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Why Doubt Is Essential To Science

The confidence people place in science is frequently based not on what it really is, but on what people would like it to be. When I asked students at the beginning of the year how they would define science, many of them replied that it is a(n) 1． way of discovering certainties about the world. But science cannot provide certainties. For example, a majority of Americans trust science as long as it does not challenge their 2． beliefs. To the question “When science disagrees with the teachings of your religion, which one do you believe?” 58 percent of North Americans favor religion; 33 percent science; and 6 percent say “it depends.”

But doubt in science is a feature, not a bug. Indeed, science, when properly 3． , questions accepted facts and leads to both new knowledge and new questions — not certainty. Doubt does not 4． trust, nor does it help public understanding. So why should people trust a process that seems to require a troublesome state of uncertainty without always providing solid solutions?

As a historian of science, I would argue that it's the responsibility of scientists and historians of science to show that the real power of science lies precisely in what is often 5． as its weakness: its drive to question and challenge a possible explanation. Indeed, the scientific approach requires changing our understanding of the natural world whenever new 6． emerges from either experimentation or observation. Scientific findings are hypotheses that contain the state of knowledge at a given moment. In the long run, many of are challenged and even overturned. Doubt might be troubling, but it stimulates us towards a better understanding; certainties, as 7． as they may seem, in fact block the scientific process.

Scientists understand this, but in the 8． fore between the public and science, there are two significant traps. One is a form of blind 9． — that is, a belief in the capacity of science to solve all problems. And the other is a form of relativism borne out of a lack of 10． in the very existence of truth.