Re: [asa] Global Warming, Ethics, and the Precautionary Principle

At 06:31 PM 1/25/2007, gordon brown wrote:

>"..scientists don't look to politicians to do their science for them.

@ Who do you know that believes that? It is quite the opposite.

It is the politicians who look to scientists to
give them the CYA ammo they need to help their
big campaign donors advance their agenda.
The scientists look to politicians to get their
grants for them. Once they "deliver" the
product that is needed, the grant money will come rolling in.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1770760/posts?page=32#32
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1770760/posts?page=36#36

To shortcircuit any opposition and facilitate
agreement as quickly as possible (so as not to
have to wait very long for the grant money), they
employ the well-known Hegelian dialectic (triad)
that Marcusian Marxists are so fond of using
against independent thought, ie: thesis, antithesis, synthesis.

The thesis is an intellectual proposition.
The antithesis is simply the negation of the thesis.
The synthesis solves the conflict between the
thesis and antithesis by reconciling their common
truths, and forming a new proposition.

You'll notice how neatly that triad fits in with Randy's triad:

Randy wrote: ".... I have observed three stages
or phases in the resolution of a major question. ...

1) First, there is often a phase of
"uncertainty." This is when there is no framework
or overarching model that fits available data to
answer the question at hand. This may be because
the physics of the situation isn't adequately
understood, or the complexity is too great for
the modeling resources at hand, or there isn't
enough unambiguous data, or other reasons. ..

2) Then there is often a phase of "controversy."
This is when there are multiple models, each of
which fit the available data and could provide
the relevant framework for further work. The
scientific community then coalesces around the
various models (or proposes new ones) and the
race is on to find the definitive differentiating
experiment that will show which is the correct model.

3) Finally there is the phase of
"consensus." This is when there is ___no uncertainty or controversy___.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (August 27, 1770 –
November 14, 1831) was a German philosopher born
in Stuttgart, Württemberg, in present-day southwest Germany.

Søren Kierkegaard, one of Hegel's earliest
critics, criticized Hegel's "absolute knowledge"
unity, not only because it was arrogant for a
mere human to claim such a unity, but also
because such a system negates the importance of
the individual in favour of the whole unity.
In "Concluding Unscientific Postscript", one of
Kierkegaard's main attacks of Hegel, Johannes
Climacus, Kierkegaard's pseudonymous author,
writes: "So-called systems have often been
characterized and challenged in the assertion
that they abrogate the distinction between good
and evil, and destroy freedom. Perhaps one would
express oneself quite as definitely, if one said
that every such system fantastically dissipates
the concept existence. ... Being an individual
man is a thing that has been abolished, and every
speculative philosopher confuses himself with
humanity at large; whereby he becomes something
infinitely great, and at the same time nothing at all."

Santayana called attention to Hegel's apologetics
for whoever held power, as though dominance equated with goodness.

Karl Marx believed the individual mind to be part
of the universal mind (the wholistic mind), the
collective. He saw the Hegelian Dialectic as a
process for achieving wholes, of oneness of mind
through a process of thesis (an idea or
proposition), antithesis (the opposite idea or
proposition) and synthesis (the bringing together
of thesis and antithesis). Synthesis then
becomes the new thesis, and through a continuing
process (evolution to higher levels), oneness of
mind theoretically occurs. To achieve consensus
(wholism), one must give up his or her individual
beliefs and conform to the group beliefs ­ again to achieve the whole.

~ Janice ... who easily recognizes the triad
tactics however they're worded and definitely can't be "facilitated". :)

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Received on Thu Jan 25 20:59:25 2007