Facts
[Chapter 1 Objectives]
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In science, "fact" can only mean "confirmed to such
a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional
assent." -- Stephen Jay Gould
Facts Are Well-Confirmed Observations
Suppose that you make some wonderful new observation, and you make
your observation known. As more and more people make the same
observations you do, you can be more confident that your observation
is correct. If your observation is confirmed by many competent
people, it can become a fact.
Can a Fact Be Wrong?
YES!! Can "many competent
observers" be wrong? Of course! For instance, according to the
definition of "fact":
- At about the same time, it was a fact that the sun
orbited the earth. Ask any 15th century astronomer!
- A little over a century ago, it was a fact that
disease was caused by "bad blood". Therefore, the most common
treatment for illness was bloodletting. If you were ill, your
doctor (or barber, who treated a lot of illness at the time...)
would open a vein in your arm in order to drain out the "bad
blood". This was just as common as prescribing antibiotics
today!
- At one time, it was a fact that major calamities
were caused by the stars. In fact, the word "disaster" comes from
the roots "dis", meaning bad, and "aster" meaning star. Any
competent adviser would advise you to consult the stars before any
major undertaking!
- In 1491, it was a fact that the earth was flat. If
you asked any competent scientist, sailor, or map maker in 1491 -
they would tell you that the earth was flat!
(Note: Actually, this isn't true - many, if not most, of
the competent scientists of antiquity knew that the Earth wasn't
flat. The Alexandrian Greek Eratosthenes made an ingenious
calculation of the circumference of the Earth, for instance.
However, it is a fact that most modern physics students
believe that everyone before Columbus thought that the Earth was
flat, so it makes a really convincing example, nonetheless! For
more information on the flat earth idea, check out this article.
(Link furnished by Chase Harwell))
This point troubles people - sometimes a lot. Aren't facts things
that we know to be absolutely true? Isn't that the meaning of "fact"?
Well, it is the common conception of the word, but let's
think about this...
How can we know that something is absolutely true? Nature has no
answer book (as far as I know) that we can look in to "check our
answers" - like we commonly check our assignments in school.
About all we can do, as rational beings, is make the best
observations that we can, and try to ensure that competent observers
confirm the observations. A fact is a well-confirmed observation.
Even though this is a rather vague definition (How many observers is
"many"? How do you judge who is "competent" and who isn't?) to define
a fact as "something absolutely and irrefutably true" may be
comforting but is useless - even dangerous - in practice.
[Chapter 1
Objectives]
BHS
-> Mr. Stanbrough -> Physics
-> About Science ->
this page
last update August 18, 2006 by
JL
Stanbrough