This conversation is one of my favorites. Dr. Jan Bentz is a lecturer and tutor at Oxford who specializes in the convergence of medieval and modern philosophy. We covered a wide range of philosophical themes, truth, delusions of utopia, applied epistemology, the importance of friendship, the nature of realism, and if we can claim to know something absent the “dogma” of the scientific method.
How does caring for others influence our epistemology? Jan delved into the nature of identity, arguing that when it is rooted in the "I" (Descartes) it can lead to more problems than when it is based in a shared reality (which allows for the acceptance of others). This shift from I to community could help mitigate egoism and narcissism.
Finally, we examined the scientific method: should it be applied universally and is it inherently dogmatic? I argue that it is not dogmatic and arguing so leads to a kind of relativism Jan was shocked by my claim. As a Christian, he told me that he’s been accused of lot things, but never of being a relativist. I doubled down and told him this is exactly what his position entails—cognitive, moral, and epistemological relativism. As a true philosopher, Jan handled my “accusation” with aplomb. I found him to be delightful and his thinking to be crisp, honest, refreshing, and based.
I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did.
This video was very interesting, thank you for sharing! What caught my attention was the headline in the thumbnail of the video, "Is the scientific method dogmatic?".
Dr. Bentz seems to agree with my own assessment (1:09:18). "I don't think that the enlightenment was not dogmatic. The enlightenment was as dogmatic as you may want to say, you know, medieval papacy was." https://youtu.be/SsG3bPXHG9E?t=4158
Two examples of how this dogmatism plays out in practice are the use of excommunication to protect the dogma, and the way it is simply thrown in the garbage when it faces critique.
1. "If you promote creationist ideologies, you are excommunicated and defined as outside the boundaries of science" https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ajpa.22163
2. When confronted with the idea that evolution itself should face the same scrutiny of the scientific method as creation, prominent disciple Michael Shermer denied the scientific method faster than Peter denied Jesus in all four of the gospels.
"There is nobody that set out the rules of, the methods of science; in fact, there is no such thing as the scientific method, like if you walk into a lab you're going to see a big chart on the wall that says,
step 1, collect data, step 2, form a hypothesis, step 3, test the hypothesis. There is nothing like that, because that's not how it works...the reason they’re not invoked is because they don’t do anything, it doesn’t lead to anything, there’s no testable hypothesis, its the end of the line." - Michael Shermer https://youtu.be/5zXSyBFH6HM?t=1938
Jerry Coyne's PHD advisor, Richard Lewontin, was also honest enough to admit the dogmatic nature of the scientific community.
“Our willingness to accept scientific claims that are against common sense is the key to an understanding of the real struggle between science and the supernatural. We take the side of science in spite of the patent absurdity of some of its constructs, in spite of its failure to fulfill many of its extravagant promises of health and life, in spite of the tolerance of the scientific community for unsubstantiated just-so stories, because we have a prior commitment, a commitment to materialism. It is not that the methods and institutions of science somehow compel us to accept a material explanation of the phenomenal world, but, on the contrary, that we are forced by our a priori adherence to material causes to create an apparatus of investigation and a set of concepts that produce material explanations, no matter how counter-intuitive, no matter how mystifying to the uninitiated. Moreover, that materialism is absolute, for we cannot allow a Divine Foot in the door." - Richard Lewontin https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1997/01/09/billions-and-billions-of-demons/
Also, how is your statement (42:01), "metaphysics has just no interest to me anymore, like literally a negative interest. I'd rather look at a wall than think about that stuff", not indicative of doxastic closure? https://youtu.be/SsG3bPXHG9E?t=2521
Peter! Be sure to catch me and a child of a father who still in late age ideates a female persona next week on Megyn Kelly! I'll be sure to mention that you said I and the other trans widows are not as important as the children being lured into this cult, not remembering that those men are fathers of children. Emma, the daughter, is quite eloquent. Be sure not to miss.