Re: the value of science

["Dewey Dykstra, Jr." <dykstrad@EMAIL.BOISESTATE.EDU>]

> My curmudgeon inner self cries out to respond to Leigh's remarks, but I
> believe most of this list's readers would complain that it's too political
> and not scientific enough to be broadcast herein. Besides, I despair of ever
> getting him to admit their shallowness. Suffice for me to lament his ostrich
> posture regarding the dangerous times we live in.
>
> poj.

Isn't it a political effect of the setting and all involved in it to be
silenced by the notion that one's statement might be too politicial?

Sad that our canon in effect teaches us that our profession is apolitical
when to teach such is a political act in itself.

Dewey


(Please note domain "idbsu" is no longer valid.)
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Dewey I. Dykstra, Jr.                 Phone: (208)426-3105
Professor of Physics                  Dept:  (208)426-3775
Department of Physics/MCF421/418      Fax: (208)426-4330
Boise State University            dykstrad@email.boisestate.edu
1910 University Drive                 Boise Highlanders
Boise, ID 83725-1570                  novice piper: GHB, Uilleann

"As a result of modern research in physics, the ambition and hope,
still cherished by most authorities of the last century, that physical
science could offer a photographic picture and true image of reality
had to be abandoned."  --M. Jammer in Concepts of Force, 1957.

"If what we regard as real depends on our theory, how can we make
reality the basis of our philosophy? ...But we cannot distinguish
what is real about the universe without a theory...it makes no sense
to ask if it corresponds to reality, because we do not know what
reality is independent of a theory."--S. Hawking in Black Holes
and Baby Universes, 1993.
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