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About Charles K. MacKay
Expertise
I can answer a number of questions in philosophy; my academic concentrations (graduate school at Cornell) are ethics, political philosophy, and 19th-century German philosophy (Marx, Hegel, and hangers-on.)

Experience
EDUCATION:

BA, New College, 1971, Philosophy and Religion
Awarded four graduate fellowships upon graduation

MA, Cornell University, 1974
Social and Political Philosophy, Danforth Fellowship

All course work and dissertation drafts completed for Ph.D. Cornell University, 1971-1975, Social and Political Philosophy, Danforth Fellowship

Courses in statistics and microeconomics, George Washington University and The American University, 1976-1978

EXPERIENCE: Health Insurance Specialist 2005 - Present
Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Service
US Department of Health and Human Services

Allentown Business School Instructor (Computer Science) 2003 - 2005

Northampton Community College
Adjunct Professor of Philosophy 2003 -2005

Lehigh County Community College
Adjunct Professor of Philosophy and Computer Science

PUBLICATIONS:

Medicare Made Easy (with Charles B. Inlander) Addison-Wesley, 1989

Good Operations, Bad Operations (with Charles B. Inlander) Viking Press, 1993

Health Rebooted: Information Changes Everything (in press), 2008

You are here: Experts > Religion/Spirituality > Theology > Philosophy > Scientists are the explorers

Philosophy - Scientists are the explorers

Expert: Charles K. MacKay - 8/6/2009

Question
I have problems with this question "'Scientists are the explorers of today.'Discuss." i)Can you give some clear examples, please? ii) what are suggestion & area of discussion on the question? iii) whats your intrepretation of the question? I'm doing my own revision on essays, as my exams are coming very soon. I will my own research some more too. Thank you very much.

Answer
Explorers in the past (Columbus, Hudson, etc.) tested the assumptions of their time (Hudson --there was a northwest passage to the Orient (turned out to be false)and also found out totally unexpected things (Columbus -- the Americas.) Today, scientists play exactly the same role -- testing current ideas and making new discoveries.

I think this covers it -- it's the obvious answer to me.

As for expansion, I would add, "What's a discovery?" "Does it meaning change over time?" "By what methods do scientists explore today?" "How does society react to the discoveries?" "Could we react in a more fruitful way if we thought about it some more?"

Hope this helps --

Charlie

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