An interesting debate about the nature of science and two TED talks that were removed form the TED website. You can read the debate and watch the talks in the link below.
http://blog.ted.com/2013/03/14/open-for-discussion-graham-hancock-and-rupert-sheldrake/
“Questions of good and evil, right and wrong are commonly thought unanswerable by science. But Sam Harris argues that science can — and should — be an authority on moral issues, shaping human values and setting out what constitutes a good life.”
“Weeks from the Charter for Compassion launch, Karen Armstrong looks at religion’s role in the 21st century: Will its dogmas divide us? Or will it unite us for common good? She reviews the catalysts that can drive the world’s faiths to rediscover the Golden Rule.”
“People want to be religious, says scholar Karen Armstrong; we should help make religion a force for harmony. She asks the TED community to help build a Charter for Compassion — to restore the Golden Rule as the central global religious doctrine.”
“Some parents feel certain that vaccines can lead to autism, if only because there have been instances when a child got a shot and then became autistic. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc. Making that connection between the two events, most health experts say, is as fallacious in the world of medicine as it is in the field of logic.”
Really great video that explains the rationale for changing the categorization of Pluto from planet to dwarf planet. It also gives some great historical context.
The solar system itself hasn’t changed but our knowledge of it has changed over time and the increased knowledge has forced us to change our categories and language. This video raises the interesting and challenging aspects of our desire to categorize and label things. Language itself in addition to categorizing and labeling are inductive processes and the “controversy” around Pluto is a great illustration of that.
“At TEDGlobal 2010, author Matt Ridley shows how, throughout history, the engine of human progress has been the meeting and mating of ideas to make new ideas. It’s not important how clever individuals are, he says; what really matters is how smart the collective brain is.”
“You’ve never seen data presented like this. With the drama and urgency of a sportscaster, statistics guru Hans Rosling debunks myths about the so-called ‘developing world.'”
“Backed by stunning illustrations, David Christian narrates a complete history of the universe, from the Big Bang to the Internet, in a riveting 18 minutes. This is “Big History”: an enlightening, wide-angle look at complexity, life and humanity, set against our slim share of the cosmic timeline.”
After the September 11th attacks and for much of the war on terror, the CIA widely used waterboarding as a form of “enhanced interrogation” to get information from suspected terrorists. Waterboarding is widely considered a form of torture and raised a lot of ethical and moral concerns about how we were conducting ourselves in this war on terror. Questions that were raised: Is waterboarding torture? If so, is torture ever justified?
For a basic description of the technique take a look at the wikipedia page.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waterboarding
In 2008, Vanity Fair writer, Christopher Hitchens, volunteered to be waterboarded because he did not believe the technique constituted torture. Below that is the article he wrote about his experience and below is a video of his experience that changed his mind on the technique.
http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2008/08/hitchens200808
TOK Topics 