ALTER-NARRATIVES:
Today’s Topic: Each generation feels they have moved past all the stupidity of the past and are now on the perfect path. In just a few paragraphs KM dumps that theory.
‘Maybe Logic,’ Maybe Not
By Kaill McNeil
What do we know?
Many people have a drive to know. Language itself a means to categories and comprehend objects, beings and concepts. Humanity has doubtless made great strives over the last few hundred years. Societies shifting, merging and changing by grand forces of politics and economy. Each generation certain they have it right. They’ve leaned from the mistakes from the past and everything has now been set right. Inarguably true much of the time but not always. Particularly when it comes to something like science.
Never Wrong
The notion that science is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ is expressed almost exclusively by non-scientists. Tragically this is a misunderstanding of how the scientific method actually works. I’m no scientist myself, at least in terms of natural science, but I still have a basic understanding of empiricism. Empiricism is the core of the scientific method, which basically involves a process of trial and error, steeped in fancy technical jargon. The result of an experiment cannot be deemed wrong, because there is no way of knowing what is right. Hence the vital importance of replication. A hypothesis that has been tested and the test replicated with the same result can be said to be likely. Even in this case, however, most in the scientific sphere, would only go as far as to say it was “likely.”
Proven and Disproven
There is a long history of new ideas being scoffed at. Particularly those that later turned out to be correct. The wheel. The combustion engine. The vaccine. This is not a short-coming of the scientific method as so much as a function of it. A certain amount of skepticism for an undemonstrated idea is only to be expected. Some of us are dreamers, some realists. Often the dreamers end up being the realists. Scientific theories not understood in general terms of ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ but proven and disproven.
But We Know
Where issues can arise is when people start to think they know for sure, based on where science is at the time. Basic notions routinely rendered obsolete. Such as, prior to a certain date, it was agreed that there were nine planets in our solar system. Then, because of changes in categorization and the power of telescopes, Pluto was demoted to ‘dwarf planet’ status, rendering nine-planet models relics of the past and anyone who insisted that they knew for a fact how many planets there were, presumptuous fools in retrospect. Similarly, how many countries there are in Europe or Africa changes radically depending on about which year one is speaking. The formation, expansion and subsequent dissolution of the Soviet Union alone, changing the map radically, and several times, between 1917 and 1989. An extremely short 62 years, in terms of European history.
We’re Probably Wrong
In his 2016 book, But What If We’re Wrong?: Thinking About the Present As If It Were the Past, American Journalist Chuck Klosterman explored the idea that perhaps the current epoch of humanity, hasn’t leaned as much as we boast from the ‘mistakes of the past.’ The likelihood, based on the evidence from history, being that we will be as wrong as previous generations, we just don’t know about what or to what extent. Such insights generally coming years after the fact.
Not All Doom
So what it is to be done. It is all well and good to pontificate from atop an ivory tower, but how does that help the state of things. Fair enough, one option would be to subscribe to Maybe Logic. Formulated by 20th century philosopher, prankster and comedian Robert Anton Wilson, Maybe Logic is a treatment (prescription) for absolutist thinking. While more famous for his pranks and comedy than his philosophy, Wilson works a lot of philosophy into his comedy.
CSICON
Wilson founded CSICON (Committee for Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Normal), partly as a sarcastic counter to infamous debunker, and all around jumped up jackanapes, James Randi. One of those who says things can’t be true because science doesn’t say it is. Apparently missing it when things like internal combustion, germ theory, and bio-feedback gain scientific credibility through further research. The joke honorable enough in itself, CSICON also had a greater purpose. Namely to point out that the definition of ‘normal’ is dubious at best.
The Variables Have It
Wilson drove his point home by making his own challenges, echoing those of Randi, to ‘show me a perfectly average sunset.’ Something that of course can’t be done because of myriad variables. Under Maybe Logic, certainty of any kind is abstained from in favor of logical approximates. The credibility of any idea can only be a strong plausibility, or a weak possibility. Always leaving open possibility of the hypothetical. The very root word of ‘hypothesis.’
Thank you for taking time to spend a few minutes with me while I attack every silly institution that comes into view. KM
https://www.calamitypolitics.com/2021/07/28/kaill-mcneill-alter-narratves-16348/
