Re: [Wittrs] Hawking (in CHORA) and the Science/Mathematics Establishment
- From: John Phillip DeMouy <jpdemouy@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: Wittgenstein's Aftermath <wittrs@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 28 May 2011 11:51:50 -0400
On Sat, 2011-05-28 at 01:55 -0400, Osher Doctorow wrote:
>
> My favorite writer John Le Carre (at least, during his "Smiley" period
> of writing - his latest books are not comparable to those) or John
> David Cornwell as he is really named, is implicitly the most
> Anti-Bureaucracy philosopher in fiction of the last 60 years.
If you are not familiar with it, the British sitcom, "Yes, Prime
Minister", nee "Yes, Minister", is also a depressing (but amusing) look
at the civil service and the narcissism prevalent therein. I'd highly
recommend it!
>
> There is a similarity between Le Carre's criticism of Political
> Bureaucracies and my criticism of the Science-Engineering/Mathematics
> Establishment Bureaucracy. The recent attacks on Philosophy by Hawking
> are only a symptom of what appears to be a general devaluation of
> outsiders by Bureaucrats. It is also common in the Health field
> (Medicine, Nursing, Medical Social Work, etc.) and even the Military
> field and Legal(Law) field.
>
> What are the Motivations of Bureaucrats in all of the above fields?
> Here are my candidates for their Motivations:
>
> 1. "My Career Only" orientation.
> 2. "Me Only" orientation.
> 3. "My family or relatives only" orientation.
> 4. "My power only" orientation.
> 5. "My pleasure only" orientation.
>
> I summarise 1-5 above as "Power-Crazy Hedonism" more or less.
>
> There are certain TECHNICAL aids/supports which promote 1-5 above:
>
> 6. Use of a language that most people in the nation in question have
> difficulty learning - such as legalese, groupthink or groupspeak,
> un-summarised or untranslated quantitative language (into English for
> example, even approximately or "roughly")
>
> 7. The tendency of some Philosophers of Science to imitate physical
> scientists or accept their theoretical claims without examining
> contradictions, anomalies, paradoxes, lack of clarity, even lack of
> overt definitions.
This reminds me of an excellent article by the noted Wittgensteinian,
Peter Hacker, who is a philosopher not so shy about challenging
"authorities".
http://info.sjc.ox.ac.uk/scr/hacker/docs/Relevance%20of%20W%27s%20phil.%
20of%20psychol.%20to%20science.pdf
Here are his concluding remarks:
Wittgenstein is sometimes criticized for being a philosophical
quietist. Nothing could be
further from the truth. For he gave philosophy a license to criticize
scientists. He showed why
philosophy has a right to interfere with empirical sciences – for its
role is as a conceptual critic.
Philosophy is a tribunal of sense, before which erring scientists can be
arraigned for transgressing the
bounds of sense. They can be arraigned, not by criticizing them for
deviating from ordinary usage –
which deviations may be wholly innocuous – but for invoking ordinary
usage and then misusing the
terms invoked, through misunderstanding and conceptual confusion.
Philosophy is no policeman, but
an impartial judge. Scientists must be condemned out of their own mouth
– by demonstrating the
incoherence of their assertions. It is not the task of philosophy to
sing the Hallelujah chorus to
science or to police its pronouncement. It is rather to identify
conceptual confusions that are rife in
science, and to eradicate the scientific myth-making, no less than the
anti-scientific myth-making, that
is endemic in the culture in which we all live today.
>
> 8. The tendency of non-scientists or non-specialists in the above
> fields to WORSHIP scientists, lawyers, medical doctors, politicians,
> and so on.
>
> I do not have time at present to go deeper into each of the above
> factors or provide more examples, but hopefully I will be able to
> consider that later.
>
> Best Regards,
>
> Osher Doctorow
>
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>
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