Quote:
Originally Posted by David Bailey  Chris,
So let me summarise. If an experimenter expresses support for a phenomenon that you (and some, but by no means all other scientists) think is bunk, then their research is immediately so suspect that any positive results they obtain are obviously false. Furthermore, since these false results can't be said to contribute in any meaningful way to the scientific record, there never will be reliable evidence for said phenomena.
As I have said before, it was when I realised that something like this really goes on, that I switched from your position to being somewhat more open-minded!
David |
Come on. You are always presenting the skeptical position as a very simplistic one, and it's obviously not the case. You're using a strawman argument (what you think is skepticism).
The thing is, Alex went to his experiment in order TO PROVE that the "dog that knows" phenomenum is real. It's obvious that he didn't go without opinion about it, and with the will of just finding out. He went TO PROVE IT. He went with a strong prior belief about it. He even said so before hand in the podcast:
"I'm gonna prove that this phenomenum is real".
That kind of mindset is known for having made far better scientist than him (Benveniste, René-Prosper Blondlot, Michel Gauquelin, and so on) make mistakes.
Here we has someone not really competent (Alex said many times on his podcast that he's not really a scientist, and I must say I completely agree with him on that point), with a very strong belief, going with the goal of finding positive results. It's no suprise at all that it does. With that mindset, it was to be expected. Maybe for you it's a surprise, but really not at all for me.
Skeptics explained to Alex how to do better experiments, and he doesn't listen. It's far more important for him to find data than confirm (at least for him) is prior belief, than for doing good science.
If you don't see that it's clearly what's happening here, well you should learn to be far more skeptical.
Maybe you were skeptical in the past, maybe not, but if you were, you lost your critical thinking skill during your
"conversion" to be
"open minded".
That's just sad. You should come back on the bright side of the Force.
But hey, there's maybe hope for you...
