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Re:What scientific concept would improve everybody's cogniti... by yummyfajitas on Monday January 24, 2011 @03:32PM (#2136636)
You might be right about standpoint epistemiology, I can't say I understand it well enough to comment.

But intersectionality is merely the hypothesis that the dimensionality of experiencing oppression is O(a^n) rather than merely O(n). I.e., discrimination(black woman) != discrimination(black) `simple operation` discrimination(woman). Similarly, as you note, oppression theory is a hypothesis + moral conclusions narrowly restricted to a particular type of social science.

Probability and the concept of "Garbage In, Garbage Out" are useful to all fields. The CAP theorem, the schrodinger equation and oppression theory are pretty narrow in their scope.

Re:What scientific concept would improve everybody's cogniti... by jdp23 on Monday January 24, 2011 @05:14PM (#2136996)
You've misdescribed intersectionality [which isn't only about discrimination] and oppression theory [which doesn't necessarily have any morality embedded, and is very broad in its applicability]. How much do you do know about any of the topics you're being so dismissive of?

If somebody without any apparent background in your areas of expertise numerical wave propagation and exponential asymptotics described them incorrectly and said that they weren't as important as other areas, how would you react?

Re:What scientific concept would improve everybody's cogniti... by yummyfajitas on Monday January 24, 2011 @05:33PM (#2137068)
I don't know a lot about them (learned a little bit in college), and I admit I had to brush up on wikipedia before commenting. You'll note that I explicitly described my (former) field ("the Schrodinger equation") as being narrow in scope relative to the concept of probability. I didn't even bother mentioning exponential asymptotics since it's so obscure that most people need not even know it exists. It's a neat mathematical tool, useful for a few purposes. That's all.

Look, you use probability and the concept of GIGO everywhere - computing, sociology, physics, business, etc. Most people will never have any need for exponential asymptotics, oppression theory or the mechanics of securities markets.

Here is a diagram that most academics need to internalize: http://matt.might.net/articles/phd-school-in-pictures/

Re:What scientific concept would improve everybody's cogniti... by jdp23 on Monday January 24, 2011 @07:29PM (#2137419)
i use oppression theory, intersectionality, and standpoint epistemology as much as i use probability and GIGO. your mileage may vary.

good diagram but i'm not sure why its relevant. i don't have a PhD in any of these things, i just find them very useful transformative techniques that most people don't know about -- or don't understand well enough to apply in practice.