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Re: Completing the Revolution
by Karl on Tuesday March 11, @01:21PM
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| I infer from what you're saying that you believe a science is provisional if it lacks a complete theoretical framework or finished observations. But I'm not sure I buy that--astronomy could be considered a genuine science even before the development of an understanding of nuclear fusion, for instance. It's not a question of "resources" whatever that word means; it's a matter of constructing the right kind of experiment, and cognitive science doesn't need particle accelerators or gigantic budgets to do that. Cognitive science is only like alchemy if it eschews scientific method, no? And while I agree that it is just getting started, that doesn't mean it can't make significant discoveries, nor does it mean that those things it does discover won't pass the test of time. The results reported in "Where Mathematics Comes From" are largely observational--hence, like an astronomical discovery, say of the existence of Neptune, they're independent of an understanding of deeper processes, just as we can know Neptune exists independently of knowing how planets form. If experiment consistently shows that humans cannot do mathematics except through metaphoric processes that are grounded in primary human sensorimotor processes, how is that not a definitive answer? Meticulous tests are done, results come back. That's science.
But really, it's not me you're arguing with here. In order for me to accept your criticism of these findings, I'd like to know that you've at least actually read the book--or that you have some substantive reason for dismissing cognitive science as incapable of making real discoveries. Otherwise, your objections smack of the same deliberate blindness of the reviewer quoted above, who started out by saying, "First let me say that I haven't read the book." You're saying, "First let me say that I don't believe cognitive science can make substantive discoveries," which amounts to the same thing.
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