lind faith in science and reckless skepticism is the mark of a scholar.
The textbook example of that would be the cosmological constant, which Einstein reportedly said was his “greatest blunder”. It is now used as a way to track fluctuations in space and the mysterious “dark energy”.
After deconstructing the nature of scientific pursuits, how then should we gain insight from the sciences? The answer lies at the starting point, the original intention of the scientific method — rational skepticism. By treating what you read online as data, perform experiments by measuring it against other sources, and analyse the data through the filters of logical analysis before finally deciding if the information is accurate. If this seems like a lot of work, it is. As the Chinese proverb goes, the acquisition of knowledge is like rowing against the waves.
Therefore, scientific information presented should be treated with a certain level of skepticism, and should not simply be taken as a monolithic truth. This is not to say, however, that we should not trust science completely. We just have to be more stringent in our absorption of information, and to do the due diligence before accepting what is being transmitted. Science is an ongoing pursuit of knowledge and truth, and should not be treated as a closed area of knowledge in which the last full stop is final.
About the author:
Nicholas Lim is the co-founder and lead editor of Cogito. His bachelor’s thesis was on the hierarchy problem and supersymmetry, and he hopes to pursue a Ph.D in the near future.
References can be requested at email@example.com
Featured image: The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp by Rembrandt
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