What we shall know only tomorrow.
نویسنده
چکیده
In contrast to a widely held belief among politicians and science managers, the course of science is unpredictable and difficult to steer. The reason is that management is based on the knowledge of today, whereas science is about the knowledge of tomorrow. As Sir Karl Popper (1957) remarked: ‘‘We cannot anticipate today what we shall know only tomorrow.’’ Anyone who specifies the key issues in the field of brain and language for the first hundred years of the new millennium therefore runs the risk of becoming a fool in the light of history’s hindsight and of the knowledge and discoveries still hidden behind the curtains of the third millennium. This being said, for the sake of providing the third millennium historians of science with materials for reconstructing the belief systems of the old millennium scientists, one should be willing to play the role of jester in science’s hall of fame. No doubt this third millennium issue will contain more off-track predictions than spot-on foresight. Future generations will decide where my remarks fell on the line between stupidity and wisdom. To protect myself against an overdose of speculation I will discuss key issues in the context of today’s science of brain and language. One of the key issues will be the development of a more intricate science of brain and language. The classical neuropsychological approach has exploited the functional fractionation of cognitive systems as a result of brain lesions. No doubt this has resulted in a great number of relevant findings with important theoretical implications. However, this approach has also too often ignored the issue of how neuropsychological accounts fare in the light of knowledge about the principles of neural organization. A very recent example in case is Grodzinsky’s theory about the neurology of syntax, and
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ورودعنوان ژورنال:
- Brain and language
دوره 71 1 شماره
صفحات -
تاریخ انتشار 2000