Tom Wolfe has documented the Great Skepticism of the past few decades, wherein science even begins to doubt itself. Foremost is the doubt of the ability of science to understand itself, and man to understand man...rather like a group of dogs trying to fully comprehend "The Dog". He makes the following statement:
"Recently I happened to be talking to a prominent California geologist, and she told me: 'When I first went into geology, we all thought that in science you create a solid layer of findings, through experiment and careful investigation, and then you add a second layer, like a second layer of bricks, all very carefully, and so on. Occasionally some adventurous scientist stacks the bricks up in towers, and these towers turn out to be insubstantial and they get torn down, and you proceed again with the careful layers. But we now realize that the very first layers aren't even resting on solid ground. They are balanced on bubbles, on concepts that are full of air, and those bubbles are being burst today, one after the other.'"
Tom Wolfe; "Sorry, Your Soul Just Died".
No comments:
Post a Comment