Nuance. Subtlety. Empathy. Sarcasm. Irony.
There are many different ways to communicate other than 1+1=2; which is what dogmatic following of language “rules” is.
There are many words that are REAL WORDS (as defined by the Oxford English Dictionary) today ONLY BECAUSE people used them INCORRECTLY as SLANG often enough.
In the same sense, dogmatic following of science “rules” serves one purpose: keep everything safe, orderly, unchallenging.
Protect the weak minds who are incapable of creative intellectual thought by establishing “rules” to be learned that are, once memorized, as easily fallen back on as 1+1=2.
Mediocre scientists follow; great/innovative/REAL scientists lead.
And, while I’ll admit that a lot of what he said was horsesh1t…
1) A lot wasn’t AND, more importantly;
2) He was not ALWAYS intending to state everything as a dry, formal recitation of facts.
“Do not be misled by the fact that today hardly anyone gets killed for joining a scientific heresy. This has nothing to do with science. It has something to do with the general quality of our civilization. Heretics in science are still made to suffer from the most severe sanctions this relatively tolerant civilization has to offer.”
“Most scientists today are devoid of ideas, full of fear, intent on producing some paltry result so that they can add to the flood of inane papers that now constitutes “scientific progress” in many areas.”
– Paul Feyerabend
“Feyerabend attacked science because he recognized—and he was horrified by—its power, its potential to stamp out the diversity of human thought and culture. He objected to scientific certainty for moral and political, rather than for epistemological, reasons.”
If you’re too emotionally stupid to understand nuance, that’s your problem; PLEASE, let’s keep emotional intelligence alive. Once in a while, say something that isn’t PURELY LOGICAL.
Try it.
Do you know one of the reasons more and more people have problems with emotional intelligence, with empathy?
Because it is not encouraged…because it’s not “logical”.
Which is a travesty and a load of sh1t.
Stay human, people.
KEEP THIS ALIVE:
“…it doesn’t quite ring true.”
…
“There are no ‘superior facilities’; he knows that. But that’s not the point.”