Sierra Acai Company
Sierra Acai Company
Open 7 Days a Week
MonaVie Independent Distributor
Distributor Training
Shop Online
Enroll Now
Buy Wholesale and maintain an Active status for 2 months and we will refund your $39 Distributor Fee
Friends
Buy Wholesale and maintain an Active status for 2 months and we will refund your $39 Distributor Fee
14-September-2008 12:50:21 - Antiscience Antiscience is a position critical of science and the scientific method. People holding antiscientific views generally claim that science is not the objective method it purports to be, and that it does not generate universal knowledge. They also contend that scientific reductionism in particular is an inherently limited means to reach understanding of the complex world we live in. Antiscience proponents also criticise what they perceive as the unquestioned privilege, power and influence science wields in society, industry and politics, and they object to what they regard as an arrogant or closed-minded attitude amongst scientists.1 Antiscience has been used to refer to both the New Age and postmodernist movements associated with the political Left, and to socially conservative and fundamentalist movements associated with the political Right. Contents 1 History 2 Political antiscience 2.1 Left-wing antiscience 2.2 Right-wing antiscience 2.3 Religious antiscience 3 Three areas of antiscience 3.1 Philosophy 3.2 Sociology 3.3 Ecology and health sphere 4 Opposition to reductionism and positivism 4.1 Failure to appreciate subtle complexity 4.2 From reductionism to positivism 5 See also 6 References 7 Bibliography 8 External links History Irresponsible science. From the monument Children, victims of adult vices by Mikhail Shemyakin. Moscow, 2001 Irresponsible science. From the monument Children, victims of adult vices by Mikhail Shemyakin. Moscow, 2001 Those involved in the beginnings of the scientific revolution such as Robert Boyle found themselves in immediate and direct confrontation with those such as Thomas Hobbes who were extremely skeptical regarding whether what we now think of as the scientific method was a satisfactory way to obtain genuine knowledge of the nature of the world. Hobbes' stance is today seen by many as an anti-science position. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, in his Discourse on the Arts and Sciences, is noted for claiming science leads to morality's corruption. Rousseau argues that the progression of the sciences and arts has caused the corruption of virtue and morality. and his critique of science has much to teach us about the dangers involved in our political commitment to scientific progress, and about the ways in which the future happiness of mankind might be secured.2 Anti-science issues are seen as a fundamental consideration in the transition from 'pre-science' or 'proto-science' such as that evident in Alchemy. Many disciplines which pre-date the widespread adoption and acceptance of the scientific method, such as geometry and astronomy, are not seen as anti-science. Nonetheless, some of the orthodoxies within those disciplines which pre-date a scientific approach such as those orthodoxies repudiated by the discoveries of Galileo are seen as being a product of an anti-science stance. The term 'scientism' is sometimes used as a pejorative description, in the sense that individuals to whom this is attributed are claimed to be 'fetishizing' science, or treating science in a similar way to a religion. The term reductionism is occasionally used in a similarly pejorative way as a somewhat more subtle attack on scientists although scientists can now be found who recognise that there might be conceptual and philosophical shortcomings of reductionism but feel nonetheless comfortable in being labelled as reductionists.citation needed William Blake in his paintings and writings, reacted strongly against the work of Isaac Newton and is seen as being perhaps the earliest and almost certainly the most prominent and enduring example of what is seen by historians as being the aesthetic anti-science response. Political antiscience Left-wing antiscience One way the antiscience view is expressed is in the denial of universality and... legitimisation of alternatives,3 and that the results of scientific findings do... not represent any underlying reality, but are purely the ideology of dominant groups within society.3 In this view, science is associated with the political Right and is seen as a belief system that is deeply conservative and conformist, that suppresses innovation, that resists change and that acts dictatorially. This includes the view, for example, that science has a