Some Scientists Doing the Right Thing

This is a welcome sign, especially given the involvment of psychologists and psychiatrists in COINTELPRO.

Hello everyone. This is Faisal. I was invited to take part in this forum by my friends Luke and KZ. Taliba, I have yet to make your acquaintance but I am sure you are a nice person. Let me now proceed with some cursory remarks.

This blog considers science to be a hegemonic practice/discourse in contemporary society. Therefore its primary purpose is to open up avenues for critical discussion. I can see the links to other philosophy and social science websites. This indicates a common starting point for inquiry: what is science and how are we affected by it? No one will deny that there have been many technological and industrial gains since the enlightenment and scientific revolution. And surely most people have no problem reaping the benefits of bio-medical research. I certainly still treasure my grape flavored cough syrup!

Does such a historical trajectory, however, reflect "progress"? Is science only to be measured by its instrumental results? Are not value judgements inherent in such common place sayings as "look, that surgery saved my daugher's life and I am glad"? The "practical" man/woman may reply that these are arcane topics only disputed by ivory tower academics who have fallen victim to the "post-modern" fad. The practical man/woman also probably visits the local bookstore. There he/shefinds books such as the Bell-Curve, numerous guides to classical economicsand the follies of socialist economic planning, not to mention what the latestresearch may provide for his/her marriage.

Problem Solved? I think not. And the solution is far from in sight. Several points must be ascertained: what does history say about the development of the hard sciences/social sciences? how in various periods have philosophical developments affected research into biology, psychology, phyics, etc.? what does one even mean by social science? are there such things as iron clad economic laws, rules for social intercourse, static mating rituals, etc.? Or to stick to the topic at hand: the Bell Curve has racist overtones, some of the biggest critics of "actually existing (or existed) socialism" have been other socialists looking for a different type of socialism, and many women wonder why they are pushed into a failing marriage in the first place.

Naturally these issues are immense and one would need to be an Isaiah Berlin or a Will Durant in order to adequately address all these issues in a systematic historical fashion. Yet as has been mentioned, this website is to open up inquiry. Many of us will probably only discuss things that we are only beginning to feel comfortable with. And who knows, even if this blog doesn't even work out or is doomed to neglect, a single comment, quote, or one sentence aphorism can have a stimualting effect and quite frankly, make someone's day.

Shaykh Hamza Yusuf: Religion and Science

Problems for Reductionism

"Since the middle ages there has been a drive among thinkers to posit a theoretical unity of knowledge. This has traditionally been conceived as the result of the discovery of a universal science, one from which all of the special sciences can be derived. In modern times this universal science is taken to be physics. This kind of reduction is a very tempting prospect; it accords very well with a deductive nomological account of explanation and, if successful, offers to explain every significant fact about the world encountered in every special science. There are difficulties with this view, however."

More can be found here.

Medical Apartheid

Juan Gonzalez and Amy Goodman interview Harriet Washington about her new book "Medical Apartheid: The Dark History of Medical Experimentation on Black Americans from Colonial Times to the Present."

Pre-Columbian African Exploration of America

Articles making a case for the pre-Columbian exploration of the Americas by Africans and Muslims can be found here and here.

Purpose

The purpose of this blog will be to deconstruct the hegemonic discourse of science. This is not an attempt to undermine the legitimacy of science as a human activity among others, but rather an effort to debunk science as myth, as unquestioned source of Truth. The critiques posted here will focus on the problems of scientific method, the untenability of the metaphysical materialism, paradoxes of reductionism, and the dramatic and at times harmful effects that the cultural dominance of science has had on the poor and oppressed. In addition, an attempt will be made to examine fields of inquiry which may have been unfairly dismissed as 'unscientific' by mainstream/orthodox science and its self-proclaimed defenders; this includes but is not limited to Parapsychology, pre-Columbian visitations to the Americas (including a possible early African and Islamic presence), and evidence of advanced technology and scientific knowledge among non-Western peoples.

The title refers to Count Kekule's dream of the Ourobourous, a serpent devouring its own tail, which lead to him to infer that the Benzene molecule is circular in configuration. It is a fascinating example of the intersection of myth and science, both in the imagery it invokes and in the prevalence of the story in discussions of the philosophy of science. It is also an example of how the context of discovery is not entirely irrelevant to the sociology of science; as an educated German, Kekule's story is accepted as an appropriate anecdote illustrating that the origin of an idea is irrelevant provided that the idea can be justified scientifically. If, however, the idea had been presented by a scientist of color on the basis of a vision invoking a non-Western symbol, it is unlikely that there would have been a fair for it. Even if such as hearing were obtained and the idea justified to the satisfaction of the scientific community, it is unlikely that the story of its origin would attain much cache as an anecdote. One finds little discussion in the literature of the philosophy of science of the cultural and mythological background which led to the discovery of Zero by the Maya, for example. What discussion there is tends to focus on dismissing the achievements of non-Western peoples (Mayan, Babylonian, African) as 'non-scientific.' God willing, this blog will attempt to counter this trend.