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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   32928 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 27, 2023

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I could say the same thing about other possible incidences of fake science.

A. There were no flying saucers in the 1900s. There were many in the 1950's.

B. In the 1900s, people did not interpret mysterious things in the sky to be flying saucers and in the 1950s they did.

A is only true if by "flying saucers" you mean an observational phenomenon. And that's a motte and bailey, because when people say that flying saucers, or multiple personalities exist, they are not trying to communicate "this phenomenon exists", they are trying to communicate a particular claim about the underlying reality behind that phenomenon. If all you mean by A is is that the phenomenon exists, A and B are true, but not very interesting, because nobody cares about that.

I think this distinguishing between, say, the brute facts (or underlying reality) of some phenomena X and a socio-cultural narrative about X is exactly what Hacking is trying to get at with his distinction. Further in the paper he writes of autism:

Now let’s try out A and B for high-functioning autism:

A. There were no high-functioning autists in 1950; there were many in 2000.

B. In 1950 this was not a way to be a person, people did not experience themselves in this way, they did not interact with their friends, their families, their employers, their counsellors, in this way; but in 2000 this was a way to be a person, to experience oneself, to live in society.

As I said, A in my view is true for multiple personality. But it is absolutely false for high-functioning autism. It is almost as absurd as saying that autism did not exist before 1943, when Kanner introduced the name. But B, I believe, is true. Before 1950, maybe even before 1975, high-functioning autism was not a way to be a person. There probably were a few individuals who were regarded as retarded and worse, who recovered, retaining the kinds of foible that high-functioning autistic people have today. But people didn’t experience themselves in this way, they didn’t interact with their friends, their families, their employers, their counsellors, in the way they do now.

I think if Hacking were applying his model to your A and B he'd come to the same conclusion as with autism, that your (A) is false but (B) is true. Whatever phenomena we see with the naked eye that we interpret as being "flying saucers" almost certainly existed before we had the socio-cultural narrative of "flying saucers." I take Hackings point to be that having certain kinds of socio-culutural or medical narratives can both change the way we interpret some observed phenomena (as in the case of autism, or flying saucers) but also can give rise to entirely new phenomena (as in multiple personality disorders).

You can say all you want that you're talking about the sociocultural narrative, but everyone else isn't. You know, or should know, that the other people who claim that multiple personalities exist (or don't exist) aren't talking about a narrative. Saying "sure they exist" in reference to a narrative is a way to be the motte to their bailey by pretending to agree with them, but really agreeing with a much easier to defend version that misses the point.

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