- Published: November 22, 2022
- Updated: November 22, 2022
- University / College: University of Southern California
- Level: Masters
- Language: English
- Downloads: 5
Estimating the Ebola Epidemic by Kai Kupferschmidt
In modern world the philosophers took a more pragmatic position. They stopped thinking about unreal things and realities ant started overthinking the existing ones. In this project we will use the information from the article Estimating the Ebola epidemic by Kai Kupferschmidt philosophical theories of German philosopher Karl Popper. He argued that the accumulation of human knowledge is unpredictable, the theory of an ideal governance, as a fact, does not exist; therefore, the political system should be flexible enough that the government can gradually change its policy. Because of this, society should be open to multiple points of view and cultures, that is, have the characteristics of pluralism and multiculturalism.
Medicine has no boundaries, but people build them and then break them every day. The Ebola disease is a very acute problem of a last half of a year. Scientists and doctors create a computer models to predict the countries which may next fall the victims to Ebola. Its rapid spread is a result of: “ the modelers are hampered by the paucity of data on the current outbreak and lack of knowledge about how Ebola spreads.” (Kupferschmidt 2014). But it is not only the problem of scientists, but only of the governments.
So here we can say that the theory of a flexible political system and pluralism within the country, brought to life, could have been much more useful than creating models. If all the countries were able to cooperate in spite of the political/cultural and other disagreements the vaccine could have been found many years ago. The World’s Contest between the countries slows down their ability to cooperate. And one thing more, Popper was also a proponent of critical rationalism, the main ideas of which are based on the fact that: “ the knowledge must be as objective as possible and doesn’t depend on the judgment of individuals or groups” (Popper 1966) So, we can make an inference that if the modern scientists were more critical when studying some problems they may get better results. In the case of Ebola disease, here we can say that critical and much broader view on this case could help.
So, in conclusion, I would like to point out, that the problem of Ebola disease may be eliminated much earlier if the humanity would have accepted the point of view of K. Popper; medicine could develop quicker and better; the countries interrelations on the field of science would be better. Broad view and no prejudice are more effective way of solving the problems of this kind.
Works cited
Popper Karl Raymond. 1946. The Open Society and Its Enemies. Princeton University Press, Fifth Edition (revised), 1966.