I find it amusing that in a recent post the Straw Vulcan argument was invoked. If you arent familiar with this one, the basic argument is that skeptics who deny woo and promote science and rationalism do so at the cost of the things that make us human: passion, intuition, joy, wonder, creativity, and so on. The implication is that embracing our humanness requires or at least eventually leads to accepting irrational beliefs about the world. The idea here is that science cant answer everything (which is probably true), therefore it is ok and even virtuous to answer things for yourself using non-scientific evidence (up to and including intuitions, anecdotes, and feelings). Straw Vulcans, on the other hand, are overly-skeptical and deny their deeper humanity by rejecting claims based on such evidence. The Straw Vulcan caricature of people who deny woo is wrong. Skeptics also rely on intuition and emotion to make decisions, just like everyone else. They are just as capable of experiencing joy and wonder. They enjoy feelings of pleasure, mourn their losses, and experience passion for people or causes they care about. The difference is that skeptics dont use those things to draw conclusions about the nature of reality. Generally, skeptics have learned that intuitions and feelings have great value but are also very unreliable maps of reality. This is a really wonderful talk about the Straw Vulcan: bit.ly/1FZhFfj
Posted on: Fri, 05 Dec 2014 16:32:53 +0000
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