SDV, below, gives a rather long list of things that scientists have lied about. I would certainly not dissent from the accusation that scientists lie. (As many readers may know from my web site http://freespace.virgin.net/john.hewitt1/ "A Habit of Lies - How Scientists Cheat.") However, even I am unsure of all his examples. Where, for example, is the lying in the GM foods debate? In that debate I can see Dr. Pusztai having been treated rather badly and differences of opinion being voiced agressively but lying? Where is that? John Hewitt ----- Original Message ----- From: sdv <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Saturday, October 28, 2000 6:43 PM Subject: Science and guilt - > Occasionally I get hints of effects of the messianic work of Sokal et al, largely > on American intellectuals - the impact in europe having been solely in newspapers > - starting of course from the quite reasonable joke, but jokes have absolutely no > intellectual credibility - like comparing a Gilbert and Sullivan opera with > Mozart. > > But for once - as a report is issued which mildly attempts to whitewash the > status of scientists as bearers of truth - after all Althusser's greatest error > was to equate science with truth, rather than probability.... Enough is available > on the net for you to draw you own conclusions but here I'd like to throw my own > intemperate brick into the glass house. > > I'd like to construct a small list of things which scientists have lied about and > helped bring about - including - the turning of cattle into cannibals (cows > normally eat grass when left to there own devices), they lied to protect there > jobs, power bases, reputations, the discourses of science. They lied about > thalidomide, global warming, the effects of radiation, the testing of nuclear > weapons (on humans and nature in the 1950s), the safety of windscalle. They are > lying about the safety of GM foods. Mostly all we can do is listen to the > scientists voices and remember that for science truth does not and cannot exist. > > All we can do is listen for the still quiet voices which try to warn us of the > inherent dangers that scientists (as jurist/priests) and the state > (magician/king) continually place us in. The still voices of course include such > luminaries as Deleuze, Dumezil and Virillo but not Sokal - physics having been a > royal science throughout its usually dubious existence. > > http://www.guardian.co.uk > > sdv