Perhaps the history of the errors of mankind

[breathedout]

Perhaps the history of the errors of mankind, all things considered, is more valuable and interesting than that of their discoveries. Truth is uniform and narrow; it constantly exists, and does not seem to require so much an active energy, as a passive aptitude of soul in order to encounter it. But error is endlessly diversified; it has no reality, but is the pure and simple creation of the mind that invents it. In this field the soul has room enough to expand herself, to display all her boundless faculties, and all her beautiful and interesting extravagancies and absurdities.

—Report of Dr. Benjamin Franklin, and other commissioners, charged by the King of France, with the examination of the animal magnetism, as now practised at Paris (1785), via Urte Laukaityte's "Mesmerising Science: The Franklin Commission and the Modern Clinical Trial" at The Public Domain Review

The whole article is hilarious and fascinating (who doesn't love a good chuckle at the antics of the 18th-century Mesmerists?), but I was particularly struck by Laukaityte's closing quotation: not a sentiment one expects to find in the report from the scientific commission that pioneered the single-blind clinical trial!

Comments

[lazaefair]

Marking to read for later. But regarding your last sentence: I do find the idea of the "natural philosopher" (as opposed to "scientist") appealing, because scientists should get a thorough liberal arts training to ground their science in some kind of framework/context/worldview. Too many STEM majors wandering around with a catastrophic ignorance of history and philosophy, unchallenged prejudices, huge ethical blind spots, because we don't consider any of that necessary for higher education degrees anymore.

[breathedout]

Yes, I agree with this. And it also highlights the importance of revising the liberal arts canon, because while ideally everyone would get a grounding in history/philosophy/ethics, ideally it would not be the same imperialist Euro- and Christian-centric grounding in those things that Franklin et al were working with.