Taner Edis was born in Istanbul, 1967, to Turkish and American parents. After completing his undergraduate work at Boğaziçi University, he received his Ph.D. from The Johns Hopkins University in 1994, in theoretical physics. Currently professor of physics at Truman State University, his present research interests focus on the philosophy and history of science.Fascinated by the plethora of supernatural and fringe science beliefs around him, and concerned about the rise of Islamist politics in Turkey, Edis first got involved with skeptical inquiry into religious and paranormal claims during his graduate studies. He has since written and spoken extensively on such subjects, particularly on the topic of anti-evolutionary thought. His writing has characteristically combined scientific rigor with an ability to reach a broad audience.His books include The Ghost in the Universe: God in Light of Modern Science, an accessible defense of a naturalistic view of the world Phone: +1-660-785-4583
Within Muslim populations, debates about the compatibility between science and religion tend to b... more Within Muslim populations, debates about the compatibility between science and religion tend to be framed by the long-standing competition between modernizing reformers, particularly westernizers, and theological conservatives. Much like their liberal Christian counterparts, reformers propose to embrace technical knowledge and reinterpret traditional beliefs undermined by modern science. Conservatives are more open to challenging the content of science, especially when science appears to support materialist views. Islamists promote an alternative, non-western style of modernity, nurturing a more pious professional class that contrasts with westernized elites. By scientific standards, westernizers appear to have the upper hand, especially as conservative apologetics is drawn toward distortions of science such as creationism, or fruitless attempts to Islamize science. But conservatives can also point to some success in defusing tensions between scientific and religious institutions without adopting the full secularization of science seen in post-Christian countries.
In a world where science faces challenges from creationists and climate change deniers, and where... more In a world where science faces challenges from creationists and climate change deniers, and where social media is awash with wild conspiracy theories, it is no longer enough for scientists, pundits, and activists to simply ask the public to trust science. Rather, all must better understand how science works, and why science is essential. By exploring many of the odd beliefs embraced by large sections of the public that are rejected by the scientific mainstream, Weirdness! makes a case for science that goes beyond popular slogans. It takes seriously claims that paranormal phenomena, such as psychic abilities and magical creatures, might be real, but demonstrates how such phenomena would extend beyond the laws of nature. It rejects a sharp boundary between science and religion, while explaining how to negotiate their real differences. Denials of science cause no end of trouble, but so too does placing blind trust in science. As Weirdness! reminds readers, science should not be seen as a mechanism that takes in data and spits out truth—indeed, what we get wrong about how the world works is often as interesting as what we get right.
1001 Distortions: How (Not) to Narrate History of Science, Medicine, and Technology in Non-Western Cultures (Bibliotheca Academica - Reihe Orientalistik, Band 25), 2016
This book reflects on debates among historians of science, medicine and technology as well as Isl... more This book reflects on debates among historians of science, medicine and technology as well as Islamicate societies about fundamental questions of how we think and write about the intellectual and technological past in cultures to which we do not belong any longer or never were a member of. These debates are occasioned by the manner in which amateurs have taken bits and pieces from our academic narratives and those of our predecessors, stripped them of their richness in detail and their often agonizing efforts to interpret these details, and rearranged them in simplifying and often misguided fashion as outdated stories about glory, success, priority and progress. Our texts are accompanied by reflections of professional curators and museum directors about the difficulties of translating academic research into representations that attract different groups of visitors. They are followed by experiences in northern Europe with Islamophobic adversaries of any narrative about Muslim contributions to the sciences, medicine and technologies, and in one of the Gulf States with alleged reformers of the political, economic and educational landscape of the sheikhdom and their use of such amateurish narratives for blocking efforts of critical questioning of such self-congratulatory representations.
This is a pre-published version with proofreading marks of the book 1001 Distortions edited by Taner Edis, Lutz Richter-Bernburg und myself. please, do not quote from it.
