elby's back

name: elby

religion: christian. proud anglican.

ethnicity: 唔識華夏文化嘅中國人

culture: confucian. ru. “Out of all virtues, the first is filial piety; out of all vices, the worst is licentiousness” and allat. also taoist and buddhist (the kind with bodhisattvas).

sexuality: gay? bi? queer

academic pursuits: many humanities, with the occasional physics

other blogs: @autode-fide (even more religious sideblog) and @objet-petit-eyyy (where I dump any guilty fixations I develop over my tumblr lifespan)

everyone needs to read genesis with a critical eye. Jacob is a literal magician.

hobbies: idk anymore, have a wall of text:

Deep Water Chora

Gege feels foreign to the tongue of a 香港人 in Cantonese it sounds more like gawgaw Gawgaw or maybe Kʰɐi̯³³-gaw gnawing on his kʰɐi̯³³-tɐi̯²² somewhere in the recesses of Sham Shui Po the smell of roast duck and plum sauce wafting into a 唐樓 from the roast duck gawgaw got at lɐu̯²¹ ha geh market with Ah Suks and Ah Sums advertising sale of raw pork 24 dollars per kilogram か　I dont know I never go to the butchers Homeless people rest in Tung Chau Park and the idol of 關公 blesses the new siblings and someone recites

Thou hast ravished my heart my sister my spouse Ngŏh kè tsź mooî à ngŏ hkè sanfoŏ à ĭ king kik ngŏh sam 愛慕

There's Science as an ideal: a way of approaching the world and learning about it. The idealization of observation and questioning, of coming up with theories but being willing to change them as you observe more.

There is Science as a practice: a way of implementing the ideal. Methodologies for observation, theory-building, and testing. The discussion of these methodologies which also seeks to analyze which are effective, how they can be improved, what their limitations are.

There is Science as a body of work. The accumulation of science-as-practiced, where many generations of work have built on each other and continue to analyze and relate to earlier work.

And there is Science as an institution, as an arm of the Academy. Who decides which approaches and perspectives are legitimate? Who does the observation, who pays for it? The academic project has historical roots deeply tied in imperialism: a philosophy of Knowing the world as part of the project of Owning the world.

Science as a body of work is deeply tied up in science as an institution - not because this fundamentally follows from the accumulated practice of science as an ideal, but as a matter of historical fact. This is the body of work we have.

All of these aspects are in conversation with each other - and with realms of life and society outside of "science" specifically. How exactly the ideal of science should be defined, has varied over history. The iterative effects of changes in methodology and philosophy accumulate in the body of work. The changing body of work changes the goals and outlooks of the academy. These aspects of science are not separable. But neither are they synonymous.

Very often, I see critiques of science-as-practiced rebutted with appeals to the legacy and legitimacy of science-as-institution. Meanwhile, critiques of science-as-institution are brushed off with appeals to science-as-ideal.

L with a dash through it (ł) makes a “W” sound. and W makes a “V” sound.

—favorite color

—is god cruel

—when is the last time the hole in your chest oozed

—what is the color of your loneliness

—how vulnerable are you to babylonian necromancy

—can i cut you

—why is god cruel

—can you get on your knees quickly