Science tells us the truth about reality (or not) - Essay Example

Science is victorious in the curing of doubt because it helps in tracking the real world state. It however cannot tell us the truth about reality. Many people have the belief that science is purely objective (Science and Reality, 1984). That it can be likened to a machine for churning out facts and converting ignorance to knowledge. Scientists are also seen like they are a special breed of truth-discoverers. Their pronouncements are viewed like the gospel. However, in reality, the practice of science deserves a more cynical look.

Scientists are human too. They have insecurities to navigate, reputations to defend and careers to progress. They also do not abandon their years-long research programs or theories the minute something bad happens (Thind, 1939). Studies that did not work are run again, equipment is repaired or replaced and assistants of research get fired. It can be a messy job. A person’s best bet might be to appeal to some account of ideal form, citing a privileged relationship to truth if they wanted to mount a defense of science.

And so long as it is done right, science deserves our commitment since it exceeds subjective belief and common sense and manages to latch on to ultimate reality in some systematic way. We would be compelled by science if we are committed to reason (Latour, 1999). However, this is where the founder of the school of thought known as pragmatism, Charles Peirce would disagree. In an essay he wrote in 1877, the fixation of belief (Peirce, 1997), he tries to forward the method of science without appeal to rationality, objective truth or reason.

He instead argues that science if more like a good trick that happens to trump all other prescriptions. This is what pragmatism is all about. Anyone has uncertainty? Try science. Not for any metaphysical or theoretic reason but on the rounds of pragmatism instead. It just works. That explanation may however be too easy. First we may want to ask