Critique and summary

SCIENCE IS INEVITABLE
Summary
I read the article “Is Scientific Progress Inevitable?” which was written by Andrew Irvine on 2006. It was published in the book In the Agora: The Public Face of Canadian Philosophy. The main idea of the article is scientific progress is not inevitable.
At the first part of the passage, the author used his own his experience that he took his daughter to see a medicine wheel; he used what he saw to let us know these structures have been there for thousands of years and human beings are fragile. Furthermore, he used some facts that ancient people may use their unique ways to record summer solstice rather than today’s high astronomical knowledge. As he said “scientific knowledge is not inevitable” (para.12), there is no guarantee that scientific progress will keep increase, as long as we have the belief to live better, the scientific progress is not essential or necessary.
Critique
This article was written by Andrew Irvine who is a professor of UBC at department of philosophy (Irvine, 2012). The title of the passage makes readers to think of scientific progress is not inevitable, however, without technology, we cannot live in this highly developed world.
The book In the Agora: The Public Face of Canadian Philosophy was edited by Andrew Irvine and John Russell; it is a book which collects many Canadians philosophers’ article and enriches our world by their Philosophical thought (University of Toronto Press Publishing, 2013).
However, we are living in a developing world, as long as we want to live better, the scientific progress will remain non-inevitable. Electronic products for example, cellphones have been part of our live for few years, everybody has a cellphone to communicate to each other conveniently. But ancient people can only communicate each other with their voice or gesture, they cannot reach somebody who is far away from them. With the scientific results, we can use electronic products to talk and see people thousands of miles away from us.
In the article, the author mentioned that some ancient culture may use their own way to figure out summer solstice like the sun dance (Irvine, 2006, pp338-339). Truly, they do not need a calendar to record dates, but if it is a cloudy day, they will have no idea how to do this. Astronomers used telescope to observe astronomical phenomena which can show the exact date of summer and winter solstice no matter the weather is.
Irvine used a quotation of a famous philosopher Sidney Hook that is “What has happened need not necessarily have happened” (Irvine, 2006, pp338-339). However, that is the idea in their philosopher’s mind. If Newton did not discover the laws of gravity, someone else would discover it. If Edison didn’t invent the light bulb, someone else would do this (Akhipill, 2012, December 30), because the imagination and creativity of human beings is unlimited. So, what has happened will definitely happen.
To conclude, scientific progress may emerged as a coincidence but inevitable. The world is dynamic, in this highly developing world, we need to use science to support us into a better situation.
REFERNECES
Akhipill. (2012, December 30). Is Technological Progress Inevitable? Retrieved 2014 October 16 from http://oikumeneurasia.wordpress.com/2012/12/30/is-technological-progress-inevitable/
Irvine, A. (2006). Is Scientific Progress Inevitable? In E. Henderson (Ed.), Becoming an Active Reader: A Complete Resource for Reading and Writing (pp.338-339). Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press.
Irvine, A. D. (2012, August 10). Curriculum Vitae. Retrieved from http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/airvine/CV/IrvineCV.pdf
University of Toronto Press Publishing. (2013). Retrieved 2014 October 16 from http://www.utppublishing.com/In-the-Agora-The-Public-Face-of-Canadian-Philosophy.html