ALTER-NARRATIVES:
Today’s Topic: Each generation feels they have moved past all the stupidity of the past and are now on the perfect path. In just a few paragraphs KM dumps that theory.
‘Maybe Logic,’ Maybe Not
By Kaill McNeil
What do we know?
Many people have a drive to know. Language itself a means to categories and comprehend objects, beings and concepts. Humanity has doubtless made great strives over the last few hundred years. Societies shifting, merging and changing by grand forces of politics and economy. Each generation certain they have it right. They’ve leaned from the mistakes from the past and everything has now been set right. Inarguably true much of the time but not always. Particularly when it comes to something like science.
Never Wrong
The notion that science is ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ is expressed almost exclusively by non-scientists. Tragically this is a misunderstanding of how the scientific method actually works. I’m no scientist myself, at least in terms of natural science, but I still have a basic understanding of empiricism. Empiricism is the core of the scientific method, which basically involves a process of trial and error, steeped in fancy technical jargon. The result of an experiment cannot be deemed wrong, because there is no way of knowing what is right. Hence the vital importance of replication. A hypothesis that has been tested and the test replicated with the same result can be said to be likely. Even in this case, however, most in the scientific sphere, would only go as far as to say it was “likely.”
