Denyse cites a Twitter discussion between philosopher Phillip Goff and physics prof Sabine Hossenfelder.
Goff is pushing the idiotic “multiverse” nonsense, and Sabine reproves him:
You don’t need maths to see that assuming the existence of other universes is unscientific. All you need is to understand that assuming the existence of something you cannot observe is unnecessary to explain anything you can observe.
Denyse is pointing to this discussion as evidence that science is now far more accessible than in earlier times. True, at least for public expression. Serious work is still private as it should be.
This particular argument shows a more specific now/then difference. In earlier centuries a scientist or other scholar would have been inventing UNNECESSARY ENTITIES like multiverses, and a philosopher … I mean THE philosopher … would be scolding the scholar for adding UNNECESSARY ENTITIES.
Philosophy as a profession has been worse than useless for at least 100 years. No philosopher has aided or guided thinking; philosophers are either engaging in wild speculation (Goff) or justifying genocide and eugenics (MacAskill.)
A profession that serves only gangsters and tyrants should be defunded and abolished.
Polistra's Mill 