Stefan to Piotr:
>[S] My dear Piotr, language is chaos, linguistics is order and never
>the twain shall meet. Now if you accept that premise, than any topic
>eg accidental similarity between words from different language
>families, becomes a legitimate subject for further investigation.
Is language truely complete chaos, my dear Stefan? I think few would agree
with you. Linguistics, one particular study of the humanities, shows that
language _isn't_ chaos. It is true that the behaviour of human beings is
almost unpredictably complex. However, studying a somewhat illogical
specimen as the human animal does not give us excuse to succumb to
irrational theories.
Logic must harness belief and imagination, not vice versa, as Einstein
surely was aware. It is incorrect to say that science is only about the left
side of the brain. It is generally understood that there is a scientific
place for imagination. Afterall, without imagination we would have no
theories to interpret the data we've collected! However, there is no place
in science for theories whose logic fundamentally fails from the beginning.
Dowsing is such an example of an idea where an overly powerful imagination
is at the reins of an enslaved logic. If this weren't so, one would be able
to explain said fundamental logic immediately. Despite the many kooks who
study dowsing, the simple task of elaborating on the logical basis for this
study would appear intractable as of yet.
>[S] Come off it, Piotr! :-) A scientists should never pass such a
>judgment without first studying the subject, reading *serious*
>papers about geomagnetic lines, studying feng shui and geomancy,
>talking to dowsing scientists and then -and only then - giving your
>verdict whether it works or not.
Oh dear. Look, I have many Chinese friends being in Computer Science. That's
not a racist comment; there really ARE alot of Chinese in Computer
Science... and they make good study partners ;) Even they understand that
Feng-Shui is an irrational "science"... Although, interesting as an artform,
I suppose.
So come now, Stefan. Piotr is very much in order to say that there are some
things that are immediately irrational and therefore not worth one's time.
If we paid attention to every little theory from amongst billions that have
existed and currently exist in the world, no matter how infantile they
appear to us, we'd become too confused and busy to find any truth! You
obviously have trouble discerning what makes logical sense and what doesn't.
That makes you a "unique" person... one of billions :)
Remember, put logic at the helm and subjugate your imagination to it.
- gLeN
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