Re:Stop Equating “Science” with Truth (2017)
by bloaf on Monday October 18, 2021 @07:28PM
(#28913155)
Stereotypes are often better predictors of human behavior than actual psychological research. [0] Would Damore been more justified in his memo if he simply cited common stereotypes rather than psychology research?
Throwing out psychology, as the author of the original piece wants to do, is a double edged sword. You may knock the legs out from under Damore's stool, but you have no evidence left to use to argue against him. Indeed, quite a few people's "gut feelings" are going to be aligned with his argument.
Re:Stop Equating “Science” with Truth (2017)
by dekhn on Monday October 18, 2021 @07:56PM
(#28913349)
I don't see the need to use evidence to argue against (or for Damore). Everything he said is just opinion, not an actual argument. If instead you want to have an interesting argument, people shoudl start with Larry Summers, who articulated the same question but in a much more intelligent way (and was still cancelled because of it!): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Summers#Differences_b...
https://web.archive.org/web/20080130023006/http://www.presid...
Anybody who cares about Damore's message one way or the other should go back and read what Larry said, and internalize it. A brilliant leader was cancelled because he spoke what is the most likely hypothesis to explain the observed data.
Re:Stop Equating “Science” with Truth (2017)
by mindblock on Tuesday October 19, 2021 @10:03AM
(#28918173)
After some thought on Larry Summers' hypothesis, there seems to be one major assumption that he's making that needn't be true - that the major culprit for high engineering and academic positions is aptitude. If this is the case, then he may well be correct, as it makes a lot of sense. But it is still a major assumption.
Now, let's talk about another area of science. The structure of DNA, or whether electron spin exists or what the shape of the earth is. There are no questions in my mind (beyond the normal ones I have about Descartes' Great Deceiver) that the structure of DNA in aqueous solution at room temperature with 15mM Mg is B-form, very close to what was described by Watson and Crick, or that electron spin exists and that we can use it to do NMR to determine molecular structures. And the planet Earth is an oblate spheroid.
All three of those are so true that if you were able to disprove either, massive areas of science would fall. I cannot imagine any set of data which could falsify any of those three hypotheses in a way that didn't completely tank science.