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
60
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.
【F1】
选项
答案
人们认为,(科学家)基于对实验证据的客观评估、就科学问题形成自己的观点之后,一旦出现动摇这些观点的新证据。他们会欣然地、甚至急切地抛弃原先珍视的观念。
解析
转载请注明原文地址:https://kaotiyun.com/show/3bO4777K
0
考研英语一
相关试题推荐
WhichofthefollowingisNOTtrueaccordingtothetext?Itcanbeinferredfromthepassagethat
The"dawnofthedemocratizationoftheTVandfilmbusiness"probablymeans______.Thepurposeofthistextisprimarilyto_
ThefirstparagraphimpliesthatCritelli’sresponsetotherealcauseofheraunt’sdeathwas
Politicalcontroversyaboutthepublic-landpolicyoftheUnitedStatesbeganwiththeAmericaRevolution.(1)_____,evenbefore
Politicalcontroversyaboutthepublic-landpolicyoftheUnitedStatesbeganwiththeAmericaRevolution.(1)_____,evenbefore
Politicalcontroversyaboutthepublic-landpolicyoftheUnitedStatesbeganwiththeAmericaRevolution.(1)_____,evenbefore
Inmostpartsoftheworld,climatechangeisaworryingsubject.NotsoinCalifornia.AtarecentgatheringofgreenLUMINARIE
Illiteracymaybeconsideredmoreasanabstractconceptthanacondition.WhenafamousEnglishwriterusedthe(1)_____overt
FIAwouldgiveitspartnertherighttostagetheracingtill______.WhichstatementisprobablyTRUE?
AccordingtotheresearchofNCAR,iftheconcentrationswereheldsteadyat2000levels,______.Globalwarmingissomething
随机试题
功能杀虫止痒的药物是
对于不公开审理的案件,法院的做法正确的是
体内合成核酸链的方向是
在合唱中为了保证旋律的连贯性所采用的换气方法是()。
【2015陕西西安】学习动机的基本结构包括学习需要和()。
下列关于法律体系、法学体系和法系的表述,正确的是()。
NGO
下列说法中正确的是()。
Engineeringstudentsaresupposedtobeexamplesofpracticalityandrationality,butwhenitcomestomycollegeeducationIam
【S1】【S7】
最新回复
(
0
)