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Sitaram
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Joined: 14 Sep 2005
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 Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2005 7:59 am Post subject: Feynman on Science and Ethics |
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Dear prof Cranberg,
Thank you for your letter discussing “The Relation of Science and Religion”. I didn’t really intend to insist that ethics and science are separate, but rather that the fundamental basis of ethics must be chosen in some non-scientific way. Then, when this is chosen, of course, science can help to decide whether we should or should not do certain things. Science can help us see what might happen if we do them, but the question as to whether we want something to happen depends on a choice of the ultimate ethical good. As you mentioned, such a choice then does not say there’s a separation of the fields, and we cannot argue about the choice for the ultimate good of each. You have chosen survival as an ultimate value, then there is no longer any non-science ethic that serves the ultimate value.
| Here is the troublesome passage wrote: |
If we have two alternate ways in which we might survive, one in which the survivor is secure, but miserable, and the other that we are equally secure in the survival, but not happy in the living or our willingness to choose between them, from survival of what is the right race of individuals – how to balance the two – could the survival of the German Reich justify the actions of the tyrant and a relygious martyr’s values because they put individual survival below some greater good?
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All I am trying to do is cast some doubt or confusion into the principle that survival permits ethics without question and that all people will agree that survival is the real determinate of good. If you can see that there may be some doubt about that, who would resolve the doubt for science?
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Sitaram
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Joined: 14 Sep 2005
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| Posted: Mon Nov 21, 2005 8:09 am Post subject: |
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mahendra_ku: hi sitaram
mahendra_ku: good morn
literarydiscussions: oh... hello, nice to see you
mahendra_ku: I hav been posted to a new assignment
mahendra_ku: i was a headmaster in a secondary school
literarydiscussions: I am having interesting dialogues with a physicist in Italy who is translating the correspondence of Physicist Richard Feynmann into Italian
mahendra_ku: and now governmen tis placing me in a project
literarydiscussions: congratulations
mahendra_ku: what was the physicist saying?
literarydiscussions: well.... he translated the letters, and one of the letters speaks of the relationship between science and ethics....
mahendra_ku: so my work on tribal education and folklore will be more intensive
mahendra_ku: oh
literarydiscussions: there is a forum called BUE at my message board... BUE is the name of the physicist at the message board
mahendra_ku: i will see it
mahendra_ku: I see that people view the message and not reply any ideas
mahendra_ku: that soul d be more interesting
literarydiscussions: http://literarydiscussions.myfreeforum.org/ftopic790.php
literarydiscussions: here is the letter,.... with the difficult to interpret passage in quotation
mahendra_ku: is this the physicists forum?
literarydiscussions: BUE is italian, english his second language, he uses me as a native speaker american, to look at questionable passages
mahendra_ku: ok
literarydiscussions: i explained to BUE, that Feynman was a physicist, and not a literary person
mahendra_ku: oh
literarydiscussions: so.... he is not as skilled or concerned about his writing, especially in letters
literarydiscussions: correspondence
mahendra_ku: ok
literarydiscussions: BUE, wants to translate everything very precisely,.... like a machine.... and does not care to "speculate" or conjecture about what Feynman might have "really meant to say."
literarydiscussions: but... the highlighted paragraph is quite impossible as it stands...
mahendra_ku: u mean to say his translation is not clear?
literarydiscussions: to understand clearly
literarydiscussions: NOOO... the damn english of Feynman is messed up
literarydiscussions: Feynman was an american
mahendra_ku: oh
mahendra_ku: i am reading it
literarydiscussions: and these are LETTERS that feynman wrote to friends...
literarydiscussions: not doctoral dissertations....
literarydiscussions: he may have scribbled them on a napkin during a train ride... who knows?
mahendra_ku: ok
literarydiscussions: certainly, one might read such a passage and conjecture or speculate as to what it MIGHT mean or what it SHOULD say... but the tranlator wants to TRANSLATE accurately, ... without philosophical speculation
literarydiscussions: which is understandable
mahendra_ku: if the meaning is descernable then itis ok
literarydiscussions: yes,... and if the moon is made of cheese, then we can buy a big box of crackers
literarydiscussions: but... there are SERIOUS problems with that paragraph
mahendra_ku: yes
literarydiscussions: with regard to clarity of meaning
mahendra_ku: with in the box?
mahendra_ku: what u have put here?
literarydiscussions: the box simply highlights the passage in question
mahendra_ku: and is there any more texts?
mahendra_ku: I mean letter?
literarydiscussions: this is all which BUE gave me
mahendra_ku: oh
literarydiscussions: plus, BUE, does not care for using a message board... he prefers email, which i think is a mistake... since one may post here, and many can come, read, conjecture, suggest
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