Nov 7, 2014 04:04 AM
http://www.psmag.com/navigation/books-an...leo-93579/
EXCERPT: [...] The bulk of [Lawrence] Lipking’s book is devoted to showing that the historical battle lines we tend to draw between science, religion, and art, aren’t as bright and clear as we like to tell ourselves.
[...] Galileo, forced to recant his heliocentrism by the Church, nobly refused “to be swayed by myths or orthodoxies,” and boldly declared, “Nevertheless it moves.” Except, there’s no record that he said that; the rejection of myths and orthodoxies is itself a myth—one of the founding stories of modernity’s science code.
[...] Along the same lines, Descartes’ famous mental experiment, in which he stripped the world down to what can be rationally known, was, it turns out, inspired by a series of vivid dreams, in which, Descartes believed, God had called him to a great work.
[...] The fact that the early scientific greats had numerous loopy ideas isn’t usually seen as that much of a problem. Kepler’s record as both an astronomer and an astrologer can be dismissed with mutterings about the superstitions of the time. The astrology is jettisoned, and the pure science is preserved. Disaggregating isn’t necessarily always that easy, though....
[...] Lipking steps daintily around [...a...] pit when he discusses Newton’s millenarian religious musings, for example, he is careful to note that the scientist’s breakthroughs “depended on meticulous calculations, not magical thinking.” But the pit still yawns off to the side distractingly. What after all do we mean by “depended”? Newton’s intellectual pursuits were inspired by his religious beliefs, and arguably vice versa. If Galileo saw the moons of Jupiter through his theory [whereas Francesco Sizzi did not], didn’t Newton see gravity through his God? And if so, is the gravity there without the God?
The skepticism there may seem silly or excessive. Of course we know that Newton’s gravity works. But then, don’t we also in fact know, via Einstein, that Newton’s gravity does not work? And how sure are we about Einstein’s? Likpking points out that one of the most important engines of the Scientific Revolution was skepticism—the willingness to question received wisdom, the recognition that authority could not be a guarantor of truth. But as Lipking writes, “this unsheathed skepticism” is “a two-edged sword.” Once you start questioning, where do you stop?
That’s why those enemies of science often come across not as anti-science, but as hyped-up, manic, science on steroids. No one can site as many statistics as an anti-vaxxer; no one is more doubtful or more demanding of evidence than a climate denier or creationist. It isn’t that these groups reject science, but that they take its skepticism too far, refusing the established, scientific consensus—rather like Galileo. The weapons of reason ultimately turn back on reason, until all certainty is voided, and we don’t know whether Galileo said “it moves,” or whether Newton understood gravity.
[...] In fact, one of Lipking’s achievements is to put science in the context not just of religion, but of art and poetry. Part of the reason Galileo’s ideas were so seductive was because he was an artist, who could express what he saw, and what he thought he saw, on paper for others to see. Science, in Lipking’s telling, is not opposed to imagination....
EXCERPT: [...] The bulk of [Lawrence] Lipking’s book is devoted to showing that the historical battle lines we tend to draw between science, religion, and art, aren’t as bright and clear as we like to tell ourselves.
[...] Galileo, forced to recant his heliocentrism by the Church, nobly refused “to be swayed by myths or orthodoxies,” and boldly declared, “Nevertheless it moves.” Except, there’s no record that he said that; the rejection of myths and orthodoxies is itself a myth—one of the founding stories of modernity’s science code.
[...] Along the same lines, Descartes’ famous mental experiment, in which he stripped the world down to what can be rationally known, was, it turns out, inspired by a series of vivid dreams, in which, Descartes believed, God had called him to a great work.
[...] The fact that the early scientific greats had numerous loopy ideas isn’t usually seen as that much of a problem. Kepler’s record as both an astronomer and an astrologer can be dismissed with mutterings about the superstitions of the time. The astrology is jettisoned, and the pure science is preserved. Disaggregating isn’t necessarily always that easy, though....
[...] Lipking steps daintily around [...a...] pit when he discusses Newton’s millenarian religious musings, for example, he is careful to note that the scientist’s breakthroughs “depended on meticulous calculations, not magical thinking.” But the pit still yawns off to the side distractingly. What after all do we mean by “depended”? Newton’s intellectual pursuits were inspired by his religious beliefs, and arguably vice versa. If Galileo saw the moons of Jupiter through his theory [whereas Francesco Sizzi did not], didn’t Newton see gravity through his God? And if so, is the gravity there without the God?
The skepticism there may seem silly or excessive. Of course we know that Newton’s gravity works. But then, don’t we also in fact know, via Einstein, that Newton’s gravity does not work? And how sure are we about Einstein’s? Likpking points out that one of the most important engines of the Scientific Revolution was skepticism—the willingness to question received wisdom, the recognition that authority could not be a guarantor of truth. But as Lipking writes, “this unsheathed skepticism” is “a two-edged sword.” Once you start questioning, where do you stop?
That’s why those enemies of science often come across not as anti-science, but as hyped-up, manic, science on steroids. No one can site as many statistics as an anti-vaxxer; no one is more doubtful or more demanding of evidence than a climate denier or creationist. It isn’t that these groups reject science, but that they take its skepticism too far, refusing the established, scientific consensus—rather like Galileo. The weapons of reason ultimately turn back on reason, until all certainty is voided, and we don’t know whether Galileo said “it moves,” or whether Newton understood gravity.
[...] In fact, one of Lipking’s achievements is to put science in the context not just of religion, but of art and poetry. Part of the reason Galileo’s ideas were so seductive was because he was an artist, who could express what he saw, and what he thought he saw, on paper for others to see. Science, in Lipking’s telling, is not opposed to imagination....