Identifying Future-Proof Science

di Peter Vickers (Autore)

Oxford University Press, 2025

Is science getting at the truth? The sceptics—those who spread doubt about science—often employ a simple argument: scientists were 'sure' in the past, and then they ended up being wrong. Through a combination of historical investigation and philosophical-sociological analysis, Identifying Future-Proof Science defends science against this potentially dangerous scepticism. Indeed, we can confidently identify many scientific claims that are future-proof: they will last forever, so long as science continues. How do we identify future-proof claims? This appears to be a new question for science scholars, and not an unimportant one. It is argued that the best way to identify future-proof science is to avoid any attempt to analyse the relevant first-order scientific evidence, instead focusing purely on second-order evidence. Specifically, a scientific claim is future-proof when the relevant scientific community is large, international, and diverse, and at least 95 per cent of that community would describe the claim as a 'scientific fact'. In the entire history of science, no claim meeting these criteria has ever been overturned, despite enormous opportunity.

• Autore: Peter Vickers
• Editore: Oxford University Press
• Anno: 2025
• Rilegatura: Paperback / softback
• Pagine: 280 p.
• Dimensioni: 235 x 157 mm
• Peso: 486 gr.
• EAN: 9780198966227

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