Ramblings

If you have never heard of Thomas Kuhn, you are not entitled to comment on ClimateGate. Don't tell me how science is supposed to work when you haven't even read the core texts in the discipline of the history and philosophy of science. In any case, I'm with Steve Levitt on this one. And his comments to that post prompted me to say something.

So. Let's recap. There are gatekeepers in scientific journals. They don't publish everything they see. In fact, they will interpret and massage data and views into their worldviews. This is ordinary, in fact labeled "normal science" by Thomas Kuhn. It's not political any more than ordinary office politics is. Scientists resist information that goes against their theories, until the information can no longer be ignored. Then someone steps in and kick starts a scientific revolution (aka paradigm shift). This is like Intro to Philosophy of Science type stuff. And these ideas have been refined further by criticism and commentary by the likes of Karl Popper, Imre Lakatos, and Paul Feyeraband.

It's not every day that I get to say "hey my philosophy degree gives me expertise on this topic in the news," so I'm going to savor it.