“I do not understand,” Bishop Morehouse said. “It seems to me that all things of the mind are metaphysical. That most exact and convincing of all sciences, mathematics, is sheerly metaphysical. Each and every thought-process of the scientific reasoner is metaphysical. Surely you will agree with me?”

“As you say, you do not understand,” Ernest replied. “The metaphysician reasons deductively out of his own subjectivity. The scientist reasons inductively from the facts of experience. The metaphysician reasons from theory to facts, the scientist from facts to theory. The metaphysician explains the universe by himself, the scientist explains himself by the universe.”

“Thank God we are not scientists,” Dr. Hammerfield murmured complacently.

– Jack London, The Iron Heel

I am teaching three classes this semester.  One of those is General Chemistry.  That class is pretty easy and straightforward (not much has changed in chemistry, at least in the realm covered in an introductory course, in nearly a century).  The other two are different sections of the same course, Scientific Thinking.  This is a core curriculum course that every student is required to take to graduate from AUC.  The point of the course, as I understand it, is to give the students a clear understanding of just what this thing called science really is.  We start with an introduction to the scientific method, and then give a brief overview of the history of cosmology, highlighting the idea of paradigm shifts (i.e. geocentrism -> heliocentrism, etc.).  Thats where we are currently at.  From here we will discuss questions of life and ethics.  I like the class a lot, but am looking forward to next semester when I will be more prepared with my own material.  For better or worse, the instructors are allowed quite a lot of independence in designing their courses.  For example, I just learned that while I have been teaching Newtonian physics and General Relativity, another instructor has been teaching Erich Fromm!  Granted, his is the class I would probably prefer to be taking, but it is hard for me to accept that they are listed as the same course.  Either way, I enjoy teaching my sections.  I wish I could arrange for certain family members to be here when I touch on such topics as “what is a scientific theory?” and “much like the gravity, evolution is also a theory.”

Here are some random photos from my balcony and around the hood: