Word: macked
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...doing research on the possibility that people who claim that they were abducted by space aliens may not all be crazy after all? This question is dividing the academic community, which is watching carefully as Harvard Medical School completes its year-long investigation into the research of Dr. John Mack, who wrote the controversial best-seller Abduction: Human Encounters with Aliens...
...Dean of Harvard Medical School established the faculty committee last year, and it has met 30 times, with lawyers and with Dr. Mack. Its mission is presumably to determine whether Dr. Mack's research and clinical activities satisfy certain unspecified academic criteria. But, at bottom, the committee will necessarily be asking whether a Harvard Medial School Professor ought to be lending his credibility to stories of space alien abductions. It is extremely unusual for great universities to second-guess the research or publications of their tenured faculty, except for allegations of fraud, plagiarism or violations of patients' or students' rights...
...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. Indeed, it is at least as likely that space aliens exist as it is that God exists. The former is, however, a scientifically testable hypothesis (at least in theory); whereas the latter--for at least most theologians--is not. It is a matter of "faith," not proof, and faith is not subject to the scientific method. But the paradigm of the scientific method--testable propositions subjected to double-blind and replicable experimentation...
...unlikely that the Harvard Medical School will do anything to Dr. Mack. Nor is it likely that Dr. Mack himself will be deterred from pursuing his research agendas--though other more timorous Professors may. What is troubling is the principle behind a dean convening an investigative committee, at least in the absence of clear guidelines or criteria. Unless challenged now, the precedentsetting effect of the appointment of this committee will act as a sword of Damocles, hanging over the head of every professor who drifts outside the mainstream, especially in politically sensitive areas. It is noteworthy that the issue...
...concerned about the integrity of its faculty's research. There are widely accepted criteria by which such integrity is judged: research must be reported honestly; sources must be attributed properly; informed consent must be obtained; biases must be disclosed. But these are not the criticisms directed against Dr. Mack's research. What is on trial in his case are his ideas--his willingness to consider the possibility that the numerous accounts of alien abductions may not all be products of insane delusions. He has certainly not convinced me, but surely that cannot be the criteria...