Homo sapiens today suffers from species snobbery or a related infection. This is why it devotes so much energy to the issue of the discovery of alien forms of intelligent life. It is as if the discovery of alien intelligent life forms is something to be sought after more than other life forms or even forms of nature. The point is that it is not necessarily a matter of significance to find life on a par with our intelligence or not. It may be just as great a scientific achievement to find life forms whether in the form of intelligent or non-intelligent forms. Scientifically and philosophically there cannot be a difference. The only basis from which there can be a difference is in terms of exploitation or companionship. Scientifically neither forms matter. Finding non-intelligent life maybe just as scientifically significant if not more since the scope for greater scientific development may be muich greater than when as otherwise. It just makes no sense scientifically as to why it is more important to discover intelligent life forms than other life forms or even non-living forms of nature. To privilege one over the other is to be both unobjective and ideological. This is then a philosophical and not a scientific postion. We then need to understand the philosophical basis underlying this outlook. Scientifically homo sapiens nor other intelligent life forms, supposing they exist, can merit no more attention than other natural phenomena. Indeed the view that homo sapiens and any other intelligent life forms merit special attention by science contains a form of speciasm. It suggests that scientifically speaking this caegory is at the centre of being and is what really matters. But given the nature of science this cannot be a scientific position but a philosophical one. And if this position is one that much of the scientific community has adopted then it has to be said that science is being dominated and restricted by a particular philosophy. This means that scientific inquiry is not motivating science but a particular philosophy. But science cannot be determined by a particular prejudice, a particular philosophy, but by science itself. Such a situation can distort the scientific enterprise and even obstruct its progress.
Paddy Hackett _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list Marxism-Thaxis@lists.econ.utah.edu To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
