Post 511448 by narrenschiff@guillotines.masto.host
(DIR) More posts by narrenschiff@guillotines.masto.host
(DIR) Post #511433 by narrenschiff@guillotines.masto.host
2018-10-13T01:45:11Z
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Evaluating the work of historical scientists through a critical racial, decolonized, feminist, etc. lense is sometimes dismissed as "presentism" (anachronistically applying contemporary standards to the past). This faux-empiricism is aggressively pushed by dorks like Nassim Taleb & Peterson, but I feel like the notion has caught on as almost-common-sense contrarianism. Here's a case study showing why critical reevaluation isn't just neat commentary, but essential to scientific progress.
(DIR) Post #511434 by amphetamine@social.wxcafe.net
2018-10-13T02:44:15Z
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@narrenschiff that's so weird because taleb published a statistical rebuttal of pinker's claim that violence is decreasinglike, those two positions don't seem to fit together
(DIR) Post #511446 by narrenschiff@guillotines.masto.host
2018-10-13T01:54:06Z
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19th & 20th c. archaeologists believed that the indigenous civilizations which existed at contact couldn't've built the "mound" structures, which range from simple sites associated with horticulture to elaborate, multi-level complexes complete with earthworks and palisades.Instead they posited that a now-vanished race had built the structures (candidates included the Atlanteans). But once excavations revealed skeletons indistinguishable from those of contemporary indigenous populations...
(DIR) Post #511447 by narrenschiff@guillotines.masto.host
2018-10-13T02:03:31Z
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...they concluded that the civilizations present at contact must have been capable of building the mound structures. However, the narrative of the builder's presumed technological & cultural backwardness continued, projected onto newly excavated remains. The same mortuary signatures explained as evidence of cannibalism or human sacrifice practiced by the mound builders can also be found in western European sites. But the latter are well-established aristocratic burial grounds...
(DIR) Post #511448 by narrenschiff@guillotines.masto.host
2018-10-13T02:08:34Z
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...meaning that the same physical traces interpreted as evidence of burial practices fit for a king in Europe were interpreted as evidence of "barbaric" cannibalism & human sacrifice in North America. Transforming physical trace into data, and data into evidence, is a process which necessarily requires interpretive leaps. If we refuse to critically engage with the distorting biases which led past scientists to make incorrect leaps, we're just repeating their mistakes.
(DIR) Post #511449 by narrenschiff@guillotines.masto.host
2018-10-13T02:15:00Z
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For more reading on critical reevaluation & evidentiary reasoning, see the chapter "Archarological Facts in Transit" by Dr. Wylie, in the anthology 'How Well do Facts Travel?' (I can give you the .pdf). Also see most of the rest of Dr. Wylie's work - it's applicable to philosophy of science generally, not just archaeology. She's teaching one of my seminars this term and she fucking rules
(DIR) Post #511638 by narrenschiff@guillotines.masto.host
2018-10-13T03:07:35Z
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@amphetamineand yet: https://twitter.com/nntaleb/status/1045713384480681985
(DIR) Post #511682 by amphetamine@social.wxcafe.net
2018-10-13T03:10:53Z
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@narrenschiff hahaha omgyou can feel his knee jerking
(DIR) Post #511742 by narrenschiff@guillotines.masto.host
2018-10-13T03:14:20Z
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@amphetamineseriously! i dont have the patience to read his stuff but i get the impression he's capable of critical reflection when it's about statistics, but otherwise he goes around calling classicists "library rats"
(DIR) Post #511761 by amphetamine@social.wxcafe.net
2018-10-13T03:15:37Z
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@narrenschiff if he wasn't taking down pinker i wouldn't have caredlove to see hyperrationalists eat each other
(DIR) Post #511789 by narrenschiff@guillotines.masto.host
2018-10-13T03:18:24Z
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@amphetaminea sight as rare as it is beautiful