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Natural Science “don allow no meaning in here”!

coberst

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Natural Science “don allow no meaning in here”!

Natural science clears the land before it builds its structures. NATURAL SCIENCE IS BULLDOZIER might be a useful linguistic metaphor for comprehending how the natural sciences function.

The first thing that a Normal Science (as defined by Thomas Kuhn) does is create a paradigm, which is to say that the bulldozer comes in and clears the land of all obstructions and establishes a foundation upon the solid rock of “measurement by standards”. If it cannot be properly measured in accordance to an established paradigm it does not exist. Since emotion, feeling, and meaning cannot be so measured then such things must be removed.

Only the measurable and the commodified are meaningful in the land of the natural and economic sciences.

This habit of removing all the things that do not fit the science has allowed the natural and economic sciences to be very productive in the human competition with Mother Nature. But I claim that this success, obtained by eliminating considerations based upon human meaning, comes at a heavy price.

The science of economics has emulated the natural sciences and has reaped great successes as a result; if one does not take into consideration the human, social, and ecological costs of such sciences one can be deluded into bulldozing aside all considerations of human meaning as we construct our high tech society.

In his book The Great Transformation: The Political and Economic Origins of Our Time Karl Polanyi argues that a self-regulating market economy requires “that human beings and the natural environment be turned into pure commodities, which assures the destruction of both society and the natural environment…the definition of a commodity is something that has been produce for sale on a market…land, labor, and money are fictitious commodities because they were not produced for sale on a market…Modern economics starts by pretending that these fictitious commodities will behave in the same way as real commodities…economic theorizing is based on a lie, and this lie places human society at risk.”
 

Bushido216

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For whatever it's worth, there's a developing field of psycho-economics or econo-psychology or whatever that's basically addressing this. The research generally directs towards not looking at people in the market as rational actors but people in the market as psychologically driven agents.
 
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Chesterton

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Natural Science “don allow no meaning in here”!

Natural science clears the land before it builds its structures. NATURAL SCIENCE IS BULLDOZIER might be a useful linguistic metaphor for comprehending how the natural sciences function.

I like the bulldozer comparison. Also, C.S. Lewis said science was perhaps a basilisk which only sees by killing, and kills by seeing.
 
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Gracchus

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Natural science is not a bulldozer. Natural science observes, hypothesizes, and tests the hypothesis.

Economics does not prescribe social policy, economics observes economic behavior. Politicians set the policy. Politicians are driven by ambition and greed. In this respect they fairly represent the population at large.

A free market regulates itself in the same way that an uncontained forest fire regulates itself. It doesn't stop burning until there is nothing left to burn. In extracting money from the environment unregulated capitalism considers nothing but monetary profit.

Some fool once said, "You cannot serve both God and money." What he failed to consider is that for most, money is God. Anyway the fool was severely reprimanded for saying such a thing, and now he is remembered for what he did not do, not for what he said.

:wave:
 
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