[lbo-talk] Neo-Lamarckianism???? Come on!

Miles Jackson cqmv at pdx.edu
Sat Jan 19 12:44:35 PST 2008


Charles Brown wrote:


>
> So philosophers 2000 years ago were doing science?
>
> ^^^^^
> CB: Yes,some of them. The people who built the pyramids in Egypt,
> before the philosophers in Greece. Imhotep the Egyptian physician did
> science. Hunters and gathers 10 of thousands of years ago were doing
> science. See Levi-Strauss on the vast botanical knowledge of
> "primitive" peoples. Materialism. Lets call it materialism if that
> will help you. Modern nor ancient Europeans didn't discover science.

Thanks for clarifying; we're arguing from different premises. For me, science is a social practice that has existed for a few hundred years. According to many philosophers of science, the defining characteristics of science are systematic empiricism, testing falsifiable hypotheses, and submitting results for public verification. The work of philosophers 2000 years ago or the practices of people in hunting and gathering societies do not meet these criteria, so they weren't doing science.

Calling the knowledge production in a hunting and gathering society "science" is like an American calling cricket "baseball". In each case, the observer takes familiar cultural practices and falsely imposes them on a different set of social practices that have some superficial similarities.

Miles



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