Metaphors and Analogies in Sciences and Humanities, 2022
Some philosophers have argued that, owing to our humble evolutionary origins, some mysteries of t... more Some philosophers have argued that, owing to our humble evolutionary origins, some mysteries of the universe will forever remain beyond our ken. But what exactly does it mean to say that humans are ‘cognitively closed’ to some parts of the universe, or that some problems will forever remain ‘mysteries’? First, we distinguish between representational access (the ability to develop accurate scientific representations of reality) and imaginative understanding (immediate, intuitive comprehension of those representations), as well as between different modalities of cognitive limitation. Next, we look at tried-and-tested strategies for overcoming our innate cognitive limitations. In particular, we consider how metaphors and analogies can extend the reach of the human mind, by allowing us to make sense of bizarre and counterintuitive things in terms of more familiar things. Finally, we argue that this collection of mind-extension devices is combinatorial and open-ended, and that therefore pronouncements about cognitive closure and about the limits of human inquiry are premature.
The SAGE Encyclopedia of Theory in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics , 2022
The kinetic theory of an ideal gas establishes a connection between mechanics and thermodynamics,... more The kinetic theory of an ideal gas establishes a connection between mechanics and thermodynamics, suggesting that thermodynamic quantities can be understood in terms of mechanical properties averaged over a population of particles. An ideal gas is one of the simplest models for a physical system consisting of multiple particles and is an excellent approximation to may real gases. Moreover, even this very simple model introduces some long-standing conceptual issues in statistical physics, such as the nature of assumptions concerning randomness and the need for a discrete set of states a system can occupy.
While there is widespread Muslim resistance to biological evolution, this resistance does not al-... more While there is widespread Muslim resistance to biological evolution, this resistance does not al- ways manifest itself as varieties of creationism that pretend to enjoy scientific support. Turkey is the Muslim country where such a pseudoscientific form of creationism has been most successful, penetrating into public debates and gaining influence over science education at all levels. Turkish creationism has roots in modernizing religious movements and the emergence and then domi- nance of political Islam, erasing much of the imposed secularism that had characterized the earlier decades of the Turkish Republic. The history of Turkish creationism, including the forms creation- ism took in the educational establishment and in the media spectacles put on by the Harun Yahya enterprise, illuminates some of the possibilities open to Muslim communities worldwide.
C. Mackenzie Brown, ed., Asian Religious Responses to Darwinism: Evo- lutionary Theories in Middle Eastern, South Asian and East Asian Cultural Contexs (Dordrecht: Springer), 2020
Islamic creationism has been very successful in Turkey, finding official as well as grassroots su... more Islamic creationism has been very successful in Turkey, finding official as well as grassroots support in an environment shaped by neoliberal Islamism. Opposition to evolution has many local, Turkish and Islamic political rationales. However, as comparison with creationism in the United States demonstrates, creationism also draws political sustenance from a more universal rhetoric of modern conservatism, emphasizing markets, organic communities, and a pragmatic view of science as infrastructure for business and technology.
This essay develops my keynote address on the topic of creationism and science education, deliver... more This essay develops my keynote address on the topic of creationism and science education, delivered at the conference Religions, Science and Technology in Cultural Contexts: Dynamics of Change, NTNU, Trondheim (2012). Debates over evolution in science education take place in a political context where liberal and conservative visions about the purpose of education come into conflict. Comparing the history of creationist pressures on science education in the United States and Turkey highlights the broad contours of these competing visions. The current conservative ascendancy in both countries, however, makes it difficult to reach any consensus on the practical benefits of including evolution in mass science education.
What, if any, are the limits of human understanding? Epistemic pessimists, sobered by our humble ... more What, if any, are the limits of human understanding? Epistemic pessimists, sobered by our humble evolutionary origins, have argued that some parts of the universe will forever remain beyond our ken. But what exactly does it mean to say that humans are 'cognitively closed' to some parts of the world, or that some problems will forever remain 'mysteries'? In this paper we develop a richer conceptual toolbox for thinking about different forms and varieties of cognitive limitation, which are often conflated by the so-called 'new mysterians'. We distinguish between repre-sentational access (the ability to develop accurate scientific representations of reality) and imaginative understanding (immediate, intuitive comprehension of those representations), as well as between different modalities (hard vs. soft) of cognitive limitation. Next, we look at tried-and-tested strategies for overcoming our innate cognitive limitations, drawing from the literature on distributed cognition and cogni-tive scaffolding'. This allows us to distinguish between the limits of bare brains vs. scaffolded brains. Most importantly, we argue that this panoply of mind-extension devices is combinatorial and open-ended. In the end, this allows us to turn the table on the mysterians: for every alleged 'mystery', they should demonstrate that no possible combination of mind extension devices will bring us any closer to a solution.
