Thinking about origins of truth, selfhood, suffering, philosophy of science, literature, film. @interintellect_ fellow. @bryankam@writing.exchange
Nov 3 • 15 tweets • 2 min read
Fighting words from Heraclitus (545-475 BC):
"XVIII Much learning does not teach understanding. For it would have taught Hesiod and Pythagoras, and also Xenophanes and Hecataeus."
Weird list, with Hesiod significantly earlier. But awesome provocation, Heraclitus
I feel bad for Hesiod (~700 BC?). He seems somehow just kinda miserable, especially in Works and Days. The Theogony strikes me as a work of statecraft, not a religious text. I overall like Hesiod
Nov 24, 2020 • 41 tweets • 18 min read
(Republic of Science also came out in 1962. Kuhn knew Polanyi, they debated philosophy of science for years. There was a later debate after both popularised similar ideas, some accusing Kuhn of plagiarism.) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Ku… polanyisociety.org/TAD%20WEB%20AR…
Kuhn goes on to describe the essential characteristics of scientific communities. This page is well-worth reading.
Sep 9, 2020 • 503 tweets • >60 min read
Thread! Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996) was an American physicist and historian of science. In 1962 he wrote a short book (he calls it an essay) called The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. I read the 4th edition (2012) which includes his 1969 postscript. It took me about six months.
Immediate reception portrayed it as an attack on logical positivism en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positivism which states that information derived from empirical experience, with the help of reason and logic, can lead to objective certainties. And it was a decisive blow against positivism.
