Published: Mon 07 December 2020
By Alan Wong
In Fun .
Much of what we are taught in school amounts to speculation . We're
taught many "facts" that are established by "science"—what
exactly does this mean?
A dive into the philosophy of science will introduce you to many
issues such as the problem of induction as well as issues of
epistemology , metaphysics , and ontology . In plain
language, this means that we need a basis to say we know what we
know . How do we know what exists? What constitutes an
explanation? Pop science gives us some wild stories as "fact" taking
for granted the existence of things like "dark matter" as you see the
light and feel the heat of the sun.
Speculation
While it is true we can use mathematical equations to model many
aspects of the physical world, theoretical constructs don't have the
same reality as tangible things that we are familiar with. Indeed some
basic algebra knowledge tells you that you can create any number of
variables, constants, writing equivalent expressions.
What are the criteria for choosing between better and worse models of
the world? Oftentimes people will appeal to ideas like "Occam's Razor"
in discussions if pressed on this issue.
From my experience, what really is involved most of the time is
conforming with the default prevailing worldview and trusting some
experts who "stand on the shoulders of giants".
So, we return to a questio of trust . Whose speculations do we trust?
Fun and Freedom
The free mind doesn't get offended by the thought, "how do we know the
earth is round?" or "did we really land on the moon?" This is because
such questions are interesting in terms of epistemology, science, etc
and really... I don't know. I just take the mainstream default
account. Assuming astronauts aren't lying and NASA isn't photoshopping
up thousands of space images with airbrush fun, then we have some
compelling evidence for what we're told about the cosmos.
However, realizing that intelligence agencies and other parties are
masters of psychological manipulation and deception, suddenly the
ground of trust comes into in question.
Really, none of these questions have much direct bearing on our
day-to-day lives; that is why I have classified this post under
"fun"—these are fun things to think about for free minds.
These questions become much more serious, however, when we use
speculations to justify more important issues such as issues of
anthropology (what does it mean to be human?) and theology .
Insofar as the dogmatism of scientism influences important issues such
as "how should I treat other people?" and "what should I be doing with
my time?", we move into a much more serious discussion.