bourgeois and/or Eurocentric and/or masculinist world-view... and that various ethnic groups... would have to develop their own forms of science which need not be as intellectually demanding as the Western male variety.3 This kind of New Left antiscience has been criticized by the Classical Marxist Left as having romantic origin see Fredric Jameson. Indeed, both Marx and Engels have a positive view of science and named their version of socialism as scientific socialism and rejected . For example, the Frankfurt School first appears in the cultural romantic climate of the 1920-30, at the same time of romantic rightwing antiscience criticism. Since the original founder of the Frankfurt School, Max Horkheimer, is by now recognized as a non-marxist jewish theologian,4 his status as a left thinker is disputed. The same occurs with other antiscience philosophers as Herbert Marcuse and Paul Feyerabend, whose new left positions naturally follow from their romantic views of their young years: like their master Martin Heidegger, both were attracted to the romantic criticism of the liberal judeo-christian society see Heidegger and Nazism. As recognized by Paul Feyrabend in his autobiography,5 when young he was attracted to the Nazi SS ideology since it reflected the romantic and antiscientific Nietzscheian ideals in contrast to the jewish christian worldview.citation needed Right-wing antiscience In this context, antiscience may be considered dependent on established moral and cultural arguments. There are many modern examples of conservative antiscience, primary among these are arguments against stem cell research, evolutionary theory, contraception thechnology and environmental protection issues such as climate change. As the basis for any particular conclusion, an individual who holds these beliefs may cite ethical/religious/economic concerns; in comparison to liberal views, which pronounce human rights, women's rights, and altogether more libertarian perspectives, as those issues which deserve primary attention. Recently some of the leading critical theorists have recognized that their critiques have at times been counter-productive, and are providing strong intellectual ammunition for right-wing ideology. Writing about these developments in the context of Global warming, Bruno Latour6 noted that dangerous extremists are using the very same argument of social construction to destroy hard-won evidence that could save our lives. Was I wrong to participate in the invention of this field known as science studies? Is it enough to say that we did not really mean what we meant? Religious antiscience Main article: Relationship between religion and science A frequent basis of antiscientific views is literalist or fundamentalist theism. Here, scientific findings that conflict with what is considered divinely-inspired knowledge are regarded as flawed. Over the centuries such religious thinkers have opposed such ideas as heliocentrism and planetary motion. More recently, the religious theory of creationism, and its evolved form intelligent design, have been promoted by religious literalists to counter the scientific theory of evolution.7 Three areas of antiscience Historically, antiscience first arose as a reaction against scientific materialism. The 18th century Enlightenment had ushered in the ideal of a unified system of all the sciences,8 but there were those fearful of this notion, who felt that constrictions of reason and science, of a single all-embracing system... were in some way constricting, an obstacle to their vision of the world, chains on their imagination or feeling.8 Antiscience then is a rejection of the scientific model or paradigm... with its strong implication that only that which was quantifiable, or at any rate, measurable... was real.8 In this sense, it comprises a critical attack upon the total claim of the new scientific method to dominate the entire field of human knowledge.8 Three major areas of antiscience can be seen in philosophy, sociology and ecology. The following quotes explore this aspect of the subject. Philosophy Philosophical objections against science are often objections about the role of reductionism. For example, in the field of psychology, both reductionists and antireductionists accept that... non-molecular explanations may not be improved, corrected or grounded in molecular ones.9 Further, epistemological antireductionism holds that, given our finite mental capacities, we would not be able to grasp the ultimate physical explanation of many complex phenomena even if we knew the laws governing their ultimate constituents.10 Some see antiscience as common...in academic