Date: Mon, 27 May 1996 17:05:20 -0500
Subject: Nobel nuttiness


Ralph:

>> There are a lot of Nobel prize caliber nuts out there?  EVER Hear of
>> the brain physiologist Sir John Eccles?
>
>... tell me about it. Did you ever read the list of bourgeois morons and
>charlatans who were awarded the Nobel in Economics?  <it's enough to make
>my skin creep and my blood pressure skyrocket>.
>
>... when they awarded Milton Friedman the Nobel, Joan Robinson was quoted
>as saying that she was turning over in her grave (and that was before she
>went to the grave).
>
>Jerry

Yes, I've heard of some nuttiness Eccles was involved in, though I can't
remember what. Closer to home, I'm quite well acquainted with a man who
provided one of the most important pieces that went into the standard model
of particle physics (actually, he's a friend of my father's), who certainly
deserved a Nobel Prize, but didn't get one through some combination of
being Indian and being obnoxious, and also because  by the time he had
published his work (his adviser held that up for some time) Feynman and
Gell-Mann had gotten in on the act. Well, anyway, not only has he tried TM
and levitation, he goes to the same nutty conferences that Eccles does.
He's still a hell of a physicist, though.

Jerry, what you're talking about is a little different. Eccles and other
Nobel nuts in the natural sciences actually did important and
well-established work. In fact, only a handful of people who've gotten
Nobels in Physics, Chemistry, and Physiology and Medicine haven't. His
going nuts afterwards thankfully doesn't reflect on his work. It's quite
absurd that a Nobel in Economics was ever instituted, considering that
Nobel never included it and certainly any idea that it was a
well-established field where prizes could be given for nonideological
reasons was premature. In fact, the main criterion the committee uses seems
to be whether you belong to the Chicago School. Pity the poor guys on the
faculty there who don't have Nobels. I suppose we had to have Peace and
Economics so that members of the elite who go all out to justify the status
quo can be acknowledged too.

Rahul




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