tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264125276161269122.post1049907452677025174..comments2023-04-21T20:55:22.881-04:00Comments on It's Only A Theory: The meaning of “theory” in biologyGabriele Contessahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13607158011908969169noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264125276161269122.post-69007924649970229192011-07-14T02:26:38.464-04:002011-07-14T02:26:38.464-04:00Hi Massimo,
First let me clarify the "comple...Hi Massimo,<br /><br />First let me clarify the "complementary medicine" comment, since I can see how this might easily be misconstrued. My claim was not that Hasok endorses complementary medicine! The point was merely that, when he talks about "complementary science", he is using the word "complementary" in the same sense, viz. as implying "alternative" and "unorthodox".<br /><br />The first few paragraphs of the TPM article struck me as a pretty strong rejection of naturalism, but perhaps I'm misreading them. I will have to quiz Hasok on this. <br /><br />To me, the programme seems unabashedly Feyerabendian. The aim, as I see it, is to cultivate "unorthodox systems" of knowledge. That's not to say it's a bad thing, but it does seem to imply a tension with naturalism as I understand it. Maybe we are understanding "naturalism" differently.Jonathan Birchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264125276161269122.post-55561098252956228152011-07-12T09:17:06.046-04:002011-07-12T09:17:06.046-04:00Sorry to clutter up your comments part of blog but...Sorry to clutter up your comments part of blog but I wanted to know if any of you clever people could take the time to give me some opinions on some stuff I’ve wrote at: http://paulscrazyideas.blogspot.com/Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264125276161269122.post-20124947485355986382011-07-12T08:47:37.312-04:002011-07-12T08:47:37.312-04:00Jonathan,
I have now read Chang's TPM article...Jonathan,<br /><br />I have now read Chang's TPM article. I don't see anywhere either a call for abandoning naturalism or a parallel / endorsement of complementary medicine. The whole thing strikes me as eminently reasonable.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09099460671669064269noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264125276161269122.post-85341071445248939432011-07-04T10:22:01.219-04:002011-07-04T10:22:01.219-04:00But I think this just underlines the differences b...But I think this just underlines the differences between your version of "complementary science" and Chang's. In the article I linked to, Chang is up-front about the tensions between his own project and naturalism. The aim is to cultivate "unorthodox systems" of knowledge that lie outside the bounds of currently accepted theories.Jonathan Birchnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264125276161269122.post-43945883946810954652011-07-04T09:35:55.312-04:002011-07-04T09:35:55.312-04:00Jonathan, you may be' trading too much into Ch...Jonathan, you may be' trading too much into Chang's project, or at the very least, I certainly don't see "complementary science" either as in any way similar to complementary medicine or as a rejection of naturalism. I don't think one can do any science (or, indeed, anything at all) once we do away with naturalism.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09099460671669064269noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2264125276161269122.post-76652368936846586892011-07-04T04:19:18.101-04:002011-07-04T04:19:18.101-04:00Thanks for this Massimo. It sounds like a really i...Thanks for this Massimo. It sounds like a really interesting meeting.<br /><br />This phrase "complementary science" -- it's felicitous alright, but maybe a bit too felicitous! I think it's a slogan broad enough to cover some really quite different approaches to HPS.<br /><br />Your vision, if I understand it right, is of HPS as complementary <em>to</em> science. It's a discipline that deals with foundational and conceptual questions which arise in contemporary theory, but which scientists lack either the time or the skill set to address themselves. <br /><br />On this reading, "complementary science" seems to amount to a strong form of naturalism, on which HPS is deferent to -- and more or less continuous with -- current science.<br /><br />Hasok Chang, on my understanding at least, is drawing an analogy with complementary <i>medicine</i>. When he talks of HPS as "complementary science", he envisions HPS as a kind of curator of neglected theories, a place where ideas dismissed by mainstream science as outdated or outré are given a second chance. We're talking about things like phlogiston theory, Aristotelian physics, maybe even alchemy. <br /><br />There is a nice manifesto for his programme in <a href="http://www.philosophypress.co.uk/?p=375" rel="nofollow">this article</a>:<br /><br /><em>"It is perfectly understandable that current specialist scientists would not want to be drawn into developing research programs that have been rejected long ago, because from their point of view those old research programs are, quite simply, wrong. This is where complementary science enters. Lacking the obligation to conform to the current orthodoxy, the complementary scientist is free to invest some time and energy in developing unorthodox systems."</em><br /><br />The thought is that, if mainstream science isn't willing to take a pluralistic attitude towards alternative theories, HPS can do the job instead. The aim is to undo the "Kuhn loss" that occurs when scientists, working within a contemporary paradigm, come to regard the questions addressed by older and alternative paradigms as irrelevant. <br /><br />On Hasok's picture, HPS is neither deferent to nor continuous with contemporary science. So, in some sense, this conception of HPS as "complementary science" represents a <i>rejection</i> of naturalism as it's usually understood. And I think this probably marks a significant difference between his vision of "complementary science" and yours.<br /><br />I think they are both intriguing visions for the future of HPS -- but in some ways they are so different!Jonathan Birchnoreply@blogger.com