Within Muslim populations, debates about the compatibility between science and religion tend to b... more Within Muslim populations, debates about the compatibility between science and religion tend to be framed by the long-standing competition between modernizing reformers, particularly westernizers, and theological conservatives. Much like their liberal Christian counterparts, reformers propose to embrace technical knowledge and reinterpret traditional beliefs undermined by modern science. Conservatives are more open to challenging the content of science, especially when science appears to support materialist views. Islamists promote an alternative, non-western style of modernity, nurturing a more pious professional class that contrasts with westernized elites. By scientific standards, westernizers appear to have the upper hand, especially as conservative apologetics is drawn toward distortions of science such as creationism, or fruitless attempts to Islamize science. But conservatives can also point to some success in defusing tensions between scientific and religious institutions without adopting the full secularization of science seen in post-Christian countries.
In a world where science faces challenges from creationists and climate change deniers, and where... more In a world where science faces challenges from creationists and climate change deniers, and where social media is awash with wild conspiracy theories, it is no longer enough for scientists, pundits, and activists to simply ask the public to trust science. Rather, all must better understand how science works, and why science is essential. By exploring many of the odd beliefs embraced by large sections of the public that are rejected by the scientific mainstream, Weirdness! makes a case for science that goes beyond popular slogans. It takes seriously claims that paranormal phenomena, such as psychic abilities and magical creatures, might be real, but demonstrates how such phenomena would extend beyond the laws of nature. It rejects a sharp boundary between science and religion, while explaining how to negotiate their real differences. Denials of science cause no end of trouble, but so too does placing blind trust in science. As Weirdness! reminds readers, science should not be seen as a mechanism that takes in data and spits out truth—indeed, what we get wrong about how the world works is often as interesting as what we get right.
1001 Distortions: How (Not) to Narrate History of Science, Medicine, and Technology in Non-Western Cultures (Bibliotheca Academica - Reihe Orientalistik, Band 25), 2016
This book reflects on debates among historians of science, medicine and technology as well as Isl... more This book reflects on debates among historians of science, medicine and technology as well as Islamicate societies about fundamental questions of how we think and write about the intellectual and technological past in cultures to which we do not belong any longer or never were a member of. These debates are occasioned by the manner in which amateurs have taken bits and pieces from our academic narratives and those of our predecessors, stripped them of their richness in detail and their often agonizing efforts to interpret these details, and rearranged them in simplifying and often misguided fashion as outdated stories about glory, success, priority and progress. Our texts are accompanied by reflections of professional curators and museum directors about the difficulties of translating academic research into representations that attract different groups of visitors. They are followed by experiences in northern Europe with Islamophobic adversaries of any narrative about Muslim contributions to the sciences, medicine and technologies, and in one of the Gulf States with alleged reformers of the political, economic and educational landscape of the sheikhdom and their use of such amateurish narratives for blocking efforts of critical questioning of such self-congratulatory representations.
This is a pre-published version with proofreading marks of the book 1001 Distortions edited by Taner Edis, Lutz Richter-Bernburg und myself. please, do not quote from it.
Metaphors and Analogies in Sciences and Humanities, 2022
Some philosophers have argued that, owing to our humble evolutionary origins, some mysteries of t... more Some philosophers have argued that, owing to our humble evolutionary origins, some mysteries of the universe will forever remain beyond our ken. But what exactly does it mean to say that humans are ‘cognitively closed’ to some parts of the universe, or that some problems will forever remain ‘mysteries’? First, we distinguish between representational access (the ability to develop accurate scientific representations of reality) and imaginative understanding (immediate, intuitive comprehension of those representations), as well as between different modalities of cognitive limitation. Next, we look at tried-and-tested strategies for overcoming our innate cognitive limitations. In particular, we consider how metaphors and analogies can extend the reach of the human mind, by allowing us to make sense of bizarre and counterintuitive things in terms of more familiar things. Finally, we argue that this collection of mind-extension devices is combinatorial and open-ended, and that therefore pronouncements about cognitive closure and about the limits of human inquiry are premature.
The SAGE Encyclopedia of Theory in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics , 2022
The kinetic theory of an ideal gas establishes a connection between mechanics and thermodynamics,... more The kinetic theory of an ideal gas establishes a connection between mechanics and thermodynamics, suggesting that thermodynamic quantities can be understood in terms of mechanical properties averaged over a population of particles. An ideal gas is one of the simplest models for a physical system consisting of multiple particles and is an excellent approximation to may real gases. Moreover, even this very simple model introduces some long-standing conceptual issues in statistical physics, such as the nature of assumptions concerning randomness and the need for a discrete set of states a system can occupy.
