I found
Nissani on the www at http://www.is.wayne.edu/mnissani/PAGEPUB/HISTORY.HTM
His paper
is an example of what we very much need, if only because he mentions
"bereavement" as one factor facing an entrenched scientist when
confronted with paradigm change.
"
.... Marris
argues that the process of abandoning a conviction is similar to the working
out of grief."
John Dore
has been involved with me for decades, but refuses to accept there there are a
number of non-immoral factors urgng an entrenched scientist to avoid proposals
for paradigm change. I think the concept of "bereavement" is valuable
when an entrenched scientist is presented with the possibility of the removal
of electricity. We can project back to the reaction to the attempt to remove
caloric or phlogiston in this context. It should be clear to John that such an
idea would have been traumatic, and in some sense it would remain traumatic
even if the victim (the entrenched scientist) was, in the usual sense, open
minded. Contrary to John's attitude, and also to Harold's, I think it is
important and valuable to look for less immoral reasons for the avoidance of
paradigm change. As with this example, note that a sense of bereavement is not
normally regarded as immoral, but merely part of the human condition. We should
consider that the psychological damage to a scientist asked to give up
electricity, or caloric, or phlogiston, may be in the same class as wanting him
to face up to unnecessary death of a near and dear.
I think
it is important to look for non-immoral reasons for the behaviour of
scientists when they suppress scientific advance. Otherwise, if we insist, as
Harold does, that their behaviour is always immoral, we have to conclude that
science is populated by immoral people, which I do not believe. What about the
idea of thinking that a particular group is immoral if they want to avoid
unnecessary deaths? I note that John persistently asks why the new paradigm is
more useful, and says that this point has to be made to an entrenched academic.
That is, if a death is avoidable, it should be avoided.
-----
Original Message -----
From: Ivor Catt
Sent: Wednesday, March 02, 2011 12:37
PM
Subject: Re: censorship
Dear
Gordon,
Recently
one of my daughters spoke positively about my work in my (and your) field.. I
have sent a copy of this to my daughters, and would like to tell them that we
were your guests in your farm in Tuscany.
By you;
http://www.dmi.unipg.it/~mamone/sci-dem/contri/moran.PDF
What you
wrote (below) is extremely valuable and important. There are two reasons for
this.
1
Anything you say that agrees with my statements shows that those statements are
not merely the whim of an individual.
2 What
you wrote below adds considerably to the ideas I am developing, and I very much
want more from you, as you suggested you would volunteer. Material like your
below will go straight onto my website. Do you have a webbsite, or do you want
me to put your material on mine?
The idea
that as we approach paradigm change the censorship increases, or perhaps only
the suggestion, is very important indeed. Anything to strenghten this assertion
would be very valuable.
By the
way, do a Google search for "peer review" + "paradigm
change". This leads to my recent epigram; "Peer
Review outlaws Paradigm Change"
I need to
assure you that in electromagnetic theory we truly do approach paradigm change,
which is that when a battery lights a lamp after being conected by two wires,
electric charge and electric current are not involved. That is obviously a
proposal for paradigm change, quite as major as the ending of phlogiston or of
caloric. I would like you to think under the assumption that what I say in this
paragraph is true, and draw the appropriate conclusions. You will appreciate
that this is not in the same class as your Guido Riccio scandal. That is
why I was tentative about asking for your help, but what you wrote below
reassures me that you have potentially a major contribution to make.
You will
remember that some time ago I tended to complain that you and Harold did not
supply the insights and advances that were needed, but on re-reading your
excellent book I had to apologise to you.
That
is a major contribution, and it is very unfortunate that it is not fully on the
www. More or less all my books are fully on the www. Also of course
it has a very unfortunate title.
Your
linking "academic censorship" with "academic freedom" is
very important. With Hillman, I was introduced to the "Academic
Freedom" activists, who I concluded would not help us at all. They were
about an academic losing his job for the wrong reasons. However,
I suspected that they all wanted only the right kind of person to have an
academic job in the first place. That excluded you and me.
My recent
attempt to introduce "Sociology of Science" people into my work - for
instance to inform them over what I have found - seemed to be fruitless. They
seemed to work on the socilogical impact of science on society, and ignore the
sociology within science, which is our subject. I would be very interested in
whether you confirm this impression. (That is, do the "Sociology of
Science" fraternity ignore sociology within science? If so, do they
ignlore T S Kuhn?) I think this is perhaps a restatement of what you said
below; " The sociologists of science are part of the academic
establishment." Is my statement in this paragraph the same as your
statement?
----- Original
Message -----
From: gordon.f.moran@gmail.com
To: Ivor Catt
Sent: Tuesday, March 01, 2011 7:42 PM
Subject: Re: censorship
Dear
Ivor,
Many thanks for the email. Great to hear from you, and I hope you are back in
top shape to continue the battle, after the long hiatus.
I am not exactly sure how I can respond to your email in an effective manner, but
here are a few thoughts based on my experience and my studies:
Academics basically do not like to discuss academic censorship, for a variety
of reasons. Perhaps a main reason is that the rhetoric of academia professes
academic freedom, which is the opposite of censorship. Charges and claims of
censorship are sometimes brushed aside by appeals to peer review and alleged
quality control. If it doesn't pass peer review, it doesn't deserve to be
published. If by chance it sneaks through peer review, that reviewer, editor,
and journal made a bad mistake and should no longer be considered a
reliable academic forum. They might be considered something akin to traitors
within the profession. (Censorship is the tactic and work of right wing
politicians and evangelical fundamentalists, and certainly not the work of
respectable academics who firmly believe in academic freedom and open debate
with open-ended critical analysis.)
Factors of collegiality can seem to embolden the censorship at every stage
in the process. This can be true for sociology of science as well as for
specific academic/scientific disciplines. The sociologists of science are part
of the academic establishment. There is a tendency in this case to give
"balanced" studies on the subject, with a few bad apples not
endangering academic freedom, open scholarly debate, etc, and with
claims that censorship is being confused with normal quality
control that is guaranteed by peer review.
All of this discussion takes on a greater sense of intensity and
urgency when a paradigm change is at stake, because not just specialists,
but a large segment of academia is at risk of embarrassment. As a result, the
censorship apparatus might be put into high gear at the same time that
discussion of censorship of the case is itself censored. A recent book,
Knowledge in the Making, which has"Academic Freedom" in its subtitle,
has a closing chapter, "Caution ! Paradigms May Shift." (Discussion
in this case seems mainly directed to lawyers, however.)
I hope that these ideas are of some help. If you wish further information or
ideas, please let me know. Somewhere along the line, I would suggest you put
two books by Serge Lang to good use: The File (1981), and Challenges (ca.
1998 or sometime later) Best regards, Gordon