From: Lee Daniel Crocker (lee@piclab.com)
Date: Tue Dec 10 2002 - 12:20:20 MST
> (Lee Corbin <lcorbin@tsoft.com>):
>
> Exactly so. This is the scientific method. You will
> find that scientists in reality already have a hunch
> to what is going on, and look for evidence to support
> it. In the end, if they're right like Einstein, they
> die but are acclaimed. If they're wrong, like Lamarck,
> then they die but are discredited. (There is no such
> thing as "The Scientific Method" as presented in your
> junior high school class, and as believed by most bad
> philosophers.)
>
> Am I, or are we, really any different from Chomsky?
> Well, it's easier for me to change my mind because
> I don't have millions of fans around the world
> depending on me to champion their indictment of
> the West. So, *sometimes*, especially after the
> passage of years, I can admit that I was wrong.
> Noam Chomsky cannot.
Piffle and poppycock. Admitting error is indeed a fundamental
basis of the real scientific method, and the inability to do
so is a serious character flaw, not a mere reaction to
circumstance. I have in the past argued for government
funding of the space program, for patent laws, for privacy
protections, and other things I now see I was wrong about.
If I find arguments to change my positions on other things,
I will change those too. If Noam Chomsky "cannot" change his
mind, it's because he is a weak and immoral human being, not
because there are others who count on him--he's not accountable
to anyone or anything but his own values, and if those values
include maintaining positions he knows to be false, then he
is rightly judged by that choice.
I'm not opposed to a touch of cynicism, especially when talking
about political pundits, but I utterly refuse to be pessimistic
about the ability of human beings to be good and honorable and
honest and forthright. People can be, and are, all of those
things, and will continue to be.
-- Lee Daniel Crocker <lee@piclab.com> <http://www.piclab.com/lee/> "All inventions or works of authorship original to me, herein and past, are placed irrevocably in the public domain, and may be used or modified for any purpose, without permission, attribution, or notification."--LDC
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