It seems that Jay¹s point moves us to a new consideration.

Hume wrote: ³Reason is, or ought only to be slave of passions, and can never
pretend to any other office than to serve and obey them.² (Treatise,
II.III.iii)

I think our leaders understand the evidence quite well, but knowledge does
not entail action. Passionally it is in their interest to appear to do
something but to take as few political and economic risks as possible.
(Which is what the Obama approach amounts to.) Furthermore, believing that
anthropogenic global warming is occurring and that it is politically,
socially, economically, and technologically possible to make a significant
impact on it, does not entail the belief that we ought to. There are those
like Lomborg who recognize the fact but deny the duty.

Better scientific literacy will not change the fact that there is not an
axiological entailment here.

It is a question of values. Do we want ³ethical literacy² as well? This
seems to be the issue here.

Michael K



From: "Dr. P.J. Fleisher" <[log in to unmask]>
Reply-To: Teaching Breakfast List <[log in to unmask]>
Date: Thu, 3 Dec 2009 18:40:26 -0500
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: Science Literacy Article

No surprise here.  Take the topic of Global Warming.  With all of the
mounting evidence, even our Global leaders can't seem to understand the most
basic, self evident reality.  Perhaps they do, and the answer lies in the
fact that when people don't know what to do, they do nothing, or may be they
are just to scared to act.  This simply confirms what we hear daily in the
media.  The solution lies with better education for pre-schoolers in the
future, which translates into better future teachers.
Jay

-----Original Message-----
From: Teaching Breakfast List on behalf of Terry L. Helser
Sent: Thu 12/3/2009 1:32 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Science Literacy Article

Cool! We are doing something correct, just not enough.
http://www.aps.org/units/fed/newsletters/summer2009/hobson.cfm
Cheers!
Terry