Scientific Truth

Posted by jns on 17 March 2005

Mark, the “Moderate Liberal”, wrote a good piece called “The War Against Evolution“, trying to understand, as I do with very little success, the anti-science forces at work in the USA today. It’s all very trying (the anti-scientism, not Mark’s essay).
He and I, who both have degrees in Physics and are therefore part of the “science elite”, so we know that in fact there is no “scientific dogma”, but he touches on a very important point:

Remember, most of us “elite” think of science as a very different endeavor than, say, the priesthood. After all, scientific theories must be falsifiable and withstand years of observation, experimentation and criticism before any scientist will begin to think of a theory as fact.

But to the lay person, science is no different than any other elite endeavor; a bunch of people in power they don’t know get together to determine their version of the truth, then preach it to everyone else.

I do, in fact, think of it — science, that is — as a very different endeavor, perhaps a unique intellectual quest. Laying out my philosophy (and not “mine” so much as what I understand to be “the” philosophy of scientific endeavor, or even the basis of the “scientific method”, such as there is one) will take more than these 500 or so words, but Mark offers a very useful starting point.
Set aside for a moment the philosophically fundamental ideas about theories and falsifiability and all that — I do, in my way, reserve the right to disagree with Mark about the details of how science works. Nevertheless….
It’s the idea of the “elite” that brings out something I’ve long thought is a unique characteristic of science, an idea that bolsters its claim to some subset of truth:

Science invites anyone to examine its claims.

Oh, sure, to understand some of the claims may take years of study to achieve, but it’s all there, waiting for you. Science does not rely on authority to operate. Agreed, most people (i.e., those not part of the “science elite”, indeed, even scientist who don’t specialize in some field) get their information about scientific truths from scientific “authorities”. But, in my mind, getting information from these “authorities” is a practical short cut, not a dogmatic elite; everything they say is testable, in principle, if you feel the need.
This, I believe, is a defining characteristic of science: it’s truths are writ in an open book, inviting all to see, to understand, and to test. No truth in science is ever absolute.
Science thrives on openness and skepticism. In the end, if scientific practice is to survive, it will be this invitation to skepticism, examination, and revision that will win out over external, dogmatic forces that would attempt to coerce scientific truth towards their perferred, non-scientific goals.