March 14, 2010
The Poetry of Skepticism
Jennifer Michael Hecht
Jennifer Michael Hecht discusses art, poetry and literature as an entree into skepticism and critical thinking. As an historian of science, she contrasts the poetic stance with the scientific worldview. She talks about temporal biases within science, and urges scientific humility, as opposed to scientism. She criticizes some forms of skepticism within the humanities that consider science to be just one mythic narrative among many others. And she explores how poetry and ritual may enrich the skeptical life.
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Listener Reactions
I was all set to write a lengthy rant about how this guest was not a very good skeptic at all and how her crypto-postmodernist poetic rambling really isn’t fooling anyone. Then I found the comments to your last interview with her in ‘08 and saw that everything’s already been covered and nothing really changed since then. http://www.pointofinquiry.org/jennifer_michael_hecht_doubt/ Summary: yuck. For someone who got a degree in the history of science, she sure doesn’t seem to have much of a clue as to how it actually works.
P.S.: Scientism? Really DJ? C’mon.
This was pretty awfull, sounded more like a promotion of spiritual science… whatever that is, oh wait we have examples already, astrology.
In contretemps to the comments above, thank you Jennifer Michael Hecht for your contribution to the skeptical communities dialogue. While I didn’t agree with everything you had to say, I enjoyed listening. I look forward to hearing more from you at TAM 8.
I think you’re wonderful, Jennifer.
Don’t listen to the Asperger-ish a-holes of asininity.
Your thought fills a gaping hole in the American secular movement.
I was fairly disappointed with this interview, also. Jennifer had some good points, but there was a big current of “scientists have made big mistakes before, so who’s to say we really *know*?”
Now, with that history of science background, she could really educate people about how to AVOID the mistakes from the past, in the science that’s being done today. Stuff like, “Don’t let your conclusions travel farther than the evidence will support”, “Properly blind your studies”, etc. But instead, her talk ends up being sort of a feel good appreciation of science, tied in with a gobbledygook post-modernist crap.
I too was hesitant about this podcast as I’ve heard her before on POI, yet here she was even more clear about her position and I could sink my teeth into it and be nourished. I am a poet and “militant” atheist suspicious of anything “postmodern” yet she made sense however I take umbrage with her saying that not enough scientists are humble which I think does a disservice to a vast number of them because science is humbling as it is the study of nature and the more you discover the smaller you become. Nonetheless art and science must go hand in hand and what I have noticed is that the greatest thinkers were great artists as well.
Although I did not hear her presentation due to working off of a computer without sound I can add a few comments concerning our “human animal” conditions on this planet we call earth.
Having spent my first 18 years of life on a 160 acre farm in Kansas, I came to know, first hand, the facts of life and . It never ceases to amaze me at how easily people are lead to believe anything they are told from the time they are born and are constantly reminded of how “bad” they are if they stray from the “rightgious” path in life.
Religion, as politics, are a constant reminder of how well the “elite” have control over our minds to ensure a society of slaves who must endure their wrath if they step out of line for encroaching on the laws made by those with the money.
Nature will, in time, come back to bite us all in the ass.
Hi Jennifer, I’ve heard the “THE POETRY OF SKEPTICISM”.You’re amazing.
Don’t let your conclusions travel farther than the evidence will support”, “Properly blind your studies”, etc. But instead, her talk ends up being sort of a feel good appreciation of science
this is science of thought i think.. you have done a great work..keep it Roulette Systems up
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