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Stop Equating Science with Truth


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2017 Aug 10, 12:08pm   2,683 views  25 comments

by MisdemeanorRebel   ➕follow (12)   💰tip   ignore  

When it's "Problematic" for my "Tabula Rasa", "Almost everything is Cultural", "It's nuture 99-100%" World View.

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1   Heraclitusstudent   2017 Aug 10, 12:10pm  

On one side "Global warming" deniers, on the other side "Evolutionary psychology" deniers.

We're fucked.

3   georgeliberte   2017 Aug 10, 12:34pm  


Maybe we can just legislate or protest our way to new facts and achievements.

4   georgeliberte   2017 Aug 10, 12:38pm  

I wonder if the author needing a life-saving surgery would refuse to allow a white male surgeon to operate because she wants a woman, gender minority, or person of color to prevent ' a banal sign of normalcy' and to shift the flow of gender politics.

5   Tenpoundbass   2017 Aug 10, 1:47pm  

I just don't remember Moon Era Scientists sitting around arguing with people who believed the earth is flat.
Or using Science to inject any Truth into anyone. Science was their job, not politics.

Unfortunately now that our Government Grants and Subsidizes everything. We don't have much private innovation anymore. So Science is our most powerful Political machine, followed Medicine then Education. All three of them, the actual Science in any of those three aren't considered. Only optics, public opinion and how much Free Money can they get to fund and license research.

You can't get Federal Grants to develop sophisticated Ice and Earth Penetrating mapping technology, to use for Mining and Land grab operations, telling the truth.
So you say it's for tracking Global warming.

None of the Pissheads would dare question that.

6   Dan8267   2017 Aug 10, 2:16pm  

TwoScoopsMcGee says

I don't know what you are referencing, but whoever wrote that is an idiot.

Not only is evolutionary psychology a science, it is the MOST IMPORTANT science, nay, the MOST IMPORTANT ENDEAVOUR that human beings are undergoing.

Evolutionary psychology is the only way to truly understand human behavior, morality, and how to structure our society so that we don't literally destroy ourselves and wipe out humanity through nuclear war, ecological collapse, or some other means.

Although technically possible, I sincerely doubt that a liberal wrote the above article. And regardless, that person is entirely wrong and should be treated as a village idiot.

7   MisdemeanorRebel   2017 Aug 10, 2:32pm  

Dan8267 says

Although technically possible, I sincerely doubt that a liberal wrote the above article. And regardless, that person is entirely wrong and should be treated as a village idiot.

She's apparently a postdoc researcher in physics. Her interests include both Dark matter and "Feminist Philosophies of Science". She maintains the "Decolonizing Science" Reading List:
http://www.cprescodweinstein.com/

In fact, her interests seem to be more about "Deconstructing Physics" and more worried about the "Observers" than the phenomenon.

A great example of somebody being totally wrong outside their primary knowledge zone, I forgot the name for this. And trying to smear a field of research has disastrous consequences for Tabula Rasa. It's also clear she's regularly used as a "Lookit the Lesbian Scientist" figurehead.

8   Dan8267   2017 Aug 10, 2:38pm  

TwoScoopsMcGee says

http://www.cprescodweinstein.com/

From that page, she sounds like a conservative leftist, which would explain her aversion to evolutionary psychology. I cannot tell whether or not she is a good physicists. That's beyond my areas of knowledge. But regardless, she is clearly wrong on evolutionary psychology. It is definitely a science, and a well developed one.

9   Dan8267   2017 Aug 10, 2:42pm  

Since there is no link to her actual article, I cannot critique it. However, science is a self-correcting process for discovering the truth. It is not only the best way to discover truth, it is the only way that has ever worked. It would be disconcerting if a scientist did not value the accomplishments of science and the effectiveness of the scientific method.

10   Ceffer   2017 Aug 10, 2:53pm  

She must see the electrons spin better with her head up her ass.

11   Heraclitusstudent   2017 Aug 10, 4:08pm  

Evolutionary psychology predicted she would react emotionally rather than by a logical argument supported by facts.

12   epitaph   2017 Aug 10, 4:13pm  

What is legitimate science and what is special interest science is left to politics.

13   MisdemeanorRebel   2017 Aug 10, 4:32pm  

Dan8267 says

Since there is no link to her actual article, I cannot critique it. However, science is a self-correcting process for discovering the truth. It is not only the best way to discover truth, it is the only way that has ever worked. It would be disconcerting if a scientist did not value the accomplishments of science and the effectiveness of the scientific method.

Here it is, and I'm pretty confident you'll more or less agree with me that she is mostly a "New" Left (which is actually Old and "Conservative" at this point) Radical.