While there is widespread Muslim resistance to biological evolution, this resistance does not al-... more While there is widespread Muslim resistance to biological evolution, this resistance does not al- ways manifest itself as varieties of creationism that pretend to enjoy scientific support. Turkey is the Muslim country where such a pseudoscientific form of creationism has been most successful, penetrating into public debates and gaining influence over science education at all levels. Turkish creationism has roots in modernizing religious movements and the emergence and then domi- nance of political Islam, erasing much of the imposed secularism that had characterized the earlier decades of the Turkish Republic. The history of Turkish creationism, including the forms creation- ism took in the educational establishment and in the media spectacles put on by the Harun Yahya enterprise, illuminates some of the possibilities open to Muslim communities worldwide.
C. Mackenzie Brown, ed., Asian Religious Responses to Darwinism: Evo- lutionary Theories in Middle Eastern, South Asian and East Asian Cultural Contexs (Dordrecht: Springer), 2020
Islamic creationism has been very successful in Turkey, finding official as well as grassroots su... more Islamic creationism has been very successful in Turkey, finding official as well as grassroots support in an environment shaped by neoliberal Islamism. Opposition to evolution has many local, Turkish and Islamic political rationales. However, as comparison with creationism in the United States demonstrates, creationism also draws political sustenance from a more universal rhetoric of modern conservatism, emphasizing markets, organic communities, and a pragmatic view of science as infrastructure for business and technology.
This essay develops my keynote address on the topic of creationism and science education, deliver... more This essay develops my keynote address on the topic of creationism and science education, delivered at the conference Religions, Science and Technology in Cultural Contexts: Dynamics of Change, NTNU, Trondheim (2012). Debates over evolution in science education take place in a political context where liberal and conservative visions about the purpose of education come into conflict. Comparing the history of creationist pressures on science education in the United States and Turkey highlights the broad contours of these competing visions. The current conservative ascendancy in both countries, however, makes it difficult to reach any consensus on the practical benefits of including evolution in mass science education.
What, if any, are the limits of human understanding? Epistemic pessimists, sobered by our humble ... more What, if any, are the limits of human understanding? Epistemic pessimists, sobered by our humble evolutionary origins, have argued that some parts of the universe will forever remain beyond our ken. But what exactly does it mean to say that humans are 'cognitively closed' to some parts of the world, or that some problems will forever remain 'mysteries'? In this paper we develop a richer conceptual toolbox for thinking about different forms and varieties of cognitive limitation, which are often conflated by the so-called 'new mysterians'. We distinguish between repre-sentational access (the ability to develop accurate scientific representations of reality) and imaginative understanding (immediate, intuitive comprehension of those representations), as well as between different modalities (hard vs. soft) of cognitive limitation. Next, we look at tried-and-tested strategies for overcoming our innate cognitive limitations, drawing from the literature on distributed cognition and cogni-tive scaffolding'. This allows us to distinguish between the limits of bare brains vs. scaffolded brains. Most importantly, we argue that this panoply of mind-extension devices is combinatorial and open-ended. In the end, this allows us to turn the table on the mysterians: for every alleged 'mystery', they should demonstrate that no possible combination of mind extension devices will bring us any closer to a solution.
While concern about public irrationality and antiscientific movements is not new, the increasing ... more While concern about public irrationality and antiscientific movements is not new, the increasing power of right-wing populist movements that promote distrust of expertise and of scientific institutions gives such concerns a new context. Experience with classic pseudosciences such as creationism, and the long-running efforts by defenders of science to oppose such pseudosciences, may also help us understand today’s post-truth populism. The politics of creationism and science education in the United States and in Turkey does not, however, suggest easy answers. Moreover, there are important features of politics in liberal democracies that drive a populist backlash, which makes it counterproductive for defenders of science to call for deference to all forms of expertise claimed by professionals. There is a danger that the rhetoric of reason that is used to defend science will become part of a more general apologetics for an unsustainable status quo.
