Philosophy
A question came up in a seminar I'm team-teaching with a buddy in sociology. Is it possible to have another "Copernican revolution," that is, an idea so revolutionary that it changes the general worldview? Thomas Kuhn argues that we think in paradigms, sets of basic assumptions that structure rationality, that define our most basic concepts, tell us what kinds of questions can be asked, what kinds of answers are acceptable, and what kinds of methods must be used to get answers. A revolution occurs when one way of understanding the world is rejected for another, when we see ourselves living in a different world furnished with different types of objects in completely different relations.
The question is whether we have overarching paradigms now. Have we become so overspecialized that we are intellectually splintered to a degree where sub-sub-sub-specialities have their own languages, concepts, and methods and cannot talk across each other. If so, then we would have mini-shifts, but could never change the whole landscape. The dominoes are so isolated that even if one tips, it can never reach any of the surrounding dominoes.
Or is there enough connection at the edges? Molecular geneticists do not meet with ecologists, but there remain joints connecting them. Particle physicists and cosmologists are related more than the separate communities would suggest. We may not see the connections, indeed the practitioners may not see the interdependence themselves, but it is there and if you replace one piece, you will see the ripples radiate out.
So, are intellectual revolutions still possible?
- Modern Mencken
Tomorrow is Mencken day at the Enoch Pratt Library, honoring one of the great intellects of Baltimore. Who would be the modern day version of H.L. Mencken? Is there a writer who is smart, ascerbic, conservative, and wry? P.J. O'Rourke? ...
- The Nature Of Genius
What does it mean for one to be a genius? Is genius just the upper end of the really smart continuum? Is there a difference between genius and really, really, really, smart? Is it a difference of kind or degree? Is genius a matter of...
- Can You Really Own A Position?
I've been thinking about the use of the verb to own with respect to an intellectual view. When a student is being wishy-washy about a proposition he or she is arguing for and clearly believes, I'll tell the student to "own the position." ...
- Is There Progress In Art? Society?
I'm working through Max Weber's methodological essays and one of the points he argues is that social progress is a myth. Across the ideological spectrum of founding fathers of sociology, from Marx's communist view to Spenser's free...
- Historians, Archaeologists, And Scientists
Are historians scientists? They frame hypotheses about the causes and effects of real events and use empirical evidence to support their accounts. But they don't do not look for regularities to make into laws; to the contrary, they account...
Philosophy
Is the Time of Intellectual Revolutions Past?
A question came up in a seminar I'm team-teaching with a buddy in sociology. Is it possible to have another "Copernican revolution," that is, an idea so revolutionary that it changes the general worldview? Thomas Kuhn argues that we think in paradigms, sets of basic assumptions that structure rationality, that define our most basic concepts, tell us what kinds of questions can be asked, what kinds of answers are acceptable, and what kinds of methods must be used to get answers. A revolution occurs when one way of understanding the world is rejected for another, when we see ourselves living in a different world furnished with different types of objects in completely different relations.
The question is whether we have overarching paradigms now. Have we become so overspecialized that we are intellectually splintered to a degree where sub-sub-sub-specialities have their own languages, concepts, and methods and cannot talk across each other. If so, then we would have mini-shifts, but could never change the whole landscape. The dominoes are so isolated that even if one tips, it can never reach any of the surrounding dominoes.
Or is there enough connection at the edges? Molecular geneticists do not meet with ecologists, but there remain joints connecting them. Particle physicists and cosmologists are related more than the separate communities would suggest. We may not see the connections, indeed the practitioners may not see the interdependence themselves, but it is there and if you replace one piece, you will see the ripples radiate out.
So, are intellectual revolutions still possible?
- Modern Mencken
Tomorrow is Mencken day at the Enoch Pratt Library, honoring one of the great intellects of Baltimore. Who would be the modern day version of H.L. Mencken? Is there a writer who is smart, ascerbic, conservative, and wry? P.J. O'Rourke? ...
- The Nature Of Genius
What does it mean for one to be a genius? Is genius just the upper end of the really smart continuum? Is there a difference between genius and really, really, really, smart? Is it a difference of kind or degree? Is genius a matter of...
- Can You Really Own A Position?
I've been thinking about the use of the verb to own with respect to an intellectual view. When a student is being wishy-washy about a proposition he or she is arguing for and clearly believes, I'll tell the student to "own the position." ...
- Is There Progress In Art? Society?
I'm working through Max Weber's methodological essays and one of the points he argues is that social progress is a myth. Across the ideological spectrum of founding fathers of sociology, from Marx's communist view to Spenser's free...
- Historians, Archaeologists, And Scientists
Are historians scientists? They frame hypotheses about the causes and effects of real events and use empirical evidence to support their accounts. But they don't do not look for regularities to make into laws; to the contrary, they account...