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IT'S PURE HORGANISM!

(...what's 'horganism?')
(c)2000 William J. Beaty




In recent years, Dr. Marcello Truzzi has provided us with a weapon to use
against the negative side of Skepticism: he coined the term 
"pseudoskeptic."  We
can use Pseudosckeptic to highlight the mistaken actions of a particular 
class 
of people who call themselves 'skeptic.' When such people find out about
an idea or a claimed phenomenon which appears crazy at first glance,
rather than taking an openminded position of nonbelief or true skepticism,
instead they leap to a biased position of active disbelief.
This is the behavior of a false or pseudo-skeptic.





On Pseudoskepticism, M. Truzzi

http://www .anomalist.com/ commentaries/ pseudo.html



Recently I encountered another simple term which can help us to point out
another way in which skeptics need to clean up their act: the word "Horganism." 



"Horganism" was coined by Dr. Philip Anderson in his 'Reference 
Frame' column in 
Physics Today magazine, Sept 1999.  It refers to the common
belief that all of scientific progress is coming to an end; that 
therefore any revolutionary new 
discoveries in science
are impossible.  (Obviously it's inspired by John Horgan's position in his
book THE END OF SCIENCE.) 


For example, if a skeptic argues that psychic powers are impossible on the
grounds that no known forces/energy can produce such phenomena, that's
Horganism.  Their argument contains the hidden assumption that there 
cannot be such forces because science is at its end, and to discover such 
forces at this late date is a revolution which simply cannot occur. 




Dr. Anderson's words:





"Members of our profession [physicists] - and particularly those who have
responsibility for hiring and for funding research - are infected with
"Horganism;" the belief that the end of science (or at least of our
science) is at hand, and all that is left to do is to grub away at Kuhnian
"normal science" following the accepted paradigms.  They believe that
there are no more scientific revolutions possible, and that we are now in
pursuit of nothing but the next decimal place."  


So next time somebody argues (for example) that antigravity drives are
impossible on the grounds that gravity can only cause attraction, you can
dismiss their argument as pure "Horganism." While it is certainly true
that simple antigravity engines would require a revolution in physics, and
perhaps simple antigravity engines are highly unlikely, but if a skeptic
is convinced that *NO* such revolutions in physics are *POSSIBLE*, then
that person has descended into Horganism. 




Quotes Collection: AGAINST EXCESSIVE SKEPTICISM

http: //amasci.com/ weird/skepquot. html



































 




















http://amasci.com/weird/horgnism.html


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