coldqueenpaper - Tumblr blog

[coldqueenpaper]

THE JOY OF SCIENCE BY PROFESSOR JIM AL-KHALILI

The discussion in the podcast is about the Joy of science, the many faces of science, how science is associated with truth and knowledge, cited from the book, The Joy of Science authored by the guest, Professor Jim Al-Khalili.

I chose this topic because I was interested and curious about how science and truth can be related.

From the discussion in the podcast, Dr Waseem (the host) questions the guest Professor Jim about his opposition on one particular view of science. In the book (The Joy of Science), the author says there’s a view of science out there that science is a collection of facts about the world but he opposes the the view is not correct. He suggests in the book that science should be seen as a process, as a way of thinking, a way of making sense of the world.

Then Dr. Waseem questions the guest on how the discipline of science should be perceived. He suggests that science is a way of getting to knowledge, a way of acquiring knowledge, and that it is important for the society to know what science is, how it works, and how to know if a theory is right or wrong.

Additionally, Professor Jim points out that getting across why we believe in what we do is as important as explaining the knowledge we have gained through science. Science is not only understanding the natural world around us but understanding human behavior and social science. There are many faces of science like writing equations, mixing chemicals, carrying out scientific trials to find out the efficacy of a vaccine, climbing into a volcano to study the structure of the earth, so all we should do is what these different aspects have in common in terms of how we do science.

Furthermore, Dr. Waseem posits that the outcome of the process of science is to find and create new knowledge, to find truth, but then we live in this age where sometimes, truth becomes eluded. He then goes on to question how truth becomes relative – how does science deal with the issue of relative truth and absolute truth? The professor answered by saying it depends on what aspect is being talked about. He gave an example in his area of Physics where there are absolute truths. He contends that sometimes, scientific theories don’t explain absolute truth, what they try to do is get as close as possible as they improve their understanding in hope that one day, they will get a full understanding. He then goes on to present an example on how the universe behaves in a certain way; like if a ball is thrown at a height of 5meters, it takes about a second for it to hit the floor. In this instance, you can’t have an opinion about that, that is an absolute truth about the way gravity works on earth. But when it comes to truth about human behavior, it does get messy. It gets mixed up with our ideologies, our beliefs, culture, religious belief, taboos and so on.

SHORT BIOGRAPHY ON THE GUEST

Professor Jim is a theoretical physicist at the University of Surrey where he holds a Distinguished Chair in physics as well as a university chair in the public engagement in science. He received his PhD in nuclear reaction theory in 1989 and has published widely in the field. His current interest is in open quantum systems and the application of quantum mechanics in biology.

He is a prominent author and broadcaster. He has written 14 books on popular science and the history of science, between them translated into twenty-six languages. His latest book, The World According to Physics, was shortlisted for the Royal Society Book Prize. He is a regular presenter of TV science documentaries, such as the Bafta nominated Chemistry: a volatile history, and he hosts the long-running weekly BBC Radio 4 programme, The Life Scientific.

Professor Jim is a past president of the British Science Association and a recipient of the Royal Society Michael Faraday medal and the Wilkins-Bernal-Medawar Medal, the Institute of Physics Kelvin Medal and the Stephen Hawking Medal for Science Communication. He received an OBE in 2007 and a CBE in 2021 for ‘services to science’.

[coldqueenpaper]

A PASSION FOR IGNORANCE BY PROFESSOR RENATA SALECL

The discussion in the podcast is about the many faces of ignorance, how it plays a major role in our lives and society and, the reasons for ignorance cited from the book, A Passion for Ignorance (what we choose to know and why) authored by the guest, Professor Renata Salecl. 

I chose to write on this topic because I got attracted to the title of the podcast and I believed that from the listening, I would be able to deal better with people in situations where I find that ignorance is the cause.

From the discussion in the podcast, a result to ignorance in this post-industrial world stems from when we often feel overloaded with constant flood of information and misinterpretation, leading to denial, negation and ignorance. It also sometimes stems from the lack of knowledge.

In the discussion, a point made concerning ignorance, is the Psycho-analytic discussion first proposed by French Psychoanalyst, Jaques Lacan. He called it A Passion for Ignorance. People don’t have the passion for knowledge, but ignorance instead. People claim to want to know something but end up doing everything not to know. This is called A passion for ignorance.

 We must also note that reasons for ignorance can be described as active/passive or conscious/unconscious.

Then we hear of the Transformation of the concept of knowledge economy into ignorance economy. This stems majorly from the manipulation in society and the lack of knowledge. It is difficult to come up to knowledge because knowledge is hidden from the individuals in the society and hardly accessible. Although some people (major corporations) have higher access to knowledge, even knowledge that are prohibited or unavailable to the general public.

For example, when doing research for a project, it can be difficult to access some information or citations or journals. You would need to pay for subscriptions, and they can be very expensive to acquire.

We presume we have access to knowledge because of google, various websites and search engines, but then the websites and search engines are made by individuals, who generated algorithms creating the hierarchy between knowledge that we can easily see. For example, if we use different search engines to search for a way to prepare a food or let’s say how something is built, we will get different types of information.

Additionally, ignorance was discussed as an active/conscious ignorance. For example, people lying to themselves because they don’t want to face truth which might lead to the end of their fantasy they have created especially when falling in love, or in a relationship.

There are also the issues of websites like dating sites, astronomy apps, etc. that affect people dealing in love and romantic feelings. These websites take genetics to predict compatibility, what may happen with our partners in future and potential children.

Moreover, not all ignorance is bad. Sometimes we negate or deny reality to deal with some difficult issues like some sort of trauma. Usually, we use ignorance in a negative way because we never address our own ignorance. We must see sometimes ignorance is important for our wellbeing, and it needs to also be respected. For example, when dealing with someone that is very traumatized, it is important to understand that he/she is in the grip of ignorance, and we should not force certain kinds of traumatic knowledge unto him/her.

Another example is when informing people about their illness, we need to be careful to understand the ignorance in this instance. Most reactions from situations like this can be described as an unconscious ignorance.

Let us talk about the researcher/author of the book (A Passion for Ignorance), Professor Renata Salecl.

Professor Renata Salecl is a Philosopher and Sociologist. She is a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Criminology at the Faculty of Law in Ljubljana and a Professor at the School of Law, Birkbeck College, London, United Kingdom. Professor Salecl has held numerous visiting professorships at Cardozo School of Law, New York, Humboldt University, Berlin, and Duke University, Durham, among other institutions. Her work is very interdisciplinary and focuses on bringing together law, criminology, the study of political ideologies, and psychoanalysis.

Apart from A Passion of Ignorance, Professor Renata Salecl has authored several books namely, The Spoils of Freedom: Psychoanalysis and Feminism After the Fall of Socialism (Routledge, 1994), (Per)versions of Love and Hate (Verso, 1998), On Anxiety (Routledge, 2004) and Tyranny of Choice (Profile Books, 2010).