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Whom Should We Trust On Climate Change?
Mr. Weasley gives sage advice“Ginny!” said Mr. Weasley, flabbergasted. “Haven’t I taught you anything? What have I always told you? Never trust anything that can think for itself if you can’t see where it keeps it’s brain?” ― J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Constituting a body of reliable knowledge requires identifying trustworthy agents. Working solutions to problems of credibility and trust were found in the practices of “gentlemanly culture.” These practices were the foundation of the new empirical science of seventeenth-century England. Gentlemen, unlike courtiers or merchants or yeomen, were deemed to be truthful owing to their material independence and moral integrity. By possessing freedom of action, thanks to annual income of £280 or more, gentlemen literally had the freedom to tell the truth. By contrast, persons in dependent states, including women and servants, were deemed unreliable due to their dependent status. Yet, as Shakespeare’s Hamlet put it, “to be honest, as this world goes, is to be one man picked out of ten thousand”. Some gentlemen lied; truthfulness was an ideal. –Thomas J. Misa, Technology & Culture, 1997
2012-08-01 14:46:07
Source: http://climatechangedispatch.com/home/10382-whom-should-we-trust-on-climate-change
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