Comments on: Tracing the causes of scientific illiteracy http://www.ratdiary.com/2007/07/02/tracing-the-cause-of-scientific-illiteracy/ Homo homini rodentius est Wed, 30 Dec 2009 19:20:21 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: SD http://www.ratdiary.com/2007/07/02/tracing-the-cause-of-scientific-illiteracy/#comment-3590 SD Fri, 06 Jul 2007 01:21:54 +0000 http://www.ratdiary.com/2007/07/02/tracing-the-cause-of-scientific-illiteracy/#comment-3590 Julie, I saw his quick caveat too -- but you know he doesn't really believe it. He quotes discredited researchers without raising questions about their work and the whole effect of the piece is to reify the idea that queer folk are essentially "different". Bad juju. Aatom, I share your impatience with the current trend of reducing very subtle matters to hypothesized biological factors. It's as if the entire corpus of literature and philosophy which aims to describe human experience can be shelved once we find the "keys" to our essence. I'm with the existentialists who wrote that a human is a being whose essence is in not having an essence. Julie, I saw his quick caveat too — but you know he doesn’t really believe it. He quotes discredited researchers without raising questions about their work and the whole effect of the piece is to reify the idea that queer folk are essentially “different”. Bad juju.

Aatom, I share your impatience with the current trend of reducing very subtle matters to hypothesized biological factors. It’s as if the entire corpus of literature and philosophy which aims to describe human experience can be shelved once we find the “keys” to our essence.

I’m with the existentialists who wrote that a human is a being whose essence is in not having an essence.

]]> By: Aatom http://www.ratdiary.com/2007/07/02/tracing-the-cause-of-scientific-illiteracy/#comment-3589 Aatom Thu, 05 Jul 2007 20:18:03 +0000 http://www.ratdiary.com/2007/07/02/tracing-the-cause-of-scientific-illiteracy/#comment-3589 I've always thought that genetics worked a lot like God would if he existed - unknowably and unpredictably, with little respect for our facile interpretations of it. I rebel against the idea that any of my deeply ingrained personality traits, whether they be sexual or not, could be explained away with simplistic nods to genetic maps or parenting techniques. It is a strange alchemy that causes our genes to fuse together with the traumas, whispers and critical minutaie of our lives, creating the intricate road maps of our personalities. I’ve always thought that genetics worked a lot like God would if he existed – unknowably and unpredictably, with little respect for our facile interpretations of it. I rebel against the idea that any of my deeply ingrained personality traits, whether they be sexual or not, could be explained away with simplistic nods to genetic maps or parenting techniques. It is a strange alchemy that causes our genes to fuse together with the traumas, whispers and critical minutaie of our lives, creating the intricate road maps of our personalities.

]]> By: Julie http://www.ratdiary.com/2007/07/02/tracing-the-cause-of-scientific-illiteracy/#comment-3580 Julie Wed, 04 Jul 2007 19:27:25 +0000 http://www.ratdiary.com/2007/07/02/tracing-the-cause-of-scientific-illiteracy/#comment-3580 At least there's acknowledgement in the New Yorker's 'Science of Gaydar' article that: <i>Some of this work has been derided as modern-day phrenology, and obviously possessing one trait or another—a counterclockwise hair whorl here, an elongated ring finger there—doesn’t necessarily make a person gay or straight.</i> ..but there'll always be those who seem to find it their duty to keep on speculating that it might. At least there’s acknowledgement in the New Yorker’s ‘Science of Gaydar’ article that:

Some of this work has been derided as modern-day phrenology, and obviously possessing one trait or another—a counterclockwise hair whorl here, an elongated ring finger there—doesn’t necessarily make a person gay or straight.

..but there’ll always be those who seem to find it their duty to keep on speculating that it might.

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