The Wayback Machine - https://web.archive.org/web/20180125135007/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17357391
Format

Send to

Choose Destination
See comment in PubMed Commons below
Clin Toxicol (Phila). 2007;45(1):85-9.

The delphic oracle and the ethylene-intoxication hypothesis.

Author information

1
Department of Philosophy, Memorial University, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada.

Abstract

An interdisciplinary team of scientists--including an archeologist, a geologist, a chemist, and a toxicologist--has argued that ethylene intoxication was the probable cause of the High Priestess of Delphi's divinatory (mantic) trances. The claim that the High Priestess of Delphi entered a mantic state because of ethylene intoxication enjoyed widespread reception in specialist academic journals, science magazines, and newspapers. This article uses a similar interdisciplinary approach to show that this hypothesis is implausible since it is based on problematic scientific and textual evidence, as well as a fallacious argument. The main issue raised by this counterargument is not that a particular scientific hypothesis or conjecture turned out to be false. (This is expected in scientific investigation.) Rather, the main issue is that it was a positivist disposition that originally led readers to associate the evidence presented in such a way that it seemed to point to the conclusion, even when the evidence did not support the conclusion. We conclude by observing that positivist dispositions can lead to the acceptance of claims because they have a scientific form, not because they are grounded in robust evidence and sound argument.

PMID:
17357391
[Indexed for MEDLINE]
PubMed Commons home

PubMed Commons

0 comments
How to join PubMed Commons

    Supplemental Content

    Loading ...
    Support Center