Lebensraum<\/em> or \u201cliving space.\u201d More and more, though, biologists are recognizing that lichens aren\u2019t simple and single plants but, rather, colonies of cohabiting, cooperative organisms that would, in a sense, not exist on their own.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
But, of course, the point suggested by Toby Spribille is relevant far beyond the sciences, and perhaps even more obviously so. \u00a0If complete objectivity and neutrality are difficult to achieve in the physical and biological sciences, if not altogether impossible, how much more obviously so will this be the case with respect to the social sciences and the humanities.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n
If the conclusions that scientists draw from their data, and the very questions they choose to ask, depend on their assumptions about the world, the culture in which they work, and the vocabulary they use, won\u2019t that be even more obviously true for psychologists, sociologists, and historians? \u00a0The principle that we can only ask questions for which we have the imagination surely holds true in philosophy, historiography, archaeology, and similar fields where error isn\u2019t so immediately apparent in the form of unsatisfactory instrument readings and, sometimes, laboratory explosions.<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a0 \u00a0 Here\u2019s a brief but interesting article on a little-known field in the biological sciences: \u00a0 \u201cThe Overlooked Organisms That Keep Challenging Our Assumptions About Life: Gorgeous and weird, lichens have pushed the boundaries of our understanding of nature\u2014and our way of studying it.\u201d \u00a0 I like the opening passage of this 17 January […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[2767,2773,2776,2770,243],"class_list":["post-69385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-historiography","tag-human-factors","tag-neutrality","tag-objectivity","tag-science"],"yoast_head":"\n
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