settings...many people confuse science, scientism and pseudoscience, resulting in an antiscience stance. Some argue that nothing can be known for sure.11 Many scholars are divided as to whether reduction should be a central strategy for understanding the world.12 However, many agree that there are, nevertheless, reasons why we want science to discover properties and explanations other than reductive physical ones.12 Such issues stem from an antireductionist worry that there is no absolute conception of reality, that is, a characterization of reality such as... science claims to provide.13 This is close to the Kantian view that reality is ultimately unknowable and all models are just imperfect approximations to it. Sociology Sociologist Thomas Gieryn refers to some sociologists who might appear to be antiscience.14 Some philosophers and antiscience types, he contends, may have presented unreal images of science that threaten the believability of scientific knowledge,14 or appear to have gone too far in their antiscience deconstructions.14 The question often lies in how far scientists can be said to really conform to the standard stereotype of communalism, universalism, disinterestedness, originality, and... skepticism.14 Unfortunately, scientists don't always conform... scientists do get passionate about pet theories; they do rely on reputation in judging a scientist's work; they do pursue fame and gain via research.14 Thus, they do show inherent biases in their work. Many scientists are not as rational and logical as the legend would have them, nor are they as illogical or irrational as some relativists might say.14 Ecology and health sphere Within the ecological and health spheres, Levins identifies a conflict not between science and antiscience, but rather between different pathways for science and technology; between a commodified science-for-profit and a gentle science for humane goals; between the sciences of the smallest parts and the sciences of dynamic wholes... he offers proposals for a more holistic, integral approach to understanding and addressing environmental issues.15 These beliefs are also common within the scientific community, with for example, scientists being prominent in environmental campaigns warning of environmental dangers such as ozone depletion and the greenhouse effect. It can also be argued that this version of antiscience comes close to that found in the medical sphere where patients and practitioners may choose to reject reductionism and adopt a more holistic approach to health problems. This can be both a practical and a conceptual shift and has attracted strong criticism: therapeutic touch, a healing technique based upon the laying-on of hands, has found wide acceptance in the nursing profession despite its lack of scientific plausibility. Its acceptance is indicative of a broad antiscientific trend in nursing.16 Glazer also criticises the therapists and patients, for abandoning the biological underpinnings of nursing and for misreading philosophy in the service of an antiscientific world-view.16 Brian Martin provides a view of the conflict between science and antiscience: Gross and Levitt's basic approach is to attack constructivists for not being positivists.17 Science is presented as a unitary object, usually identified with scientific knowledge. It is portrayed as neutral and objective. Second, science is claimed to be under attack by 'antiscience' which is composed essentially of ideologues who are threats to the neutrality and objectivity that are fundamental to science. Third, a highly selective attack is made on the arguments of 'antiscience'.17 Such people allegedly then routinely equate critique of scientific knowledge with hostility to science, a jump that is logically unsupportable and empirically dubious.17 Having then constructed two artificial entities, a unitary 'science' and a unitary 'academic left', each reduced to epistemological essences, Gross and Levitt proceed to attack. They pick out figures in each of several areas -- science studies, postmodernism, feminism, environmentalism, AIDS activism -- and criticise their critiques of science.17 The writings of Young serve to illustrate more rhetorical antiscience outpourings: The strength of the antiscience movement and of alternative technology is that their advocates have managed to retain Utopian vision while still trying to create concrete instances of it.18 the real social, ideological and economic forces shaping science...have been opposed to the point of suppression in many quarters. Most scientists hate it and label it 'antiscience'. But it is urgently needed, because it makes science