Talk:Ervin László

Problem with citation 1
Hmm, the huffington post article that's cited for him being a 2012 advocate does not say anything about 2012. We should either find a better citation or take that part out.

Pseudoscience
Is this for real?

While the history of the article goes back to 2005, at least, it sounds too much like pseudoscience. Pavium 12:02, 3 June 2007 (UTC)

I think it might be worth looking into some of his books before saying all this, don't you? The article barely scratches the surface of what he has to say. Its massively unfortunate that he has taken mystical terms to name his concepts (eg Akashic Field) as whenever anyone scientific mentions even a whiff of thought systems which are not science they are immediately accused of Pseudoscience. There is much here in common with ideas of autopoeisis and Gaia Theory (another Theory that made the mistake of taking a mythical/mystical name). NB I am not saying he is right, just that a sketchy Wikipedia article like this isn't going to be fair on anyone in terms of really outlining their ideas. ThePeg (talk) 17:24, 26 July 2009 (UTC)


 * Scientists forecast yet another disruptive event for the end of 2012: breaches in the Earth’s magnetic field. In the past this field protected living systems from the effects of solar storms and coronal mass ejections. Lately the magnetic field has diminished in intensity and holes and gaps have appeared. Scientists in South Africa measured cracks in the magnetic field the size of California, and in December of 2008 NASA announced that its Themis Project had found a massive breach that would allow a devastating amounts of solar plasma to enter the Earth’s magnetosphere.
 * Another scientific report of relevance concerns the entry of our solar system into a highly energized region of space. This turbulent region is making the Sun hotter and stormier and has already caused climate change on other planets. According to Russian scientists the effects on Earth will include an acceleration of the magnetic pole shift, the vertical and horizontal distribution of ozone, and an increase in the frequency and magnitude of extreme climate events. Ervin Laszlo: Abrupt change 2012: problems with the Sun. Kope (talk) 14:06, 6 May 2010 (UTC)

His recent works do contain a fair bit of pseudoscience, and not just in the terminology. E.g.
 * Post-Darwinian biologists recognize that the evolution of species is far more than the chance processes classical Darwinists say it is. It must be more, because the time that was available for evolution would not have been sufficient to generate the complex web of life on this planet merely by trial and error. Mathematical physicist Sir Fred Hoyle calculated the probabilities and came to the conclusion that they are about the same as the probability that a hurricane blowing through a scrap-yard assembles a working airplane. (Design? Yes. Evolution? Yes. Contradiction? No. Then Why the Controversy?, 2010)

- this is Hoyle's fallacy, a classic element of the creationist repertoire. There are a few more detailed critiques of his physics theories by actual physicists, but only in Hungarian. --Tgr (talk) 11:15, 5 August 2012 (UTC)

The article reads as if it's written by apologists.

Lazlo is a serious charlatan. Science is a front for his metaphysical claims, which is why his science credentials are important, it's his trojan horse for his Arkashic field woo. Why is he a scientist at all? Where is the proof. Just because he has been given awards and mentions by universities and famous people, including other pseudoscience sheisters like Grof doesn't mean he is a scientist, or what he says more scientific. Who are his doctoral students? What articles has been published in a peer reviewed scientific journal (ie not his own journal or books)? What was the subject/title of his PhD? What university did he graduate? I ask these questions because I can't find answers to them.

From what I read Lazlo is actively anti-scince, in that he disregards the process of science and misrepresents science - especially quantum mechanics and evolution. In the wise words of Mendawar, writing about a popular book in the 1950's: "The Phenomenon of Man is anti-scientific in temper (scientists are shown up as shallow folk skating about on the surface of things), and, as if that were not recommendation enough, it was written by a scientist, a fact which seems to give it particular authority and weight. Laymen firmly believe that scientists are one species of person. They are not to know that different branches of science require very different aptitudes and degrees of skill for their prosecution. Teilhard practised an intellectually unexacting kind of science in which he achieved a moderate proficiency. He has no grasp of what makes a logical argument or of what makes for proof. He does not even preserve the common decencies of scientific writing, though his book is professedly a scientific treatise." to see how a scientists wiki looks like see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Medawar Skinnytony1 (talk) 15:03, 19 April 2014 (UTC)

WikiProject class rating
This article was automatically assessed because at least one WikiProject had rated the article as start, and the rating on other projects was brought up to start class. BetacommandBot 03:59, 10 November 2007 (UTC)

2012
This is what he says:

"More and more people seem convinced that something dramatic will happen at the end of 2012. Something dramatic will indeed happen -- and it could be something dramatically good. While the world will not suddenly become a paradise on earth, we could launch a process that would take it in that direction. Because the end of 2012 will be a transition from one age to the next. But into what age it will transit is not decided yet. All we know is that the processes of change that have been building throughout the 20th century will reach a point of no return -- the point at which whatever direction they take will become effectively irreversible. Now, in the spring of 2011, we are almost at that critical tipping point." The Worldshift Has Started Kope (talk) 21:08, 21 September 2011 (UTC)

So did it happen?

"The specific date of October 22, 1844, was preached by Samuel S. Snow. Thousands of followers, some of whom had given away all of their possessions, waited expectantly. When Jesus did not appear, the date became known as the Great Disappointment." — Preceding unsigned comment added by Skinnytony1 (talk • contribs) 15:09, 19 April 2014 (UTC)

Philosopher of science
There is a discussion on the Hungarian Wikipedia about whether László can be called a philospher of science; on the one hand the Hungarian Academy of Sciences lists him as such (even though he is the honorary member of the Economics faculty, not the Philosophy faculty), on the other, I could not find a significant amount of ph. of s. publications from him. (Most of his work in scientific journals seems to be about the significance of Marxism-Leninism in Hungary and the USSR, which is quite different from the areas of science he is usually credited with.) I would welcome the opinions of enwiki editors about the matter. --Tgr (talk) 10:51, 5 August 2012 (UTC)

Added Criticism Section
Hi peeps, some one with "75 books and over 400 papers" will surely attract critical attention. I added some of them.

Does any one know what did he do his PhD in? Skinnytony1 (talk) 04:57, 2 May 2014 (UTC)

Why was the criticism section removed? This article reads like a hagiography. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Bendel boy (talk • contribs) 09:53, 20 June 2016 (UTC)

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