{"id":3860,"date":"2019-04-10T11:07:49","date_gmt":"2019-04-10T11:07:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2019\/04\/10\/a-frustrating-discussion-with-a-non-philosopher-about-stephen-hawking\/"},"modified":"2019-04-10T11:07:49","modified_gmt":"2019-04-10T11:07:49","slug":"a-frustrating-discussion-with-a-non-philosopher-about-stephen-hawking","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/2019\/04\/10\/a-frustrating-discussion-with-a-non-philosopher-about-stephen-hawking\/","title":{"rendered":"A Frustrating Discussion with a Non-Philosopher about Stephen Hawking"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ed reports on a recent trip to Africa:<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

I didn\u2019t run into any philosophers, but there was a chap I met over dinner who was banging on about Stephen Hawking. I have a strict rule never to discuss philosophy with anyone who has no obvious training in the subject, but he was insistent, and I gave way. A brief summary which may appeal to you:<\/span><\/p>\n

He asked me if I had read any Hawking and I said I hadn\u2019t, as I was not particularly interested in modern physics, and particularly not interested in those with an undoubted aptitude in some scientific or technical subject, but with doubtful philosophical expertise. Philosophers with no training in physics should not write about physics, likewise physicists without training in philosophy should not write about philosophy.<\/span><\/p>\n

He demurred. Hawking was writing about physics, but then we looked up some chapters of his last work Brief Answers To The Big Questions<\/em>, one of which was about the existence of God, et habui propositum<\/em>.<\/span><\/p>\n

He then said that everyone has a right to their opinion. I agreed, but I also had a right not to read their opinion. Equally I had a right to say anything about astrophysics, without him having the obligation to read it.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said I should not dismiss Hawking\u2019s work without having read it. I objected that there are hundreds of thousands of books in print, and life is short. This is why we have book reviews. I had read reviews of Hawking\u2019s work by people I respected, suggesting it was not worth reading him, so I didn\u2019t. The principle of taking opinions on trust is a well-established one, and mostly useful, though not infallible.<\/span><\/p>\n

He got very upset by this point, saying that Hawking was one of the most brilliant men who had ever existed, one had a duty to read him etc. I was about to launch into a discursus on brilliant people throughout the ages, some of whom had considered precisely the arguments that Hawking had put forward as his own (e.g. Hawking argues that there are only three types of matter, and nothing else exists, ergo God does not exist), but Fiona, seeing the glint in my eye and the lust for a kill, wisely said we had to be up early the next morning, and we departed.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wittgenstein: \u2018[the physicist Sir James Jeans] has written a book called The Mysterious Universe<\/em> and I loathe it and call it misleading. Take the title…I might say that the title The Mysterious Universe includes a kind of idol worship, the idol being Science and the Scientist.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n

I may look at the Hawking, notwithstanding.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Have a look, but Hawking's philosophical books are bad.  I offer my opinion here<\/a>; I quote Tim Maudlin's negative judgment here<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ed reports on a recent trip to Africa: I didn\u2019t run into any philosophers, but there was a chap I met over dinner who was banging on about Stephen Hawking. I have a strict rule never to discuss philosophy with anyone who has no obvious training in the subject, but he was insistent, and I … Continue reading “A Frustrating Discussion with a Non-Philosopher about Stephen Hawking”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[205,219],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","category-scientism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3860\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maverickphilosopher.blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}