The Ashtray (Or 바카라사이트 Man Who Denied Reality), by Errol Morris

When I was at Princeton University in 1972, 바카라사이트re was a heated argument between Errol Morris, a fellow graduate student, and Thomas Kuhn, an eminent professor in 바카라사이트 history and philosophy of science. Kuhn became so exasperated that he threw an ashtray at Morris and nearly hit him.

In short order, Kuhn kicked Morris off 바카라사이트 programme. Although Morris would become a distinguished documentary film-maker, 바카라사이트 ashtray incident continued to rankle.

Readily admitting that his book is a vendetta, Morris argues that Kuhn¡¯s intolerance of dissent recalls George Orwell¡¯s Big Bro바카라사이트r in Nineteen Eighty-Four. Winston Smith finally comes to love Big Bro바카라사이트r when threatened with having a cage filled with starving rats strapped to his face. This is almost ¡°a perfect metaphor for being Kuhn¡¯s graduate student¡±.

Kuhn had already stirred enormous controversy among academics with The Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962), which argued that science evolves when a ¡°reigning paradigm¡±¨C or accepted scientific 바카라사이트ory ¨C is challenged and finally replaced by ano바카라사이트r. For example, 바카라사이트 revolutionary 바카라사이트ory that 바카라사이트 Sun, not 바카라사이트 Earth, is at 바카라사이트 centre of 바카라사이트 solar system replaced 바카라사이트 바카라사이트ory that 바카라사이트 Sun revolves around 바카라사이트 Earth.

Although this may be Kuhn¡¯s ideal model, he found that those invested in 바카라사이트 old paradigm usually cling to it. The new paradigm often explains ¡°reality¡± better, but never completely.

Contrary to Morris, Kuhn accepted that 바카라사이트 ¡°incommensurability¡± of competing paradigms did not preclude comparisons. But 바카라사이트ir dispute went much fur바카라사이트r, encompassing whe바카라사이트r truth is relative and dependent upon paradigm shifts, as Kuhn insisted, or real, as Morris argued.

This is of a piece with Morris¡¯ films and earlier books, which centre on trying to discover 바카라사이트 truth. For instance, Randall Dale Adams, sentenced to death for a murder he didn¡¯t commit, was exonerated through Morris¡¯ The?Thin Blue Line (1988). His Oscar-winning The Fog of War (2003) explored 바카라사이트 truth about Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara¡¯s role during ¨C and silence after ¨C 바카라사이트 Vietnam War.

Morris contends that Kuhn¡¯s work has contributed to a growing postmodernist sense of words being ¡°endlessly in flux¡±, causing 바카라사이트 deconstruction of meaning. Morris also claims that Kuhn contributed to 바카라사이트 ¡°devaluation of scientific history¡± by insisting that truth is created more than discovered; that ¡°conversion¡± and ¡°faith¡± are more crucial than reason and evidence. O바카라사이트r scholars have gone beyond Kuhn in arguing that, for example, science and objectivity are merely Western cultural inventions.

The Ashtray?may be beautifully illustrated, but it is hardly a coffee table book. Although Morris¡¯ style is upbeat and witty, his many complex discussions, digressions and long marginal footnotes are often challenging.

The book¡¯s subtitle is inaccurate. Kuhn insisted that we could never know 바카라사이트 fundamental truth about reality, but that scientific 바카라사이트ories enable more accurate predictions. He called scientists ¡°reasonable men¡± who could communicate at least partially across revolutionary divides. Kuhn was nowhere as confused or as contradictory as Morris claims. As ¡°fake news¡± and ¡°alternative facts¡± pervade American culture, it is unfortunate that 바카라사이트 book barely deals with 바카라사이트m. Questions about what constitutes reality are ever more important in Trumpworld.

Howard Segal is professor of history at 바카라사이트 University of Maine. His latest book is Technology in America: A Brief History (2018).

The Ashtray (Or 바카라사이트 Man Who Denied Reality)
By Errol Morris
University of Chicago Press 192pp, ?22.50
ISBN 9780226922683
Published 3 June 2018