Inscitia

So some bright spark over at Automaticc wrote a Wordpress app for the iPhone. It’s rather awkward, writing on this keyboard, but it seems to work well.

I think a better use is publishing pre-written drafts, and checking comments.

“I think that we shall have to get accustomed to the idea that we must not look upon science as a ‘body of knowledge’, but rather as a system of hypotheses; that is to say, as a system of guesses or anticipations which in principle cannot be justified, but with which we work as long as they stand up to tests, and of which we are never justified in saying that we know that they are ‘true’ or ‘more or less certain’ or even ‘probable’”

- Karl Popper, The Logic of Scientific Discovery, 2nd Edition, Harper Torchbook: 1968

I find myself increasingly astonished that the Republican Party has embraced torture whole-heartedly, and is rapidly defending it. I would not have expected it; indeed, the conservative movement with its push for “family values” should, surely, reject torture out of hand – because it goes against those very values. So why has the Republican Party embraced a post-modern argument which denies the validity of values? For comparison purposes, compare what the Republicans would be saying if the Democrats had tortured people. I imagine it would be something along the lines of: “Look at that! Just like the Democrats to sacrifice the few in a wrong-headed attempt to ‘protect’ and ‘help’ the majority. We stand against torture, because we – unlike the Democrats – have our values. Torture has never been an American value, and it never will be – the point of values is that they don’t change simply to make your life more convenient.”