Why do we trust peer review but not our own senses? Why does the scientific community sometimes behave more like a cult than a democracy? Why is “follow the science” a phrase that would have made actual scientists uncomfortable? Intellectual Prestige explores the philosophy of science – the rules, assumptions, and blind spots behind the method – using thinkers like Popper, Kuhn, Hume, and Carnap. If you believe in science but want to understand its limits, you are in the right place.
There is a particular kind of genius that does not get celebrated enough. It is not the genius of discovery. It is the genius of naming. Before Auguste Comte came along in the early nineteenth century, people had been thinking about society for thousands of years. Aristotle did it. Montesquieu did it. Ibn Khaldun did […]
He Named the Field: Why Auguste Comte Is the True MVP of Social Science Read More »
There is a quiet injustice in the history of ideas. The people who plant the seeds rarely get credit for the forest. Ask anyone to name the father of data science, and you will hear familiar names. Maybe Thomas Bayes. Maybe John Tukey, who coined the term “data analysis” in 1962. Maybe some Silicon Valley
Is Condorcet the Real Father of Modern Data Science? Read More »
The Enlightenment had a problem. It told everyone to think for themselves, question authority, and trust reason. Wonderful advice. But after a few decades of everyone thinking for themselves, Europe found itself drowning in revolutions, guillotines, and philosophical arguments that went nowhere. Freedom of thought, it turned out, was excellent at tearing things down. It
Auguste Comte: The Man Who Made the Enlightenment Scientific Read More »
You wake up tomorrow and gravity stops working. Your coffee floats away. Your car drifts into the sky. The sun decides not to rise. Ridiculous, right? But here’s the uncomfortable question: why are you so sure it won’t happen? Because it never has? Because the laws of physics are reliable? David Hume, the 18th century
Why Science is a Religion Built on Habit (David Hume) Read More »
Your uncle just shared another post about how Big Pharma is hiding the cure for everything. Your wellness influencer swears by a detox tea that cleanses your aura. That guy from high school is now an expert on climate science, vaccines, and the true shape of the Earth, apparently all at once. Welcome to the
How to Spot a Pseudo-Scientist in Your Social Media Feed (Karl Popper) Read More »