Science, Yes; Scientism, No | Prof Susan Haack

'Science, Yes; Scientism, No' delivered by Distinguished Professor Susan Haack upon receipt of the UCD Ulysses Medal, 22 September 2016.
A robust defender of the ability of science to advance the collective sphere of human knowledge and inquiry, Professor Susan Haack has been awarded the Ulysses medal by University College Dublin.
Professor Haack received the Ulysees medal in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the arts, in particular philosophy, and law.
Professor Haack’s scholarship focuses on the philosophy of logic and language, epistemology - theory of knowledge - philosophy of science, the law of evidence, feminism and philosophy of literature.
Arguably her most important contribution to philosophy is ‘Evidence and Inquiry’, published in 1993, in which she outlines the epistemological theory - theory of knowledge - of foundherentism.
Foundherentism holds that it is permissible to include the relevance of experience when justifying empirical evidence.
“Profesor Haack is also a superb commentator on social cultural and academic affairs. In sparklingly clear and frequently witty prose, Haack shows that, and how, philosophy should engage with issues in the academy and beyond,” said Dr Tim Crowley, Assistant Professor, UCD School of Philosophy.
Professor Haack is Distinguished Professor in the Humanities, Cooper Senior Scholar in Arts and Sciences, Professor of Philosophy, and Professor of Law at the University of Miami.
Born in England, she took her BPhil at the University of Oxford, and PhD at the University of Cambridge. She held teaching positions at the University of Cambridge and the University of Warwick, before moving to the University of Miami in 1990.
Among her seven published books is her 1998 collection of writings, ‘Manifesto of A Passionate Moderate’. In the essays, Haack rails against the ‘New Cynics’ - including radical feminists and multiculturalists - who disputed the idea of scientific knowledge as worthy of pursuit.
The work challenges the “great revolutionary chorus announcing that disinterested inquiry is impossible…that the concepts of evidence, objectivity, truth are ideological humbug”.
In ‘Defending Science - Within Reason: Between Scientism and Cynicism’, published in 2003, Professor Haack developed her theories in this area further. She argued that the natural sciences have been among the most successful of human endeavours.
She held that the sciences are valuable for the vast body of knowledge they have discovered, as well as the technological advances that have improved the lives of human beings. But, more importantly, she argued that science is a manifestation of the human talent for inquiry at its best.
Professor Haack has more recently applied the fruits of these enquiries to the philosophy of law.
In her 2014 book, ‘Evidence Matters Science, Proof, and Truth in the Law’, she brings her original and distinctive work in the theory of knowledge and philosophy of science to bear on real-life legal issues.
By providing detailed analyses on a wide variety of legal cases, she attempts to clarify the proper role of scientific evidence and interpretation of standards of proof in the law.
The English academic was included in Peter J. King's ‘One Hundred Philosophers: The Life and Work of the World's Greatest Thinkers’ - one of the handful of living philosophers so honoured.
She has also been honoured for excellence in teaching, by the American Philosophical Association, and the University of Miami; for excellence in research (the Provost’s Award, Miami), and for excellence in writing (the Forkosch Award).
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[@ruvstof]

I see her as an example of intellectual integrity.

[@TheShayminX]

She’s absolutely spot on.

[@petermiesler9452]

11:50 = acknowledging that we need each other, to keep ourselves honest.

[@happinesstan]

"There IS a real world, independent of how we believe it to be" Perfect!

[@gilesharvey6213]

Thank you so much!

[@HayleydeRonde]

This was interesting. Fit in with my idea that society is collectively codependent on organisational narcissism and professional gaslighting via the Milgram effect, be it science or politics, we need to be able to find, set and maintain the boundaries. Checks and balances are necessary and vital.

[@JCResDoc94]

44:34 blind shapes

[@WordsToday-sy7ys]

Always remember Socrates very first principle... Humility ,

[@deborahruthtrotter2154]

Calling evolutionary psychology a science seems like a bit of a stretch. It's primarily built on presumptuous speculations rather than actual proven facts and nobody making the claims of this field was alive to actually observe what was happening or talk with the people who did the things they did.

[@thegermanshepherdmylo]

I am learning scientific evidence from her 😊

[@happinesstan]

"Science is nothing ore than the refinement of everyday thinking" Which is why the media influence on everyday thinking needs to be reigned in.

[@e.s.p.illustrated1246]

love her

[@SilvaOnTube]

The closed caption is awful! They should have had someone familiar with Haack's works review and edit the transcription.

[@happinesstan]

Phal ability? The science of curry.

[@peterclark6290]

Human beings need knowledge that is sound, useful and the basis for greater things. Science offers this. As its natural companion we also need Art; fancy, beauty, irreverence, whimsy to humanise ourselves. Both Science and Art need protection from the dulled minds of those who try to place Mathematics above all. Mathematics is a purely abstract representation of reality - just as useful in the sand pit, through the kitchens, traffic flows and market stalls. Where it is just an aid, a secondary contributor, never to take point except within its own bubble.

