Tag Archives: epistemology

Science journalism, expertise and common sense

Posted on March 29, 2020 by

On March 27, the Johns Hopkins University said an article published on the website of the Centre For Disease Dynamics, Economics and Policy (CDDEP), a Washington-based think tank, had used its logo without permission and distanced itself from the study, … Continue reading →

Posted in Op-eds, Scicomm, Science | Tagged ad hominem, authoritarianism, CDDEP, cherry-picking, common sense, complexity, coronavirus, COVID-19, epistemology, expertise, knowledge is power, novel coronavirus, Ramanan Laxminarayan, science journalism, Times of India | Comments Off

Some notes on empiricism, etc.

Posted on March 10, 2017 by

The Wire published a story about the ‘atoms of Acharya Kanad‘ (background here; tl;dr: Folks at a university in Gujarat claimed an ancient Indian sage had put forth the theory of atoms centuries before John Dalton showed up). The story in … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Acharya Kanad, aesthetics, Alfred Shapere, dichotomy, empiricism, epistemology, formal science, Frank Wilczek, Hilary Putnam, history, knowledge, naturalness, nature science, Philosophy of Science, rationalism, sense experience, Social Sciences, string theory, time crystals | Comments Off

Has ‘false balance’ become self-evidently wrong?

Posted on April 17, 2016 by

Have we finally entered a period wherein awareness of the fallacies of AGW-denial has matured enough for false-balance to have become either deliberate or the result of mindlessness? Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged anthropogenic global warming, climate skepticism, epistemology, false balance, journalism | Comments Off

Discussing some motivations behind a particle physics FAQ

Posted on March 21, 2016 by

Particle physics is in the middle of a quandary. Let’s use it to catch up on all that we’ve missed. Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged communication, epistemology, information, journalism, knowledge, particle physics, wisdom | Comments Off

Of small steps and giant leaps of collective imagination

Posted on July 19, 2015 by

The Wire July 16, 2015 We may all harbour a gene that moves us to explore and find new realms of experience but the physical act of discovery has become far removed from the first principles of physics. At 6.23 … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged epistemology, Hubble Space Telescope, JHUAPL, New Horizons | Comments Off

A future for driverless cars, from a limbo between trolley problems and autopilots

Posted on March 18, 2015 by

By Anuj Srivas and Vasudevan Mukunth What’s the deal with everyone getting worried about artificial intelligence? It’s all the Silicon Valley elite seem willing to be apprehensive about, and Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom seems to be the patron saint along with … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged AI, autopilots, driverless cars, epistemology, Frankenstein complex, human safety, machine failure, Nick Bostrom, nuclear power plants, safety redundancy, superintelligence, trolley problem, Uber | Comments Off

Can science and philosophy mix constructively?

Posted on June 15, 2013 by

Quantum mechanics can sometimes be very hard to understand, so much so that even thinking about it becomes difficult. This could be because its foundations lay in the action-centric depiction of reality that slowly rejected its origins and assumed a … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged atomism, Daniel Sarewitz, epistemology, Karl Popper, Laplace's Demon, logical positivism, Paul Feyerabend, Philosophy of Science, Science, science communication, Thomas Kuhn | Comments Off

Can science and philosophy mix constructively?

Posted on June 6, 2013 by

Bohr and the breakaway from classical mechanics

Posted on May 20, 2013 by

One hundred years ago, Niels Bohr developed the Bohr model of the atom, where electrons go around a nucleus at the center like planets in the Solar System. The model and its implications brought a lot of clarity to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged classical mechanics, epistemology, Erwin Schrodinger, Niels Bohr, principle of correspondence, Quantum mechanics, wave-particle duality | Comments Off

Bohr and the breakaway from classical mechanics

Posted on May 19, 2013 by

One hundred years ago, Niels Bohr developed the Bohr model of the atom, where electrons go around a nucleus at the centre like planets in the Solar System. The model and its implications brought a lot of clarity to the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged classical mechanics, epistemology, Erwin Schrodinger, Niels Bohr, principle of correspondence, Quantum mechanics, wave-particle duality | Comments Off