It seems to me that there is much to know, and more than I can possibly experience directly, and this is the human condition. So language and writing connect us to a wider human knowledge and a longer human tradition than any individual can aspire to on their own. Language, like money is an artefact and medium of the community, and relies on trust to function.
This means there is a moral imperative to speak the truth and repot the results of experiment and experience honestly. Without this, communication cannot happen at all. Trust is necessary between us, even to have this discussion about certainty, and knowledge and faith.
Scientists need to be faithful to the morality of science, to have trust in each other - not complete absolute trust, but fallible ordinary trust. One cannot repeat every experiment, every calculation oneself, but we need also to check and police each other a little.
I trust the electrician to wire the house safely, and the scientist to report honestly, and the shopkeeper to sell uncontaminated food, and so on and on. I get by with a little help from my friends.
It seems to me that there is much to know, and more than I can possibly experience directly, and this is the human condition. So language and writing connect us to a wider human knowledge and a longer human tradition than any individual can aspire to on their own. Language, like money is an artefact and medium of the community, and relies on trust to function.
This means there is a moral imperative to speak the truth and repot the results of experiment and experience honestly. Without this, communication cannot happen at all. Trust is necessary between us, even to have this discussion about certainty, and knowledge and faith.
Scientists need to be faithful to the morality of science, to have trust in each other - not complete absolute trust, but fallible ordinary trust. One cannot repeat every experiment, every calculation oneself, but we need also to check and police each other a little.
I trust the electrician to wire the house safely, and the scientist to report honestly, and the shopkeeper to sell uncontaminated food, and so on and on. I get by with a little help from my friends.