entrails07.doc
Sydney Alumni Magazine (Spring 2007) pg. 2
Entrails are go
It seems that to medievalist Dr. David Juste (Heaven sent, hell bent, SAM, Winter, 2007), we have to accept astrology as a valid science on the grounds that it was very influential in medieval society.
It also seems that more and more people in contemporary society are accepting this criterion of the scientific, to judge from the fact that astrological predictions appear with increasing frequency in the various media.
However, what if the magazine finds a classicist historian of ancient Rome whose brief but brilliantly energetic career to date has focused on bringing entrails reading in from the cold? Certainly, in terms of giving advice to Roman leaders considering important decisions, entrails reading was at least as influential then as astrology was in the medieval period.
Whether one is considering past or present times, we cannot use, as a criterion of the scientific, wide acceptance and use of a specific discipline. Rather, in determining whether a discipline is scientific, we should be guided by such criteria as the one of falsifiability as proposed by the late Sir Karl Popper. Past or present superstitions do not gain real scientific status just because they are popular, or supported by many famous people, including some scientists.
John Furedy (BA '62, MA '63, PhD '65),
Emeritus Professor of Psychology,
University of Toronto
Darling Point, NSW
Superstitious nonsense
Since graduation way back in 1977,I have always appreciated and looked forward to editions of what has become the Sydney Alumni Magazine. Over the years there has been some fascinating and informative material written by admirable people associated with the University in all areas of expertise and knowledge. This of course helps to "showcase" the University as the magazine tends to show up in many professional waiting rooms and elsewhere.
I write however to politely but firmly criticise the article and front cover of the Winter 2007 edition. I have no real objection to people studying the history of Astrology (in fact, despite my degree, my first subject at university level was the history of Reformation Europe) but I most definitely do object to your contributor's implications of scientific veracity for the subject.
Provide us with evidence or be content to study the subject as just another form of superstitious nonsense. And please do not give prominence to such nonsense in our much appreciated magazine.
Ian Duncan (BVSc Hons ’78)
Armidale, NSW