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SUMMARY:The scientific method: ignorance\, uncertainty\, doubt\, failure..
 . - Stuart Firestein (Columbia University)
DTSTART:20140430T120000Z
DTEND:20140430T133000Z
UID:TALK52030@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Christopher Clarke
DESCRIPTION:Science produces questions more than it generates answers.  Ev
 ery good answer leads to new\, and ideally better\, questions.  This is a 
 process termed The Principle of Question Propagation by Immanuel Kant\, bu
 t among scientists it is a matter of such common knowledge that it is rare
 ly stated explicitly.  However\, like the jargon filled language that pass
 es as easy conversation for the trained scientist while effectively exclud
 ing the non-expert and nonscientist\, this failure to be explicit about th
 e value of ignorance has the unwanted effect of excluding much of the citi
 zenry from the inner workings of science. Coincidentally it seems now also
  to have fostered a growing and easily manipulated mistrust of both scient
 ists and science.  Science has become dangerously divorced from the cultur
 e\, not because it has grown too difficult or too impenetrable\, but becau
 se it has hidden its inner workings of mystery\, doubt\, uncertainty\, fai
 lure and revision\, while turning an encyclopedic face to the public. Ther
 e are numerous reasons that could be cited for this relatively recent (i.e
 .\, last 50 years) development\, and historians and sociologists have enum
 erated a number of them.  Rather than go over that territory\, I would lik
 e instead to explore with you the potentially disastrous consequences of t
 his distorted perception and ways in which philosophical and historical pe
 rspectives of science can be used to remedy this situation\, with a partic
 ular emphasis on science education and policy.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 2\, Department of History and Philosophy of Science
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