Gould (from Forward) – consciousness (most likely unique to our species) provides power over our own species as well as all life on this planet.
Our patterns of thought lead to both good and evil, destruction and construction. These include:
1. enlightenment (rejection of traditional ideas – social, religious, political – if they are not supported by reasoned argument);
2. obscurantism (policy of withholding knowledge from the general public);
3. dogmatism (a viewpoint put forward as authoritative without adequate grounds).
Moral decency is not enough to save us from the negative aspects of the processes of our conscious thought (e.g., irrationality, romanticism, uncompromising “true” belief) that create mob action.
We must use human rationality to discover and acknowledge nature’s factuality and to follow the logical implications that such knowledge entails. Reason is the only protection from engaging in hasty, emotionally determined action.
“Skepticism is the agent of reason against organized irrationalism …” Skepticisim is a key to human social and civic decency.
The best weapons for skeptics come from basic scientific procedures (systematic observation, double-blind investigations, and statistical analyses).
Shermer – “Life is contingent and filled with uncertainties, the most frightening of which is the manner, time, and place of our own demise”.
Under the pressure of reality, we become credulous. We seek certainties and our critical reasoning faculties collapse in the presence of promises that appear to alleviate life’s anxieties.
Skepticism must not be confused with cynicism. “Skeptic” derives from Greek skeptikos which means thoughtful. According to the OED, skeptical also means inquiring and reflective.
Skepticism is a method not a position. It is a method of inquiring, reflecting, and thinking. Skepticism is a provisional approach to claims that applies the techniques of reason to any and all ideas.
Skepticism is embodied in the scientific method (gathering data to formulate and test natural explanations for natural phenomena). A claim becomes factual only when it successfully passes empirical tests to such an extent that it would be reasonable to offer temporary agreement. All facts in science are provisional and subject to challenge. Skepticism is a method leading to provisional conclusions. Some notions have failed scientific testing enough to permit the provisional conclusion that they are false. We must avoid “know-nothing” cynicism and “anything goes” credulity (gullibility).
Science:
Science is “a set of methods designed to describe and interpret observed or inferred phenomena, past or present, and aimed at building a testable body of knowledge open to rejection or confirmation”. Scientists do not improvise details or guess from anecdotes and bits of folklore (there need not be any “germ of truth” in folkloric notions).
The following elements are involved in thinking scientifically:
1. Induction – forming a hypothesis by drawing general conclusions from collected experience (aka - data).
2. Deduction – making specific predictions based on the hypotheses drawn
3. Observation – gathering data, driven by hypotheses that suggest what to look for in nature.
4. Verification – testing the predictions against further observations to confirm or falsify the initial hypotheses.
Observation and hypothesis are inseparably interactive.
The scientific method fosters objectivity (external validation of both phenomena and conclusions) and avoids mysticism (personal insights and revelation).
Science is fallible but subject to relatively rapid self-correction.
Shermer argues that a balance between letting revolutionary ideas pass you by and being taken by flimflam may be obtained by answering a few basic questions:
1. What is the quality of the evidence for the claim;
2. What are the background and credentials of those making the claim;
3. Does the claim work as described;
Dethier (1962) – “All knowledge, however small, however irrelevant to progress and well-being, is part of a whole”. Being endowed with the capacity to know, we have a duty to know.
What tools are children given to help them explore, enjoy, and understand the world?
Problem (Persig’s Paradox) – How is the tension resolved between the view that science is a progressive, culturally independent, objective quest for truth and the view that science is a non-progressive, socially constructed, subjective creation of knowledge.
Olson – Scientific theory arises out of and under the influence of its social and intellectual milieu – it is both a product and determiner of culture.
Science does not provide Truth about reality. Rather, science provides models of reality whose value may be assessed by the understanding, predictability, and control that they produce.
Unfortunately, for many of the issues for which society demands that science provide useful models, evidence is weak or insufficient. Therefore, models may be proposed that reflect more the bias of the individual proposing the model than the weight of the evidence. At these times, science appears to be the “subjective creation of knowledge”.
What is the difference between science and pseudoscience?
Science is the cumulative growth of a system of knowledge over time, in which useful features are retained and non-useful features are abandoned, based on rejection or confirmation of testable knowledge (Shermer).
A scientific law is a description of a regularly repeating action in nature that is open to rejection or confirmation by testing.
How science changes.
A paradigm is a model shared by most but not all members of a scientific community, designed to describe and interpret observed or inferred phenomena, past or present, and aimed at building a testable body of knowledge open to rejection or confirmation.
A paradigm has:
1. Sociological aspects in that a group of people feel that they have a shared outlook;
2. Psychological aspects in which individuals within the paradigm see the world differently from those outside;
3. Epistomological aspects in which the research techniques, problems, and solutions are determined by the theories, hypotheses, and models;
4. Ontological aspects that define the existence of phenomena. However, this aspect lacks any outside source for corroboration.
Science is progressive because its paradigms depend on the cumulative knowledge gained through experimentation, corroboration, and falsification. Pseudoscience is not progressive.
The triumph of science.
Science seeks understanding through objective methods. The more objective the method, the more likely that someone else will duplicate the achievement.
The arts seek provocation of emotion and reflection though subjective means. The more subjective the endeavor, the more individual it becomes and the more difficult for someone else to reproduce.
The sciences of anthropology, psychology, physics
and cosmology have given us insights into the natural world that are an
insult to personal and religious beliefs and a provocative threat to the
comfortable status quo.