Thursday, February 21, 2013

pseudo-scientists

Question:
http://uk.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20130217164607AAI0omQ

Is science stymied by ignorance, deception and muddled by pseudo-scientists?

The pseudo-scientist is described by the Spanish philosopher, Jose Ortega, in his stunning book on modern western civilization, The Revolt of the Masses:

"... By 1890 a third generation takes command in the intellectual world, and we find a type of scientist without precedent in history. He is a person who knows, of all that a routinely dutiful man must know, only something of one specific science; even of this science, he is well informed only within that limited area in which he is an active researcher. He may even go so far as to claim he has an advantage in not cultivating what lies outside his own narrow field, and he may declare that curiosity about general knowledge is the sign of the amateur, the dilettante.

Immured within his small area, he succeeds in discovering new facts, advances the science which he scarcely knows, and increases perforce the encyclopedia of knowledge of which he is conscientiously ignorant..."


Answer:

No comments:

Post a Comment