Thursday, August 25, 2011

Why Should We Care About the Opinion of the Many?



"But why, my dear Crito, should we care about the opinion of the many? Good men, and they are the only persons who are worth considering, will think of these things truly as they happened." -- Socrates in Plato, Crito, 360 B.C.

5 comments:

Jeffery Keown said...

I suppose it depends, honestly, on that opinion. If the "many" think that the Earth is the stationary center of the cosmos, no matter the basis of that opinion (Biblical Literalism, bad education, stubbornness), it is wrong and should be discarded.

If the "many" think that Evolution is false, we disregard that nonsense as well.

If the "many" you are concerned with is Mainstream Science, please don't bitch about it while sitting at a computer, driving a car, talking on a cell phone, watching TV or eating healthy food. The Opinion of the Many gave you those things.

OilIsMastery said...

Wrong again: the opinion of the few gave us technology based upon ancient science that Darwinists don't think existed.

Jeffery Keown said...

Always with you it's "Darwinists" thrown around like it's a bad thing.

Nobody consulted the Rgvedas when building the atomic bomb. They talked to Feynman (a "Darwinist")

When we needed Internet, we don't consult Democritus.

As scientists, we look around the world and experiment. Tinker, screw with stuff until things work, puzzle it out on our own.... Didn't need the ancient texts, because they are not applicable when you can do experiments on your own.

Give me an example of a technology based on ancient science. Really based on it, not just operating in a vaguely poetic sense.

An example of this would be if you said "Jet Fighters are based on the विमान from the Rgvedas."

No, they are based on actual attempts at flying and refinements to those proven theories.

Modern culture is the result of folks working hard to prove hypotheses, not "forgotten tech" from ancient days.

That said, there are technologies that have been around since before history, fire, wheels, sharp sticks, but that's not what's being discussed here, is it?

OilIsMastery said...

You are a temporocentrist Darwinist. In other words, you believe that no science or technology existed prior to Galileo. Alas, sadly, you are mistaken like all Darwinists. Science and technology existed in ancient times. Joseph (Imhotep) performed brain surgery allegedly before Doogie Howzer.

Jeffery Keown said...

I didn't say they didn't have technology... I said today's tech isn't based on what they did. If they had jet planes and MRIs that's cool.

A. There is no solid evidence of comparable technology 10000 years ago.

B. Even if there was, it has no bearing on our accomplishments today. They are indepedant developments (or redevelopments, if you're a credulous, delusional individual with his own sense of evidence).