Years ago, Newsweek reported the discovery of Hitler's alleged diaries. In a long article, writers discussed how these documents would change our picture of Hitler, if the diaries were genuine. Some doubts about their authenticity were relegated to a box in the article. In the next issue. Newsweek presented conclusive evidence that the diaries were hoaxes: tests on the glue of the bindings showed that the books were bound after 1945. Last night, a two hour special presented the story of the alleged Chinese discovery of America in 1421. The last half hour of this special was devoted to criticism of the evidence for this view. The criticism was devastating: the author had made bold claims without considering very serious objections and problems.
I thought of another sort of PBS special as I was watching the Chinese discover and populate the American continents: those engineering specials where the scholars and engineers try to recreate a Roman bath or a catapult or a Chinese bridge, fighting all the while about how exactly the thing was made.
Two ways of telling a story: "begin with an hypothesis, present the hypothesis in technicolor, with dramatization, then consider whether it is true" or "begin with a question, consider the possible answers to that question, and document the process by which the answers are weeded out by experiment and research."
Each of these is also a way of thinking. The first way comes very naturally to people. The second way requires training and discipline. The first approach is dangerous in one way: one may be so taken with one's hypothesis, after fleshing it out, that one doesn't pay good attention to the evidence. The second approach is dangerous in another way: one may not be impressed enough with the importance of a proposal to give it the test it deserves. It is not always sensible to be neutral in our attitude towards theories not yet well supported. Some matter, and it matters that they matter.
This is one turn in the endless dance between faith and reason that constitutes the living human mind.
Posted by shea0017 at July 23, 2004 10:18 AM