On Thu, May 30, 2013 at 11:31 PM, Eric Walker <eric.wal...@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, May 30, 2013 at 7:08 AM, Jed Rothwell <jedrothw...@gmail.com>wrote: > > If we abandon this rule, or if we call it "hand waving" as Gibbs does >> here, progress in science will come to a halt. >> > > I think there's been a simple misunderstanding of terms. As an amateur > anthropologist of scientists, I gather that "hand waving" is a very useful > term that has two senses -- in one sense it seems to mean quickly glossing > over the outlines of a mechanism, but not really knowing how to connect the > different pieces. This kind of hand waving can refer to a legitimate > explanation but be lacking in some important details. In another, more > common sense, hand waving seems to refer to disconnected ideas that are > thrown together in such a way as to betray a basic lack of understanding of > the details. Hand waving in this sense is to construct a meaningless > string of syllables. "Word salad" seems to be a synonym for this latter > sense. > > My hunch is that Mark had in mind something different than either of these > two senses. > > > I suspect "hand waving" began as a derisive reference to occult activities since these might involve the waving of hands and/or a wand. . Harry
