tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6436092792136643078.post2815006190341142493..comments2014-06-02T09:30:37.017-07:00Comments on Curious Minds: "How do you know?"Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03677906179793437551noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6436092792136643078.post-70617400541971525822011-02-17T11:44:02.155-08:002011-02-17T11:44:02.155-08:00A great post on the value of doubt!
I wonder if y...A great post on the value of doubt!<br /><br />I wonder if you can give me a reference to your Feynman quote in the paragraph:<br /><br />Nobel-prize winning physicist Richard Feynman wrote once that we need to "teach how doubt is not to be feared but welcomed." It's OK to say, "I don't know."<br /><br />I could not find that quote in Wikiquote http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Main_Page<br /><br />However I did find a related quote [bracketed by lines "FFFFF. . . ."<br /><br />FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF<br />The scientist has a lot of experience with ignorance and doubt and uncertainty, and this experience is of very great importance, I think. When a scientist doesn’t know the answer to a problem, he is ignorant. When he has a hunch as to what the result is, he is uncertain. And when he is pretty damn sure of what the result is going to be, he is still in some doubt. <br /><br />We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress, we must recognize our ignorance and leave room for doubt. Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty — some most unsure, some nearly sure, but none absolutely certain. Now, we scientists are used to this, and we take it for granted that it is perfectly consistent to be unsure, that it is possible to live and not know. <br /><br />But I don’t know whether everyone realizes this is true. Our freedom to doubt was born out of a struggle against authority in the early days of science. It was a very deep and strong struggle: permit us to question — to doubt — to not be sure. I think that it is important that we do not forget this struggle and thus perhaps lose what we have gained.<br /> Richard Feynman In "The Value of Science," address to the National<br /> Academy of Sciences (Autumn 1955)<br />FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF<br /><br /><br />Richard Hake, Emeritus Professor of Physics, Indiana University<br />http://www.physics.indiana.edu/~hakeRichard Hakehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10753878005211770282noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6436092792136643078.post-91678896111004049132010-12-24T07:04:58.697-08:002010-12-24T07:04:58.697-08:00I like that observation: "too much certitude...I like that observation: "too much certitude with attitude." The seemingly total disregard for factual information to support our claims is astounding, almost as astounding as the too many folks willing to believe what they are told without question. See Paul Krugman's column today, 12/24/10.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03677906179793437551noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6436092792136643078.post-16159116165550772432010-12-04T08:09:59.127-08:002010-12-04T08:09:59.127-08:00Totally and completely agree. There is far too muc...Totally and completely agree. There is far too much 'certitude with attitude'. To raise doubt is to expand minds...Annhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01693776416803164421noreply@blogger.com