[Socrates] Then perception, Theaetetus, can never be the same as knowledge or science?

[Theaetetus] Clearly not, Socrates; and knowledge has now been most distinctly proved to be different from perception.       – Plato (Theaetetus)

That science is knowledge is not debatable since the Latin origin of the word ‘science’ is ‘to know’. Plato set to rest what ‘knowledge’ means. It is not opinion. It is certainty. That knowledge is certainty is not a universally embraced concept. I often get the following comment:

“When have we had a complete picture of something though? I feel like scientific theories and laws are certain only up to an extent. I just have the idea that nothing can ever be 100% certain. You only have enough evidence that seems to prove it until up to a point where you find more data.”

First of all, certainty is an on-off concept. One cannot be 90% pregnant and one cannot be 90% certain. You either are or are not. There is something called pseudoscience, but ideas masquerading as science is not the fault of science.

Do we have an example of pure certainty? Yes. Quite a few. I’ll mention three. One is the Periodic Table. The brilliance of Mendeleev was that he left gaps in his Table and had the courage to say that the data point to a missing element here. A missing element there. And he was right. He predicted.

Another is molecular structure. Benzene. Postulated at a time when scientists had no knowledge of electrons, we now use atomic force microscopy to see all sorts of structures that confirm their genius.

And no discussion of certainty is complete without mentioning mathematics. About 5000 (five thousand!) years ago, the Egyptians noticed something weird about triangles of a certain shape: there seemed to be a relationship between one side and the other two. Then, 2500 years later, the Greeks (Pythagoras) said, yes, there is a mathematical relationship between the hypotenuse of a right triangle and its other two sides. Now here we are, 2500 years after Pythagoras. Tonight, draw a right triangle and check to see if a² + b² = c². Then check again tomorrow with another right triangle. Then please do that every subsequent night for the rest of your life, then bequeath that task to your children to do for each day of their lives. Let me know if it changes. Or if, maybe, a² + b² = c² is, well, certain. “100%” certain. Unquestionably certain.

Mathematics. Chemistry. Physics. Biology. We should always question concepts but recognize that, occasionally, we figure stuff out. The road of opinion ends in certainty.

…all have the ability to advance in knowledge. – Pythagoras

Lucid Intervals: moments of clarity in thought & action

     Lucid Interval #4

Great thinkers throughout history have often been skeptical of science’s ability to describe the real world. Dr. Alexandratos embarks on a whirlwind tour of famous thinkers to prove the skeptics wrong.

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences.

Great thinkers throughout history have often been skeptical of science’s ability to describe the real world. Dr. Alexandratos embarks on a whirlwind tour of famous thinkers to prove the skeptics wrong.

This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences.

There are times when you should speak your mind quietly. And there are times you should speak your mind with indignation. Now is the time for indignation.

“You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words. And yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction, and all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!” – Greta Thunberg to the United Nations, Sept. 2019

Some can disagree with her. Everyone has a right to their own opinion. But sometimes that opinion is wrong. Have the courage to call it out. How do you know what is right and what is wrong? Education.

“For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you’re doing enough, when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight.”

We need the tonic of wildness…At the same time that we are earnest to explore and learn all things, we require that all things be mysterious and unexplorable, that land and sea be indefinitely wild, unsurveyed and unfathomed by us because unfathomable. We can never have enough of nature. ― Henry David Thoreau, Walden

A glance at any given day’s headlines is enough to tell you that the environment is in crisis. Global warming gets most of the attention: we throw > 30 billion tons of CO2 into the atmosphere each year. Anyone who thinks you can throw 30 billion tons of anything anywhere and not have an effect is sadly mistaken. The effect of global warming on glaciers and ecosystems is well known. Furthermore, the oceans absorb about 22 million tons of CO2 each day. This causes a change in their acidity and since marine ecosystems have adapted to a particular acidity over the millennia, any change that occurs over the space of a few decades can be catastrophic to their existence.

This is only one of the numerous environmental issues that need to be addressed. Also important are the dead zones in bays and gulfs, desertification due to the destruction of forests, the deforestation of the Amazon, the pollution of Guanabara Bay, overfishing, and accumulation of plastics in the oceans.