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2017/08/evolutionary_psychology_is_the_most_obvious_example_of_how_science_is_flawed.html

She used "The Invention of Whiteness" seriously.

Her actual career role involves the "Philosophy of Science" which means she doesn't actually primarily do science, but is more interested in pushing that Science is basically a form of European Colonialism, and part of that White Male Enlightenment Universalism that denies the experiences of Womyn and POCs. Her CV says her current grant is to research ditto : How science excludes minorities and is all about the white man.

14   Ernie   2017 Aug 10, 4:43pm  

TwoScoopsMcGee says

which means she doesn't actually primarily do science

She has published only 4 refereed research articles in her life, which seems very little considering that she has been in research since 2000. Most of articles are in Phys Rev D, which is not the highest impact factor (4.5) journal as well.

For full disclosure, this is far from my research field.

15   MisdemeanorRebel   2017 Aug 10, 4:45pm  

Here is something written by the author's co-grant recipient.
https://medium.com/@niais/i-am-a-white-woman-about-to-start-a-faculty-position-in-astronomy-at-the-university-of-washington-d30967443cfd

Anybody think this grant to investigate diversity in science is gonna end up saying anything except "European Male Colonialist Shitlords must leave science to the Womyn! Science needs more Pennyroyal Tea and Transgendered Biochemists!!!"

16   MisdemeanorRebel   2017 Aug 10, 4:47pm  

drBu says

4 refereed research articles

Yes!

And I wonder, are those articles all hard science Papers, or are they "Philosophy" papers about Disobedient Womyn in Science, or an autobiography (now called "Autoethnography" and centered around how the author's experience is shared with other group members) about her being a Lesbian Scientist.

17   Ernie   2017 Aug 10, 4:47pm  

TwoScoopsMcGee says

Here is something written by the author's co-grant recipient

In your linked article she writes:

For those of us that are white, seats at the table have always been available for the mediocre.

I tend to agree with her...if she means herself with this quote :)

18   Ernie   2017 Aug 10, 4:49pm  

TwoScoopsMcGee says

And are those articles Physics Papers

They are actual research articles. Having said that, most are from her distant PhD studies and who knows how much her vs. her advisors' work is in those articles.

19   Ernie   2017 Aug 10, 4:53pm  

TwoScoopsMcGee says

"Philosophy" papers about Disobedient Womyn in Science

My cynical self would say that if someone can not compete with other scientists for science funding, they can always (provided correct ancestry/gender/etc) get some funding by claiming perpetual "discrimination" and investigating how to overcome said "discrimination".

21   PeopleUnited   2017 Aug 10, 5:49pm  

Dan8267 says

Evolutionary psychology is the only way to truly understand human behavior, morality, and how to structure our society so that we don't literally destroy ourselves and wipe out humanity through nuclear war, ecological collapse, or some other means.

Evolutionary psychology is no way to truly understand human behavior, morality, and how to structure our society so that we don't literally destroy ourselves and wipe out humanity through nuclear war, ecological collapse, or some other means.

There, fixed it for you.

22   Dan8267   2017 Aug 10, 5:55pm  

The opinion of someone who thinks the Bible is a documentary carries no weight.

23   Dan8267   2017 Aug 10, 6:11pm  

TwoScoopsMcGee says

http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2017/08/evolutionary_psychology_is_the_most_obvious_example_of_how_science_is_flawed.html

Her facts are just plain wrong.

Eliminate structural biases in education, health care, housing, and salaries that favor white men and see if we fail.

Far more dollars are spent on female education, health care, and housing. Women live longer, are more likely to attend college, are more likely to graduate, are more likely to get assisted housing, and are more likely to get other social services.

There is no evidence that a wage gap exists at all. The data has never been supplied. The 70 cents on a dollar figure was derived from comparing McDonald's workers with bankers and had no control for the job or even the industry.

Finally, nothing in her memo at all discredits evolutionary psychology as a valid science or the peer review processes as the best way of correcting mistakes and ensuring accuracy in statements.

24   anonymous   2017 Aug 10, 6:12pm  

Gentle Reader,

Theory -> Hypothesis -> Experiment -> [Did the experiment support the hypothesis? Yes -> Change or expand the theory; No ->Don't change the theory] Wash, rinse, repeat.

Regards,
Roidy

25   MisdemeanorRebel   2017 Aug 10, 6:45pm  

The best explanation for many disparities is self-selection.

Also, a surprisingly large number of science-oriented people have a tough time separating authorities in various fields.
IE they give Psychology or Women's Studies Papers or Economics "research" the same level of respect/consideration they'd give to a paper on Biology or Chemistry by default.

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