In this episode, Dr. Gundula Bosch joins us to discuss the R3ISE Graduate Science Program and the R3 Center for Innovation in Science Education. We discuss her background, the R3ISE program, how it came to be, what it does, why it is needed, the importance of philosophy and a philosophic perspective, and what you can do to make your children, students, or yourself a more critical thinker and a better thinker overall.

About Gundula: Gundula Bosch, PhD, MEd serves as the Director of the R3ISE Graduate Science Program, as well as the R3 Center for Innovation in Science Education. Her program strives to bring more critical, philosophical thinking, interdisciplinary and ethical practice as well as social responsibility into the way we teach graduate students in biomedicine, health science and
engineering. A biochemist by training, she earned her PhD in Biology from the Technical University of Munich and the Max-Planck-Institute of Biochemistry, and a Master's degree in Education for the Health Professions from Johns Hopkins, where she serves as an adjunct instructor for educational scholarship.

Dr. Bosch's site on Johns Hopkins: https://www.jhsph.edu/faculty/directory/profile/2954/gundula-bosch

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Show notes:
1. the R3ISE program
a. https://hub.jhu.edu/2018/01/03/biomedical-science-education-reform-casadevall-bosch/
b. https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-01853-1
c. https://www.jhsph.edu/departments/w-harry-feinstone-department-of-molecular-microbiology-and-immunology/academics-and-degree-programs/R3-PhD-program/index.html
d. https://www.jhsph.edu/departments/w-harry-feinstone-department-of-molecular-microbiology-and-immunology/academics-and-degree-programs/R3-PhD-program/r3-curriculum-overview

2. Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World by David Epstein: https://www.amazon.com/Range-Generalists-Triumph-Specialized-World/dp/0735214484

3. Galileo (I have not read these, and hence cannot personally recommend them.) Maybe it was the lute he played when he was blind, not the violin.
a. Excerpt from Galileo Galilei: When the World Stood Still by Atle Naess: https://tinyurl.com/sk5qq2b
b. "Galileo and Music: A Family Affair" by Dinko Fabris: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/2011ASPC..441...57F
c. "The Role of Music in Galileo's Experiments" by Stillman Drake: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-role-of-music-in-galileos-exper/
d. Music and Science in the Age of Galileo by V Coelho: https://books.google.com/books/about/Music_and_Science_in_the_Age_of_Galileo.html?id=yjH_c3KQ3yMC

4. Galileo's father
a. https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/music-history-composers-and-performers-biographies/vincenzo-galilei
b. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincenzo_Galilei

5. Some books that present physics historically, so you can learn it right (not merely as disconnected word problems based on out-of-nowhere, unjustified principles and ideas). But the books do not have a good philosophy of science: inductive, integrated understanding of things and their cause-effect relationships.
a. Introductory Physics by Dr. Herbert Priestley: https://www.amazon.com/INTRODUCTORY-PHYSICS-Historical-Approach-Priestley/dp/B005H7TJ1M
b. Physics for the Inquiring Mind: The Methods, Nature, and Philosophy of Physical Science by Eric M. Rogers
i. buy on Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Physics-Inquiring-Mind-Philosophy-Physical/dp/069108016X/
ii. free pdf: https://archive.org/details/PhysicsForTheEnquiringMind
iii. free pdf: http://self.gutenberg.org/wplbn0003099703-physics-for-the-enquiring-mind-by-eric-m-rogers.aspx?

