Quote:
Originally Posted by Paul C. Anagnostopoulos  Oh, please. The average person is not a physicalist, but some sort of religio-dualist. The average person has not read a shred of metaphysical writings. The world is the way it is because that is the way people behave.
And yet most of those people are religious and hold some sort of dualistic notion of mind. In particular, many believe that there is a better life after this one, or another chance to do better.
~~ Paul |
Obviously there is some truth in what you say, but I think science has a lot of 'street cred' and people extract ideas from it in a strange sort of way. Describing what goes on in banks as mathematical analysis sounds so much better than calling it gambling. I have heard people claim that homophobia is based on science because science has shown that only heterosexual sex is normal (don't try to unpick the logic in that!) The point is that because science does not relate to values at all, people add their own!
I have seen it suggested that scientists should have to take an equivalent of the Hippocratic oath somewhere in their training. After all, it seems to successfully deter US doctors from helping in the execution chamber, so it might help deter scientists and engineers working on weapons systems.
The complete lack of a value-system in science - as illustrated by our discussions about whether a computer could feel pain - seems to contribute to the problem.
David