We are now in week 14 - the last week of classes for the session. Today I have my last tutorial for my Tuesday group in the first-year history of science subject I'm tutoring. I bribed my students to turn up by offering chocolate chip biscuits (home-made, too - they're really good!)
Anyway, we're looking at Thomas Kuhn today - scientific revolutions and how science progresses, etc. I had a bizarre dream last night. I was teaching this class, and not only did I forget the biscuits, but Karl Popper, Kuhn's arch-nemesis, turned up and and took over my class. He dominated the discussion and wouldn't let me get a word in edgewise! Keep in mind that Popper has been dead for 17 years, so if he did appear in my class, it would be a miracle. But aside from that, why wouldn't I want to hear from someone as famous in HPS as Karl Popper? I'm sure he'd do a better job teaching than me!All very strange. It makes me worry...
4 comments:
LOL. You've been hanging around with Schuster too long. His craziness must be contagious.
So I assume he was speaking in a thick Austrian accent. Did he accuse you of teaching "mob psychology"?
All in all, it would be better than having Feyerabend crash your class. Sure, he'd be more fun at a party than Popper but your students would never recover.
Unfortunately, I can't remember the details!! Typical hazy dream stuff.
Fortunately the class went well. I remembered the biscuitss, the students appreciated them, and Karl Popper stayed dead. I told a couple of minor anecdotes about Kuhn (including how I'm his intellectual grand-daughter) and about my Popper dream.
Why wouldn't the students recover from having Feyerabend crash the class?
I'm just imagining Popper hurling accusations of mob psychology against you for having the temerity to even teach Kuhn. At which point Feyerabend would come in and give you the sort of defence you don't need. Popper would be berating them for not cutting off anything that even smacks of pseudo-science whereas Feyerabend would be telling them that it's not irrational to be a creationist. He might even try to argue that "survival of the fittest" is a tautology that Popper should reject. (But only if he's not up to date with philosophy of biology! We did this last semester and there are solutions for breaking the circle but not terribly good ones.)
Hahaha...you have funny dreams
Post a Comment