Believe Differently

I will be writing my “part II” post on “Scientific Truth” soon but thought in the mean time I would share with you part of the inspiration for the original post - you might also want to look at the developing conversation initiated by Saj. A couple of Saturdays back I was listening to Radio 4’s “Today” program and John Humphrys interviewed Kathy Sykes, who directs the Cheltenham Science Festival, and David Dickson, director of the Science and Development Network. The discussion moved on to talk about truth and about how people invoke the phrase “scientists say…” as if to confirm the absolute truth of such and such an issue. Kathy Sykes said that part of the objective of the Cheltenham Festival was to put a “human face” on science and to a certain extent resist this tendency. Obviously given the content of my previous post, my ears pricked up and I would just like to share a couple of quotes with you – I intended to have included them in the original post but did not have the time.

Sykes said it was a “mistake to sound too certain about things which we are not very certain about” and that “when we talk about science we are not talking about the truth but how we get closer to the truth… and as soon as we pretend it is the truth… or that we have absolute solid facts… we are in trouble.” David Dickson concurred and added “one of the mistakes people make about science is to say it is all about absolute truth… it is not about absolute truth but a consensus within researchers at any one time.”

If you are following the stuff I am developing about truth and science, you will understand why I liked these two quotes so much.

If you are interested in listening to the interview, it can be found here - you will need to fast forward to the last 15 minutes of the audio clip.