Judgments of the rationality of beliefs must take the costs of acquiring and possessing beliefs i... more Judgments of the rationality of beliefs must take the costs of acquiring and possessing beliefs into consideration. In that case, certain false beliefs, especially those that are associated with the benefits of a cohesive community, can be seen to be useful for an agent and perhaps instrumentally rational to hold. A distinction should be made between excusable misbeliefs, which a rational agent should tolerate, and misbeliefs that are defensible in their own right because they confer benefits on the agent. Likely candidates for such misbeliefs are to be found in the realm of nationalism and religion , where the possession costs of true beliefs are high, and where collective beliefs in falsehoods may allow for a cohesive community. We discuss the paradoxes of reflective awareness involved in the idea of deliberately embracing falsehoods. More rigorous , fully reflective concepts of rationality would still disallow false beliefs, but such demanding versions of rationality would commit agents to pay large costs, thereby weakening the motivation for acquiring true beliefs. Keywords cognitive accuracy-instrumental rationality-misbeliefs-nationalism-group cohesion-reflective rationality …
Theological responses to scientific challenges can usefully be compared to conspiracy theories in... more Theological responses to scientific challenges can usefully be compared to conspiracy theories in order to highlight their evasive properties. When religious thinkers emphasize hidden powers and purposes underlying a seemingly material reality, and claim that these hidden purposes are revealed only through special knowledge granted to initiates, they adopt conspiratorial attitudes. And when they charge mainstream science with corruption or comprehensive mistakes, so that science becomes a plot to conceal the truth, the resemblance to a conspiracy theory deepens. Theologically conservative denial of evolution often exhibits such features, but some liberal theologies also border on conspiracy theories. Intelligent design creationism, however, is sometimes less conspiratorial.
Both the scientific and philosophical problems with classic pseudosciences such as astrology and ... more Both the scientific and philosophical problems with classic pseudosciences such as astrology and creationism are well known, leading to institutions that are not structured to promote cognitive advancement. A focus on institutions, however, also encourages recognition of gray areas, such as parapsychology, which combines scientifically dubious claims with institutions that are comparable to most social sciences in their structure. Furthermore, institutional approaches to pseudoscience also raise questions about some academically mainstream fields such as economics. In such cases, pseudoscientific aspects of practice are harder to identify, highlighting the need to place analyses of pseudoscience in a wider context of institutional pathologies.
The 1001 Inventions traveling exhibition includes a sample of popular myths about medieval scienc... more The 1001 Inventions traveling exhibition includes a sample of popular myths about medieval science and technology in Muslim lands. A prominent example is its claims about flight achieved by the ninth-century Andalusian Ibn Firnas and the seventeenth-century Ottoman Hezarfen Ahmet Çelebi. These feats have poor historical documentation, and simple physical arguments demonstrate the virtual impossibility of the more exaggerated stories about their achievements. Yet not only are beliefs about these flights common among Muslim populations today, they have been endorsed by the engineers and historians associated with the 1001 Inventions project. The stories of medieval Muslim flight serve as a case study illuminating how the history of science in Muslim lands has been fashioned into a narrative supporting present needs. This narrative, however, also supports a revival of medieval ways of thinking about nature, and is an obstacle to improving the poor state of natural science in Muslim-majority countries.
Humanism and Technol- ogy: Opportunities and Challenges, 2016
Since the European Enlightenment, secular liberals have imagined themselves to be at the forefron... more Since the European Enlightenment, secular liberals have imagined themselves to be at the forefront of technological and social progress. Our celebration of improved human prospects, however, is often laced with ambivalence: we have acquired greater power to destroy one another and the natural environment, and to produce more inventive forms of oppression. Therefore secular liberals have often been accused of being too optimistic about the technical progress that shapes modernity. Today’s political climate, however, undermines secular notions of progress in a different way. The continued dominance of business-class conservatism, often allied with religious movements, has given secular liberal aspirations a nostalgic edge. Conservative constituencies have a better claim to be shaping technological progress today. It has become increasingly doubtful whether secular liberals represent the cutting edge of modernity any more.
Evrim kuramı, bugün yalnızca Tanrı değil herhangi bir doğaüstü güç kavramına karşı çıkan eleştire... more Evrim kuramı, bugün yalnızca Tanrı değil herhangi bir doğaüstü güç kavramına karşı çıkan eleştirel yaklaşımın çok önemli bir öğesi. Yalnızca bir felsefi duruş olarak değil, aynı zamanda en geniş anlamda evrenin bilimsel açıklaması girişimi olarak olgun bir doğacılık ya da maddecilikten söz edebileceğimiz noktadayız.
