Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share When science becomes ideology | Agustín Fuentes
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
When science becomes ideology | Agustín Fuentes
In today’s information saturated digital landscape, discerning the truth has become an increasingly complex challenge. While many assert that science holds the factual truth, the line between science as a methodology and scientism — which asserts that scientific knowledge is more reliable and valuable than all other forms of knowledge — often blurs. When scientists exceed the boundaries of testable hypotheses, personal belief systems intermingle with empirical evidence, complicating our understanding of truth.
Anthropologist Agustín Fuentes contends that human experiences are inherently messy and influenced by factors like racism, sexism, and historical contexts. He argues that a comprehensive understanding of human biology, history, culture, and evolution demands grappling with these complexities, the intricate dynamics of which often extend beyond the assertions of science.
Fuentes’ vision for the future of scientific practice centers around diversifying voices, experiences, and methodologies. A more diverse group of individuals contributes to a richer understanding of the world, offering different perspectives and insights; no one scientist is the same. Embracing the complexity and messiness of the human experience fosters collaboration, creativity, and a holistic approach to knowledge. After all, science is conducted by humans — complex beings inextricably intertwined with their own biases and cultural narratives.
0:00 Scientism as another belief system
1:23 The problem with reductive science
3:19 More diversity, more complexity
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About Agustín Fuentes:
Agustín Fuentes, a Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University, focuses on the biosocial, delving into the entanglement of biological systems with the social and cultural lives of humans, our ancestors, and a few of the other animals with whom humanity shares close relations. Earning his BA/BS in Anthropology and Zoology and his MA and PhD in Anthropology from UC Berkeley, he has conducted research across four continents, multiple species, and two-million years of human history. His current projects include exploring cooperation, creativity, and belief in human evolution, multispecies anthropologies, evolutionary theory and processes, and engaging race and racism. Fuentes’ books include Race, Monogamy, and other lies they told you: busting myths about human nature (U of California), The Creative Spark: how imagination made humans exceptional (Dutton), and Why We Believe: evolution and the human way of being (Yale).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------10:23-26
-----------
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
View all episodes
1.7
1616 ratings
In today’s information saturated digital landscape, discerning the truth has become an increasingly complex challenge. While many assert that science holds the factual truth, the line between science as a methodology and scientism — which asserts that scientific knowledge is more reliable and valuable than all other forms of knowledge — often blurs. When scientists exceed the boundaries of testable hypotheses, personal belief systems intermingle with empirical evidence, complicating our understanding of truth.
Anthropologist Agustín Fuentes contends that human experiences are inherently messy and influenced by factors like racism, sexism, and historical contexts. He argues that a comprehensive understanding of human biology, history, culture, and evolution demands grappling with these complexities, the intricate dynamics of which often extend beyond the assertions of science.
Fuentes’ vision for the future of scientific practice centers around diversifying voices, experiences, and methodologies. A more diverse group of individuals contributes to a richer understanding of the world, offering different perspectives and insights; no one scientist is the same. Embracing the complexity and messiness of the human experience fosters collaboration, creativity, and a holistic approach to knowledge. After all, science is conducted by humans — complex beings inextricably intertwined with their own biases and cultural narratives.
0:00 Scientism as another belief system
1:23 The problem with reductive science
3:19 More diversity, more complexity
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About Agustín Fuentes:
Agustín Fuentes, a Professor of Anthropology at Princeton University, focuses on the biosocial, delving into the entanglement of biological systems with the social and cultural lives of humans, our ancestors, and a few of the other animals with whom humanity shares close relations. Earning his BA/BS in Anthropology and Zoology and his MA and PhD in Anthropology from UC Berkeley, he has conducted research across four continents, multiple species, and two-million years of human history. His current projects include exploring cooperation, creativity, and belief in human evolution, multispecies anthropologies, evolutionary theory and processes, and engaging race and racism. Fuentes’ books include Race, Monogamy, and other lies they told you: busting myths about human nature (U of California), The Creative Spark: how imagination made humans exceptional (Dutton), and Why We Believe: evolution and the human way of being (Yale).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-----------------------------------10:23-26
-----------
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
More shows like Big Think
View all
StarTalk Radio
14,250 Listeners
Making Sense with Sam Harris
26,383 Listeners
Closer To Truth
252 Listeners
Into the Impossible With Brian Keating
1,064 Listeners
The Michael Shermer Show
921 Listeners
Sean Carroll's Mindscape: Science, Society, Philosophy, Culture, Arts, and Ideas
4,147 Listeners
Within Reason
1,601 Listeners
The Origins Podcast with Lawrence Krauss
498 Listeners
The Supermassive Podcast
322 Listeners
Dwarkesh Podcast
489 Listeners
Theories of Everything with Curt Jaimungal
33 Listeners
Why This Universe?
391 Listeners
The Poetry of Reality with Richard Dawkins
98 Listeners
Science with Sabine
65 Listeners
The Moynihan Report
172 Listeners