These issues raise ethical questions about how we should interact with the environment. It is not sustainable for us to pollute the environment as we continue to consume a huge proportion of the Earth’s resources. There is a need for a change in our basic values. It is only by educating ourselves that we can hope to change our behavior in a way that recognizes our role in the survival of the Earth and, not coincidentally, ourselves. The issues are not new. Earth Day began in 1970, which is as distant to us today as World War I was to the generation of young people that took part in the first Earth Day. Yet what is different now is that the time for talk has passed. We either work to change how we interact with the environment or there will be nothing left with which to interact. The changes we will have made will be irreversible and we will have no hope of adapting. We mustn’t be so comfortable with how things are that we find no incentive to change: the looming consequences are dire.

Now is the time to learn a new set of environmental values and then act. In the coming months, we will present the SIX STEPS TO ENLIGHTENED ENVIRONMENTALISM. Stay tuned…

We just live on this, in these six sacred mountains all the time, all of our life. When you are in the pregnant, you are inside of your mother. You got your mother’s breath, and it’s the same with the Big Mountain, in that way. It is my breath. See, I was born around the Big Mountain, and so that is my mother too. So all of my life, I just will always be thinking of this place. My spirit is going to be here forever. Katherine Smith – Navaho activist

Complexity is not an excuse for inaction.

Lucid Intervals: moments of clarity in thought & action

          Lucid Interval #1

(revised March 30, 2021)

 

I teach a class where we discuss climate change and the issue of those that do not believe it. There are facts and facts are not up for debate. Carbon dioxide absorbs infrared energy. Too much carbon dioxide warms the Earth. This disrupts weather patterns. This is science. This is fact. Just like 4+3 has only one answer; we don’t debate if 7 the right answer.

The other day, I was kidding the class about them not knowing Tony Kushner. They didn’t know of Tennessee Williams either. I found that funny. But then I heard a talk the next day that 2 out of 3 millennials had never heard of Auschwitz. I didn’t believe it so I searched and found it is true: the NY Times reported “41% of Americans, and 66% of millennials, cannot say what Auschwitz was.” And that wasn’t funny at all.

The basic problem is not just a lack of knowledge of science or history, it is a lack of critical thinking. Facebook, and all companies, will shovel dirt at you and call it caviar as long as you feed them your money – as long as you merely consume.
We need to face the fact that the problem is us. It’s up to us to discern fact from fiction. It’s up to us to know stuff and to have an informed opinion. It’s up to us to think critically. Everyone can have an opinion but it should reflect reality.

And to know that sometimes only one answer is correct.

We’ve given up the right to choose in exchange for free shipping and a money back guarantee. We give them our data and they make chains that fit us better.                 (From Hand of God, Amazon TV)

To the middle- and upper-class generations in the USA after the end of World War II, there was no concept of shortages. This reached its ultimate expression with the ubiquitous “On Demand.” Anything and everything is a consumable. You are a “consumer” and you are to get what you want ‘on demand.’ What if you don’t like your reality? No problem: virtual reality is there waiting for you on demand.

But the year 2020 brought into focus the serious shortages with no refuge in a virtual reality. There is demand for basic necessities. Food. Shelter. Health. Livelihood. And the demand remains unfilled for so many, no matter how vocal the demand. Where do we go from here?

We need to build our sense of self and of our responsibility to one another, one step at a time. We start by examining our attitudes and migrate towards a peaceful existence within us and among us. Acknowledge the intra-personal and the inter-personal. If you are lucky enough that your basic needs are met, then give a thought to how life should be lived. “On demand” is a mirage being sold to you by corporations whose only goal is to take your money either directly or indirectly by selling the information you willingly give them.

Build slowly. Cultivate patience.

Don’t let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy. (yeah, that’s from a song, but from a darn good one…)

Lucid Intervals: moments of clarity in thought & action

Lucid Interval #3

photo credit: nature.mdc.mo.gov

(originally posted March 17, 2020; revised March 22, 2021)