“Paradigms: Love Them and Leave Them.”

Throw out those old paradigms!

Jeff Holcombe will be conducting a seminar at the gallery called “Paradigms: Love Them and Leave Them.”

Part of the Science Up! series at Agonist Gallery, this seminar will consider the idea that science depends on a willingness to give up on its most cherished theories. Scientific progress requires leaving behind old ideas that have outlived their evidence. Societies commit enormous resources to researchers whose focus is to challenge prevailing authority. This is a tenuous relationship. When the challenges are considered heresy, the whole enterprise is in jeopardy. Science is not a belief system. It thrives on the power of evidence to overturn the general assumptions that everyone knows but can’t support. We’ll discuss several of the most revolutionary paradigm shifts in the history of science, including Evolution, Disease, Life, Geology, and Genetics. We’ll also try to identify where the current insurgencies are troubling the authorities now.