The Blind Spot: Why Science Cannot Ignore Human Experience
Abstract
THE BLIND SPOT: Why Science Cannot Ignore Human Experience by Adam Frank, Marcelo Gleiser, and Evan Thompson. MIT Press, 2024. xvii + 328 pages. Hardcover; $29.95. ISBN: 9780262048804. *Is it possible for a doctor to correctly diagnose a problem but fail to provide a useful cure? That is how I felt as I read this book. *The authors are respected scholars: two astrophysicists--one a Templeton Prize laureate--and the third a philosopher of science specializing in philosophy of mind. They correctly point out that all science begins with human experience, which spurs measurement and abstraction. For example, we experience hot and cold, we then learn to measure temperature, and eventually we develop abstract mathematical models of temperature in terms of molecular kinetic energy or partial derivatives of energy and entropy. We experience color, we then learn to measure wavelength, and eventually we develop a theory of quantum electrodynamics. The authors do not oppose measurement or abstraction; this is how science progresses. *What the authors decry is that the starting point--human experience--gets pushed out of the center of scientific thought and practice, relegated as something to be explained (or explained away) as epiphenomenal. Just as our retinas have a blind spot which we do not see but is essential for vision, so, they argue, we have been trained to ignore human experience when doing science, even though human experience lies at the heart of science and makes science…
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