Nov 2, 2024 07:13 PM
(This post was last modified: Nov 2, 2024 07:15 PM by C C.)
Yet, unfortunately, Feynman was hardly the only one like that among scientists (and other scholars), during that period when intellectual society was finally and thoroughly uncoupled from the classic beliefs of the hoi polloi. And much of the momentum of today's virtue posturing actually rides on trying to mask or conceal such lingering traits from the eye of Woke or critical theory offspring (the contemporary replacement for the Church). Similar to cheating pastors who praised God the loudest or researchers and philosophers of the 17th century groveling in the marginalia of their texts to both the political and religious establishments of their times, to deter intimidation.
Aldous Huxley (of the academic era Feynman grew up and abided in): "If only people would realize that moral principles are like measles.... They have to be caught. And only the people who've got them can pass on the contagion. [...] We are living now, not in the delicious intoxication induced by the early successes of science, but in a rather grisly morning-after. ... those elements of experience which scientists chose to leave out of account, for the good reason that they had no intellectual methods for dealing with them. In the arts, in philosophy, in religion, men are trying — to describe and explain the non-measurable, purely qualitative aspects of reality...
[...] In recent years, many men of science have come to realize that the scientific picture of the world is a partial one ... The masses, on the contrary, have just reached the point where the ancestors of todayʼs scientists were standing two generations back. They are convinced that the scientific picture of an arbitrary abstraction from reality is a picture of reality as a whole, and that therefore the world is without meaning or value.
But nobody likes living in such a world. To satisfy their hunger for meaning and value, they turn to such doctrines as nationalism, fascism and revolutionary communism. Philosophically and scientifically, these doctrines are absurd; but for the masses in every community, they have this great merit: they attribute the meaning and value that have been taken away from the world as a whole to the particular part of the world in which the believers happen to be living.
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Why isn’t Richard Feynman your personal hero?
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/...nman-hero/
KEY POINTS: When it comes to achievements in 20th century physics, it’s hard to find a more towering figure than Richard Feynman, whose contributions remain vital to physicists even today. From gravitational waves to quantum electrodynamics to solving the puzzle of why the Challenger exploded, Feynman not only accomplished much, but was a tremendous teacher as well. However, there are a great many traits about Feynman that are to be disdained, not praised, and too many people praise them anyway. Feynman was a great physicist, but a hugely flawed man. Here’s why.
EXCERPTS (Ethan Siegel): . . . Feynman had a long history, beginning after the death of his first wife and continuing for decades thereafter, of treating others, especially those who he deemed “beneath him” (which was almost everyone) and especially women in general, extremely poorly. He was very unpopular at Cornell among the students and faculty there for:
I’m not saying this to pass judgment on infidelity, casual relationships, womanizing in general, or even on workplace romance; all of those things can be done ethically, properly, and with the consent of all parties involved. Feynman’s sexism was so extreme that it triggered protests in California numerous times, and he felt no qualms about detailing his pick-up-artist moves in his autobiography, notably referring to his potential lovers as “bitches” when considering them. He buys a woman a sandwich in one of his stories, then tells her, “You are worse than a whore,” then proceeds to sleep with her. He proudly recounts stories of him solving equations at a topless bar; he details tawdry stories about lording his physics knowledge over Las Vegas showgirls and prostitutes. Never, not even once, does he offer a story of where a woman said “no” to his advances, or where her opinion was valued, respected, or even considered at all by him.
His sexism was so legendary that when he supported a woman physics professor at Caltech over employment unfairness issues, everyone on the faculty was surprised; they not only all anticipated the opposite, but they expected him to be a champion in favor of institutional sexism!
