LB 492 Blog

                Chapter seven, “Creative Conflict,” of Dr. Pennock’s book discusses the differing view points and stances on science between different groups, specifically science and religious groups. When talking about these view points, he puts them in context of different eras such as when both groups display dogmatism. He brings up the fallacy that both ends often used of using one’s authority or power to proclaim what is true, instead of letting the truth speak for itself. This again brings up the importance of the virtues of humility to the evidence and skepticism towards authority, not just for the scientific community but also the religious community. This shows that some of the scientific virtues are usable in other fields and are therefore fluid in a sense. This fluidity and shared characteristics may help bridge the gap between these two groups and allow for civil discord instead of authoritative notions and violent efforts, something that Dr. Pennock also mentioned is a f

                The handout the Dr. Pennock passed out was the transcript of an interview between a person and a scientist. Within the transcript, the interviewer asked the scientist varying questions regarding the scientist’s opinion on things such as the necessity of certain scientific virtues, why he ranked them as he did, the affects vices have on science, and the affects of outside entities such as groups that provide funding. The scientist’s rankings and reasonings behind those rankings were logical and well thought out, especially when it involved his own personal experiences. One of his opinions though on a scientific virtue I thought was quite realistic and well addressed was his ranking of the importance of objectivity in science. He stated that he used to think that objectivity was the most important thing in science until he realized how near impossible it is to be completely objective. Not only does he recognize that we as humans can never be perfect in this area but also

                Chapter eight, “Scientific Vices,” of Dr. Pennock’s book is about the importance of a scientist keeping their virtues in balance and not have it in too much or too little of excess in order to not have them become vices. He also discusses what certain virtues becoming vices looks like and the results of having these vices have on the scientific community or on one’s research. The main virtue of Dr. Pennock’s focus is curiosity since it is the pivotal virtue of all other scientific virtues. He shows the destructive effects of when curiosity becomes a vice instead, both mentally for the scientist and on science as a whole. The section that caught my attention the most was “the vice of excess curiosity.” Although the entire reference to Oppenheimer and his reflection on the Gita seemed miss placed in a section about curiosity becoming a vice, it still describes the point that focusing only on one virtue or allowing fulfilling scientific duty to swallow one’s life prevents

                In part five of the book “Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!” Adventures of a Curious Character, some of the most significant and interesting events during Feynman’s time as a physicist after the war were discussed. The first story that Feynman tells about his trip to Japan after the war shows quite a few of his scientific virtues and how they translated into social situations. His desire for unity and diversity in science was shown through his efforts to learn about the Japanese culture and to work with Japan despite everything that happened during the war. After getting to Japan, Feynman wanted to stay at a Japanese hotel instead of an American one and had to spend almost an hour in total to try and convince the host to let him stay at one, which shows his persistence. When he got to the Japanese style hotel, his intellectual courage to face failure helped him to want to try speaking the Japanese phrases he learned and experience some of the social customs, even thoug