27 APR 2013 by ideonexus
Molyneux's problem
I shall here insert a problem of that very ingenious and studious promoter of real knowledge, the learned and worthy Mr. Molyneux, which he was pleased to send me in a letter some months since; and it is this:- "Suppose a man born blind, and now adult, and taught by his touch to distinguish between a cube and a sphere of the same metal, and nighly of the same bigness, so as to tell, when he felt one and the other, which is the cube, which the sphere. Suppose then the cube and sphere placed on...
1 A blind person, familiar with a cube and sphere by touch, is made to see. Without touching the objects, would they be able to distinguish them by sight?
08 APR 2013 by ideonexus
Roger Ebert on What to Make of Life
What I expect to happen is that my body will fail, my mind will cease to function and that will be that. My genes will not live on, because I have had no children. I am comforted by Richard Dawkins’ theory of memes. Those are mental units: thoughts, ideas, gestures, notions, songs, beliefs, rhymes, ideals, teachings, sayings, phrases, clichés that move from mind to mind as genes move from body to body. After a lifetime of writing, teaching, broadcasting and telling too many jokes, I will l...
1 He knows that his ideas will live on, if not forever, and that the most important thing to contribute to the world in life is to make others a little happier.
16 MAY 2012 by ideonexus
Clash Between Facts and Theories Because Facts are Cultur...
No theory ever agrees with all the facts in its domain, yet it is not always the theory that is to blame. Facts are constituted by older ideologies, and a clash between facts and theories may be proof of progress. It is also a first step in our attempt to find the principles implicit in familiar observational notions. Folksonomies: post-modernism anarchism
Folksonomies: post-modernism anarchism
1 
notes
notesPosted, not because I agree with it, but because it's very interesting post-modernist BS.
22 MAR 2012 by ideonexus
Science Fiction and Science as a Two-Way Street
Science fiction like Star Trek is not only good fun but it also serves a serious purpose, that of expanding the
human imagination. We may not yet be able to boldly go where no man (or woman) has gone before, but at least we can do it in the mind. We can explore how the human spirit might respond to future developments in science and we can speculate on what those developments might be. There is a two-way trade between science fiction and science. Science fiction suggests ideas that scientists...Hawking observes that SF inspires science, but science often turns up things that are stranger than fiction.
14 SEP 2011 by ideonexus
Denuciation of the Paleodiet
One of the commonest dietary superstitions of the day is a belief in instinct as a guide to dietary excellence ... with a corollary that the diets of primitive people are superior to diets approved by science ... [and even] that light might be thrown on the problems of human nutrition by study of what chimpanzees eat in their native forests. ... Such notions are derivative of the eighteenth-century fiction of the happy and noble savage. 1 notes
notesWallace Ruddell (W.R.) Aykroyd compares it to the idea of the noble savage in this 1835 quote.
02 JUN 2011 by ideonexus
The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious
The fairest thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science. He who knows it not and can no longer wonder, no longer feel amazement, is as good as dead, a snuffed-out candle. It was the experience of mystery — even if mixed with fear — that engendered religion. A knowledge of the existence of something we cannot penetrate, of the manifestations of the profoundest reason and the most radiant beauty, which are ...Einstein describes the spiritual wonder of exploring nature, compared to the idea of a personal god.
18 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
We Must Apply the Scientific Method to Ourselves
If it is to be applied consistently, science imposes, in exchange for
its manifold gifts, a certain onerous burden: we are enjoined, no
matter how uncomfortable it might be, to consider ourselves and
our cultural institutions scientifically and not to accept uncritically
whatever we're told; to surmount as best we can our hopes,
conceits and unexamined beliefs; to view ourselves as we really
are. Can we conscientiously and courageously follow planetary
motion or bacterial genetics wherever th... 1 notes
notesSkepticism must extend to ourselves, our culture, and our institutions.
17 MAY 2011 by ideonexus
Sherlock Holmes on the Need for Data
It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data. Insensibly one begins to twist facts to suit theories, instead of theories to suit facts.
Folksonomies: empiricism data
Folksonomies: empiricism data
1 notes
notesWithout data, we twist things to suit our preconceived notions.
