From: Sam Norton (elizaphanian@kohath.wanadoo.co.uk)
Date: Thu Apr 28 2005 - 16:00:32 BST
Hi Ian,
I'm all in favour of a level playing field. But it may help if I spell out
what my query is.
Seems to me that there are two things that might qualify as 'science'.
The first refers to subject matter. So science is what studies the first two
of Pirsig's levels in the hierarchy. And it does this in various different
ways, according to the nature of the subject matter. This is the one that
tends to emphasise the 'empirical evidence' element, so far as I can tell.
The second refers to method. So science is whatever knowledge is produced
following the application of a certain form of intellectual enquiry. This is
the one that has tended to emphasise the 'objective' character of scientific
enquiry (and we all know that there is an error there). I call this
'apathistic' enquiry, as it is geared around emotional distancing. It tends
to be the one I have in the back of my head when I think of 'science', (and
the one I tend to mock, every so often, as being largely irrelevant to the
concerns of real life). I also happen to think that there is something holy
embedded in it, in that it tends to the destruction of idolatry, but that's
another story. (Witt: "all that philosophy can do is destroy idols")
But you seem to be pushing for something else, viz, 'quality of
explanation', and I can't map that on to either of those two understandings.
So I'm looking forward to having my brain stretched in an unfamiliar
direction. It sounds interesting.
Cheers
Sam
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