Identifying Future-Proof Science
Author | : Peter Vickers |
Publisher | : Oxford University Press |
Total Pages | : 280 |
Release | : 2022-10-31 |
ISBN-10 | : 9780192677211 |
ISBN-13 | : 0192677217 |
Rating | : 4/5 (11 Downloads) |
Download or read book Identifying Future-Proof Science written by Peter Vickers and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-10-31 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is science getting at the truth? The sceptics - those who spread doubt about science - often employ a simple argument: scientists were 'sure' in the past, and then they ended up being wrong. Through a combination of historical investigation and philosophical-sociological analysis, Identifying Future-Proof Science defends science against this potentially dangerous scepticism. Indeed, we can confidently identify many scientific claims that are future-proof: they will last forever, so long as science continues. How do we identify future-proof claims? This appears to be a new question for science scholars, and not an unimportant one. Peter Vickers argues that the best way to identify future-proof science is to avoid any attempt to analyse the relevant first-order scientific evidence, instead focusing purely on second-order evidence. Specifically, a scientific claim is future-proof when the relevant scientific community is large, international, and diverse, and at least 95% of that community would describe the claim as a 'scientific fact'. In the entire history of science, no claim meeting these criteria has ever been overturned, despite enormous opportunity.