Skip to main content

Risky truth

About 300 years ago, the scientific method was developed as a way to find new knowledge while making room to discredit faulty knowledge.

This Economist article brings this method into question today. It discusses how the new knowledge we read in journals today could be unverified. It could be unverified because experiments are seldom repeated, when they once were to test the authenticity of findings across different contexts.

What's the implication of this? It means that "new" knowledge is spreading uncontested, meaning it could be totally baseless. And if this is what ends up shaping how we educate the young, from primary to secondary to higher education systems, then what will they really know in 50 years? 100 years? 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tanzania is not Tasmania

Dear friends: Please let's stop refering to Tanzania as Tasmania. Here is why. Tanzania is located on the coast of East Africa, below Kenya. It is not origin of the the cartoon character from your childhood. Tasmania is an island which is part of Australia. The animal known to exist only on Tasmania is the Tasmanian Devil. Once again, you will see this is not the cartoon character you remember from your childhood. Let's summarize: Tanzania is not Tasmania.
Post a Comment
Read more

Policy Brief 2: Why is Tanzania Poor?

(Policy Brief # 2 Submitted December 6th 2007, for Econ 346 - Economic Development, Lafayette College) Over the course of the 20th century, Tanzania experienced a multitude of social, political and economic changes. It still remains poor today. The WorldBank classifies a ‘low income country’ – such as Tanzania – as one with a Gross National Income per capita of $905 or less (WorldBank Data 2006). As of 1992, Tanzania ’s per capita income was recorded at $110, and average per capita consumption was $0.5 per day (OECD 2000). Several possible factors have been blamed for contributing to current hardships, such as Julius Nyerere’s failed attempts to collectivize agriculture between 1961 and 1975 through his socialist Ujamaa policies as the first president of Tanzania (Pratt 1980). While pre-independence plans “focused on the commercialization of agriculture and the creation of industries that could reduce the need for a variety of imports”, post-independence interventions by the Gov
4 comments
Read more

Thoughts caught up

Well hello friends, It's been a while since I wrote a post. I say this all the time, I am aware. But this time is a little special. Let's begin with a sample >> Edx - Casa Grande Now, there are times when we don't really know what we think we know. That is, physically, in this material world, we find things that happen to occur in our lifetimes, or within the realm of things we know during our lifetimes, that make it seem as though we can prove what we know. This is a completely understandable way of proving things. However, every so often, a human feels a vibe; of appreciation, of pluralism, of kinmanship, of care, of love, or of annoyance, of irriation, of anger, whatever it may be, we feel it. This exact vibe, of whatever emotion it holds, is not a physical vibe. I think this vibe has more than history, is more than a science, and is greater than our reality. This vibe, I believe, is purely human. Time for another sample >> Julian Vincent feat. Cathy Burton -
2 comments
Read more