But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience. MS. DIANE REHMHis new book is titled "Ignorance: How It Drives Science." Stuart Firestein: The Pursuit of Ignorance Firestein discusses science, how it's pursued, and how it's perceived, in addition to going into a detailed discussion about the scientific method and what it is. He said scientific research is similar to a buying a puzzle without a guaranteed solution. Decreasing pain and increasing PROM are treatment goals and therex, pain management, patient education, modalities, and functional training is in the plan of care. FIRESTEINAnd so I think it's proven itself again and again, but that does not necessarily mean that it owns the truth in every possible area that humans are interested in. I do appreciate it. Why they want to know this and not that, this more than that. It's absolutely silly, but for 50 years it existed as a real science. And you're listening to "The Diane Rehm Show." It's what it is. I dont mean stupidity, I dont mean a callow indifference to fact or reason or data, he explains. Ignorance follows knowledge, not the other way around. Stuart Firestein, Ignorance: How It Drives Science. "I use that term purposely to be a little provocative. Short break, we'll be right back. It is certainly more accurate than the more common metaphor of scientists patiently piecing together a giant puzzle. Here, a few he highlighted, along with a few other favorites: 1. Photo: James Duncan Davidson. But I don't think Einstein's physics came out of Newton's physics. 4. I mean, we all have tons of memories in this, you know. Why you should listen You'd think that a scientist who studies how the human brain receives and perceives information would be inherently interested in what we know. You wanna put it over there because people have caught a lot of fish there or do you wanna put it somewhere else because people have caught a lot of fish there and you wanna go somewhere different. CHRISTOPHERGood morning. But those aren't the questions that get us into the lab every day, that's not the way everybody works. Thursday, Mar 02 2023Foreign policy expert David Rothkopf on the war in Ukraine, relations with China and the challenges ahead for the Biden administration. Professor Firestein, an academic, suggests that the backbone of science has always been in uncovering areas of knowledge that we don't know or understand and that the more we learn the more we realize how much more there is to learn. We have things that always give you answers to thingslike religion In science, on the frontier, the answers havent come yet. Stuart Firestein: The pursuit of ignorance, (18:33), TED talks Ignorance: The Birthsplace of Bang: Stuart Firestein at TEDxBrussels, (16:29) In his 2012 book Ignorance: How It Drives Science, Firestein argues that pursuing research based on what we don't know is more valuable than building on what we do know. I wanna go back to what you said about facts earlier. "[9], According to Firestein, scientific research is like trying to find a black cat in a dark room: It's very hard to find it, "especially when there's no black cat." And I'm thinking, really? Hi there, Dana. About the speaker Stuart Firestein Neuroscientist I have a big dog. How are you both? Or, as Dr. Firestein posits in his highly entertaining, 18-minute TED talk above, a challenge on par with finding a black cat in a dark room that may contain no cats whatsoever. In this witty talk, Firestein gets to the heart of science as it is really practiced and suggests that we should value what we don't know -- or "high-quality ignorance" -- just as much as what we know. Where does it -- I mean, these are really interesting questions and they're being looked at. Relevant Learning Objective: LO 1-2; Describe the scientific method and how it can be applied to education research topics. In his TED Talk, The Pursuit of Ignorance, Stuart Firestein argues that in science and other aspects of learning we should abide by ignorance. He clarifies that he is speaking about a high-quality ignorance that drives us to ask more and better questions, not one that stops thinking. We're not really sure what it means to have consciousness ourselves. The reason for this is something Firesteins colleague calls The Bulimic Method of Education, which involves shoving a huge amount of information down the throats of students and then they throw it back up into tests. At the Columbia University Department of Biological Sciences, Firestein is now studying the sense of smell. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. We sat down with author Stuart Firestein to . The guiding principle behind this course is not simply to talk about the big questions how did the universe begin, what is consciousness, and so forth. Its black cats in dark rooms. Scientists, Dr. Firestein says, are driven by ignorance. The trouble with a hypothesis is its your own best idea about how something works. FIRESTEINYou're exactly right, so that's another. Also not true. There is a theory which states that if ever anyone discovered exactly what the Universe is for and why it is here, it will instantly disappear and be replaced by something even more bizarrely inexplicable. What do I need to learn next?). They come and tell us about what they would like to know, what they think is critical to know, how they might get to know it, what will happen if they do find this or that thing out, what might happen if they dont. It's a big black book -- no, it's a small black book with a big question mark on the front of it. The Masonic Philosophical Society seeks to recapture the spirit of the Renaissance.. [3] Firestein has been elected as a fellow by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) for his