Jim Baggott has a pretty good piece at Aeon on the problems with post-empirical science. I've highlighted Baggott's views before. Along with others like Sabine Hossenfelder and Peter Woit, he calls attention to a serious issue in physics, the rising acceptance of theories that show little promise of being testable in the foreseeable future. In … Continue reading The problems with post-empirical science
Tag: Theoretical Physics
New theory could be an alternative to the multiverse
It seems like there have been a number articles recently talking about the soul searching currently going on in the Physics community over the failure of the LHC to find evidence for super-symmetry (at least so far), a theory that had a lot of theoretical work resting on it. This article discuses that and a new … Continue reading New theory could be an alternative to the multiverse
Why philosophical conclusions are not reliable knowledge
Following Neil deGrasse Tyson's wholesale dismissal of philosophy, there has been a lot of discussion on the value of philosophy. As I've said repeatedly, I think philosophy has a great deal of value, but some of its defenders are tending to overstate what it can do. I've already written a post on what I see as the … Continue reading Why philosophical conclusions are not reliable knowledge
The theoretical preference for a timeless and eternal reality
Ethan Siegel has an excellent post up contemplating the various models of the timeline of the universe. It’s only human to ask the most fundamental of all questions: where did all this come from? And we like to think we know the answer; it all came from the beginning. But if you think about it … Continue reading The theoretical preference for a timeless and eternal reality
What Scientific Arrogance Really Looks Like — Starts With A Bang! — Medium
Ethan Siegel weighs in on the Tyson / philosophy controversy. Siegel is a theoretical physicist, notably a cosmologist which I believe is Tyson's own specialty. But Siegel's views on philosophy appear to be much more informed. Now, philosophy doesn’t have the answers, but it does teach ways to consider the limits of our knowledge. And … Continue reading What Scientific Arrogance Really Looks Like — Starts With A Bang! — Medium
Neil deGrasse Tyson is wrong to dismiss all of philosophy, but he may have a point on some of it
So, I reblogged Massimo Pigliucci's post responding to Tyson's remarks about philosophy, which appears to have generated some heated discussion. After reading some of it, I realized that I have a few thoughts on this. First, I suspect Tyson's blanket dismissal of philosophy is simply the result of insularity. I've noticed that philosophy's critics tend to be those … Continue reading Neil deGrasse Tyson is wrong to dismiss all of philosophy, but he may have a point on some of it
Searching for empirical anomalies
Ars Technica has an article about the most accurate measurement yet of the mass of the electron. It was an interesting article, particularly in describing how the scientists went about making the measurement. But I was struck by something said at the end: Physicist know that the Standard Model—great for explaining the world of the … Continue reading Searching for empirical anomalies
Rationally Speaking: Is information physical? And what does that mean?
I’ve been reading for a while now Jim Baggott’s Farewell to Reality: How Modern Physics Has Betrayed the Search for Scientific Truth, a fascinating tour through cutting edge theoretical physics, led by someone with a physics background and a healthy (I think) dose of skepticism about the latest declarations from string theorists and the like. … Continue reading Rationally Speaking: Is information physical? And what does that mean?
Farewell to Reality
Jim Baggott has written an important book, 'Farewell to Reality: How Modern Physics Has Betrayed the Search for Scientific Truth', which takes a hard look at many modern ideas in theoretical physics, and finds that many of them are not science. Philosophy of science Baggott begins with a chapter on basic philosophy of science, identifying … Continue reading Farewell to Reality
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