What comes to your mind when you come across an image of a rocket launch by ISRO? Or a doctor curing a patient? Maybe a picture of Einstein? Have you ever wondered how this great human enterprise works? What makes it so reliable that we never doubt while travelling in an airplane? A majority of us do not have any objection to vaccinations. Why do people have such great confidence in science? In contrast, we doubt institutions and policies of the social world. We ask questions like who makes these policies, what is the social standing of caste, class, and gender, and what are their vested interests.
We know that science is an overwhelmingly useful body of knowledge. For centuries, we have been exploiting scientific principles to promote human well-being and been flourishing in it. However, scientific discourse remains beyond the grasp of the general public. There is a consensus in society that science should not tell us how we should be as a society. I suspect that these sorts of views are prevalent in a society due to the ignorance of the scientific world. We must embrace some of the core values of science. I will briefly discuss some of the tenets that are essential to science, and how they can contribute to a better society.
Objectivity
The most important principle that we can learn from science is ‘objectivity’. It is something the world needs badly, right now more than ever before. We are living in times where everything is polarised. Our so-called intellectuals are a bonded labour of their own ideological commitment. They don’t see things as they are. Their minds are closed for accommodating anything new that doesn’t conform to their dogmatic ideologies.
Imagine the situation where Albert Einstein was rewriting our understanding of reality and shattered the Newtonian view. Did all the Newtonians come and raise slogans against Einstein? Did it happen that Einstein was accused of being biased against Newton (regarding Newton being a Christian and Einstein a Jew)? Newtonians examined Einstein’s theory rigorously and then accepted it. Having an objective approach toward matters can reduce the conflict among us.
Debate And Discussion
Debate and discussion are the institutions where we as human species share our understanding, intuitions and knowledge. A meaningful debate is constructive, while a noisy debate can lead to destruction.
If you ever seen scientists debating, you would observe that they are good listeners. To prove a contrary point of view, they try to understand others’ viewpoint first. What we see in the name of debate are open bigotry and personal abuse. Disagreement means complete opposition, and once you become opponents, there is no scope for any kind of discussion. We have many contemporary examples of this sort.
Falsifiability
Most of us do not admit the possibility of being wrong. For them, being proven wrong is a matter of shame. Instead, we should celebrate falsifiability, because in the process of being proved wrong, you learn something new which is more accurate. Science has a different approach. We do not abuse Einstein for being proven wrong about quantum mechanics, but his objection to quantum mechanics led to more clarity on the subject. From science, we can learn to be more open-minded and accepting of new ideas to grow without feeling low.
Science is not just a thing practiced in laboratories. Science is a liberating worldview that has the capacity to transform the social world for good. As Richard Dawkins rightly said, “Science is beautiful, science is wonderful. Science is the poetry of reality.”