Nicholas Lim, Co-founder & Lead Editor of Cogito Collective
We have always been taught to treat authorities as experts on anything. We can’t possibly trawl entire tomes of knowledge in the library of the world by ourselves. Scientists have rightfully been accorded a status of importance in society for their contributions to human knowledge, but their work has always been viewed as esoteric and opaque. The non-specialist’s only entry into the products of scientific inquiry is through reporting in the news or social media, both of which present various problems. There are two traps we can fall into when we try to comprehend scientific knowledge. The first is that science is inherently objective and unchangeable, the other is that science is the answer to everything.
Is science inherently objective and unchangeable?
Let’s first look at the scientific method, a way which scientists get to their conclusions. It is first of all based on rational skepticism, which is a constant questioning of assumptions and examining biases in information presented. While fundamentally empirical (meaning that experiments guide theories), the scientific community constantly reviews each other’s works, question their experimental methods, and tries to find flaws in the data collected. Anyone who’s ever been in debate team in school (and thus was labelled a nerd) knows that simply relying on the opinions of an authority commits the unforgivable crime of argument from authority. It is wrong to assume that experts are always correct on an issue, even though they have been working in that field for years. The history of science is rife with examples like that.
We fall into two traps. The first is that science is inherently objective and unchangeable, the other is that science is the answer to everything.
As an example, let’s examine the concept of heat. It is a prime example of a long, winding history of theories superseding previous theories. The ancient Greeks had the idea of the four natural elements, namely earth, air, fire, and water. That concept held out until the Enlightenment, when scientists then proposed a theory of a substance called phlogiston, which was released upon combustion and thus made its products lighter than the substance itself. Ash is lighter than the wood used to burn it. This theory made sense given the data observed.
Then came Antoine Lavoisier, who in 1783 realised that metals gain weight upon combustion. The burning of iron produces iron oxides, which are heavier than the iron itself. It then led him to devise experiments showing that oxygen had weight, and then proposed a theory suggesting a fluid called caloric that flowed from warm to colder bodies.
In 1845, James Prescott Joule proved that heat was a mechanical phenomenon, which could explain the transfer of heat without the need for an extra substance as a mediator. And with this final stroke, we have the current theory of heat that we still use today. There are still traces of caloric theory in the way we speak of heat, like when we talk about the “flow of heat” and “calories”.
The empirical facts were the same throughout history, but two things changed: the discovery of new data and the interpretations of the existing data. With every new bit of information we feed into science, science adapts and changes its frameworks to fit. This can be explained by considering the scientific endeavour within a statistical framework. Information and facts gathered through observing the world around us will inevitably be interpreted through different lenses, introducing subjectivity to science.
Even the presentation of science is subjective. John Oliver did a piece on it, debunking many studies being reported by half-baked news reporters digging for the next clickbait by grossly misrepresenting reputable research. A study showed that 34% of studies reported by newspapers were eventually disproven. It is simply easy to misreport an article with the title “excess sleep may lead to more fatigue throughout the day” as “scientists have shown we should sleep less”.
Science is even cu