Quote:
Originally Posted by PennyRice
Here's a poll for everybody: in what scientific discipline is arrogance the most prevalent?
My vote goes to: particle physics. I have observed a tendency for people in that field to think they know everything simply because they can draw and interpret Feynman diagrams. The irony is I used to be in that field (I was in the high-energy physics group in grad school way back in the 1990s).
What do y'all think?
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Well, as a former particle physicist myself (grad school in the mid 80's) I have to agree at one level. Yes, we can be arrogant, but what of it? You don't think Einstein was arrogant? Or Fermi? Feynman fairly oozed arrogance. Pauli certainly did (it takes arrogance to tell someone they're "not even wrong".) Like successful people in most fields, a certain amount of arrogance is necessary for any good scientist.
I think one reason for this (in this case at least) is that most particle physicists feel they know more about other fields than people in other fields know about physics. Lord knows I feel that way. Now perhaps someone in biology (or chemistry or any other science) would make the same claim. In fact, I'm sure they would. The question to ask is "is the claim is justified?" If the scientist in question can demonstrate knowledge, or even expertise, in a field outside their specialty, then to some extent the arrogance is justified. In Feynman's case, I would say it was. If not, feel free to bust their chops (a la Steven Jones and his misguided claims to engineering expertise on 9-11 issues). Myself, I tend to limit my non-physics pontificating to those areas where I know I've read up a lot in the field, even if I haven't made an academic career of it.
Another reason for this attitude, especially on the part of physicists, is that we tend to view ourselves as the last "Renaissance persons." That is, physicists see themselves as people who perhaps have an area of specialization, but have wide interests outside of that area as well. And in this day of excessive specialization viewing ones self as a broadly based person can be seen as arrogance by others who perhaps are proud of their specialization.
So, to wrap up this bit of arrogance, yes, I'm an arrogant particle physicist. And I'm proud of it.