[...] In addition to this, Feynman was often very cruel to his students. Many recall how he didn’t care whether they understood his lectures or not, or whether his lectures were level-appropriate for those actually enrolled in his class. Former students recall being cursed at when pointing out a forgotten factor of 2π in his equations, frequently noting that Feynman had little time for their questions or to help them solve problems, and stating outright that Feynman’s lectures were there for his own edification, not for the benefit of the students listening to them. The laborious task of grading and assessment was often outsourced to his graduate students, making getting feedback from Feynman himself impossible. Many such former students remain trepidatious about sharing these anecdotes, even in recent years, over concerns that they’d be perceived as slandering someone who endures as a hero to so many... (MORE - details)
Aldous Huxley (of the academic era Feynman grew up and abided in): "If only people would realize that moral principles are like measles.... They have to be caught. And only the people who've got them can pass on the contagion. [...] We are living now, not in the delicious intoxication induced by the early successes of science, but in a rather grisly morning-after. ... those elements of experience which scientists chose to leave out of account, for the good reason that they had no intellectual methods for dealing with them. In the arts, in philosophy, in religion, men are trying — to describe and explain the non-measurable, purely qualitative aspects of reality...
[...] In recent years, many men of science have come to realize that the scientific picture of the world is a partial one ... The masses, on the contrary, have just reached the point where the ancestors of todayʼs scientists were standing two generations back. They are convinced that the scientific picture of an arbitrary abstraction from reality is a picture of reality as a whole, and that therefore the world is without meaning or value.
But nobody likes living in such a world. To satisfy their hunger for meaning and value, they turn to such doctrines as nationalism, fascism and revolutionary communism. Philosophically and scientifically, these doctrines are absurd; but for the masses in every community, they have this great merit: they attribute the meaning and value that have been taken away from the world as a whole to the particular part of the world in which the believers happen to be living.
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Why isn’t Richard Feynman your personal hero?
https://bigthink.com/starts-with-a-bang/...nman-hero/
KEY POINTS: When it comes to achievements in 20th century physics, it’s hard to find a more towering figure than Richard Feynman, whose contributions remain vital to physicists even today. From gravitational waves to quantum electrodynamics to solving the puzzle of why the Challenger exploded, Feynman not only accomplished much, but was a tremendous teacher as well. However, there are a great many traits about Feynman that are to be disdained, not praised, and too many people praise them anyway. Feynman was a great physicist, but a hugely flawed man. Here’s why.
EXCERPTS (Ethan Siegel): . . . Feynman had a long history, beginning after the death of his first wife and continuing for decades thereafter, of treating others, especially those who he deemed “beneath him” (which was almost everyone) and especially women in general, extremely poorly. He was very unpopular at Cornell among the students and faculty there for:
- sleeping with his undergrads,
- harassing the women undergraduates,
- making passes (sometimes successfully) at the wives and family members of other faculty and staff members,
- and for making practically non-stop crude and sexist jokes in class.
I’m not saying this to pass judgment on infidelity, casual relationships, womanizing in general, or even on workplace romance; all of those things can be done ethically, properly, and with the consent of all parties involved. Feynman’s sexism was so extreme that it triggered protests in California numerous times, and he felt no qualms about detailing his pick-up-artist moves in his autobiography, notably referring to his potential lovers as “bitches” when considering them. He buys a woman a sandwich in one of his stories, then tells her, “You are worse than a whore,” then proceeds to sleep with her. He proudly recounts stories of him solving equations at a topless bar; he details tawdry stories about lording his physics knowledge over Las Vegas showgirls and prostitutes. Never, not even once, does he offer a story of where a woman said “no” to his advances, or where her opinion was valued, respected, or even considered at all by him.
His sexism was so legendary that when he supported a woman physics professor at Caltech over employment unfairness issues, everyone on the faculty was surprised; they not only all anticipated the opposite, but they expected him to be a champion in favor of institutional sexism!
[...] In addition to this, Feynman was often very cruel to his students. Many recall how he didn’t care whether they understood his lectures or not, or whether his lectures were level-appropriate for those actually enrolled in his class. Former students recall being cursed at when pointing out a forgotten factor of 2π in his equations, frequently noting that Feynman had little time for their questions or to help them solve problems, and stating outright that Feynman’s lectures were there for his own edification, not for the benefit of the students listening to them. The laborious task of grading and assessment was often outsourced to his graduate students, making getting feedback from Feynman himself impossible. Many such former students remain trepidatious about sharing these anecdotes, even in recent years, over concerns that they’d be perceived as slandering someone who endures as a hero to so many... (MORE - details)