What is science to me? By Eli Horrowitz
06.6.10 by David Vitrant
“Science”?
After taking twelve-plus years of science classes and spending a good chunk of time investigating the philosophy of science, the one thing I can confidently say about the subject as a whole is that I’m bad at it. As much as the word is used to indicate a body of knowledge or a governing organization of sorts, science is at its heart a performance – and one that makes use of a wide variety of skills. Pertaining as it does to the physical world, scientific investigation requires a certain level of dexterity and patience. But since science is knowledge-oriented, it also calls for a measure of ingenuity and more than a little detachment. An excellent scientist will, therefore, be a hard thing to find.
But science progresses despite this – could science not be so difficult after all? I doubt it – as in every other field, the history of science is littered with mistakes, overconfidence, and even outright dishonesty. Scientists, after all, are only as human as the rest of us. In fact, there are many cases in which scientists – that is, paid practitioners of science – are more human (in the pejorative sense) than the general population. Experiments require money and money, even money provided with the best of intentions, comes with strings. Take this into account and the above list of characteristics grows to include “brave”: it’s never an easy thing to work at a job that could well inspire your benefactor to stop sending you checks.
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