Prompt: Science is not an effective method for discovering truth

By Mietta Marchingo

From an empirical point of view, science is the best method we have for attaining truth, as science
makes sense of the observations, facts and ideas that we as the human race are surrounded by.
Science provides answers to many questions that we have, and refutes theories, which claim to
have logical, scientific backing, but do not. However the matter of discovering truth is contentious,
as individual human beings see truth as such varying things.

Thomas Kuhn proposed that Truth is not an objective ultimate thing that science works towards
achieving, He refers to the theory of Darwinism “The entire process may have occurred, as we
now suppose biological evolution did, without the benefit of a set goal, a permanent fixed scientific
truth, of which each stage in the development of scientific knowledge is a better example”. Kuhn
proposes that paradigm shifts occurring in science are the milestones of each goal, however this is
not to say that science works in a linear way that is building up to an objective truth, science is
accumulative, it accumulates knowledge, and is infinite.

While Kuhn focused on paradigm shifts and the way in which science progresses, Karl Popper
aimed to classify science, what is, to say, ‘true’ science. Popper dismissed areas of study such as
astrology and psychoanalysis because they were non-refutable, and the defining verification of
science, his views of ‘falsifiability’ did not apply to these ‘pseudo-sciences’. He states “It is easy to
obtain confirmation or verifications, for nearly every theory – if we look for confirmations” however
Popper believed that the mark of a genuine scientific theory was constant criticism and refutation,
and to be able to endure and withstand criticism and refutation.

Popper suggested that it is both deductive and inductive reasoning that is required to classify and
criticise a true scientist; he states “Science is distinguished from pseudo-science – by its empirical
method, which is essentially inductive; proceeding from observation or experiment” and “Only by
purely deductive reasoning is it possible for us to discover what our theories imply, and thus
criticise them effectively”. For Popper, falsifiability was the ultimate test for a scientific theory and
he relates his theory to the survival of the fittest; those theories, which come under constant
criticism and refutation, are the strongest because they are constantly learning from their own
errors.

Kuhn approaches this consideration of the scientific goal from a position that sees science as
puzzle solving, he states “The puzzles that constitute normal science exist only because no
paradigm that provides a basis for scientific research ever completely solves all the problems it
defines”. Kuhn proposed the theory of a ‘paradigm shift’ to highlight his view that science is
evolutionary, and dynamic, that it is always changing and adding to the pool of knowledge that
exists in the world.

Kuhn viewed science as having no “set goal, a permanent fixed scientific truth” which supported
his view of science as being dynamic. And Popper stated, “In fact nothing can be proved of
justified (outside of mathematics and logic)”. Neither philosopher saw that there was an ultimate,
universal scientific truth, however science does provide valuable answers to questions and makes
sense of observations facts and ideas relating to how the world, and we that inhabit it work.

There may not be a universal, ultimate scientific truth to which science is aspiring towards, but the
progress that is made through the ‘puzzle-solving’ nature of science and the evolutionary paradigm
shifts that occur within science, is infinite and adds to the knowledge that assists us, as human
beings to be able to live in better and more accurately beneficial ways.

Kuhn’s paradigm shifts add to the emergence of new ideas and theories and abolish pre-existing
theories that are less precise. Popper classifies between the true science that relies on the same
empirical, inductive observation that all human beings rely on to function within society and
pseudo-sciences, which do not provide any knowledge outside their “dogmatic:” circles.
Though culture and society can effect and even impede scientific process – for example, a shift in
societal views of homosexuality lead to it being declassified as a “mental illness” on the World
Health Organisation’s list of mental disorders, in 1990. Kuhn’s paradigm shifts allow science to
breakthrough redundant dogmatic theories and processes and re-evaluate observations, facts and
data to create new theories more appropriate to the evidence as it is accumulated. And Popper’s
theory of falsifiability ensures that science should be constantly criticised and refuted to ensure
that redundant practices and pseudo-sciences do not have any claim to providing inaccurate
knowledge to the general population.

While there may not be a universal, ultimate truth to which science is working towards, the
knowledge that is accumulated through scientific progress is the only knowledge that can be
trusted to provide objective truth, and therefore is an effective method for discovering truth,
whether or not society and the general public choose to accept these scientific progresses and
discoveries.