Monday, February 8, 2010
Throughout The Lost World and Mary Louise Pratt's essay it is evident that the scientific community held a stereotype against indigenous cultures in undiscovered lands. The natives were often viewed as a sub-species of humans. This assumption has since been debunked and it is acknowledged that different cultures are not inferior cultures. However, this trend in thought was perpetuated for so long because it was incorporated into the scientific doctrine as an unwritten, ubiquitous truth. Are there any assumptions made in today's scientific community that scientists may be scoffed at for making in the future? One example I've noticed is that individuals who do not complete college are often disregarded though they may also contribute to the universal scientific knowledge. Do you feel this is a safe assumption to make?
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I agree that the scientific community can make poor assumptions based off of too little information, such as your point where person without a formal education can't possibly be intelligent enough to contribute to science. We have seen this point proven wrong by many people, but the most prominent name mentioned is Bill Gates. He never went to college and he revolutionized the computer world, and our understanding of the computing language. One of the biggest things that I see in the scientific community is the presence of theories we cannot possibly prove, but are accepted. Science then makes theories about other topics based off of theories which are already not proven. Then in school all of the material is based on those theories, and no other option is looked at. This centralized learning is creating a single-minded thinking world where everyone has the same outlook (in terms of scientific matters). So I think the assumption of theories being correct, and then basing more information off of not proven subjects will be seen as foolish in the future.
ReplyDeleteI also agree that the assumption holds, to be recognized among the scientific community one must be able to match their intellect or prove to be superior in order to have your opinions and thoughts heard and not simply marked off as ignorant statements. Due to the 'supreme authority' associated with being a scientist there will forever be that negative connotation created by scientists around individuals who do not possess their credentials. As Colin mentioned the single minded thinking that scientist is the main cause of this situation and due to their way of thinking as one entity initiating a change to new material is borderline impossible which will limit the generation of new ideas and hinder development in the future.
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