John,
Actually Sheldrake was able to test a hypothesis (which, to my knowledge
he did not himself believe in at the time)on non-local effects. His
series of experiments (one will never do) on pidgeons are truly
ingenious and suberb AS experimental designs.
If that is agreed (after thorough studying), then his findings arew
noteworthy. Within my expertice his experimental designs were
impeccable. - If the result feel odd and mysterious, that is no
scientific ground to reject them.
This has nothing to do with sympathy or antipathy. The result of any
well-conducted experiment are what they are. They present 'brute
secondness' as I think CSP would have put it.
Being so seasoned as I am in doing and evaluating experimental research,
I do not take seriously any 'results' I have not been able to check
according to the design, process and statistical methods used. -
Sheldrake with his pidgeon investigations passed this test.
In philosophy of science, as you well know, there was a belief in
cumulating scientific 'facts' showing us 'the truth'. Positivism. Now
we, at least most of us, know that truth is a bit more complicated
issue.
With former investigations on phenomena called 'telepathy' or other of
the same kind, one of the flaws rises up from statistical tests used to
test statistical significance. Any results (measuremensts) of any
investigation showing statistically nonsignificant difference between
zero hypotothesis (no effect) and the hypothesis tested, do not in fact
prove the zero hypothesis. - The 'no effect' hypothesis is extremely
difficult to prove. - It may well be that it is LOGICALLY impossible to
prove.
To my knowledge this has not been truly PROVED, so far. I believe it
will be. But this is just foreboding.
Relational thinking is needed in taking any stance with 'paranormal'
phenomena. What today is taken as such, were not so taken in history.
Even our history as modern scientists and logicians. It is not so long
ago phenomena now considered as odd, were considered as normal.
One difference lies in that people talked about such things. Nowadays
people get worried about seeming odd. - Nothing scientific or logical in
that. It is about paying attention. In science, that means systematic,
prolonged attention.
The modern world and history is full of totally useless experimental
investigations.
Sheldrake's investigations do not belong in this lot.
This does not mean that I all fore for his "dogma" thing. I am
definitely not.
But I do think they are worth some attention.
Kirsti
John F Sowa kirjoitti 11.6.2017 13:36:
Kirstina,
I'm sympathetic to the possibility of paranormal phenomena. In fact,
I know of some unexplained examples. But the only thing we can say
is "They're weird, and we don't know how or why they happened."
Sheldrake has not been searching evidence for 'parapsychology' as
such, as a somewhat popular stream of thinking, instead he has been
lead to investigate phenomena commonly considered paranormal. Such as
'telepathy', i.e non-local connections between minds which may have
systematically observable effects.
Investigation involves search. There have been claims about paranormal
phenomena for centuries. They fall into three categories:
1. Explainable by normal or abnormal psychology. For example, as the
result of human feelings and imagination -- sometimes delusional.
2. Deliberate fraud. Magicians are experts in creating weird effects
-- and in exposing fraudulent claims by other magicians.
3. Unexplainable by any known causes.
For #3, there have been many kinds of explanations, but none of them
can make any testable predictions. For telepathy, there are cases
where people have experienced information about a distant event that
could not have come by any known method of communication.
But nobody is able to control the telepathy or to do it on a consistent
basis (i.e., at a level above chance). That failure of control is not
a proof that telepathy does not occur. But unless telepathy can be
done
at a level above chance, it cannot be distinguished from a lucky guess.
Just compare the experimental investigations by Jastrow and Peirce
with those by Sheldrake.
They are totally different. Jastrow and Peirce were doing science:
They started with observations, formed hypotheses, make predictions
about what would happen in new circumstances, performed the
experiments,
and got results that confirmed their predictions.
He observed (systematicly) the workings of his own mind as well as
the workings of his dog's mind. And he experimented with both.
Sheldrake started with some observations (or claims about observations)
and formed hypotheses. But he did not make testable predictions,
perform experiments, and get results that confirmed the predictions.
And the experiments have to be performed under controlled conditions.
A dog can easily pick up subtle cues. See the case of Clever Hans:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clever_Hans
As is evidenced by scattered remarks in his writings till the
end of his life.
According to Wikipedia, he's still alive:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rupert_Sheldrake
From 2005 to 2010, he received funding from the Perrot-Warrick Fund:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perrott-Warrick_Fund
That fund is administered by Cambridge University. There is nothing
wrong with exploring unexplained phenomena and forming hypotheses
(guesses) about them. But guesses don't become science until they
can make reliable, repeatable, testable predictions.
John
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