Friday, December 10, 2010

uh-oh, Anthropology no longer a "science"

I'm a big fan of critical thinking and the scientific method, even if I don't always believe that the method produces future robust conclusions; I'm a little bummed by this article in the Times today, even though it did feature a great quote:

 “Even if the board goes back to the old wording, the cat’s out
of the bag and is running around clawing up the furniture,” he said.

And so now I'm wondering if I need to tweak my labels on my posts...I've been using "anthropology" pretty often, but now I might need to qualify it, since most of my anthro-posts are anecdotal and navel gazing, not truly scientific.

2 comments:

  1. Cats are hilarious! The anthropological impact of cats cannot be overstressed.

    I'm not actually sure, come to think of it, what anthropology is. It casts kind of a broad net, doesn't it? Maybe overly so?

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  2. I don't want to overstate this, but isn't anthropology not the most important area of study? Physics is useful, theology is intriguing, politics is banal, mathematics are practical...but all of these things are realized and filtered through the human experience.

    I spend too much time thinking about thinking, and pondering why I am as I am, and why others are as they are, but I can confidently state that many other people need to spend some time doing the same.

    The unexamined pizza is not worth eating?

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