Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Scoobie-Doo Realism

wants to posit that there is an intellectual movement that should be called "Scoobie-Doo Realism." People take up a stance of Scoobie-Doo Realism when they pose as hard nosed advocates of science and objectivity, because they can unmask a traditionally mysterious figure. This despite the fact that their own explanations make no sense and they hang out with a talking dog.

2 comments:

Nordom said...

I'm intrigued. Do you have any particular people or works in mind?

Rob Helpy-Chalk said...

Not exactly. It popped into my mind most recently when I was reading a discussion of Mackie's objection to moral realism on the grounds that moral properties are "ontologically queer" given a scientific worldview. I thought "How did we get to the point where a simple obligation is weird and spooky, by quantum superposition is common sense?"

I don't really think that Mackie is a Scooby-Doo realist, though. Its more something I see in some scientists when they are being dismissive of religion or philosophy. I keep thinking "wait, *I'm* the one who believes weird things?"