self-conscious and hopefully self-critical and accountable with respect to the forces which shape research priorities, criteria, goals.18 Opposition to reductionism and positivism This article or section includes a list of references or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. You can improve this article by introducing more precise citations where appropriate. February 2008 The neutrality of this section is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page. January 2008 Please do not remove this message until the dispute is resolved. Failure to appreciate subtle complexity The formulas of mathematical models are artificial constructions, logical figments with no necessary relation to the outside world.. These models always leave out the richest and most important part of human experience...daily life, history, human laws and institutions, the modes of human self- expression. A failure to appreciate the subtle complexity of social worlds, means they get excluded from the formulas, even though, no easy reductionism will do justice to the material. This approach often fails to concentrate on social structures, processes, and actions in a specific sense inequality, mobility, classes, strata, ethnicity, gender relations, urbanization, work and life of different types of people, not just elites, and so tends to generate mostly meaningless oversimplifications.citation needed From reductionism to positivism This basically comes down to the issue of positivism, which is the view that all true knowledge is scientific,19 and that all things are ultimately measurable. Because of its close association with reductionism, it is worth saying that positivism and reductionism involve the view that entities of one kind...are reducible to entities of another, such as societies to numbers, or mental events to chemical events. It also involves the contention that processes are reducible to physiological, physical or chemical events, and even that social processes are reducible to relationships between and actions of individuals, or that biological organisms are reducible to physical systems.citation needed See also Anti-intellectualism Faith and rationality Holism Jean Jacques Rousseau Luddites Politicization of science Postmodernism Scientific mythology Scientism William Blake William Morris William R. Steiger References ^ Brian Martin, The arrogance of scientists ^ Jeffrey J S Black, Rousseau's critique of science: A commentary on the Discourse on the Sciences and the Arts, Boston College, 2005 ^ a b c Sean Robsville Postmodernism - a threat to Buddhism?: Personal website ^ Ilan Gur-Ze'ev, Walter Benjamin and Max Horkheimer, From utopia to redemption, Haifa University 2007 ^ Killing Time: The Autobiography of Paul Feyerabend 1995, ISBN 0-226-24531-4, ISBN 0-226-24532 ^ Bruno Latour, Why Has Critique Run out of Steam? From Matters of Fact to Matters of Concern, Critical Inquiry, 30.2, 2004 ^ Jon D. Miller, Eugenie C. Scott, Shinji Okamoto Public Acceptance of Evolution Science 11 August 2006: Vol. 313. no. 5788, pp. 765 - 766 ^ a b c d Isaiah Berlin, The Proper Study of Mankind, London: Pimlico, 1997, p328 ^ Alex Rosenberg and D. M. Kaplan How to Reconcile Physicalism and Antireductionism about Biology Philosophy of Science 72 January 2005 pp. 43-68 ^ Nagel T. Reductionism and antireductionism. Novartis Found Symp. 1998;213:3-10; discussion 10-4, 73-5. ^ Eileen Gambrill, Evidence based practice, an alternative to authority based practice, Families in Society, the Journal of Contemporary Human Services, 80.4, 1999, 341-350 ^ a b Todd Jones, Reductionism and Antireductionism: Rights and Wrongs, Metaphilosophy, Volume 35, Number 5, October 2004, pp. 614-647 ^ Peter W. Ross and Dale Turner, Sensibility Theory and Conservative Complacency ^ a b c d e f Thomas F. Gieryn, Book Review of John Ziman. Real Science: What it is and What it Means, Cambridge: Cambridge, University Press, 2000, Isis, vol. 93 2002, pp. 544-545 ^ Richard Levins, Whose Scientific Method? Scientific Methods for a Complex World, New Solutions: A Journal of Environmental and Occupational Health Policy,Vol.13,3, 2003, 261-274 ^ a b Sarah Glazer, Therapeutic touch and postmodernism in nursing, Nursing Philosophy 2001 23, 196-212. ^ a b c d Brian Martin, Social Construction of an 'Attack on Science', Social Studies of Science, Vol. 26, No. 1, February 1996, pp. 161-173. ^ a b Robert M. Young, Science is Social Relations ^ A Bullock S Trombley Eds., The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought, third ion, London: Harper Collins, 1999, p.669 Bibliography A Bullock S Trombley Eds., The New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought, third ion, London: Harper Collins, 1999 Burger, P and Luckman, T, The Social Construction of Reality: A Treatise in the Sociology of Knowledge. Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1966 Collins, Harry and Pinch, Trevor, The Golem. What everyone should know about science, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993 Gross, Paul R and Norman Levitt, Higher Superstition: The Academic Left and Its Quarrels with Science, Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994 Knorr-Cetina, Karin D, Mulkay, Michael, Science Observed: Perspectives on the Social Study of Science, Sage Publications Ltd, 1983 Knorr-Cetina, Karin D, Epistemic Cultures: How the Sciences Make Knowledge, Harvard University Press, 1999 Levins, R. Ten propositions on science and antiscience in Social Text, 46/47:101-111, 1996. Levins, R. Touch Red, in Judy Kaplan an Linn Shapiro, eds., Red Diapers: Growing up in the Communist Left, U. of Illinois, 1998, pp. 257-266. Levins, R. Dialectics and systems theory in Science and Society 623:373-399, 1998. Levins, R. The internal and external in explanatory theories, Science as Culture, 74:557-582, 1998. Levins, R. and Lopez C. Toward an ecosocial view of health, International Journal of Health Services 292:261-293, 1999. Nye, Andrea, Words of Power: A Feminist Reading of the History of Logic, London: Routledge, 1990 Pepper, David, The Roots of Modern Environmentalism, London: Routledge, 1989 Vining, Joseph, On the Future of Total Theory: Science, Antiscience, and Human Candor, Erasmus Institute papers, 1999 Leviathan and the Air Pump Schapin and Shaffer covers the conflict between Hobbes and Boyle. The Scientific Outlook by Bertrand Russell sets out the limits of science from the perspective of a vehement campaigner against anti-science. An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding by David Hume The first major work to point out the limits of inductive reasoning, the 'new tool of science'. Against Method by Paul Feyerabend probably the individual most accused of reinvigorating anti-science, although some claim that he is in fact strengthening the scientific debate. External links A website that explores this topic A useful antiscience discussion website An insightful article exploring both sides of the 'science wars' The Postmodern Critique of Science A Critique of Western Science by Alex Paterson The Critique of Science Becomes Academic by Brian Martin If They Believe That - Science by Reginald Firehammer The Ontological Reversal: A Figure of Thought of Importance for Science Education by Bo Dahlin Davidson, Donald, Essays on Actions and Events, OUP, 2001, ISBN-10: 0-19-924627-0 Alex Rosenberg and D. M. Kaplan, How to Reconcile Physicalism and Antireductionism about Biology, Philosophy of Science, Volume 72.1, January 2005, pp.43-68 Psychoneural Reduction The New Wave, John Bickle, Bradford Books, March 1998, ISBN 0-262-02432-2 Abstract Retrieved from http://en..org/wiki/Antiscience Categories: Philosophy of science | Anti-intellectualismHidden categories: All articles with statements | Articles with statements since June 2007 | Articles with statements since September 2008 | Articles lacking in-text citations | NPOV disputes from January 2008 | All NPOV disputes | Articles with statements since May 2008 Views Article Discussion this page History Personal tools Log in / create account Navigation Main page Contents Featured content Current events Random article Search Go Search Interaction Community portal Recent changes Contact Donate to Help Toolbox What links here Related changes Upload file Special pages Printable version Permanent link Cite this page Languages Español SlovenÄ?ina This page was last modified on 13 September 2008, at 08:3
39 Reasons to Drink Acai Juice Every Day
What is MonaVie - Watch the 8-minute video
Discovering MonaVie Video
The Power of You Video
Effects of MonaVie Active on Antioxidant Capacity in Humans
Log into your Wholesale MonaVie Account
So many of us do not eat a balanced diet, get enough sleep, have too much stress, or are impacted with toxins and pollutants. Drinking 2 ounces of MonaVie twice a day will help your body detoxify as well as build your immune system. Its the smartest thing you can do for yourself, so start today. Buying MonaVie through our company guarantees you support 7 days a week and, if you would like to share MonaVie with your family and friends we will guide you from start to finish.
1. Click on Enroll Now (30 - 55% off retail price)
2. Pay $39 for your Wholesale ID number.
3. NO minimum order required.
4. MonaVie is delivered to your door in 3 to 5 days.