Re: Paradigm shifts through the history of science

[Judith Rosen <***>]

Go ahead and post it if you think it will be useful. I don't mind at all.

Judith

----- Original Message -----
From: "John Kineman" <***>
To: <***>
Sent: Sunday, September 05, 2004 12:29 PM
Subject: Re: [ROSEN] Paradigm shifts through the history of science


> Do you mind if I post this to the seminar site? It is what we are talking
> about this week & good for the students to hear the personal side..
>
> At 08:09 AM 9/5/2004 -0400, you wrote:
> >It's true, as John K. said, that very few people ever even look at the
> >foundations, much less question them. My father really never intended to
do
> >so; he planned to apply the "tools on the shelf" in perhaps a more
creative
> >manner, and thought that would generate his answers for him. But when he
was
> >compelled (by the inability of the tools to do the job, no matter how
those
> >tools were applied) to look at how the tools came to be in the first
place,
> >he began the process of re-examining the foundations and it was
astonishing
> >what he found in doing so.
> >
> >That was what generated the complaint that has become somewhat famous:
"The
> >trouble with YOU, Rosen, is you're always trying to answer questions
nobody
> >wants to ask!" That referred to the foundational questions he was asking
> >("Why mechanism?", "Why reductionism?", "Why based on particulate
matter?",
> >"Why is final cause forbidden?" etc).
> >
> >Ultimately, he realized that it is absolutely essential to question the
> >foundations. Assumptions are dangerous. Yet science (and religion and
> >government and industry and....) is built on them. He used to jokingly
quote
> >a line from some movie that went; "When we ASSUME, we make an ASS out of
U
> >and Me..."
> >
> >Judith
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "John Kineman" <***>
> >To: <***>
> >Sent: Sunday, September 05, 2004 1:33 AM
> >Subject: Re: [ROSEN] Paradigm shifts through the history of science
> >
> >
> > > Tim,
> > >
> > > Isn't it amazing, though, how few people understand what paradigms
are,
> > > what they are based on, and how the change? So much of science
education
> > > takes place inside a paradigm, there is scant attention given to where
it
> > > came from in the first place. Only a very few people I work with
> >understand
> > > ideas like paradigms and world views.
> > >
> > > John
> > >
>