6. Some good physics lectures by Dr. Michael Fowler (UVa): http://galileo.phys.virginia.edu/~mf1i/home.html
a. A series of lectures/articles about the history of understanding gravity: https://galileoandeinstein.phys.virginia.edu
b. "Teaching Heat: the Rise and Fall of the Caloric Theory:" http://galileoandeinstein.physics.virginia.edu/more_stuff/TeachingHeat.htm

7. Newton’s Rules of Reasoning in Natural Philosophy: http://strangebeautiful.com/other-texts/newton-principia-rules-reasoning.pdf

8. Animal intelligence and working with animals
a. Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? by Frans de Waal: https://www.amazon.com/Are-Smart-Enough-Know-Animals/dp/0393353664/
b. The Soul of a Horse: Life Lessons from the Herd by Joe Camp: https://www.amazon.com/Soul-Horse-Life-Lessons-Herd/dp/0307406865/
c. Beyond Words: What Animals Think and Feel by Carl Safina: https://www.amazon.com/Beyond-Words-What-Animals-Think/dp/1250094593/
d. Coyote America by Dan Flores: https://www.amazon.com/Coyote-America-Natural-Supernatural-History/dp/0465093728/
e. Mind of the Raven by Bernd Heinrich: https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Raven-Investigations-Adventures-Wolf-Birds/dp/0061136050/
f. The Elephant Whisperer by Lawrence Anthony and Graham Spence: https://www.amazon.com/Elephant-Whisperer-Life-Herd-African/dp/125000781X/

9. Recommended books on logic and the scientific method
a. The Art of Reasoning: An Introduction to Logic and Critical Thinking by David Kelley
https://www.amazon.com/Art-Reasoning-Introduction-Critical-Thinking/dp/0393930785/
b. Logic: An Introduction by Lionel Ruby
https://www.amazon.com/Logic-Introduction-Lionel-Ruby/dp/1889439142/
c. An Introduction to Logic by H. W. B. Joseph
https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Logic-H-W-Joseph/dp/1889439177/
d. The Logical Leap: Induction in Physics by David Harriman
https://www.amazon.com/Logical-Leap-Induction-Physics/dp/0451230051/
e. Introduction to Objectivist Epistemology by Ayn Rand
https://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Objectivist-Epistemology-Expanded-Second/dp/0452010306/

10. Aristotle and Shaw quotes
a. "Those who can, do; those who can't, teach." --George Bernard Shaw's Man and
b. "Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach." --Aristotle

11. In regard to "selfishness" and "altruism," we need to be scientific about ethics. We need ethics (1) because we have a nature, and living, thriving, and being happy requires meeting specific biological conditions (those of human life) and (2) because we have volition, so we can choose all sorts of things, and so we need norms of judgement. It is our nature to be a fusion-fusion animal: we are both social and independent. And because of an aspect of our nature -- reason is volitional -- we must think and choose and judge independently, each in our own minds.

It is fine to be "altruistic" in the sense of thinking about other people, and not fine to be "selfish" in the conventional sense of acting like a two-year old who is emotion-driven and has little context and no philosophic bearings or development. But we should not be "altruistic" in the sense of anhilating oneself in service to some "other," as the Communists and Nazis extolled. And we shoud be selfish in the sense of an adult human living in accordance with their nature, and for whom ethics is intended, anyway. The "self" of a human being is that of a rational animal. It is rooted in our biology. Being "selfish" is naturally and biologically about thinking about your human self in this world in relation to your human values and the conditions of human life; it is about considering yourself as human in kind, and not merely substituting some emotion for ethics judgement.

Note that "selfish" is specifically a *moral* concept, not a metaphysical or psychological one. Doing something because one is the moral beneficiary *does not* always mean one is the recipient of a material value: parents can be selfish in working hard to put their children through school and to give them a good life, even while the parents live in hardship. And note that having friends and caring about their well-being is in one's best interest, and vice-versa: it's win-win, which most of us recognize as a good thing. Friendship is good for each person *and* good for them as a team.




Note: We should be careful diagnosing Newton's psychology. He is no longer around, so we are limited in evidence, and maybe can only speculate. We would have to limit and qualify our conclusions. Here are some attempts at analysis:
a. "Isaac Newton’s Personal Life". http://www.newtonproject.ox.ac.uk/his-personal-life
b. https://psychology.wikia.org/wiki/Isaac_Newton




Picture and bio courtesy Dr. Gundula Bosch.