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Tribal Science: Brains, Beliefs, and Bad Ideas

#1
C C Offline
http://metapsychology.mentalhelp.net/poc...768&cn=139

EXCERPT (book review by Maura Pilotti): [...] The gullibility of the human brain is exposed in Tribal Science: Brains, Beliefs, and Bad Ideas by Mike McRae. In this text, beliefs and belief systems arising from ostensibly scientific (i.e., unbiased) endeavors are scrutinized and revealed as being the product of social organisms whose culture and societal fabric define the interactions upon which knowledge is developed and preserved. The book contains eight chapters that review scientific evidence as the product of a collective enterprise, not only casting doubt on the validity of evidence, but also acknowledging past and current limitations of the process through which evidence is obtained.

Although scientists' desire is to create scientific evidence that endures the passage of time, a large portion of evidence is impermanent, either redefined or entirely changed by further research activities and new technological advances. Scientific progress typically involves solving problems or re-conceptualizing such problems in ways that make them easier to tackle. Thus, critical thinking is an essential component of how scientists operate, which along with exact and systematic replications of research dictate whether consensus regarding interpretation of evidence and support for specific theoretical accounts exist. Yet, change in the sciences, McRae argues, is a social endeavor where consensus lies not necessarily on reliable and valid evidence, but too frequently on extraneous factors. The latter are exemplified by the work and misadventures of the physicist René Prosper Blondlot and of many other scientists whose 'discoveries' have failed further scrutiny, which the passage of time typically grants.

The most valuable aspect of Tribal Science: Brains, Beliefs, and Bad Ideas is that its portraying of science as a collective endeavor illustrates not only lessons to be learned, but also hopes to be held. Namely, bad ideas might be an inevitable byproduct of the process of discovery, persisting for more than it would be desirable, but ultimately, falsity or unfeasibility is likely to be exposed. As the history of medical practice illustrates very poignantly, the sad aspect of this hopeful reality is the number of victims bad ideas seduce before errors and false beliefs are exposed....
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#2
Syne Offline
I actually have more faith in the process/endeavor of science than I do most people who try to characterize the science. Jumping to the claimed results before scrutinizing the methods may be more a problem of bias than method.
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