuff is for the weak-minded and cannot be true. Evolution, science and the belief in my own intellectual powers are the mooring by which I will secure my ship.

What if I could prove to you that faith was pervasive and more importantly a necessary part of the human condition? There are too many examples in every day life. You believe that this metal box with wheels you call a car will get you to work safely or you would probably just stay in bed that day, right? You believe that there is something you can do to improve your current status in life or you would just stay in bed and never get up. You believe that if you will your finger to move or your hand to grasp a glass of water that it will obey…what if you didn’t believe? Would your hand tremble? Faith is a necessary part of everyone’s life every day. The person who commits suicide is the eternal optimist because he believes that the next world or the lack thereof will be better than this. So belief is the natural state of being and there is nothing wrong with believing.

So how do you know what you believe is true? You know the same way you know all things… by experience.

Additional Reading:

In Pursuit of Lady Truth

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Opus 004: Just In Case

by DAVID BROWN | CLEARNFO.com | September 7, 2012

Philosophy An Introduction to the Art of Wondering James ChristianShortly before a solar eclipse was to occur in central India, an Indian physicist—who was also a member of the Brahmin caste—was lecturing to his students at the university.  He told them precisely when the event would begin and described in detail how the moon’s orbit would take it between the sun and the earth.  In their city there would be only a partial eclipse, but on a wall map he pointed out the path of totality as it moved across the terrestrial globe to the north of them.  They discussed such things as the corona, solar flares, the beauty of annular rings, and the appearance of Bailey’s beads during that rate total eclipse.  Some of the students from the rural villages had heard stories about a Giant Dragon that swallowed the sun, but their teacher’s lucid presentation of celestial mechanics had dispelled any fears they might have felt.

Having dismissed his class, the professor returned to his village and, since he was a Brahmin, assume220px-Kali_by_Raja_Ravi_Varmad his duties as a priest.  Around his shoulders he draped the vestments of his office and began counting through his string of beads, calling aloud the names of the gods.  A goat was beheaded in sacrifice to Kali, the Black Goddess, the cause and controller of earthquakes, storms, and other evil things, and the archenemy of demons.  “Glory to Mother Kali,” the priest and people chanted.

While in the classroom there was nothing illogical about describing the solar eclipse in terms of celestial mechanics; neither was there anything wrong in offering a gift to the Black Goddess—just in case . . .

 

Philosophy: An Introduction to the Art of Wondering [James L. Christian]