[@peterclark6290]

Case in point is Theoretical Physics (TP). There has never been a single paper produced establishing the basics of TP as a Scientific study. It is and always was a purely Mathematical model. Mathematics being a purely abstract representation of reality. With the apparent acceptance of the theory they have since embarked on a supernatural pathway as 'proof of concept' involving computer-generated images (stained glass windows), descriptions of poorly understood phenomena described as 'Black' and 'Dark' with a ferocious capacity to kill everything (the god of the OT), a variety of prophets spouting contradictory claims (Hawking once described Black holes as capable of communicating with each other and exchanging material - what?) and even outright lies that can only be understood by the true believers (the recent time-dilation news followed by a picture of a Black Hole - complete with corona - (what?), the size of the Universe at the moment of the Big Bang, etc.) What drives them is the possibility of Time travel - presumably so they can get revenge on their parents/bullies/teachers/coaches... It is damaging to real Science and a waste of some serious talent.

[@happinesstan]

The fact that we NEED to humanise ourselves is fascinating, don't you think?

[@peterclark6290]

@@happinesstan It is indeed. There is so much potential in the _sapiens_ genome that remains largely untapped and of course, a society as a seamless, pleasant resource may never be realised. #1 problem being the opposable thumb being grafted onto a carnivore. Whose idea was that! j/k I'm really struggling with a project, i.e. writing 'The Atheist's guide to Paradise'. Cheers.

[@SCM]

I don't get why she is so against Popper. Since critical rationalism clearly includes the fallibility of science which is a very good "preventor" of the scientism she dislikes. Scientists as well as non scientist who adhere to popper when conducting or reading research always know this is only a slice of the truth, it may change, it's good for now, lets see what more science adds to that and so on.

[@garetgrossman539]

Scientism is not bypassed by conceding the revisability thesis. Scientism presupposes the natural status of the classification of certain inquiries as scientific, and is complacent about the growing hegemony of scientific criteria in evaluation.

[@tempestive1]

From what I understood, her gripe with Popper's take on falsifiability rests on the notion basic statements are essentially subjective. But that doesn't address the reliability of our current tools to discern the world around us. With all its flaws and room for fallibility, which tool(s) can we call more reliable than scientific methods for that purpose? Edit" Nevertheless, I feel like there's a LOT I need to read on after watching this.

[@ShesBearynice]

@@tempestive1the reliability of our tools in no way implies the voracity of our conclusions. We can believe reasonable things that are impossible for us to disprove, but that doesn’t make them true, because there are infinite aspects to things that can affect truth and all of our tools rely on finite perceptions. Questions like “what is a cup? When does a cup stop being a cup? If we break it, does it stop being a cup? Is it impossible for us to perceive the exact same things and still not perceive reality? Can we prove that every time we see something that when another person sees it, that our method is 100% absolutely reliable?” Even if we both agreed that there was a cup in front of us, that doesn’t make it true, because it’s not impossible that we’re either mistaken, or crazy, or that there’s some aspect of reality that we are completely unfamiliar with that creates this dissonance. Fact is, we can’t even rely on ourselves to trust each other- there’s such a thing as dreams and “false realities”, where we can rely upon a false idea of a person to verify our experiences. So, how can the reliability of our methods constitute any assertion of truth? Especially when extremely unscientific methods had proven reliable for years in certain lucky circumstances. The most common evidence being the very basis of science, because absolutely rigid skepticism is impossible to defeat, and yet, we consistently make use of ideas we cannot prove are unassailably true. That’s why being reasonable is more important than being correct or accurate.

[@Keldaj]

is it particularly safe to say that "scientism" is "scientific propaganda"? or an effort to "propagandize" science?

[@apank21]

may need to jump around at times..

[@DrewPicklesTheDark]

Priests: Don't read the holy book yourself, trust the priests. Scientism Subscriber: omg religion is so backwards, so glad I am not falling for that method of control! so glad we have science now! Institutional Science: Don't do your own research, trust the experts. Scientism Subscriber: omg they are so smart! Experts know best!

[@dabrupro]

Lol. Right on!

[@questioneveryclaim1159]

Do you have an example of where an institutional science organization recommends or gives advice not to do ones own research?

[@3434animal]

I think you’re still falling into a trap there. Doing your own research without the expertise to understand or perform said research is still likely to lead to accepting something with the veneer of science, that may not be. It’s not about doing your own research it’s about being skeptical of the process. That’s why scientific consensus is more important than accepting a single study.

[@ShesBearynice]

⁠ Even then, scientific consensus is not infallible itself. People can sign off on bad logic or good logic that’s just untrue, it would only be a confirmation that you’re not alone in what you thought. Lots of faulty findings are peer reviewed.

[@WordsToday-sy7ys]

Scientism created to prove: 2 + 2 = what ever estate says it is...

[@happinesstan]

Science existed at the inception of religion. Religious power was facilitated by the exploitation of superior scientific knowledge. It's not difficult to perform a 'miracle' for the common man, if you know about chemical reactions.

[@GottfriedLeibnizYT]

17:13 Anti science will always be 100 times worse than scientism.

[@ShesBearynice]

Scientism is anti-science though