'Hydrogen is a light, odorless gas, which, given enough time, turns into people.' Hydrogen sulfide is another gas entirely.
On 4/5/12, Douglas Roberts <d...@parrot-farm.net> wrote: > I guess I must have spoiled your game somewhat by turning out to be barely > lukewarm regarding the charms of induction, NIck. > > Well, what can I say, except that one person's fascination is, well, one > person's fascination. > > --Doug > > On Wed, Apr 4, 2012 at 11:53 PM, Nicholas Thompson < > nickthomp...@earthlink.net> wrote: > >> Fantasy is the sharp edge of creative thought. Fantasy is proto-science. >> No pejorative intended. **** >> >> ** ** >> >> My question is NOT argumentative … or not meant to be. In a way, I have >> bet my whole career on such questions. **** >> >> ** ** >> >> Let me give you an example, which is sort of creepy, but, I think, >> “interesting”. In the 70’s, everybody got sick of writing being taught in >> English departments. After all, every faculty member in a university >> writes for a living, more or less. So, shouldn’t every faculty member be >> teaching writing. So, I taught this freshman seminar in which the >> students >> could write on any subject they wanted, although, because they knew I was >> a >> psychologist, they always took something psychological. I stubbornly >> played the role of a resource person and an editor. I questioned them in >> ways I took to deepen and broaden their enquiries in a way that would >> attract a reader’s interest. But I scrupulously avoided the role of >> “expert.” **** >> >> ** ** >> >> Every year, one or more of the students would want to do a paper on child >> abuse. It seemed to me a really dark topic, and probably arose as an >> interest for the student because they were toying with the idea that they >> themselves had been abused as children. They were kind of hoping, >> perhaps, >> that I would play the role of clinician, but I had no training or interest >> in that. To the extent that their interest was self directed, I took it >> as >> lacking universal interest, and therefore not a proper subject for a piece >> of writing. But I did see that an interesting paper COULD be written >> about child abuse because hidden in the concept is a very fundamental >> confusion. We all would agree that having sex with a child or flogging a >> child at random would be an AB-use of a child; but what, exactly, do we >> agree is the proper USE of a child. What are children FOR? I never got a >> student to open that door, let alone, walk through it. **** >> >> ** ** >> >> Now I have read some science fiction, over the years. Shirley Jackson’s >> the lottery, ETOIN SHURLU, a story about a very hot summer in new York >> and >> a termite invasion, whose last line was “pried from the jaws of the >> termite >> a bright fleck of steel.” I was even addicted to late night startrek for >> a >> year or so, although, I have to admit, I dosed through many of the >> episodes. Every one of those stories was riveting but not because it was >> the result of some idle curiosity, but because it explored some >> fundamental >> question about who we are and why we are that way. Such questions are >> what >> make psychology “interesting”, and are the beginning of scientific >> inquiry. But to turn such an interest into science, we have to explore >> WHY >> it is interesting. **** >> >> ** ** >> >> AS to Doug;s question, I guess I owe him an explanation of why I found the >> discussion of induction so interesting. You will recall it began with >> question of faith. I was interested in the paradox that those who are >> hard >> on faith, often offer induction as an alternative. But induction requires >> faith. And it also require us to join in a community of faith that shares >> our belief in induction. Such communities resemble formal religions in >> some uncomfortable ways. However, is that pragmatic faith in induction, >> which helped us build bridges and fly at faster than the speed of sound, >> and go to the moon, and provide cheap food for millions of people and, >> brought us so many important American institutions, such as the >> marketplace of ideas and the notion of settled legal opinion. All of this >> now under attack, by, apparently, people to whom its benefits are not self >> evident. I think we either have to be prepared to say why our faith is >> better than theirs, or be prepared to be beaten all the way back into the >> Dark Ages. Hence my interest in the problem of induction. **** >> >> ** ** >> >> Nick **** >> ============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College lectures, archives, unsubscribe, maps at http://www.friam.org
