Science's first mistake : delusions in pursuit of theory

256 Pages·2010·1.399 MB·English

by  Demetis, Dionysios S., Angell, Ian O

Science’s First Mistake
BBooookk 11..iinnddbb ii 55//1177//1100 88::3344::0033 PPMM
BBooookk 11..iinnddbb iiii 55//1177//1100 88::3344::0044 PPMM
Science’s First
Mistake
Delusions in Pursuit of Theory
by
IAN O. ANGELL
and
DIONYSIOS S. DEMETIS
B L O O M S B U R Y A C A D E M I C
BBooookk 11..iinnddbb iiiiii 55//1177//1100 88::3344::0044 PPMM
First published in 2010 by:
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc
36 Soho Square, London W1D 3QY, UK
and
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010, USA
Copyright © Ian O. Angell and Dionysios S. Demetis 2010
CC 2010 Ian O. Angell and Dionysios S. Demetis
This work is available under the Creative Commons Attribution – Non-Commercial –
No Derivative Works Licence
CIP records for this book are available from the British Library and the Library of Congress
ISBN 978-1-84966-064-8 (Cloth)
e-ISBN 978-1-84966-068-6
This book is produced using paper that is made from wood grown in managed, sustainable forests.
It is natural, renewable and recyclable. The logging and manufacturing processes conform to the
environmental regulations of the country of origin.
Printed and bound in Great Britain by Martins the Printers, Berwick-upon-Tweed
www.bloomsburyacademic.com
BBooookk 11..iinnddbb iivv 55//1177//1100 88::3344::0044 PPMM
To Mary and Anna
BBooookk 11..iinnddbb vv 55//1177//1100 88::3344::0044 PPMM
BBooookk 11..iinnddbb vvii 55//1177//1100 88::3344::0044 PPMM
VII
Contents
List of Figures ix
Preface xi
1 Introduction 1
2 Divination and Theory Construction 15
3 Delusion 39
4 Individual Allusions that Limit Sensory Overload 53
5 Patterns of Categorical Delusions 69
6 Tidy Minds, Technology and the Myth of Control 85
7 Systems Theory 105
8 On the Premises of Observation 119
9 T he Frame of Observation and the Functional
Differentiation of Science 141
10 Higher-order Observations 161
11 Asymmetry and Self-reference 175
12 Collapsing Systems 187
13 The Reality of the Real 203
Epilogue Science’s First Mistake 217
Notes 221
References 225
Index 231
BBooookk 11..iinnddbb vviiii 55//1177//1100 88::3344::0044 PPMM
BBooookk 11..iinnddbb vviiiiii 55//1177//1100 88::3344::0044 PPMM
IX
List of Figures
8.1 A schema for observation 123
9.1 Observation via a frame 145
9.2 Falsifi cation of a communicated frame 156
9.3 Notational hyperlinks and
the differentiation of science 157
10.1 A fi rst-order observation? 166
10.2 A second-order observation? 167
12.1 The emergence of an interference pattern 190
12.2 (a) The crest of one wave meets the crest
of another; (b) the crest of one wave meets
the trough of another 190
12.3 Results of a double-slit experiment performed
by Dr Tonomura showing the build-up of an
interference pattern of single electrons. Numbers
of electrons are 10 (a), 200 (b), 6,000 (c), 40,000 (d),
140,000 (e) 191
BBooookk 11..iinnddbb iixx 55//1177//1100 88::3344::0044 PPMM
X

O sancta simplicitas! In what strange simplifi cation and falsifi cation man
lives! One can never cease wondering once one has acquired eyes for
this marvel! How we have made everything around us clear and free and
easy and simple! How we have been able to give our senses a passport to
everything superfi cial, our thoughts a divine desire for wanton leaps and
wrong inferences! How from the beginning we have contrived to retain our
ignorance in order to enjoy an almost inconceivable freedom, lack of scruple
and caution, heartiness and gaiety of life – in order to enjoy life! And only
on this now solid, granite foundation of ignorance could knowledge rise so
far – the will to knowledge on the foundation of a far more powerful will:
the will to ignorance, to the uncertain, to the untrue! Not as its opposite,
but as its refi nement! Even if language, here as elsewhere, will not get
over its awkwardness, and will continue to talk of opposites where there
are only degrees and many subtleties of gradation; even if the inveterate
Tartuffery of morals, which now belongs to our unconquerable ‘ fl esh and
blood’ , infects the words even of those of us who know better – here and
there we understand it and laugh at the way in which precisely science at its
best seeks most to keep us in this simplifi ed, thoroughly artifi cial, suitably
constructed and suitably falsifi ed world – at the way in which, willy-nilly, it
loves error, because, being alive, it loves life.
F riedrich Nietzsche, B eyond Good and Evil ,
Part Two: The Free Spirit, Section 24.

BBooookk 11..iinnddbb xx 55//1177//1100 88::3344::0044 PPMM