- A SKEPTICs GUIDE - A SKEPTICs GUIDE by
Jess H. Brewer
Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and
Dept. of Physics & Astronomy, Univ. of British Columbia
Vancouver, B.C., Canada V6T 1Z1
Once upon a time I wrote a book to go with Physics 340, a course for Arts students at the University of British Columbia. After several experiments with existing textbooks, I decided to start my own, based on the usual collection of handwritten lecture notes. My reasons did not include any conviction that I could do a better job than anyone else; rather that I hadn't found any text that set out to do quite the same thing that I wanted to do, and I was too stubborn to revise my intentions to fit the literature. I have gotten worse with age.
What do I want to do? The impossible. Namely, to take you on a whirlwind tour of Physics from classical mechanics through modern elementary particle physics, without any patronizing appeals to faith in the experts. I especially want to avoid any hint of phrases like, ``scientific tests prove...'' that are employed with such poisonous efficiency by media manipulators. I want to treat you like a savvy graduate student auditing a course outside your specialty, not like a woodenheaded ignoramus who has no intellect to appeal to. In particular, I believe that smart Arts people are as smart as (maybe smarter than!) smart Science people, and a good deal more eclectic on average. So I will be addressing you as if you were in the Humanities, though you may just as well be a Nobel laureate chemist or a short-order cook at a fast food restaurant. What do I care what you do for a living? I do want you to see Physics the way I see it, not some edited-for-television version. A tall order? You bet. I'm asking a lot? That's what I'm here for.
Another point I ought to make clear immediately is that this is not a presentation ``for people who hate math.'' That would be like teaching a Mathematics course ``for people who hate words.'' Anyone who hates a tool is suffering from a neurosis; it may be sensible to hate one or more of the ways the tool is used, but the tool itself is just a thing. I do propose to craft this resource ``for people who hate boredom.''
My idol, Richard Feynman, is reputed to have said, ``Science is the belief in the ignorance of experts.'' I love that phrase. It sums up the bare essence of the intellectual arrogance, the willingness to believe in one's own reasoning regardless of what ``experts'' say, that makes original science (and art) possible. In my opinion, it also makes democracy and justice possible; consider Stanley Milgram's famous research on obedience.... But I digress. It is also true that, while experts may be ignorant, they are rarely stupid; and that a person who wants to trust his or her own judgement above that of any authority has some obligation to hone said judgement to a razor edge. With arrogance comes responsibility. So I am not just setting out to encourage people to disregard or denigrate experts; merely to recognize their ignorance and to realize that we all have so much more ignorance than knowledge that in that regard we are almost perfect equals.