The Latin phraseodium theologicum is the name originally given to the often intense anger and hatred generated by disputes over theology. It has also been adopted to describe non-theological disputes of a rancorous nature. John Stuart Mill, discussing the fallibility of the moral consensus in his essay "On Liberty" refers scornfully to the odium theologicum, saying that, in a sincere bigot, it is one of the most unequivocal cases of moral feeling. In this essay, he takes issue with those who rely on moral feeling rather than reasoned argument to justify their beliefs.
Academic disputes
The early linguist Leonard Bloomfield believed it necessary to develop linguistics as a cumulative, non-personal discipline; as a "genuine" science. In a talk in 1946, speaking of the development of the American LinguisticsSociety, he stated the fostering of such a discipline had saved it "from the blight of the odium theologicum and the postulation of schools... denouncing all persons who disagree or who choose to talk about something else," and he added "The struggle with recalcitrant facts, unyielding in their complexity, trains everyone who works actively in science to be humble, and accustoms him to impersonal acknowledgement of error." Philosopher and historian of scienceThomas Samuel Kuhn argued that scientists are strongly committed to their beliefs, theories and methods, and that science progresses mainly by paradigm shifts. He claimed that scientists with conflicting paradigms will hold to them as dearly as theologians hold to their theological paradigms. Philosopher of math and science Imre Lakatos, a student of Karl Popper, described the nature of science in a similar manner. According to Lakatos, science progresses by continual modification or else supersession of what he termed "research programs". Lakatos claimed that a research program is informed by metaphysical beliefs as well as observation of facts, and may infinitely resist falsification if a scientist wishes to continue holding it in spite of problems or the discovery of new evidence. If this view is correct, science does not remedy odium theologicum, it provides another field in which it may manifest. In the controversy over the validity of fluxions the philosopher George Berkeley addressed his Newtonian opponent: Whatever view of science and the sociology of scientific knowledge is correct, it is a fact that in the history of science there have been many instances of new theories being ridiculed and shunned by the greater scientific community when first proposed or discovered, only later to be adopted as more probably accurate.
