IS THIS TOPIC ABOUT HARD SCIENCE?
If I understand things correctly, it is more about philosophy--and perhaps the art of communicating--than about science.
BTW, if it is about science, I would like to see the concrete evidence that I have, "disdain and contempt for science."
PHILOSOPHY, SCIENCE AND ART
I think it was Will R. Durant--of French-Canadian ancestry, by the way--who said.
All science begins as a philosophy and ends as an art.
Ever since I read his Story of Philosophy, he has been one of my favourite philosophers and historians. Also, I frequently dip into his vast STORY OF CIVILIZATION, which, with the help of his beloved wife, Ariel, it took him fifty years to write.
For a wonderful outline of the story of his life check out the following essay by the editors of Wisdom Magazine:
http://www.willdurant.com/bio.htmI especially like the way the essay ends:
...He never once attempted to build his reputation at the expense of others; instead he sought to better understand the viewpoints of human beings, and to forgive them their foibles and human waywardness. When two burglars were apprehended by police after having broke into his Los Angeles home and stealing valuable jewelry and savings bonds ? Durant refused to press charges and insisted that they be set free. "Forgiveness," again, is the other half of philosophy.
Durant?s love for his wife Ariel only deepened with the passing of time. When he was admitted to hospital with heart problems in 1981 at the age of 96, his wife stopped eating; perhaps fearing that he would not be returning. When Durant learned of the death of his beloved wife, his own heart stopped beating. They are buried beside each other in a small Los Angeles cemetery, together for all eternity.
Unlike the cloistered academics who turned up their noses at Durant?s attempt to bring philosophy back to the common man, Durant was not content merely to write about such subjects, he actually did his best to put his ideas into effect. He had fought for equal wages, women?s suffrage and fairer working conditions for the American labor force. Durant had even drafted a "Declaration of Interdependence" in the early 1940s ? preceding the "Civil Rights Movement" by some two decades ? calling for, among many things:
Human dignity and decency, and to safeguard these without distinction of race or color or creed; to strive in concert with others to discourage animosities arising from these differences, and to unite all groups in the fair play of civilized life?Rooted in freedom, children of the same Divine Father, sharing everywhere a common human blood, we declare again that all men are brothers, and that mutual tolerance is the price of liberty.
He pursued this issue of racial equality so vigorously that this Declaration was introduced into the Congressional Record on October 1, 1945.
Over the years, Durant?s reputation as a philosopher and historian has grown; his writings, which have sold over 17 million copies, have been enjoyed by individuals from all walks of life. Among his most impassioned readers (and friends) were Mahatma Gandhi, George Bernard Shaw, Clarence Darrow and Bertrand Russell ? although it was always for the common man, rather than the scholastic or academic audience, that Durant wrote.
"We could do almost anything if time would slow up," he once said, adding "but it runs on, and we melt away trying to keep up with it." And yet even time never covered 110 centuries in fifty years.
By the editors of Wisdom magazine and John Little