Re:How an Alzheimer’s ‘cabal’ thwarted progress toward a cure
by kristopolous on Monday December 30, 2019 @03:52AM
(#21911841)
Scientific truth is a competing value, not an exclusive one.
I wish it was exclusive, but it just isn't. There's ego, prestige, institutions, social arrangement, capital structures... The practice of science is the cleanest practice we've found but its quest for truth hasn't fully escaped the influence of these things.
There may be a way to structure the finances, work, and collaboration to escape these things through some new kind of institutional approach, but it's just not there yet.
Compare science to its predecessors, such as witchcraft and magic (ex: a medicinal herb would have been called magic for centuries). Look at zoology's predecessor, bestiary studies, wherein sea monsters, unicorns, and a giraffe were considered in the same class of anecdotal creatures. Psychology works far better than its predecessors as well, astrology and exorcisms.
Science is a far better approach then these things but there's still work left to do. We're not at the end of history but instead are tasked with moving it forward.
I wish it was exclusive, but it just isn't. There's ego, prestige, institutions, social arrangement, capital structures... The practice of science is the cleanest practice we've found but its quest for truth hasn't fully escaped the influence of these things.
There may be a way to structure the finances, work, and collaboration to escape these things through some new kind of institutional approach, but it's just not there yet.
Compare science to its predecessors, such as witchcraft and magic (ex: a medicinal herb would have been called magic for centuries). Look at zoology's predecessor, bestiary studies, wherein sea monsters, unicorns, and a giraffe were considered in the same class of anecdotal creatures. Psychology works far better than its predecessors as well, astrology and exorcisms.
Science is a far better approach then these things but there's still work left to do. We're not at the end of history but instead are tasked with moving it forward.