petrophysics1 writes:
Stile writes:
The humanities cannot ever be more than "a best guess" because there's nothing to verify or test the answer against.
...
You get a description of the criminal from the 4 "science" types. The artist draws you a portrait of the criminal.
Given your quote above, do you throw out the drawing as bullshit?
No, of course not.
I take the portrait as the "best guess" that it is and use it to try and catch the criminal. Of course, we must remember that it still is nothing more than a "best guess" since we have nothing to verify or test the answer against (like a video tape of the robbery). What makes you think the portrait is anything more than a "best guess" in terms of accuracy? We know that portraits drawn from descriptions of human memory are very prone to error. Regardless of the error in translation through the artist, there's also error in the human memory in the first place.
In order to have accurate knowledge of the criminal, however, the "best guess" of the portrait is not-so-useful. In order to have accurate knowledge of the criminal, we would require DNA or a video tape or some other objective, verifiable method of identification.
The humanities are OBSERVATION.
... the humanities teach us how to look at and observe the world, not necessarily explain it.
Yes, and they attempt to do so without having anyting to verify or test the answer against, as your portrait example shows us splendidly. Leaving the humanities to still be nothing more than a "best guess."
I'm not saying that best guesses are useless. But it is dangerous thinking indeed to take a "best guess" as an accurate description of truth.
The accurate observation is first, then come the explanations.
Correct. Science is based on accurate observations. The humanities cannot tell us whether or not the observations are accurate... because they are only a best-guess. Only verification and objectivity can show us if the observations are accurate.
Science is based on verification and objectivity. It is not based on the humanities.
Again, this isn't to say that the humanities are useless
for everything, it's just that they're not very useful for obtaining
known-to-be-accurate knowledge about the world. The best they can provide are best-guesses about ideals. Which is it's own useful tool for studies involving more thought-based exercises.