Re: John Horgan - "The End of Science"

On Tue, 07 Mar 2006 01:37:04 -0600, Cyde Weys <cydeweys@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

Anyone ever heard of this book? It's called "The End of Science" by John
Horgan.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0553061747/002-4119465-2208022?v=glance&n=
283155
I just found out about it from another book I just finished reading, "Night
Comes to the Cretaceous" by James Lawrence Powell.

Anyway, this book "The End of Science" seems so ridiculous I can't help but
laugh. Here's what Powell says about it:

"In 1996, science writer John Horgan published a highly controversial book,
"The End of Science," in which he argued that such disciplines as physics,
cosmology, evolutionary biology, social science, and chaos theory, have run
into intellectual cul-de-sacs, are no longer productive, and therefore have
come to their natural end."

LMAO! Evobio is over?! Hah! Wasn't that even before the final sequencing
of the human genome? Has anyone in here read this wingnut's book?

I've read the book and I found it very enjoyable. It builds on a theme that
has been promoted by Gunther Stent since the late 1960's. The idea is that
we now have a solid big picture view of nature and that view is almost
certainly correct. All that remains is filling in of details.

Horgan interviews a number of scientists and he concludes ....

"... it is no wonder that many scientists whom I interviewed for
this book seemed gripped by a profound unease. But their malaise,
I will agrue, has another, much more immediate cause. If one
believes in science, one must accept the possibility - even the
probability - that the great era of scientific discovery is over.
By 'science' I mean not applied science, but science at its
purest and grandest, the primordial human quest to understand
the universe and our place in it. Further research may yield
no more great revelations or revolutions, but only incremental
diminishing returns." (p. 6)

In the case of evolutionary biology, the great revelations were that life
evolved and the mechanisms are simple consequences of population genetics.
No supernatural beings are required.

"Learning that we humans were created not de novo by God, but
gradually, by the process of natural selection, was a big surprise.
Most other aspects of human evolution - those concerning where,
when, and how, percisely, Homo sapines evolved - are details.
These details may be interesting, but they are not likely to be
surprising unless they show that scientists' basic assumptions
about evolution are wrong." (p. 17)

So, if no new fundamental insights are forthcoming after Darwin and Watson
& Crick, what kinds of things can be studied in evolutionary biology? Horgan
turns to Richard Dawkins for the answer ...

"What can an ambitious young biologist do to make his or her
mark in the post-Darwin, post-DNA era? One alternative is to
become more Darwinian than Darwin, to accept Darwinian theory
as a supreme insight into nature, one that cannot be transcended.
That is the route taken by the archclarifier and reductionist
Richard Dawkins of the University of Oxford. He has honed
Darwinism into a fearsome weapon, one which he obliterates
any ideas that challenge his resolutely materialistic,
nonmystical view of life." (p. 116)

It's hard to argue with Horgan on this one. There are many scientists
like Dawkins. They firmly believe that the end of evolutionary biology
is upon us. According to them, we already have in place a powerful
evolutionary theory that is correct. All questions can be answered by
this modern evolutionary theory, according to Dawkns and his colleagues.
No new revolutions are expected and all contenders have been defeated.

Horgan goes on to interview Gould, Margulis, and Kauffman to see if any
of the revolution contenders have something to say. He (Horgan) concludes
that they don't.

Horgan finishes the chapter on evoution by interviewing Stanley Miller.
The origin of life is one of the great mysteries and, according to Horgan,
we are still a long way from knowing the answer. Horgan looks forward to
the time when we discover life on another world, "Such a discovery would
transform all of science and philosophy and human thought."

Don't be put off by the title of the book and don't assume that Horgan is
stupid. He addresses all of the naive objections to the "end of science"
position including the silly patent office claim and the standard quote
mining of nineteenth century scientists. In fact, the opening chapter of
"The End of Science: Facing the Limits of Knowledge in the Twilight of the
Scientific Age" is a very good introduction to some basic epistemology
- albeit with a strong bias.

I highly recommend this book to any intelligent reader with an interest
in science and an open mind.




Larry Moran

.

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