With a global pandemic and environmental crisis, fake science and science denial have become seri... more With a global pandemic and environmental crisis, fake science and science denial have become serious concerns. Science, however, is not an automated recipe that produces truth. Rationality is more complicated and more context-dependent than we often appreciate.
This is a golden age for conspiracy theories, science denial, and deep suspicion of claims to exp... more This is a golden age for conspiracy theories, science denial, and deep suspicion of claims to expertise. Very often, the political context for this revolt against expertise is provided by increasingly powerful right-wing populist movements. Simple reaffirmations of elite forms of expertise, however, overlook how modern liberal politics too often demands public passivity toward sources of information—submission to technocracy rather than democratic participation. Furthermore, some favored forms of elite knowledge claims, such as popular schools of economics, are self-serving or have questionable legitimacy by academic standards. Our “post-truth” moment is in part due to elite incompetence, rather than just being an irruption of irrationality.
Since the advent of quantum mechanics, our fundamental physical descriptions of the universe have... more Since the advent of quantum mechanics, our fundamental physical descriptions of the universe have included a strong element of randomness. While this randomness goes against aspirations to comprehend a fundamental, deterministic order underlying science, physicists have mostly learned to accept randomness, fashioning a picture of the universe according to which order and chance are two sides of the same coin, and which all we know appears subject to physical descriptions combining rules and randomness. Broader cultural understandings of science, however, have not yet come to terms with the randomness in physics. Debates concerning science and religion, in particular, have been slow in accepting the consequences of fundamental randomness, partly because these are difficult to reconcile with religious intuitions about design and purpose.
There are both differences and striking similarities between misrepresentations of science and sc... more There are both differences and striking similarities between misrepresentations of science and scholarship in conservative Muslim and Christian religious circles. Sect leaders and televangelists denounce chess or advertise crank medicine. Arab conspiracy theorists resurrect new versions of antisemitism and feed into an apocalyptic imagination. Turkish religious innovators and stuffy Islamist government officials propagate creationist ideas. The content of Muslim weirdness is sometimes strange, sometimes strangely familiar to any reader of the Skeptical Inquirer. But its context of religious politics, a right-wing populist revolt against secular expertise, increasing inequality, and a hyper-commercial and consolidated media landscape is even more familiar. The Age of Misinformation is more global than we might think.
Public debates about Islam in democratic Western countries center on accommodating Muslim beliefs... more Public debates about Islam in democratic Western countries center on accommodating Muslim beliefs and behaviors within a secular liberal political framework. We might celebrate diversity and institute multiculturalism, but we also expect believers to moderate their religiosity in public. We ask everyone to defer to science and secular expertise in education and in policy; for example, we frown on creationism. We take human rights to be universal, and if traditional Islamic law does not comply, so much the worse for it. We say that women and men should be free to choose, though they may choose to be devout and dress according to religious standards. Government should not favor any particular religion. Different cultural communities should live together in mutual respect. Many conservative Muslims, however, do not accept a secular liberal framework—they do not think it is religiously neutral or fair. They aspire to an alternative, pious form of modernity, in which politically active forms of religion define and shape the public sphere. Examining conservative Muslim critiques of secular liberalism provides us with insight into some current developments in the Muslim world, and also exposes serious weaknesses in secular liberal political ideas.
Questions and my answers for a panel discussion on Islam and modern science, Michigan State Unive... more Questions and my answers for a panel discussion on Islam and modern science, Michigan State University, September 12, 2016.
Felsefe, etik, sağlıkla ilgili, ya da dinsel konumların temel bilimlere dayalı eleştirilerini yap... more Felsefe, etik, sağlıkla ilgili, ya da dinsel konumların temel bilimlere dayalı eleştirilerini yapanlar çok zaman "bilimcilik" suçlamasıyla karşılaşır. Üç örneğe bakarak bilimin nasıl sınırları dışına taşıp taşmadığına bakabiliriz. Parapsikoloji alanında açıkça bilimsel savlar öne sürülüyor, dolayısıyla "bilimcilik" suçlamalarıyla eleştiriden kurtulmak zor. Alternatif tıp ve sağlık alanında bilimsel ve "kanıta dayalı tıp" oldukça güçlü eleştirilere temel oluyor, ancak uygulamalı bir alan olarak tıbbın amaçları bilimsel amaçlarla yüzde yüz örtüşmüyor. Olumsuz anlamda bir bilimcilik potansiyeli sağlık alanında var. Üçüncü bir örnek olarak etik ve siyasi konumlar incelendiğinde, bilimsel amaçlarla örtüşmeme çok daha kolay önümüze çıkıyor. Sonuçta, etik ve siyaset benzeri alanlarda olumsuz bir bilimcilik biçiminden söz etmek zor değil, ancak bundan bilim dışı "başka bilme biçimleri" olduğu savlarına bir destek çıkmıyor.