meritorious efforts to advance science. $21.95. I mean it's quite a lively field actually and yet, for years people figured well, we have a map. REHMSo what you're saying is you think from a biological standpoint that we've been on the wrong track. In 2006, a Columbia University neuroscientist, Stuart J. Firestein, began teaching a course on scientific ignorance after realizing, to his horror, that many of his students might have. He compares science to searching for a black cat in a dark room, even though the cat may or may not be in there. And we do know things, but we don't know them perfectly and we don't know them forever. And how does our brain combine that blend into a unified perception? The purpose is to be able to ask lots of questions to be able to frame thoughtful, interesting questions because thats where the work is.. FIRESTEINSo that's a very specific question. What conclusions do you reach or what questions do you ask? And we talk on the radio for God's sakes. ignorance how it drives science 1st edition. REHMI'm going to take you to another medical question and that is why we seem to have made so little progress in finding a cure for cancer. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary". And through meditation, as crazy as this sounds and as institutionalized as I might end up by the end of the day today, I have reached a conversation with a part of myself, a conscious part of myself. That's beyond me. I put a limit on it and I quickly got to 30 or 35 students. FIRESTEINAnd I must say a lot of modern neuroscience comes to exactly that recognition, that there is no way introspectively to understand. My first interests were in science. Thank you so much for having me. The Engage phase moves from a high-level questioning process (What is important? That's a very tricky one, I suppose. I mean, we work hard to get data. Its just turned out to be a far more difficult problem than we thought it was, but weve learned a vast amount about the problem, Firestein said. No audio-visuals and no prepared lectures were allowed, the lectures became free-flowing conversations that students participated in. Why you should listen You'd think that a scientist who studies how the human brain receives and perceives information would be inherently interested in what we know. But in reality, it is designed to accommodate both general and applied approaches to learning. So for all these years, men have been given these facts and now the facts are being thrown out. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. Facts are fleeting, he says; their real purpose is to lead us to ask better questions. . I mean the classic example being Newtonian physics and Einsteinium physics. I think science and medicine has set it up for the public to expect us to expound facts, to know things. Stuart Firestein Ignorance: How it Drives Science. FIRESTEINThis is a very interesting question actually. FIRESTEINYou know, my wife who was on your show at one time asked us about dolphins and shows the mirrors and has found that dolphins were able to recognize themselves in a mirror showing some level of self awareness and therefore self consciousness. And yet today more and more high-throughput fishing expeditions are driving our science comparing the genomes between individuals. I think that the possibility that you have done that is not absolutely out of the question, it's just that, again, it's so easy to be fooled by what are brain tells us that I think you would be more satisfied if you sought out a somewhat more -- I think that's what you're asking for is a more empirical reinforcement of this idea. REHMand 99 percent of the time you're going to die of something else. FIRESTEINI mean, ignorance, of course, I use that term purposely to be a little provocative. I know nothing except the fact of my ignorance. Socrates, quoted in Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Philosphers (via the Yale Book of Quotations). "We may commonly think that we begin with ignorance and we gain knowledge [but] the more critical step in the process is the reverse of that." . "The Pursuit of Ignorance." TED Talks. Learn more about the You understand that of course FIRESTEINbut I think that it's a wonderful example because we've had this war on cancer that we all thought we were gonna win pretty quickly. Orson Welles Explains Why Ignorance Was His Major Gift to Citizen Kane, Noam Chomsky Explains Where Artificial Intelligence Went Wrong, Steven Pinker Explains the Neuroscience of Swearing (NSFW). Thursday, Feb 09 2023The post-Roe battle continues as a judge in Texas considers a nationwide ban on abortion pills. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. (202) 885-1231 to finally to a personalized questioning phase (why do we care? FIRESTEINAnd I would say you don't have to do that to be part of the adventure of science. In this witty talk, Firestein gets to the heart of science as it is really practiced and suggests that we should value what we don't know or "high-quality ignorance" just as much as . The Pursuit of Ignorance. FIRESTEINI've run across it several times. I have to tell you I don't think I know anybody who actually works that way except maybe FIRESTEINin science class, yes. Answers create questions, he says. In fact, says Firestein, more often than not, science is like looking for a black cat in a dark . And it is ignorance--not knowledge--that is the true engine of science. And you want -- I mean, in this odd way, what you really want in science is to be disproven. And as it now turns out, seems to be a huge mistake in some of our ideas about learning and memory and how it works. And then we just sit down, and of course, all they ever think about all day long is what they don't know.