Received: by alpheratz.cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk id VAA21190 (8.6.9/5.3[ref pg@gmsl.co.uk] for cpm.aca.mmu.ac.uk from fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk); Mon, 18 Mar 2002 21:26:32 GMT Message-ID: <3C965531.5C0D4634@clara.co.uk> Date: Mon, 18 Mar 2002 20:59:31 +0000 From: Douglas Brooker <dbrooker@clara.co.uk> Organization: University of London X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.5 [en] (Win95; I) X-Accept-Language: en To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk Subject: Re: FW: MD Dawkins on quantum/mysticism convergence References: <195.3dc06e1.29c66a43@aol.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: fmb-majordomo@mmu.ac.uk Precedence: bulk Reply-To: memetics@mmu.ac.uk
AaronLynch@aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 3/17/2002 11:06:28 AM Central Standard
> Time, Douglas Brooker <dbrooker@clara.co.uk> writes:
>
> > Thanks for this.
> >
> > If I were conducting a study, my instinct would lead me to pay
> > special attention to what scientists participating in the 'love fest'
> > receive or perceive they receive from the mystical side. We can
> > understand the way the aura of science serves to enhance the
> > claims of mystics, but less understandable is what scientists receive
> > from the other side.
>
> Hi Douglas.
>
> There can be considerable financial and social incentive for
> scientists to sell out and join the "love fest." They may receive
> lucrative book deals, for instance. Moreover, many "nonfiction"
> books are actually conceived by literary agents, and that
> includes science books. The agents are often just looking
> for what will sell. So they may identify something that many
> people will want to believe when they read about it, or that they
> already believe or want to believe but would also like to see
> "justified" in "scientific" language. Scientists may also be drawn
> to the fame that can come from becoming an advocate for some
> mystical idea. And there are even rich prizes (e.g., Templeton)
> for connecting religion and science. All these sources of money
> and attention increase the formation rates of new ways of
> attaching science to mysticism, and then they increase the
> centralized transmissivity of the new idea combinations once
> formed.
Hi Aaron
I have no problem with these points, this is an important dimension of the
model. What I had in mind though wasn't so much finding a motive in material
terms, but in more abstract terms.
At some point, in the history of this interaction (historians might find some
precedents looking at the era of Newton, or the medieval Islamic period) there
is some interaction just at the level of ideas. The model would want to
separate the material motivation, from the theoretical interaction (and do so
on a time line). Whether the subject matter of the 'convergence' is true or
not, between the (or some) participants, there is some kind of mutual
inspiration, at least amongst those involved at the origins of the
'covariance'. I think the observer of the phenomenon would want to start at
this point before moving off into motives because it's the point at which the
phenomena arises. It's primary. If the mutual inspiration didn't happen, those
who had contact with each other would go their separate ways.
Maybe it could be said that the material motives came first, on one side or
both sides. In this case, the 'convergence' spoken of would in some ways have
to be seen as being manufactured for the purpose of achieving the material
goals.
Also there would have to be categories of participants. One group, likely
smaller, would have found mutual inspiration purely from the interaction of the
two areas of study. Another group, likely larger, would have observed the
first group and seen its potential and also have understood the language in
which each side was expressing the ideas of their area of study. Material
motives might be more relevant to this group. Even a third group could be
considered, those who observe the first and second groups and accept or resist
the ideas that the interaction has generated - book reviewers, science
journalists, people on lists like this. This group might have less thorough
knowledge of one or both of the subject areas. And be appalled by the
convergance or please in a way that was consistent with their world view but
not necessarily consistent with what was the cause of the inspiration in the
first group.
An adequate study would also seem to require a high degree of 'objectivity' or
ideological neutrality in order to make valid observations about the behaviours
studied. The person doing the study would need to know enough about quantum
physics, and mysticism, yet at the same time be neutral, or at least not
irrationally critical of either side. We can be critical of the convergence
or supportive of it, but I'm not sure that either kind of partisan could
perform an adequate study of it. This would be the case, at least ideally, in
anthropology, with which I am familiar and also with law as an academic
discipline, which which I am more familiar.
At any rate, my interest in more in how to construct a model of enquiry than it
is in the goodness, badness or neutrality of the interaction between quantum
guys and mystic guys.
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