25 MAY 2015 by ideonexus
Paul Saffo: The Illusion of Scientific Progress
The breathtaking advance of scientific discovery has the unknown on the run. Not so long ago, the Creation was 8,000 years old and Heaven hovered a few thousand miles above our heads. Now Earth is 4.5 billion years old and the observable Universe spans 92 billion light years. Pick any scientific field and the story is the same, with new discoveries—and new life-touching wonders—arriving almost daily. Like Pope, we marvel at how hidden Nature is revealed in scientific light.
Our growing c...Folksonomies: scientific progress progress
Folksonomies: scientific progress progress
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notes19 APR 2013 by ideonexus
Science, Religion, and the Motion of the Earth
We may distinguish the progress of each science as it is in itself, which has no other limit than the number of truths it includes within its sphere, and the progress of a nation in each science, a progress which is regulated first by the number of men who are acquainted with its leading and most important truths, and next by the number and nature of the truths so known.
In fine, we are now come to that point of civilization, at which the people derive a profit from intellectual knowledge, n... 1 notes
notesScience worked from reality, Religion condescended to allow for the motion of the Earth.
09 JAN 2013 by ideonexus
Humanism is Grounded in Empirical Reality
We base our understanding of the world on what we can perceive with our senses and comprehend with our minds. Anything that is said to make sense should make sense to us as humans; else there is no reason for it to be the basis of our decisions and actions. Supposed transcendent knowledge or intuitions that are said to reach beyond human comprehension cannot instruct us because we cannot relate concretely to them. The way in which humans accept supposed transcendent or religious knowledge is ...Folksonomies: humanism empiricism
Folksonomies: humanism empiricism
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notesRevealed knowledge serves no purpose because it is not shared by everyone.
27 AUG 2012 by ideonexus
On the Importance of Bacon
The most singular, as well as the most excellent, of all his works, is that which is now the least read, and which is at the same time the most useful; I mean his "Novum Scientiarum Organum." This is the scaffold by means of which the edifice of the new philosophy has been reared; so that when the building was completed, the scaffold was no longer of any use. Chancellor Bacon was still unacquainted with nature, but he perfectly knew, and pointed out extraordinarily well, all the paths which...Folksonomies: discovery natural philosophy
Folksonomies: discovery natural philosophy
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notesBarbarism discovered many useful inventions by accident, but Francis Bacon discovered natural philosophy according to Voltaire.
02 FEB 2012 by ideonexus
Nuclear Power Forces Man to Greatness
It is hard to think of fissionable materials when fashioned into bombs as being a source of happiness. However this may be, if with such destructive weapons men are to survive, they must grow rapidly in human greatness. A new level of human understanding is needed. The reward for using the atom's power towards man's welfare is great and sure. The punishment for its misuse would seem to be death and the destruction of the civilization that has been growing for a thousand years. These are the a...Folksonomies: atomic power nuclear power
Folksonomies: atomic power nuclear power
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notesBecause the alternative is self-destruction.
25 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
Man's Sense is Not the Measure of All Things
For it is a false assertion that the sense of man is the measure of things. On the contrary, all perceptions as well of the sense as of the mind are according to the measure of the individual and not according to the measure of the universe. And the human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolors the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it.
1 ...human understanding is like a false mirror, which, receiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolors the nature of things by mingling its own nature with it.
25 JUL 2011 by ideonexus
Humans Pay More Attention to Affirmatives, Biased Toward ...
The human understanding when it has once adopted an opinion (either as being the received opinion or as being agreeable to itself) draws all things else to support and agree with it. And though there be a greater number and weight of instances to be found on the other side, yet these it either neglects and despises, or else by some distinction sets aside and rejects, in order that by this great and pernicious predetermination the authority of its former conclusions may remain inviolate. And t... 1 notes
notes...it is the peculiar and perpetual error of the human intellect to be more moved and excited by affirmatives than by negatives; whereas it ought properly to hold itself indifferently disposed toward both alike.
01 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
Aristotle on Chance in Nature
There are some who make chance responsible for this cosmos and all worlds. For they say that by chance there came about a vortex and a motion of separating out and settling into this arrangement of the whole. And this itself is in fact mightily worth 30 wondering at. For they are saying that animals and plants neither are nor come to be by fortune, but that either nature or Intellect or some other such thing is the cause (for what comes into being from each seed is not whatever falls out, but... 1 notes
notesAn ancient perspective on the question of naturalism and creationism.
17 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
We Believe What We Want to Be True
The human understanding is no dry light, but receives infusion from the will and affections; whence proceed sciences which may be called 'sciences as one would'. For what a man had rather were true he more readily believes. Therefore he rejects difficult things from impatience of research; sober things, because they narrow hope; the deeper things of nature, from superstition; the light of experience, from arrogance and pride; things not commonly believed, out of deference to the opinion of th... 1 notes
notesBecause of pride, hope, impatience, and a myriad other passions that affect our psyches.
