Subject: Re: the solid reality of the canon
From: Charlie Hendricksen (veritas@u.washington.edu)
Date: Mon 24 Jan 2000 - 02:27:42 MET
Date: Sun, 23 Jan 2000 18:27:42 -0700 From: Charlie Hendricksen <veritas@u.washington.edu> Subject: Re: the solid reality of the canon
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Friends,
My offhand paragraph which included the phrase "very solid chains of
inference," was based on a realist view of science. Where the
absolutist searches for truth, the realist is satisfied with
verisimilitude, the appearance of truth. Faith is of course,
absolutist.
Ania Lian wrote:
>
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>
> On Sun, 23 Jan 2000, Charles Nelson wrote:
>
> > I believe the following came from Charlie Hendricksen:
> > >The big, bang, a common ancestor, and black holes are all built on
> > > very solid chains of inference. Nothing is taken on faith and all are
> > > viewed with skepticism, even as the inferential chain is added to each
> > > day.
>
> > How solid can a chain of inference be? Is there really much skepticism
> > on how solid building chains of inference is? Is it an article of
> > faith that nothing in science is taken on faith? One book, among
> > others, that deals with such questions is
>
> One of the resources my husband and I use for teaching about how to teach
> languages is a wonderful series of interviews with an Australian physicist
> prof. Paul Davis. When we listen to Paul Davis, or make attempts to expand
> our realities through readings like Hawking or say Leakey etc, we find out
> how unsolid things are around. The most solid things I have ever found
> were in writings about how to teach second language. I can never get over
> the fact that while the world of other sciences is filled with question
> marks everywhere, and arguments about anything, the solidity of grammar,
> lexis and sounds gives us the feeling that there is something on which we
> can always lean: the linguist!
>
> :-)
> Ania Lian
>
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--
Charlie Hendricksen veritas@u.washington.edu
"Information technology structures human relationships."
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