3 ms·
Good points. Pertaining the 1st and 3rd points though, an important thing to keep in mind is that a lot of big scientific ideas come from philosophers and even
by mangeletti 12y ago
Good points.
Pertaining the 1st and 3rd points though, an important thing to keep in mind is that a lot of big scientific ideas come from philosophers and even science fiction writers, and I wouldn't be shocked if a few thoughtful comic strips joined the club. Most scientists are just technicians, applying existing knowledge to test existing theories. This means that a scientist doesn't necessarily have more qualified of opinions than any other person does.
- lgas 12y agoWhile technically correct (the best kind of correct!) your final sentence seems to be a fairly ludicrous position to me -- in general scientists spend (quite a lot) more time learning about biases and other flaws in rigorous thinking and how to avoid them, studying and discussing all of that existing knowledge, learning how to perform experiments, performing them, interpreting the results, etc. all of which lead directly to them having a much more qualified opinion than "any other person" does.
- semi-extrinsic 12y agoRe: your second-to-last sentence: it may well be that many scientists appear as if they are technicians applying existing knowledge to test theories. But that is partly because the only way to go beyond accepted theories is often to find where those accepted theories start breaking down, and then see how they break down.