The pop culture image of Einstein - the genius with frizzy hair - includes many curious myths, fr... more The pop culture image of Einstein - the genius with frizzy hair - includes many curious myths, from the impossible difficulty of relativity to the friendly relationship between science and traditional religion. Looking more closely at some of these myths provides a fascinating introduction to some of the most important open questions in science and philosophy today.
Skeptics and scientists are often concerned about fencing off paranormal and fringe-science ideas... more Skeptics and scientists are often concerned about fencing off paranormal and fringe-science ideas from the real stuff. In some contexts, this is vital—public health policy, for example, should not affirm untested alternative medical notions. Intellectually, however, policing the boundaries of science is more difficult. It does not look like philosophers of science will come up with any quick-and-easy checklist to separate legitimate science from nonsense. There isn’t even any such thing as The Scientific Method™. More importantly, setting aside certain claims as inherently unscientific would prevent us from learning from the many different ways in which paranormal ideas fail. We can, for example, take creationism and intelligent design as prototypical pseudosciences. And yet, we can still learn from asking what it would take for such ideas to succeed. In the case of intelligent design, design proponents insist that they can detect a signature of data produced by sources beyond any possible physics. They cannot, but asking what such a signature might be leads to interesting questions that sharpen our understanding of what it means to say that our universe can be understood entirely in terms of physical processes of “chance and necessity.”
Since the European Enlightenment, secular liberals have imagined themselves to be at the forefron... more Since the European Enlightenment, secular liberals have imagined themselves to be at the forefront of technological and social progress. Our celebration of improved human prospects, however, is often laced with ambivalence: we have acquired greater power to destroy one another and the natural environment, and to produce more inventive forms of oppression. Therefore secular liberals have often been accused of being too optimistic about the technical progress that shapes modernity. Today’s political climate, however, undermines secular notions of progress in a different way. The continued dominance of business-class conservatism, often allied with religious movements, has given secular liberal aspirations a nostalgic edge. Conservative constituencies have a better claim to be shaping technological progress today. It has become increasingly doubtful whether secular liberals represent the cutting edge of modernity any more.
I most often encounter “scientism” as a term of abuse—much like “reductionism.” Indeed, the two a... more I most often encounter “scientism” as a term of abuse—much like “reductionism.” Indeed, the two accusations seem closely related. I don’t think reductionism is inherently intellectual malpractice—it depends. Similarly, there can be better and worse ways to insert science into debates that traditionally have been seen as nonscientific territory. My background is physics, I have described myself as a “physics chauvinist,” and I have taken a number of positions that can attract a charge of scientism. So examining some of my hobbyhorses might bring some focus on what is at stake. i) I like to distinguish science from pseudoscience. I doubt this can be done through a list of logical criteria—on behalf of scientists, I should apologize to philosophers for our tendency to naively use dubious demarcation schemes such as falsificationism. Nonetheless, there are patterns of intellectual pathology best seen at the fringes of science. “Pseudoscience” is sometimes a good label for institutionalized bad cognitive practices. ii) I favor physicalism, both in the sense of everything we observe being made up of physical objects and interactions, and a chance-and-necessity version of physicalism that emphasizes randomness. But physicalism does not mean that physics is very useful in studying sociology or epistemology. iii) I occasionally take pot shots at certain intellectual traditions—philosophy of religion, for example—that I think could be improved by adopting a broadly scientific approach. However, I urge continuity with science, not a hostile takeover of philosophy by science. iv) Sometimes, I agree that injecting more science into a field will not be as helpful as promised, but this is because of misconceptions about what is to be investigated. For example, claims that science can provide hard moral facts can be subjected to criticism informed by science that suggests no such facts are available to anyone. I see “scientism,” then, as an approach or attitude that can succeed or fail, depending on what we are trying to achieve. If we are interested in explanations, a broadly scientific perspective has good prospects. If we want to shape our character according to a set of religious ideals, science may have very little relevance. If scientism is a term of abuse, however, there will be a tendency to defend religious ideals by discounting naturalistic explanations of religion as “scientism.” I don’t think such defenses succeed.
