this post was submitted on 05 May 2024
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Funny: Home of the Haha

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[–] [email protected] 6 points 6 months ago (10 children)

I guess the point is, yes, a lot of people stupidly think they've sussed out some great mystery based on limited knowledge and nonsense, against experts who have been patiently and carefully studying the matter; but the principle of investigating lines of thought that the - even expert - consensus has ruled out, is still an important one.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago (5 children)

This is very much a known concept in the philosophy of science, especially under Feyerabend who mentions 'counterinduction' often as a tool to prevent scientific thought from stagnating into a dogma because it might turn into a system where every fact that might prove it wrong is discarded right away. Like how the heliocentric system was opposed to almost every fact given by science at the time.

But this is a method (for a lack of a better word; ironically, Feyerabend's whole point is that there is no strict and rational method) of actual scientific research by competent researchers. Someone with no more than the most basic understanding of biology, ecology and climate rejecting the consensus with no findings of their own to provide makes them a conspiracy theorist. 'The Earth moves around the sun because xyz, and you can prove it' in a geocentric society is a counterinductive questioning of the consensus. 'Vaccines don't work', 'Masks don't work', 'CO2 isn't making the planet warmer' is 100% of the time a conclusion found on the internet with at most one or two shallow arguments disproved decades ago (see Paul Hoyningen-Huene's: "Systematicity is necessary but not sufficient: on the problem of facsimile science")

[–] [email protected] 0 points 6 months ago (2 children)

Oh shit you're right, I now remember Feyerabend talking about banned.video and 4chan/pol as being worthwhile sources of counterinduction!

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 months ago (1 children)

You didn't read half of my comment, did you? I literally said that there is a huge distinction between knowledgable people giving a full account of alternative theories (like Copernicus arguing against the consensus of a geocentric system) and conspiracy theorists just saying 'no' to the consensus with nothing to back it up.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 6 months ago

I read it but it did a bad job refuting mine so I didn’t care

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