[FRIAM] What's so bad about Scientism?

[Nick Thompson]

Glen, 

 

 

We are a having a definitional problem.  To a pragmatist (which I seem to be) there can be no doubt in the presence of action (and no belief in its absence).  So when you say, “I doubt everything” that MEANS to me that you do nothing.  

 

So, when you put your feet out to the floor in the middle of the night, do you doubt that the floor is there? Do you doubt when you open the door the bathroom that the bathroom is there?  You can entertain doubts on such matters, and such entertainment is fun and sometimes instructive, but in pragmatist terms, you do not doubt them. 

 

So.  How are we to adjust terminology.  

 

Here’s an example.  Because of my recent bout of vertigo, I have moments of doubting that the world around is stable.  Under those conditions, I cannot walk.  REAL doubt (sensu pragmatico) is a nasty business. 

 

Nick 

 

Nicholas S. Thompson

Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology

Clark University

 <http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/

 

From: Marcus Daniels [mailto:marcus at snoutfarm.com] 
Sent: Saturday, July 07, 2018 6:45 PM
To: The Friday Morning Applied Complexity Coffee Group <friam at redfish.com>; Nick Thompson <nickthompson at earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: [FRIAM] What's so bad about Scientism?

 

OCD <https://psychcentral.com/lib/doubt-ocd-how-do-you-make-a-decision/>  is another condition that might explain a fixation on doubt.   Perhaps individuals in very narrow specialties are especially concerned with reputation and will go to great lengths to minimize regret or embarrassment, but I don’t think even careful people act like theorem provers.    The world keeps turning and there is no time for that.

 

On 7/7/18, 4:06 PM, "Friam on behalf of glen" <friam-bounces at redfish.com on behalf of gepropella at gmail.com <mailto:friam-bounces at redfish.com%20on%20behalf%20of%20gepropella at gmail.com> > wrote:

 

    Well, of course you know where I stand on this. That description of 'doubt' is useless to me because I doubt everything. There is no such thing as 'paralyzing doubt'. I'd lean more towards Marcus answer on that.

    

    Similarly, I don't place 'good thought' in opposition to doubt. To me, doubt IS good thought. The absence of doubt would be the worst kind of thought. And I suppose that implies that science includes the active maintenance of methods by which we doubt/question various assertions.

    

    On July 6, 2018 8:37:38 PM PDT, Nick Thompson <nickthompson at earthlink.net <mailto:nickthompson at earthlink.net> > wrote:

    >There is another solution to suicidal skepticism which Is to embrace

    >scientism but broaden the definition of science.  This, I think, is

    >CSPeirce's way.  We define good thought as any thought that will, in

    >the fullness of time ... the very, very fullness of time .. be agreed

    >upon.  Good thought is thought that, once and for all, assuages doubt. 

    >By doubt, here, I don't mean entertained doubt.  I mean doubt

    >sufficiently profound that one cannot, when one needs to, pursue any

    >course of action.  REAL doubt.  Paralyzing doubt.

    >

    >Now, science is defined as that method, that will be agreed, in the

    >very long run to produce good thinking.  

    >

    >Notice that this way out of the scientism debate concedes that a value

    >lies at the bottom of scientismicists’  affection for science ... the

    >assuaging of REAL doubt.  

    >

    >Therefore, I stipulate that anybody who embraces REAL doubt as a way of

    >life is NOT going to be happy with this solution.  

    

    

    -- 

    glen

    

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