I think we ought to distinguish somehow between crackpots (believers in bunk) and incorrect contrarians. The former are obviously part of the latter but are they the same?
You ignore the possibility of crackpots who are not contrarians, but instead well established or even dominant in the mainstream. You have a very rosy view of academia if you believe that this phenomenon is entirely nonexistent nowadays!
That said, I’d say the main defining criterion of crackpots—as opposed to ordinary mistaken folks—is that their emotions have got the better of them, rendering them incapable of further rational argument. A true crackpot views the prospect of changing his mind as treachery to his cause, similar to a soldier scorning the possibility of surrender after suffering years of pain, hardship, and danger in a war. Trouble is, protracted intellectual battles in which contrarians are exposed to hostility and ridicule often push them beyond the edge of crackpottery at some point. It’s a pity because smart contrarians, even when mistaken about their main point, can often reveal serious weaknesses in the mainstream view. But then this is often why they are met with such hostility in the first place, especially in fields with political/ideological implications.
You ignore the possibility of crackpots who are not contrarians, but instead well established or even dominant in the mainstream. You have a very rosy view of academia if you believe that this phenomenon is entirely nonexistent nowadays!
Er. I think there are plenty of people in academia who have very wrong beliefs with poor justifications. But I took our working definition of crackpot and bunk to exclude such people. We’re asking about a particular kind of being wrong: being wrong and unpopular. The question is, is there something beyond that to being a crackpot. Must you also, say, engage in pseudoscience, be non-falsifiable, or engage in unsavory tactics etc. Obviously we don’t want to debate definitions, but I think the claim that you picked out is true given the way we’ve been using the words in this thread.
But I took our working definition of crackpot and bunk to exclude such people. We’re asking about a particular kind of being wrong: being wrong and unpopular.
Fair enough, if we define “crackpot” as necessarily unpopular. However, what primarily comes to my mind when I hear this word is the warlike emotional state that renders one incapable of changing one’s mind, which I described in the above comment. If people like that manage to grab positions of power in the academia and don the cloak of respectability, I still think that they share more relevant similarity with various scorned crackpot contrarians than with people whose mainstream respectability is well earned.
I think a good test for a crackpot vs. an ordinary mistaken contrarian would be how this individual would behave if the power relations were suddenly reversed, and the mainstream and contrarian views changed places. A crackpot would not hesitate to use his power to extirpate the views he dislikes with all means available, whereas an non-crackpot contrarian would show at least some respect for his (now contrarian) opponents.
Jack:
You ignore the possibility of crackpots who are not contrarians, but instead well established or even dominant in the mainstream. You have a very rosy view of academia if you believe that this phenomenon is entirely nonexistent nowadays!
That said, I’d say the main defining criterion of crackpots—as opposed to ordinary mistaken folks—is that their emotions have got the better of them, rendering them incapable of further rational argument. A true crackpot views the prospect of changing his mind as treachery to his cause, similar to a soldier scorning the possibility of surrender after suffering years of pain, hardship, and danger in a war. Trouble is, protracted intellectual battles in which contrarians are exposed to hostility and ridicule often push them beyond the edge of crackpottery at some point. It’s a pity because smart contrarians, even when mistaken about their main point, can often reveal serious weaknesses in the mainstream view. But then this is often why they are met with such hostility in the first place, especially in fields with political/ideological implications.
Er. I think there are plenty of people in academia who have very wrong beliefs with poor justifications. But I took our working definition of crackpot and bunk to exclude such people. We’re asking about a particular kind of being wrong: being wrong and unpopular. The question is, is there something beyond that to being a crackpot. Must you also, say, engage in pseudoscience, be non-falsifiable, or engage in unsavory tactics etc. Obviously we don’t want to debate definitions, but I think the claim that you picked out is true given the way we’ve been using the words in this thread.
Your point about emotions is a good one.
Fair enough, if we define “crackpot” as necessarily unpopular. However, what primarily comes to my mind when I hear this word is the warlike emotional state that renders one incapable of changing one’s mind, which I described in the above comment. If people like that manage to grab positions of power in the academia and don the cloak of respectability, I still think that they share more relevant similarity with various scorned crackpot contrarians than with people whose mainstream respectability is well earned.
I think a good test for a crackpot vs. an ordinary mistaken contrarian would be how this individual would behave if the power relations were suddenly reversed, and the mainstream and contrarian views changed places. A crackpot would not hesitate to use his power to extirpate the views he dislikes with all means available, whereas an non-crackpot contrarian would show at least some respect for his (now contrarian) opponents.