1. So I have a few thoughts on Richard A. Epstein, shoddy contrarian arguments about coronavirus pandemic, the anti-empiricism of Austrian economics, the popularity of dubious neo-Larmarckian biology among conservatives, John Lukacs, & the science fiction of Gene Wolfe.
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12. Epstein is not just a lone crackpot whose paper got widely read in GOP circles. Epstein has had an impact because he's squarely in influential overlapping intellectual networks: Austrian economics, Chicago economics, Federalist Society, Hoover Institution, etc.
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13. More thoughts on Epstein's intellectual network here:https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/epstein-trump-coronavirus-crackpot/ …
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14. Final point: we need a reckoning not just with Epstein but all the institutions that made Epstein possible. They claim to serve the public interest but have helped deranged pseudoscience spread (and not just in this pandemic).
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Astrology.
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It's pretty wild to hear a supposedly educated person completely dismiss the scientific method, even the whole scientific revolution.
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Also how Plato recommends doing science in the Republic.
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Or as the joke is sometimes told at the University of Chicago (where Epstein once worked) "That's all well and good in practice, but how does it work in theory?"
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(A joke, I should be clear, told with great affection. It's a fabulous place. I am an alum, A.M. '93, and the father of one, A.B. '13)
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I can get that when applied to macro econ since there are so many confounding factors and experiments at scale are impossible. But applying that thinking to a hard science is absurd.
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You can do experiments on societal scales, it's just harder and less precise. The important part is the Hypothesis>Prediction>Data Gathering>Reflection Loop.
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