The 1001 Inventions traveling exhibition (London, Istanbul, New York, Abu Dhabi, Los Angeles, and... more The 1001 Inventions traveling exhibition (London, Istanbul, New York, Abu Dhabi, Los Angeles, and now Washington DC) displays a representative sample of popular myths about medieval science and technology in Muslim lands. A prominent example is its claims about human muscle-powered flight achieved through wings constructed by the 9th century Andalusian Ibn Firnas and the 17th century Ottoman Hezarfen Ahmet Çelebi. These feats have very poor historical documentation, and a simple scaling argument shows the virtual physical impossibility of such achievements. Yet not only are beliefs about the flights of Ibn Firnas and Hezarfen common among Muslim populations today, they have been endorsed by the engineers and historians associated with the 1001 Inventions project. The myth of medieval Muslim flight serves as a case study illuminating how the history of science in Muslim lands has been fashioned into a narrative supporting present needs for technological modernization. This narrative, however, also supports a revival of medieval ways of thinking about nature, and is an obstacle to improving the poor state of natural science in Muslim-majority countries.
Science education policy is often driven by liberal political ideas that emphasize developing cit... more Science education policy is often driven by liberal political ideas that emphasize developing citizen capabilities in a modern world. But religiously sensitive scientific theories such as Darwinian evolution inspire conservative resistance, emphasizing a democratic deference to the organic beliefs of a community rather than the consensus of outside academic experts. Teaching science as the scientists would want it taught requires appeals to political interests held in common by a broad cross-section of societies. This usually means a promise of direct economic benefits to individual students or the country at large. With theories such as evolution, however, such benefits are difficult to demonstrate. Evolution education faces conservative Christian opposition in the United States, and conservative Muslim rejection in Turkey. Examining the similarities and differences between the two countries illuminates the political contexts in which public debates over science and religion take place.
Review of "The Atheist Muslim: A Journey from Religion to Reason," by Ali A. Rizvi (New York: St ... more Review of "The Atheist Muslim: A Journey from Religion to Reason," by Ali A. Rizvi (New York: St Martin’s Press, 2016, ISBN 9781250094445)
Unpublished review of Nicholas Maxwell, "Global Philosophy: What Philosophy Ought to Be" (Exeter:... more Unpublished review of Nicholas Maxwell, "Global Philosophy: What Philosophy Ought to Be" (Exeter: Imprint Academic, 2014). (Originally written for Philosophy Now; I never heard from the editor after I sent this in.)
This essay review analyzes The Global Auction: The Broken Promises of Education, Jobs, and Income... more This essay review analyzes The Global Auction: The Broken Promises of Education, Jobs, and Incomes by Phillip Brown, Hugh Lauder, and David Ashton. The book argues that technological changes and business trends have facilitated deskilling and marginalization of workers, fostering a worldwide economic race to the bottom and raising the intensity of high-pressure competition for individuals and nations alike.
Review of Debating Design edited by Dembski and Ruse, and The Hidden Face of God by Gerald Schroe... more Review of Debating Design edited by Dembski and Ruse, and The Hidden Face of God by Gerald Schroeder.
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Books by Taner Edis
This is a pre-published version with proofreading marks of the book 1001 Distortions edited by Taner Edis, Lutz Richter-Bernburg und myself. please, do not quote from it.
Papers by Taner Edis
This is a pre-published version with proofreading marks of the book 1001 Distortions edited by Taner Edis, Lutz Richter-Bernburg und myself. please, do not quote from it.
Teaching science as the scientists would want it taught requires appeals to political interests held in common by a broad cross-section of societies. This usually means a promise of direct economic benefits to individual students or the country at large. With theories such as evolution, however, such benefits are difficult to demonstrate. Evolution education faces conservative Christian opposition in the United States, and conservative Muslim rejection in Turkey. Examining the similarities and differences between the two countries illuminates the political contexts in which public debates over science and religion take place.