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talkpoliticsGiven that this is "Science and Technology" month, I thought I'd share this amazingly awesome anecdote (see link) about Thomas Kuhn (one of the most important philosophers of science in recent history) and Errol Morris, his erstwhile graduate student. It's a wonderful story illuminating (a) the politics of graduate school and (b) a form of argument (The Ashtray Argument) that only my lack of physical proximity has prevented me from using with some of my ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-community.gif)
talk_politics interlocutors, although I don't see it here, and (c) even an interesting question about Kuhn's philosophy. I suppose that this incident provides important evidence for those inclined to see heavy Wittgensteinian influences on Kuhn.
(Also, Kuhn smoked 6 or 7 packs of cigarettes/day, crazy!!)
ETA (permod request): This is an anecdote about Thomas Kuhn throwing an ashtray at one of his graduate students when the graduate student asks a question about the fundamentals of Kuhn's phil. of sci.
talk_politics interlocutors, although I don't see it here, and (c) even an interesting question about Kuhn's philosophy. I suppose that this incident provides important evidence for those inclined to see heavy Wittgensteinian influences on Kuhn. (Also, Kuhn smoked 6 or 7 packs of cigarettes/day, crazy!!)
ETA (per
(no subject)
Date: 9/3/11 22:00 (UTC)Philosophy people are all about making things look much more scientific and obscure than they are.
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Date: 9/3/11 22:00 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 9/3/11 22:02 (UTC)Wonderful clarity there -.-
Oh and use of dashes. many dashes! Handle it!
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Date: 9/3/11 22:04 (UTC)You mean "footnotes"? I think I've seen them used on occasion in non-philosophical works too.
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Date: 9/3/11 22:09 (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 9/3/11 22:06 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 9/3/11 22:06 (UTC)Sometimes you get angry enough to throw things at other people? One time this philosopher threw something at someone else and this is a metaphor for graduate school and then wrote an irritatingly boring story about it?
I guess out of all of this, what do you see as the interesting question about Kuhn's philosophy?
(no subject)
Date: 9/3/11 22:10 (UTC)"what do you see as the interesting question about Kuhn's philosophy?"
Exactly my thoughts (http://community.livejournal.com/talk_politics/922913.html?thread=70972705#t70972705).
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Date: 9/3/11 22:11 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 9/3/11 22:13 (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 9/3/11 22:14 (UTC)(fwiw, I also love the linked story about Wittgenstein and the fireplace poker and A.J. Ayer and Mike tyson (http://www.marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2010/06/wikipedia-on-aj-ayer-and-mike-tyson.html))
Interesting question: "“If paradigms are really incommensurable, how is history of science possible? Wouldn’t we be merely interpreting the past in the light of the present? Wouldn’t the past be inaccessible to us? Wouldn’t it be ‘incommensurable?’ ”
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Date: 9/3/11 22:18 (UTC)So I reject both people's binary perspective and say its somewhere int he middle. Done.
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Date: 9/3/11 22:09 (UTC)In fact you yourself once said, bless you for providing a text summary
(http://community.livejournal.com/talk_politics/871907.html?thread=65867235#t65867235).
There's no rule about that. But I find this amusing so I wanted to share.
"I'd like to share an anecdote which illuminates the politics of graduate school and a form of argument" was essentially what you said. Would you like to expand a bit on that if it's not too much of a pain?
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Date: 9/3/11 22:12 (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 9/3/11 22:27 (UTC)Oops....
OK you now owe me a cup of wine because I spilled this one!
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Date: 9/3/11 22:30 (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 9/3/11 22:31 (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 10/3/11 01:51 (UTC)(no subject)
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Date: 10/3/11 02:29 (UTC)I dunno...it made sense to me at the time...
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Date: 11/3/11 02:52 (UTC)