Empiricism
Memes on seeing the world as it really is.
Folksonomies: enlightenment science rationality empiricism
Memes
13 APR 2012
What It Means to be a Scientist
In reality, scientists are just people like you and me. Most of us don't wear lab coats (I don't) or work with bubbling beakers or sparking van de Graf generators (unless they are chemists or physicists who actually work with that equipment). Most scientists are not geniuses either. It is true that, on average, scientists tend to be better educated than the typical person on the street, but that education is a necessity to learn all the information that allows a scientist to make discoveries....Folksonomies: scientific virtues scientific method
Folksonomies: scientific virtues scientific method
It's not about how they dress or their education, but their adherence to the scientific method.
23 JAN 2012
The One Piece of Dogmatism Allowed the Scientist
It is the business of science to offer rational explanations for all the events in the real world, and any scientist who calls on God to explain something is falling down on his job. This applies as much to the start of the expansion as to any other event. If the explanation is not forthcoming at once, the scientist must suspend judgment: but if he is worth his salt he will always maintain that a rational explanation will eventually be found. This is the one piece of dogmatism that a scientis...That a rational explanation will eventually be found.
13 JAN 2012
Columbus As An Example of the Scientific Method
The role of hypothesis in research can be discussed more effectively if we consider first some examples of discoveries which originated from hypotheses. One of the best illustrations of such a discovery is provided by the story of Christopher Columbus' voyage; it has many of the features of a classic discovery in science. (a) He was obsessed with an idea—that since the world is round he could reach the Orient by sailing West, (b) the idea was by no means original, but evidently he had obtai...His hypothesis, his observations, his search for funding, his experiment, his refusal to give up certain preconceptions, and his meager life and failure to be the first.
02 JAN 2012
Consciousness of the Fallibility of Our Senses is a Resul...
A consciousness of the fallacy of our senses is one of the most important consequences of the study of nature. This study teaches us that no object is seen by us in its true place, owing to aberration; that the colours of substances are solely the effects of the action of matter upon light; and that light itself, as well as heat and sound, are not real beings, but modes of action communicated to our perceptions by the nerves. The human frame may therefore be regarded as an elastic system, the...When you understand the underlying reality of what we see in the world around us, you understand that our perceptions deceive us. Sounds vaguely post-modern.
03 SEP 2011
Science Laws are Intrinsic, Not Heirarchical
In science, law is not a rule imposed from without, but an expression of an intrinsic process. The laws of the lawgiver are impotent beside the laws of human nature, as to his disillusion many a lawgiver has discovered. A quote from Sir Thomas Clifford Allbutt about the emergent nature of scientific laws, which are not imposed from an authority, but come from within nature.
20 MAY 2011
Uncle Paul Investigates the Natural World
And so they say that Uncle Paul knows any number
of stories. He investigates, he observes for himself. When
he walks in his garden he is seen now and then to stop
before the hive, around which the bees are humming, or
under the elder bush, from which the little flowers fall
softly, like flakes of snow; sometimes he stoops to the
ground for a better view of a little crawling insect, or a
blade of grass just pushing into view. What does he see?
What does he observe? Who knows? They say, however...And learns nature's wonderful secrets.
18 MAY 2011
The Law Strives for an Impossible Standard of Accuracy
When we are asked to swear in courts of law that we will tell
'the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth', we
are being asked the impossible. It is simply beyond our powers.
Our memories are fallible; even scientific truth is merely an
approximation; and we are ignorant about nearly all of the
Universe. Nevertheless, a life may depend on our testimony. To
swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth
to the limit of our abilities is a fair request. Without th...When it asks us to swear to tell the whole truth.
18 MAY 2011
Skepticism is Not Enough
As I've tried to stress, at the heart of science is an essential
balance between two seemingly contradictory attitudes - an
openness to new ideas, no matter how bizarre or counterintuitive,
and the most ruthlessly sceptical scrutiny of all ideas, old and new.
This is how deep truths are winnowed from deep nonsense. The
collective enterprise of creative thinking and sceptical thinking,
working together, keeps the field on track. Those two seemingly
contradictory attitudes are, though, in some ...We must also be open to new and challenging ideas.
17 MAY 2011
The Baloney Detection Kit
In science we may start with experimental results, data, observations, measurements, 'facts'. We invent, if we can, a rich array of possible explanations and systematically confront each explanation with the facts. In the course of their training, scientists are equipped with a baloney detection kit. The kit is brought out as a matter of course whenever new ideas are offered for consideration. If the new idea survives examination by the tools in our kit, we grant it warm, although tentative, ...Bullet points for the baloney detection kit according to Carl Sagan.
12 APR 2011
We Must Look at the World Bravely and Not Through the Ign...
We want to stand upon our own feet and look fair and square at the world -- its good facts, its bad facts, its beauties, and its ugliness; see the world as it is and be not afraid of it. Conquer the world by intelligence and not merely by being slavishly subdued by the terror that comes from it... A good world needs knowledge, kindliness, and courage; it does not need a regretful hankering after the past or a fettering of the free intelligence by the words uttered long ago by ignorant men. It...Russell's conclusion to "Why I am Not a Christian".
