Monday, May 14, 2018

Scientific Revolutions #2

In chapter 3 of It Started With Copernicus Parsons takes a "walk on the wild side", about those who criticize the idea that science is a wholly rational pursuit of truth. The "wild side" refers to social constructivism and postmodernism.

He concludes that while science is far from perfect -- like any human enterprise -- there is still something left of science idealized. There is a physical world "out there," and we can know something about it. We can say that some things really just are so, and not mere artifacts of our percepts, concepts, and categories. Further, our observations of the physical world can be used to rigorously evaluate our theories, so that our theoretical beliefs are shaped and constrained by nature, and not merely like in politics, rhetorical manipulation, or ideology. Disinterested knowledge is really possible, and is, in fact, achieved far more often than cynics suppose.

Nevertheless, the critics have succeeded in disposing of what might be called the "passive spectator" stereotype of knowledge. As that story goes, once people started looking at nature rather than old books, scientific knowledge flowed into open scientific minds like water pouring into an empty bucket.

Scientific discovery requires active engagement, not just passive seeing. Galileo didn't just look through his telescope and report what he saw. He interpreted, theorized, speculated, measured, analyzed, and argued. Darwin did not go to the Galapagos Islands and suddenly awaken to the truth of evolution in a flash of obvious insight. His notebooks reveal a complex process of questioning, argument, and counterargument, with tentative conclusions drawn and then rejected or refined. Scientists do not just absorb a picture of the world; they create a picture and then do their best to see how accurate it is.

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