…from a guy who has some knowledge of the subject. As Wikipedia (not always the best source, but close enough here) puts is, “Jerry Pournelle is a essayist and science fiction author. He holds advanced degrees in psychology, statistics, engineering and political science.”
Even though its focus is not directed specifically at the science/politics interface, it’s worth reading as a prelude to considering how politics affects what is regarded as science in climatology, medicine, and other fields.
Writing elsewhere referring to the essay linked above, Pournelle does a nice shirt cuff precis of the essay:
“I long ago did an essay on “The Voodoo Science” in which I pointed out that novelists require only plausibility, lawyers need evidence, but science requires data — and also requires that ALL the data be taken into account, which means going outside closed systems to check with the real world. And that, I think, is the real difference between the fuzzy subjects and the sciences and the humanities: if you endlessly apply logic to a closed system with no chance of checking against reality, you had better have chosen the right closed system — and we have no way of knowing what that one is.”
Worth taking a couple of minutes out of your day to read and ponder, IMO.
THIS is an open trackbacks post. Link to THIS post and track back. 🙂
If you have a linkfest/open trackback post to promote OR if you simply want to promote a post via the linkfests/open trackback posts others are offering, GO TO LINKFEST HAVEN DELUXE! Just CLICK the link above or the graphic immediately below.
If you want to host your own linkfests but have not yet done so, check out the Open Trackbacks Alliance. The FAQ there is very helpful in understanding linkfests/open trackbacks.
9 Replies to “Interesting read…”