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Home Front: Culture Wars
Introduction to Bio-power and it's the Little Eichmenn Engineers
2005-06-12
Another visit to the moonbat ward. Here we find someone who went to University a long time ago and has never left campus since. I presume there's some sort of 'invisible fence' around the Quad...tinfoil hat tip to Pirate Ballerina, your source for all things Ward Churchillian.
...Science is not a mere recording of 'objective' reality. It is more of an attempt to manipulate and control the ontological domain that has been delimited by a discipline's observational activities. The objects that appear present-at-hand were originally given ontological status to by the process of man carving out entities from the monistic Earth to use as instruments in the actualization of the objectives defining the teleology of his or her projects. Consequently, science should be understood less as a form of an objective rendering of reality than a manifestation of Nietzsche's Will to Power—the drive or impetus to come to control and manipulate one's surroundings that in actuality are probably too complex of which to ever come a complete, 'objective' knowledge...
Posted by:Seafarious

#17  IMNSHO the author shows a profound misunderstanding of the tenets of basic science, how basic science is done, and how scientists think about the world around them.

I work at a major national science laboratory. I encounter scientists every day and often have the chance to speak with them and ask them questions about their research. Many read philosophy, but few would describe themselves as philosophers.

This nutbar, aside from trying to sound as high-falutin' as possible to, as someone said above, convince the rubes, simply doesn;t understand that good science has a sound foundation in a fundamental reality that we call natural physical laws - like that of gravity, that most of these natural physical laws can be understood through a solid grounding in mathematics, and that science is constantly striving to push the borders back, to understand more, and to improve its understanding of what science already thinks it understands. Few, if any scientists would ever presume they know everything (or even anything) about their own field of specialty let alone the universe.

If it were up to this guy the laws of thermodynamics would not apply and he'd be the one getting the free lunch

Posted by: LC FOTSGreg   2005-06-12 19:20  

#16  Yup, should read "shouldn't muck ..."
Posted by: too true   2005-06-12 18:14  

#15  rkb, I happen to agree with the statement 'There is no such thing as objective truth in science.' However, and this is the motherofall howevers, to act as if there is, has huge utility. I.e. science may not reveal truth, but it sure as hell works.
Posted by: phil_b   2005-06-12 18:11  

#14  
The subtext is that we should muck around with nature, therefore, because we may trigger things we can't control.
You know, I do not think that phrase means what you think it means... I think you forgot a negative there.

Seriously, have you ever seen how much money, energy, and face is invested in the belief that there will never be any significant drop in the price of carrying a kg of payload into LEO?
Posted by: Phil Fraering   2005-06-12 14:53  

#13  The second assertion here will be familiar to people who study systems dynamics modeling ... the idea that there are feedback loops that make the behavior of complex systems counterintuitive and difficult to predict.

The subtext is that we should muck around with nature, therefore, because we may trigger things we can't control.
Posted by: rkb   2005-06-12 13:34  

#12  The problem is that this essentially denies there is any such thing as objective truth in science.

Once you accept that, then you can justify all sorts of things, including suppressing the results of studies (or even the intent to study phenomena) whose political implications you don't like.
Posted by: rkb   2005-06-12 13:28  

#11  Bio-power to the people! (with appropriate fist pump)
Posted by: Seafarious   2005-06-12 12:46  

#10  "I reject your realty and substitue my owm":Myth Busters.
Posted by: raptor   2005-06-12 11:59  

#9  
Consequently, science should be understood less as a form of an objective rendering of reality than a manifestation of Nietzsche’s Will to Power—the drive or impetus to come to control and manipulate one’s surroundings that in actuality are probably too complex of which to ever come a complete, ‘objective’ knowledge...


So? I mean, what's the problem with that? What's wrong with bending reality to your Will To Power?
Posted by: Phil Fraering   2005-06-12 11:39  

#8  I read that paragraph three times, and I still can't figure out what the hell it says.

Raj: you're correct :-)
Posted by: Steve White   2005-06-12 11:35  

#7  I think I've already heard somewhere what the word "ontological" means, but I'm not sure... sounds pretty impressive and academic... will try to google it, this method has shown good results with others unknown words... the search for "bukkake" was certainly memorable, ahem,...
Posted by: anonymous5089   2005-06-12 10:48  

#6  Oooh, golly! Ritualistic mumbo jumbo! The uttering of magic words and incantations! Words like "ontological" and "teleology" and "monistic" have great ju-ju. The rubes are major impressed and bow down toward the nearest university, uttering sounds of admiration, while the universities themselves award tenure to the utterers...
Posted by: Fred   2005-06-12 10:42  

#5  Here is Ward Churchill's latest art project.
Posted by: badanov   2005-06-12 10:40  

#4  Amateurs. You forgot to play the gender card:

"... as interpreted from the lens of the dominant patriarchical power structure."

Bonus - it fits anywhere!
Posted by: Raj   2005-06-12 10:37  

#3  A whole lotta words that mean nothing.(At least near as I can interprate them)
Posted by: raptor   2005-06-12 09:24  

#2  What this means is those in the WTC on 9/11 willed the airliners to crash into the towers. The hijackers were just an incidental mechanism to actualize that will.
Posted by: phil_b   2005-06-12 03:51  

#1  F = ma

Okay, next subject!
Posted by: gromky   2005-06-12 02:44  

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