05 APR 2011
The Consolation of Seeing the World Through Science
But what good does it do me to think of the universe as an unthinking mechanism vast beyond comprehension? It gives me the consolation of believing I conceive it as it really is. It makes me thankful that I can conceive it at all. I could have been a pair of ragged claws, scuttling across the floors of silent seas. In this connection I find the Theory of Evolution a great consolation. It helps me understand how life came about and how I came to be. It reveals a logical principle I believe app...Seeing the world as it really is.
03 APR 2011
Alexandria's Promise of a Brilliant Scientific Civilization
;Only once before in our history was there the promise of a brilliant scientific civilization. Beneficiary of the Ionian Awakening, it had its citadel at the Library of Alexandria, where 2,000 years ago the best minds of antiquity established the foundations for the systematic study of mathematics, physics, biology, astronomy, literature, geography and medicine. We build on those foundations still. The Library was constructed and supported by the Ptolemys, the Greek kings who inherited the Eg...
1 Carl Sagan recounts the destruction of science and enlightenment in ancient Alexandria at the hands of religious zealotry.
03 APR 2011
Text of the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom
An Act for establishing religious Freedom.
Whereas, Almighty God hath created the mind free;
that all attempts to influence it by temporal punishments or burthens, or by civil incapacitations tend only to beget habits of hypocrisy and meanness, and therefore are a departure from the plan of the holy author of our religion, who being Lord, both of body and mind yet chose not to propagate it by coercions on either, as was in his Almighty power to do,
that the impious presumption of legislator...Written in 1777.
03 APR 2011
The Intangible Nature of a Superstition Makes it Irrefutable
Fable should be taught as fable, myth as myth, and miracles as poetic fancies. To teach superstitions as truth is horrifying. The mind of a child accepts them and only through great pain, perhaps tragedy, can the child be relieved of them. Men will fight for superstition as quickly as for the living truth -- even more so, since a superstition is intangible, you can't get at it to refute it, but truth is a point of view, as so is changeable.
~ Hypatia of Alexandria (370 - 415 BC)1 
notes
notesA superstition cannot even be falsified.
References
13 APR 2012
Evolution
Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Prothero , Donald R. and Buell , Carl Dennis (2007), Evolution, Columbia Univ Pr, Retrieved on 2012-04-13Source Material [books.google.com]
Folksonomies: science
Folksonomies: science
6 
23 JAN 2012
The mystery of the expanding universe
Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Bonnor , William B. (1964), The mystery of the expanding universe, Retrieved on 2012-01-23Source Material [books.google.com]
Folksonomies: science
Folksonomies: science
1
13 JAN 2012
The art of scientific investigation
Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Beveridge , William Ian Beardmore (2004-12-30), The art of scientific investigation, Blackburn Pr, Retrieved on 2012-01-13Source Material [books.google.com]
Folksonomies: reference
Folksonomies: reference
4
01 SEP 2011
Oxford Dictionary of Medical Quotations
Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: McDonald , Peter (2004-09-16), Oxford Dictionary of Medical Quotations, Oxford University Press, USA, Retrieved on 2011-09-01
3
20 MAY 2011
The Story-Book of Science
Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Fabre , Jean-Henri (2010-10-14), The Story-Book of Science, General Books LLC, Retrieved on 2011-05-20Source Material [www.mainlesson.com]
2
04 MAY 2011
The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark
Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Sagan , Carl and Druyan , Ann (1997-02-25), The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, Ballantine Books, Retrieved on 2011-05-04
48
18 APR 2011
The Connexion of the Physical Sciences
Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Somerville , Mary (2010-01-11), The Connexion of the Physical Sciences, Nabu Press, Retrieved on 2011-04-18Source Material [books.google.com]
Folksonomies: enlightenment science
Folksonomies: enlightenment science
6
12 APR 2011
Why I Am Not A Christian And Other Essays On Religion And...
Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Russell , Bertrand (March 6, 1927), Why I Am Not A Christian And Other Essays On Religion And Related Subjects, Barlow Press, Retrieved on 2011-04-12Source Material [users.drew.edu]
Folksonomies: atheism
Folksonomies: atheism
3
05 APR 2011
A quintessence of dust
Electronic/World Wide Web>Blog: Ebert, Roger (March 30, 2011 7:21), A quintessence of dust, Chicago Tribune, Retrieved on 2011-04-05Source Material [blogs.suntimes.com]
2
03 APR 2011
The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom: Its Evolution...
Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: (2003-10-30)The Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom: Its Evolution and Consequences in American History (Cambridge Studies in Religion and American Public Life), Cambridge University Press, Retrieved on 2011-04-03
1
03 APR 2011
Cosmos
Books, Brochures, and Chapters>Book: Sagan , Carl (1981), Cosmos, RCA, Retrieved on 2011-04-03
1
