At 1:28 AM -0500 1/25/08, John F. Sowa wrote:
>Pat,
>
>The direction of research, pure and applied, has always
>been affected by popular fads, personalities, and sources
>of funding.
>
>> I think the era of Eddington-sized personalities being able
>> to bend an entire field is now over in the hard sciences.
>
>I see no evidence to support that claim. Chomsky certainly
>distorted the direction of research in linguistics for over
>40 years. (Of course, one might call linguistics a "soft"
>science.) (01)
Yes, I do. In fact I think it hardly qualifies as
science at present. (How does one empirically
refute a linguistic theory?) (02)
> But even in physics and mathematics, the people
>who get into prominent positions have a strong effect on
>what papers get accepted, what colleagues get promoted,
>what publications get cited, what projects get funded, etc.
>
>One might claim that good ideas eventually get accepted, but
>sometimes that may take many decades. In physics, for example,
>geometric algebras are now widely accepted for their power and
>generality. But they were published in the late 19th century
>by Grassmann and Clifford and were ignored for over a century.
>
>David Hestenes is the physicist who revived them and demonstrated
>their value for simplifying and generalizing the formulation of
>a wide range of physical theories. See his talk when he was
>awarded the Oersted medal (at the age of 70):
>
> http://modelingnts.la.asu.edu/pdf/OerstedMedalLecture.pdf
>
>Geometric algebras are now commonly used as the basic math for
>doing string theory and other advanced representations. But
>for a period of about 20 years, Hestenes had a very hard time
>in getting his papers accepted for publication. (03)
I think you are making my point, rather than the one I was arguing against. (04)
Pat (05)
>
>John
>
>
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