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Laura Gradowski is a philosopher of science at the University of Pittsburgh. Pluralism is roughly the idea that there is no unified account of any scientific field, that we should be tolerant of and welcome a variety of theoretical and conceptual frameworks, and methods, and goals, when doing science. Pluralism is kind of a buzz word right now in my little neuroscience world, but it's an old and well-trodden notion... many philosophers have been calling for pluralism for many years. But how pluralistic should we be in our studies and explanations in science? Laura suggests we should be very, very pluralistic, and to make her case, she cites examples in the history of science of theories and theorists that were once considered "fringe" but went on to become mainstream accepted theoretical frameworks. I thought it would be fun to have her on to share her ideas about fringe theories, mainstream theories, pluralism, etc.
We discuss a wide range of topics, but also discuss some specific to the brain and mind sciences. Laura goes through an example of something and someone going from fringe to mainstream - the Garcia effect, named after John Garcia, whose findings went agains the grain of behaviorism, the dominant dogma of the day in psychology. But this overturning only happened after Garcia had to endure a long scientific hell of his results being ignored and shunned. So, there are multiple examples like that, and we discuss a handful. This has led Laura to the conclusion we should accept almost all theoretical frameworks, We discuss her ideas about how to implement this, where to draw the line, and much more.
Laura's page at the Center for the Philosophy of Science at the University of Pittsburgh.
Facing the Fringe.
Garcia's reflections on his troubles: Tilting at the Paper Mills of Academe
0:00 - Intro
3:57 - What is fringe?
10:14 - What makes a theory fringe?
14:31 - Fringe to mainstream
17:23 - Garcia effect
28:17 - Fringe to mainstream: other examples
32:38 - Fringe and consciousness
33:19 - Words meanings change over time
40:24 - Pseudoscience
43:25 - How fringe becomes mainstream
47:19 - More fringe characteristics
50:06 - Pluralism as a solution
54:02 - Progress
1:01:39 - Encyclopedia of theories
1:09:20 - When to reject a theory
1:20:07 - How fringe becomes fringe
1:22:50 - Marginilization
1:27:53 - Recipe for fringe theorist
