Word: macked
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...Crimson's excellent story this week ("Letter Questions Work of 'UFO Dr.'," news story, Sep. 11, 1995) effectively refutes the notion that Dr. Mack was being criticized simply because he holds unconventional views. As described in that story, the dean's letter made it perfectly clear that there never was any challenge to Dr. Mack's right to do research on "abduction," to propose hypotheses or to hold controversial opinions. That Mr. Dershowitz would prefer to believe otherwise is puzzling. He either hadn't seen the committee report, in which case he was relying on hearsay or guesswork...
...Dershowitz argues that "the paradigm of the scientific method...is not the only criteria [sic] for evaluating academic undertakings." He makes the interesting observation that "[i]f Dr. Mack had taught at the Divinity School, it is unlikely that any investigation would be tolerated, since divinity schools are not governed by the laws of science." He's quite right of course, but I fail to see how this is relevant. Dr. Mack is a member of the Faculty of Medicine. Schools differ not only in their areas of intellectual interest but also in the methods of study used by their...
...Dershowitz questions the justification for our unprecedented inquiry into the work of a tenured member of the faculty. Why not let Dr. Mack's views be tested by his peers in the "marketplace of academic ideas?" The answer is that in science, ideas by themselves aren't enough. They must ultimately be supported by peer-reviewed evidence, and Dr. Mack failed to meet that expectation. He hadn't published evidence in the scientific literature or in any scholarly books. He had not involved his peers in any collaborative studies of the "abductees." He had in effect isolated himself from...
Under these circumstances, and in view of the extraordinary nature of Dr. Mack's claims and the enormous attention he was attracting, it seems reasonable that an ad hoc committee of the medical faculty should have been asked to gather information about his activities. Mr. Dershowitz evidently thinks otherwise. In the June 30 issue of The Crimson, he said that the appointment of the committee "will act as a sword of Damocles, hanging over the head of every professor who drifts outside the mainstream..." And in the Washington Post article of August 4, while applauding the outcome of the inquiry...
...opposite effect. Who could be more "outside the mainstream" than a clinical professor who seriously suggests that his patients (and thousands or millions of others) may have been abducted and abused by extraterrestrial "aliens." And yet, the issue of concern to the Medical School was not what Dr. Mack chose to study, but the way he did it. If Harvard did not challenge Dr. Mack's freedom to work on that subject and hold such views, how could any future maverick on our faculty have cause for concern...