R.I.P. Certainty?

For a larger image of this comic strip, click here.

Questions & issues to consider:

A) What is the cartoonist's point about certainty? What do you think, or make, of his point?

B) What is the relationship between certainty and knowledge? How about the relationship between knowledge, certainty, "proven," and fact?

C) The last two frames of the comic strip present an ironic juxtaposition of ideas regarding certainty -- consider the boy's comment in the second-to-last frame ("The world's a less silly place...") in comparison with his exchange with Opus in the last frame. Comment on the ideas contrasted between the two frames. [e.g. Compare the content of Opus' comment in the last frame with the content of the statements quoted in frames 2 - 7 of the strip. Consider the implications of the boy's declaration in the next-to-last frame when applied to Opus' closing comment. Think about your initial reaction to the boy's statement in the last frame.] What observations, conclusions, and/or implications about knowledge and certainty are sparked by the strip?

D) Comment on the quality, quantity, and content of the evidence (examples) the three characters provide in support of the boy's declaration, in the second-to-last frame of the strip that "The world's a less silly place without you!"

D) Why did the cartoonist choose to add the last frame? Why didn't he just draw the headstone in the next-to-last frame and end there? Note: I'm certain ;-) it wasn't just to fill up space.

[Be sure to focus your comments on the knowledge issues raised in the comic strip. This comic strip clearly has a political overtone and slant. However, responding to that political element should not be the primary focus of your comments.]

Dark Energy on Parade

Courtesy of Melanie Gibson...

Check out the cover story on today's Parade Magazine, titled "The Secrets of Dark Energy." Some time on Tuesday, the full text becomes available on Parade's website; clicking here will take you to it. (Yes, I will leave the blog open for comments thru the school's 3 p.m. Wednesday deadline for seniors to turn in work.)

Questions & issues to consider:

•Melanie specifically points out the following quote from the author of the article, Meg Urry:

What excites me personally is how the discovery of Dark Energy illustrates that science is not a set of beliefs that one constructs. Instead, scientists observe nature, then develop theories that describe their observations. Science is driven by nature itself, and nature gives us no choice. It is what it is.

This quote raises connections to several readings and discussion topics from this year:
A) How might the author of the reading, "Ten Things We Think We Know About Science," regard or respond to this quote? Would he say it is consistent with an accurate understanding of science, or another example of where science education falls short?
B) During the mathematics unit, we briefly touched on the question of whether mathematics are discovered or created. And for those who attended the lecture on Kurt Gödel's incompleteness theorem, the speaker raised this issue again, indicating Gödel's position on the issue. Use this quote as a springboard to compare and contrast the natures of science and mathematics to one another, particularly with respect to the philosophical question of discovered or created.
C) Dr. Urry's quote and the issue raised in B above become still more interesting when considered in light of the nature of the very close relationship between science and mathematics. Take a look back at the 3 articles we read as a jigsaw activity in class about that relationship (one article had the clever title, "Math has π on its face"), then comment on Dr. Urry's quote.

•The article is filled with knowledge claims about "dark energy" -- its impact on the universe, its place in science history, and its potential economic uses and impact. And yet, ironically, the caption to an accompanying picture of the author includes this quote, "Dark Energy makes up two-thirds of the universe -- and we don't know what it is." The article itself includes this paragraph:

But first, we have to figure out what exactly Dark Energy is. So far, we know only that it causes the expansion of the universe to speed up. We call it 'dark' because we don't directly see it. 'Dark' is code for 'we have absolutely no clue what it is!'

(Emphases in each quote added.) It seems rather ironic to have so many knowledge claims about something the author says we know so little about. What is your response to this irony? How do you reconcile these seemingly conflicting comments?

•Immediately after the quote that Melanie pointed out, Dr. Urry writes: "As new facts emerge, scientific theories can be proved wrong or in need of modification, but scientists cannot ignore them. Eventually the facts will lead to the right theory."
A) To reprise some questions I raised in an earlier post: What is a "fact?" We've spent a lot of time this year wrestling with the concepts of "knowledge," "truth," and "belief," but we've never discussed the term "fact." What do we mean by that term? What makes something a "fact?" How is a fact different from knowledge, truth, and belief? Or is it different from any one of those?
B) And as I asked about another quote above: How might the author of the reading, "Ten Things We Think We Know About Science," regard or respond to this quote? Would he say it is consistent with an accurate understanding of science, or another example of where science education falls short?

•Consider the knowledge claims contained in this quote from the article's concluding paragraph: "The answers are there, and I have no doubt that we will figure them out with the contributions of the smart young people now taking high school physics...." Consider and comment on the nature (psychological, epistemic) and intensity of the certainty expressed in that statement. What bases, what justifications do you think Dr. Urry might point to in support of her expressed certainty and knowledge claims?

Global Warming, Science, Fact, and Belief

Click here for a larger image of the comic strip.

Questions & issues that could be considered:

A) What is a "fact?" We've spent a lot of time this year wrestling with the concepts of "knowledge," "truth," and "belief," but we've never discussed the term "fact." What do we mean by that term? What makes something a "fact?" How is a fact different from knowledge, truth, and belief? Or is it different from any one of those?

B) On a related note: The first frame of the comic strip juxtaposes the concepts of "fact" and "belief." What do you make of that juxtaposition? (To see a definition, click on the word.) What is your reaction, or what thoughts does it prompt? Are the two concepts related to one another? If "yes," why and how? If "no," why not?

C) The punchline of the comic strip obviously turns on the play-on-words with the title of the Al Gore film, "An Inconvenient Truth." What are the two "inconvenient truths?" Why are they each inconvenient? If we accept the comic strip at face value, can both "inconvenient truths" be true? Why or why not?

D) Consider the ideas discussed in two of our science readings, "Science" (the reading about science as telling explanatory stories) and "Evaluating Scientific Claims." Share insights you gain by applying concepts from those readings to this comic strip.

E) Was this comic strip drawn in support of those who claim to know that global warming is real? Or was it drawn in support of those who claim to know that global warming is not real? How do you know? What is your basis for claiming to know that?