From: "Tobin Nellhaus" <nellhaus-AT-mail.com>
Subject: Re: BHA: Re: BHa: criteria for ascription of reality
Date: Thu, 29 Apr 2004 19:09:03 -0400


Mervyn wrote:

>                                 And as this reminds us, science,
>though important, is not the only means of knowing---witness
>Shakespeare! (What can any demarcation criterion tell us about the truth
>of *A Midsummer Nights Dream*?)

Whoa, slow down!  "Hamlet" has been told (I don't think performed, but
recounted) to African tribal peoples, who thought the story ridiculous
because it's based (from their perspective) on a wacko understanding of and
response to ghosts.  This is universal truth?  (Which, by the way, has its
own positivistic credentials.)  In that context it's a little odd to then
make this appeal:

>Still, science has very strict
>protocols, including for ascribing reality causally, which can certainly
>distinguish the power of a magnetic field from that of a witch's spell.

On the one hand, this seems to imply that there is some sort of
scientifically valid truth represented in fiction, and aside from the false
universalism, arguably this notion confuses the reality (causal efficacies)
of art with its truth.  On the other hand, it exaggerates the decisiveness
of scientific research, in which there are often several plausible theories
(e.g. the variety of string theories), or even simultaneously valid theories
(light as particles, light as waves).

I think the question Howard raises isn't all that far from the problem of
ideological sciences, such as bourgeois "free market" economics.  Clearly
the validity of marxist economics isn't obvious to a lot of people; some
would even assert that the "strict protocols" of science prove that marxism
is wrong.  Besides, the 17th- and 18th century emergent proscription against
ontology can't have been all *that* much to protect either science or
religion: after all, most of Newton's work concerned witches.

So I think you're being a little over-hasty in dismissing Howard's question,
which is richer than you are recognizing.

Thanks,

T.

---
Tobin Nellhaus
nellhaus-AT-mail.com
"Faith requires us to be materialists without flinching": C.S. Peirce



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