> > The Greeks, Aztecs, Incas, and Chinese made scientific
> > discoveries. The usual distinction drawn by historians
> > of science is that between science as expounded by Descartes
> > amd Positivists, as opposed to the scientific world-view of
> > say, Aristotle. If you compare the world-views you will see
> > the differences. Heidegger has some interesting things to say
> > about this.
> >
> >chuck miller
> >
> >
>
> Heidegger was a paid up member of the NSDAP from the 1930s right to the
> end of the war. As rector of Freiburg University he wanted to
> subordinate the study of the sciences to the principles of national
> socialism. In that he was supporting the argument of the far-right wing
> of the NSDAP (which was strongest in the Universities) which polemicised
> against free enquiry as 'a myth'. With the suppression of the
> Strasserites Heidegger's wing of the Nazi party was restrained. Business
> pressurised the NSDAP to stop trying to politicise scientific research
> in the Universities, for fear that their madcap prejudices would get in
> the way of making money.
>
> Yes, he has a lot to teach us about the way that scientific enquiry can
> be crushed under the iron heel of fascist ideology, but not much to
> teach us about science itself.
Excellent points, Jim.
My own two cents:
Descartes was by no means as nasty a piece of work as Heidegger, but it's equally erroneous to speak of Western "science as expounded by Descartes". (I don't much like the positivists, either, but that's a somewhat different matter.)
Descartes was in no way an exponent of Western empirical science as it actually developed. He was a rationalist who regarded the need for empirical evidence as an unfortunate concession to limits of rational human intelligence. Much lesser-known contemporary figures such as Gassendi were far more in tune with the coming shape of Western science. This kind of careless icon-invocation in speaking about Western science is a dead give-away, IMHO, about the underlying lack of intellectual seriousness.
-- Paul Rosenberg Reason and Democracy rad at gte.net
"Let's put the information BACK into the information age!"