Hawking - philosophy is dead

[chaz wyman]

Thanks, chaz, for reminding us that scientific knowledge evolves as new facts become known, which is grounds for cautious optimism at most, not hubris. Hawking might know this, but showing such an attitude to potential readers is boring - poor publicity.

I think mr Hawking is remarkably naive, and ought to read some history of science.

[Mike Strand]

I wish someone could get Mr. Hawking to speak for himself in this forum -- does he have an e-mail address? As you suggest, Chaz, maybe he's lost the big picture from being so deeply involved in his specialty. Or is he baiting philosophers and other thinkers -- maybe even other physicists? I've already speculated on the publicity angle. I just don't know.

[Mike Strand]

Here is a copy of my e-mail to Stephen Hawking, inviting him to "clarify" his statement:

Dear Professor Hawking,

I would like to hear more about your recent comment that philosophy is dead. I participate in the Philosophy Now magazine’s website forum, Philosophy of Science. The topic is entitled, “Hawking – philosophy is dead”. Philosophy Now magazine is based in London, England.

Many of the participants are speculating as to why you made this statement, given the belief of many of us that science is a method of inquiry, and the philosophy of science is in the business of evaluating and explaining this method of inquiry. Science is a means of coming to know (epistemology) what exists (ontology), and is fair game for philosophical evaluation. Science and scientific theories evolve over time and with the discovery of new facts. At its best, it is a self-critical and self-correcting method of inquiry, but in practice can suffer from the limitations of human capacities and tendencies.

Some of the speculations raised by the forum participants are that your comment is naïve, or that it is a publicity stunt for your new book.

I invite you to write down more about your comment that “philosophy is dead”, in order to clarify the record. You may simply reply to this e-mail, and I would be happy to post your comments on the website forum for the benefit of its readers. You could check on this by logging into the forum,
"viewforum.php?f=12"

Sincerely,
Mike Strand
Williamsburg, VA

I'll let you know if I hear from him. You can google "Stephen Hawking contact" for his e-mail.

[Mike Strand]

Here's Hawking's quick reply to my email. No surprise that he has a standard response programmed, and my name is unknown and would hardly trigger his personal attention. But I tried. Maybe if Richard Baron or Rick Lewis wrote to him, we would have better luck with this. I'll e-mail Rick and see what he thinks.

Thank you for your email to Professor Hawking.

As you can imagine, Prof. Hawking receives many such every day. He very much regrets that due to the severe limitations he works under, and the enormous number of requests he receives, he is unable to compose a reply to every message, and we do not have the resources to deal with many of the specific scientific enquiries and theories we receive.

Please see the website http://www.hawking.org.uk for more
information about Professor Hawking, his life and his work.

Yours faithfully

Sam Blackburn

Technical Assistant to
Professor S W Hawking CH CBE FRS

Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics,
University of Cambridge,
Cambridge,
CB3 0WA.
United Kingdom.

http://www.hawking.org.uk

[chaz wyman]

Here's Hawking's quick reply to my email. No surprise that he has a standard response programmed, and my name is unknown and would hardly trigger his personal attention. But I tried. Maybe if Richard Baron or Rick Lewis wrote to him, we would have better luck with this. I'll e-mail Rick and see what he thinks.

Thank you for your email to Professor Hawking.

As you can imagine, Prof. Hawking receives many such every day. He very much regrets that due to the severe limitations he works under, and the enormous number of requests he receives, he is unable to compose a reply to every message, and we do not have the resources to deal with many of the specific scientific enquiries and theories we receive.

Please see the website http://www.hawking.org.uk for more
information about Professor Hawking, his life and his work.

Yours faithfully

Sam Blackburn

Technical Assistant to
Professor S W Hawking CH CBE FRS

Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics,
University of Cambridge,
Cambridge,
CB3 0WA.
United Kingdom.

http://www.hawking.org.uk

Nice try.

Yours "faithfully" made me laugh

[Mike Strand]

Thanks again, chaz. I chuckled, too. Computer software to faithfully generate and transmit 'sorry, but..." messages. Well, Professor Hawking deals with the likes of Time Magazine, producers of TV documentaries, and publishers. Writing, teaching (?), and maybe research, too. No time to be a philosopher, I guess -- maybe he regrets this, and his statement is sour grapes.

[Mike Strand]

I just got an email from Rick Lewis (thanks, Rick!), saying he got the same standard response, trying to contact Professor Hawking to reply to an article.