首页
外语
计算机
考研
公务员
职业资格
财经
工程
司法
医学
专升本
自考
实用职业技能
登录
考研
Scientists are supposed to change their minds.【F1】Having adopted their views on scientific questions based on an objective evalu
Scientists are supposed to change their minds.【F1】Having adopted their views on scientific questions based on an objective evalu
admin
2013-08-15
42
问题
Scientists are supposed to change their minds.【F1】
Having adopted their views on scientific questions based on an objective evaluation of empirical evidence, they are expected to willingly, even eagerly, abandon cherished beliefs when new evidence undermines them.
So it is remarkable that so few of the essays in a new book in which scientists answer the question in the title, "What Have You Changed Your Mind About?" express anything like this ideal.
Many of the changes of mind are just changes of opinion or an evolution of values. One contributor, a past supporter of manned spaceflight, now thinks it’s pointless, while another no longer has moral objections to cognitive enhancement through drugs. Other changes of mind have to do with broken predictions, such as that computer intelligence would soon rival humans’.【F2】
Rare, however, are changes of mind by scientists identified with either side of a controversial issue.
There is no one who rose to fame arguing that a disease is caused by sticky brain plaques and who has now been convinced by evidence that the plaques are mostly innocent bystanders, not crimes. But really, we shouldn’t be surprised.【F3】
Advocates of a particular viewpoint, especially if their reputation is based on the accuracy of that viewpoint, cling to it like a shipwrecked man to floats.
Studies that undermine that position, they say, are fatally flawed.
In truth, no study is perfect, so it would be crazy to abandon an elegant, well supported theory because one new finding undermines it.【F4】
But it’s fascinating how scientists with an intellectual stake in a particular side of a debate tend to see flaws in studies that undermine their dearly held views, and to interpret and even ignore "facts" to fit their views.
No wonder the historian Thomas Kuhn concluded almost 50 years ago that a scientific paradigm falls down only when the last of its powerful advocates dies. The few essays in which scientists do admit they were wrong—and about something central to their reputation therefore stand out.【F5】
Physicist Marcelo Gleiser of Dartmouth breaks ranks with almost every physicist since Einstein, and with his own younger self, in now doubting that the laws of nature can be unified in a single elegant formulation.
Gleiser has written dozens of papers proposing routes to the unification of gravity and quantum mechanics through everything from superstrings to extra dimensions, but now concedes that "all attempts so far have failed. " Unification may be esthetically appealing, but it’s not how nature works.
【F2】
选项
答案
然而,鲜有观念的改变是由支持争议性问题某一方的科学家做出的。
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://jikaoti.com/ti/GrYRFFFM
0
考研英语一
相关试题推荐
The"dawnofthedemocratizationoftheTVandfilmbusiness"probablymeans______.Thepurposeofthistextisprimarilyto_
WelearnfromthepassagethatBy"thependulumisswingingtoofar",IanPerryprobablymeans
Politicalcontroversyaboutthepublic-landpolicyoftheUnitedStatesbeganwiththeAmericaRevolution.(1)_____,evenbefore
Politicalcontroversyaboutthepublic-landpolicyoftheUnitedStatesbeganwiththeAmericaRevolution.(1)_____,evenbefore
Inthefollowingtext,somesentenceshavebeenremoved.ForQuestions41-45,choosethemostsuitableonefromthelist(A、B、C、
Inmostpartsoftheworld,climatechangeisaworryingsubject.NotsoinCalifornia.AtarecentgatheringofgreenLUMINARIE
Theword"caste"(paragraph1)mostprobablymeansTheauthor’stoneintalkingaboutfireantsintheUSseemstobe
Theword"caste"(paragraph1)mostprobablymeansWhetherfireantsarepestsornotlargelydependsontheir
Theword"caste"(paragraph1)mostprobablymeansWhichofthefollowingisareasonwhyfireantsareconsideredpests?
Thehistoryofmodernpollutionproblemsshowsthatmosthaveresultedfromnegligenceandignorance.Wehaveanappallingtende
随机试题
患者久病体弱,积块坚硬,隐痛或剧痛,饮食大减,肌肉瘦削,神倦乏力,面色萎黄或黧黑,甚则面肢浮肿,舌质淡紫,或光剥无苔,脉细数或弦细。治宜选用
肺癌空泡形成的病理基础是
A.曲马多B.美沙酮C.司可巴比妥D.麦角新碱属于麻醉药品的是
法院在刑事案件的审理过程中,根据对案件的不同处理需要使用判决、裁定和决定。请根据有关法律规定及刑事诉讼原理,回答下列问题。关于一个案件中适用判决、裁定、决定的数量,下列选项正确的是:
防雷装置:
名镇和名村保护规划成果的组成包括()
甲公司是一家中低端护肤品生产企业,为适应市场需求,2020年末拟新建一条高端护肤品生产线,项目期限5年。相关资料如下:(1)新建生产线需要一栋厂房、一套生产设备和一项专利技术。新建厂房成本5000万元,根据税法相关规定,按直线法计提折旧,折旧年限
[2004年MBA真题](1)一(2)基于以下题干:张教授:在我国大陆架外围海域建设新油井的计划不足取,因为由此带来的收益不足以补偿由此带来生态破坏的风险。目前我国每年海底石油的产量,还不能满足我国一天石油的需求量,而上述拟建中的新油井,最多只能使这个数量
循环队列的存储空间为Q(1:100),初始状态为front=rear=100。经过一系列正常的入队与退队操作后,front=rear=99,则循环队列中的元素个数为()。
HowtoBuildYourVocabularyEffectivelyVocabularyisthefoundationoflearningalanguage.Withoutit,noneoftheski
最新回复
(
0
)