To play the devil, how is history scientific? I mean as far as we know theres only one history. And parts of it are not known to us. But in absence of recorded accounts (and even in the face of them), aren’t we bound to interpretation? Science measures the tangible. History isn’t.
Re:Six Signs of Scientism (2009) [pdf]
by hprotagonist on Sunday May 10, 2020 @02:49PM
(#23134993)
I’ve watched Rashomon and you won’t fool me: there’s n! histories where n is ~ population.
Re:Six Signs of Scientism (2009) [pdf]
by generalpass on Sunday May 10, 2020 @03:08PM
(#23135188)
I took the usage of "truth" in that quote to mean a philosophical truth, which I understand to be rather different from the way you are using that word.
In consideration, I just discovered this article, which I haven't read completely but seems to at least partially address this:
Re:Six Signs of Scientism (2009) [pdf]
by hprotagonist on Sunday May 10, 2020 @03:47PM
(#23135504)
no, i mean capital-T philosophy truth too. Empirical, capital-s Science isn’t specially well-equipped to investigate it, and the philosophy of science is long and interesting reading.
Re:Six Signs of Scientism (2009) [pdf]
by notahacker on Sunday May 10, 2020 @02:47PM
(#23134958)
I'm reminded of Motel of the Mysteries, which has been posted on here before, in which a future archaeologist stumbling across the remains of a late twentieth century motel concludes that everything from the television to the toilet must have had some kind of religious significance.
I've always hated that quote. If it were true, archaeology papers would be nothing more than photographs of things people found. As soon as the archaeologist points to something and says "tool" or "weapon", then opinion, interpretation and "truth" are part of the equation.
So much of archaeology has been thrown away as junk science. The artifacts on which that science was based have not been tossed, we have just reinterpret them. We no longer interpret dinosaur bones as evidence of mythical dragons any more than we see the Grand Canyon as evidence of Noah's flood.