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Science
distinguishing order from disorder in existence.
assumptions | knowledge | control
Mayr | Feynman | McCloskey | Leo Marx | Dubos | Genes | Singh | Darwin |Margulis | Bronowski
the discoverable, rational and provable knowledge of the "order of things."
and if
“All the world is made of the same atoms.” [F, p. 12.]
and if
“And scientific is limited, of course, to those things that we can tell about by trial and error.” [F, p. 64.]
and if
“Trying to understand the way nature works involves a most terrible test of human reasoning ability.” [F, p. 15.]
and if
meaning is derived from the explanation of a repetitive pattern in the experience of existence,
and if:
“to prove…really means ‘test’,”
and“the exception tests the rule”, and
“The exception proves that the rule is wrong.”
[F, p. 16.]
Mayr | Feynman | McCloskey | Leo Marx | Dubos | Genes | Singh | Darwin |Margulis | Bronowski |
Then, when answering,
Why do we get sick and even die in hideous ways from apparently unseen forces?
What steps where used to test and discover exceptions that led to more profound understanding of the "white plague?"
2. René and Jean Dubos, The White Plague, 1952.
How did knowledge of TB change based on the role of diagnostic practice, instrumentation and research from one period to another?
- diagnostic practice,
- symptoms, evidence, instrumentation and
- research from one physician to another?
Control and spread of infection
The problem of [disease control] presents itself in a very different manner, depending upon the stage of medico-social evolution of the community. . . . no progrsee can be made until education has taught people to break the chain of infection in the household unit.
In the United States, extremely high rates . . . . the death rates among whites is almost seven times higher among unskilled laborers than among professional persons, and twice as high among men as aamong women. . . . control work must be pointed. . . ."
pp. 221-222.
"This successful operation of the Village Settlement scheme in England demonstrates that there is room in the industrial world for a compromise between the exacting requirements of competitive production and the restrictions that disease imposes on the tuberculous individual."
p. 223,
"The unit cost will probably increase as the prevalence of infection decreases and there is reason to fear that many communities will abandon too soon the search for active cases."
Ibid.
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The art and demonstration of explaining what we know for certain.
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Empirical |
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Heuristic |
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tested mathematically |
The Doctrine of the four humors
Mayr | Feynman | McCloskey | Leo Marx | Dubos | Genes | Singh | Darwin |Margulis | Bronowski |
Exceptions that refute the rule are anomalies.
The meaning and identity of anomalies:
Never believe an untested assumption, always inquire about assumptions.
Bacon's idols are an example of nearly universal assumptions that many if not all people make.
Folly arises from operating under unexamined assumptions despite the anomalous warnings.
3. Mistakes in scientific understanding can be corrected.
Here are two examples of what past mistakes were made:
1) Singh: Applying the Pythagorean Theorem to another [third or fourth] dimension, Fermat's Last Theorem.
2) Siry: Actions to fill or reclaim swamps based on thinking that low lying wetlands or marshes were bad places that generated "malaria," and fevers.
Mayr | Feynman | McCloskey | Leo Marx | Dubos | Genes | Singh | Darwin |Margulis | Bronowski |
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