Re: Are There Any Actual Physicists/Scientists Here?

On Thu, 11 Aug 2005 14:48:31 +1000, Timo Nieminen <timo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:

>On Thu, 11 Aug 2005, Paul Stowe wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 11 Aug 2005 12:40:36 +1000, Timo Nieminen <timo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> On Thu, 11 Aug 2005, Paul Stowe wrote:
>>>
>>>> But, science & its method is self correcting and
>>>> is not threaten by ideas, period.
>>>
>>> Not even by dogmatism?
>>
>> Dogmatism, like politics, is a corruption in the scientific
>> process. But I'd have to say no, it slows but will not stop
>> the scientific process. Planck got that part right...
>
> If you restrict yourself to "scientific dogmatism", you might
> be correct. But that's a very narrow perspective on dogmatism,
> let alone "ideas". Was science threatened by Lysenkoism,

No...

> Khmer Rouge anti-educationism, etc?

No. Was it 'delayed' in these situations, yes.

> I'd say that, at least in the places where those ideas were put
> into practice, it was.

Was science threatened by the burning of the library of Alexanderia?

No, but it sure was a great loss. It delayed and forced re-discovery
of many things. I guess it's in the perspective. In the short run
science is surely 'threatened' and sometimes stopped dead by Dogmatism.
But, a Planck observed, people die, their opposition dies with them.
You'll not likely convince the dogmatic, but instead, the young fresh
inquiring minds not yet mired by investments of time, effort, and
prestige in pre-existing dogmas. Thus, over time, dogma is overcome.
In can be a slow painstaking process. But in the long run, science
and its method prevails. It progresses. Alas, it is the basic nature
(and NOT a positive one) of humans.

Paul Stowe
.

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