by Chris Peterson » Tue Mar 29, 2011 5:47 pm
BMAONE23 wrote:Unfortunately, as Humans, we often believe that we are correct in what we think we know
1500 years ago, the Earth was the center of the Universe
700 years ago, the Earth was flat
500 years ago, 6 stars moved in the sky
100 years ago, your skin would rip off if you traveled faster than 35 mph
60 years ago, the best way to survive an atomic attack was to hide under your desk
3 years ago, the solar system contained 9 planets
In my opinion, this sort of construct is a fallacy. It emphasizes what we didn't know, and not what we do know. In fact, the reason we stopped believing many of those things is because we gained knowledge. Particularly in the last few hundred years, with the rise of rational approaches to learning about nature (broadly, the "scientific method"), our knowledge has grown vastly. One of the things this way of thinking has brought us is a way of assessing the quality of our knowledge. I would argue that the things we think we know with great certainty today are unlikely to be wrong. There are other things that we think we understand, and which usefully describe our observations, but which few scientists would argue are certain to be true (for instance, the Big Bang cosmology). That's a very different way of looking at thing than in the past, where belief in ideas was much more absolute.
I think hackerspiff is very much on the mark with his assessment of science, to which I'd only add, our knowledge always increases, and with time we come always closer to the truth (recognizing that the "truth" may never be more than a near-perfect model). We know more about how the Universe works today than we did in the past, and I think that future critics will find it much harder to construct lists of things we now believe but which in the future will seem silly.
A few observations about your specific list are in order:
-It was never held by educated people that the Earth was flat.
-The six star-like objects that moved in the sky have been recognized as something other than stars for well over 500 years, which is why the designation "planet" came into being.
-It was never held by educated people that your skin would rip off at greater than 35 mph.
-Hiding under your desk in a nuclear attack was a political instruction, not a scientific one.
-Three years ago there
were nine planets in the Solar System; all that changed was a definition used by a small number of people. No knowledge changed, nothing was "wrong" with the previous usage.
[quote="BMAONE23"]Unfortunately, as Humans, we often believe that we are correct in what we think we know
1500 years ago, the Earth was the center of the Universe
700 years ago, the Earth was flat
500 years ago, 6 stars moved in the sky
100 years ago, your skin would rip off if you traveled faster than 35 mph
60 years ago, the best way to survive an atomic attack was to hide under your desk
3 years ago, the solar system contained 9 planets[/quote]
In my opinion, this sort of construct is a fallacy. It emphasizes what we didn't know, and not what we do know. In fact, the reason we stopped believing many of those things is because we gained knowledge. Particularly in the last few hundred years, with the rise of rational approaches to learning about nature (broadly, the "scientific method"), our knowledge has grown vastly. One of the things this way of thinking has brought us is a way of assessing the quality of our knowledge. I would argue that the things we think we know with great certainty today are unlikely to be wrong. There are other things that we think we understand, and which usefully describe our observations, but which few scientists would argue are certain to be true (for instance, the Big Bang cosmology). That's a very different way of looking at thing than in the past, where belief in ideas was much more absolute.
I think hackerspiff is very much on the mark with his assessment of science, to which I'd only add, our knowledge always increases, and with time we come always closer to the truth (recognizing that the "truth" may never be more than a near-perfect model). We know more about how the Universe works today than we did in the past, and I think that future critics will find it much harder to construct lists of things we now believe but which in the future will seem silly.
A few observations about your specific list are in order:
-It was never held by educated people that the Earth was flat.
-The six star-like objects that moved in the sky have been recognized as something other than stars for well over 500 years, which is why the designation "planet" came into being.
-It was never held by educated people that your skin would rip off at greater than 35 mph.
-Hiding under your desk in a nuclear attack was a political instruction, not a scientific one.
-Three years ago there [i]were[/i] nine planets in the Solar System; all that changed was a definition used by a small number of people. No knowledge changed, nothing was "wrong" with the previous usage.