Science IS imagination

[n2doc]

Blogs / Bad Astronomy
April 6th, 2009 7:30 AM by Phil Plait


"The mind that’s afraid to toy with the ridiculous will never create the brilliantly original…"
–David Brin, Brightness Reef

People don’t understand science.

And I don’t mean that your average person doesn’t understand how relativity works, or quantum mechanics, or biochemistry. Like any advanced study, it’s hard to understand them, and it takes a lifetime of work to become familiar with them.

No, what I mean is that people don’t understand the process of science. How a scientist goes from a list of observations and perhaps a handful of equations to understanding. To knowing.

And that’s a shame, because it’s a beautiful thing. It’s not mechanical, not wholly logical, and not plodding down a narrow path of rules and laws.

But it appears to me that this is how Douglas Todd, author of an article in the Vancouver Sun called ‘Scientism’ infects Darwinian debates: An unflinching belief that science can explain everything about evolution becomes its own ideology, thinks of science. He likens it to religion, an unflinching belief that science can explain everything. He calls this — as many have before him — scientisim:

Scientism is the belief that the sciences have no boundaries and will, in the end, be able to explain everything in the universe. Scientism can, like religious literalism, become its own ideology.

more:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/04/06/science-is-imagination/
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[theoldman]

1. Science begins with curiosity which leads to imagination.

Imagination leads to discoveries. Discoveries lead to products that improve our lives.

[redqueen]

10. Practices, too.

Not just products. :)

[Democracyinkind]

2. That's why Dawkins is not more than what he hates.

I enjoy living in a world of probabilities.
Never liked Rand's "absolutes".
Never liked those "facts", written in stone.

That's why it should be mandatory to take a course in philosophy of science before you start your scientific career :-)

[Oregone]

3. Hm. Religion is imagination too.

[Fumesucker]

4. Science is imagination with rigor..

Religion lacks rigor.

[omega minimo]

8. altho sometimes

it becomes rigor mortis.


This intriguing thread suggests that there are voices and maybe a place on DU for "imaginative" science discussions....

[SidDithers]

5. Thanks for posting. Phil Plait should be required reading...

for high-schoolers across North America.

:applause:

Sid

[Joe Chi Minh]

6. You should apologise to the posters above for that last remark. On reflection,

they probably are disaffected teenagers. "Scientism" is a little more economical than "scientismificism", but doesn't quite capture the immaturity of these secular fundamentalists.

[thereismore]

7. No. Science is rooted in facts - experimentally reproducible evidence. Imagination

can build logical constructs called hypotheses that are rooted in facts.

[redqueen]

9. Heck, people *here* say that about science.

It's quite depressing.