Science, Politics, and Beyond | Profile personly

0

It can be said without an excessive margin of error that one of the axes of human development is found in bold script. Individual and team effort To fight uncertainty. From that moment when We decided that Settling in to form small communities that no longer live on the basis of extremely indiscriminate hunting and gathering, but from a kind of livestock and primitive farming, until today, we have tried as a species to reduce the unknown and guarantee ourselves increased protection against the impossible, century after century.

Needless to say, the fight, as the Tango says, was so Cruel and much. Periods of intellectual darkness were the rule rather than the exception, although at times we had reached great technical and scientific heights, as in ancient Babylon or Rome somewhat more. LastAfter that, we also witnessed profound setbacks in which the loss of acquired knowledge (or even its apparent blocking of it) led to the annihilation of the shadows as the best dark dogmatism sprouted.

Anarchy, funerals and burials in the Argentine Republic

In this sense, it is worth saying that the scientific and intellectual progress of mankind has never had a single, straightforward or guaranteed path. However, the great challenge that arises when trying to refer to this historical fact, is that the past two or three generations have witnessed tremendous technological development, which leads them to foster an opposite bias; One incorrectly suggests that knowledge is advancing in a linear fashion, in the way that the technological tools that have invaded our lives have evolved in the past 20 or 30 years.

However, I think the crisis caused by the Covid-19 virus has made small cracks in Mental image That non-specialist citizens have argued about science, which, against all odds, could pit us against another period of generalized obscurantism.

Shadows of a new world order

He initially mentioned the natural tendency of the human being to combat uncertainty. In recent centuries, in this sense, the certainties that came from W. reveal the truth, Has been replaced by the knowledge accumulation method for enlightenment: Science. This process, which can be compiled poetically from the historical phrase “God is dead. God is still dead. We have killed him,” by Friedrich Nietzsche, has historically been an accompaniment to the tremendous human development in which we live today, to a large extent dependent on scientific success. Therefore, the inhabitants of the world uncritically associate science, with certainty and truth, it is not entirely fickle, although it is not entirely correct in the same way.

Science, Karl Popper warned, does not advance on the basis of successes but on refutation. Since the emergence of this statement, we know that no theory is an absolute truth, but as time progresses, it can build up progressive Empirical (experiments that support its validity) or fall into disuse, as increasing evidence shows its susceptibility to error. Thomas Kuhn even went so far, starting with its publication in 1962 The Structure of Scientific RevolutionsBy saying that apart from that dialogic, open, and organized process often ascribed to the scientific world, progress in this field is similar to Revolutions On the contrary, the accumulation of evidence, with more public pressure than moving acceptance, led to the rupture of prevailing paradigms and the emergence of new ones. And if we wanted to move forward, we could even bring into the present Paul Feyerabend, who is perhaps Karl Popper’s most prominent student, who was encouraged to Challenging consistency From one scientific method, going as far as assuming a Systematic AnarchismWhich sparked deep discussions that continue to this day.

“A Virus Will Destroy Us”: Stephen Hawking’s predictions come 20 years later

Of course, all this is not usually in the everyday conversation of citizens. And perhaps precisely for this reason, the enormous expectations that usually affect scientific certainty have suffered enormously. Reality hit In the past year and a half, since the epidemic was declared.

Since then, how could it be otherwise in the face of an unknown disease, the scientist has turned his attention to the two modern phenomena that constitute the main antidote against this factor, which is generally seen as a corrupt evil, which is suspicion: Science and states. However, since the start of 2020, they have both shown their true erratic nature. Attention to the former has allowed millions of the world to notice that scholars grope about the unknown, that they do not always have certain truths to share with them, and that their progress is inevitably marked by discussions, successes, refutations, serious errors, and so forth. Heroism and misery What kind of human organization is capable.

In the same way, countries have shown that, even given the different results obtained in each country, they are also prey to the ever-present uncertainty, although we sometimes backtrack on it tactically. However, the real problem arises when the urgency and interests of politics are in direct conflict with the usual scientific process and, above all, when this occurs before the desperate gaze of hundreds of millions of people thirsty for decisions and certainty. Thus, the multiplicity Leaves Scientists, with partial data and theories under construction, become heavy weapons that politicians use irresponsibly to discredit their opponents and Justifies Your management decisions. The big cost of this Long series from Bickering With hints from Scientific, Is the potential loss of prestige that science has acquired over time.

“Plandemic”, the documentary film for the conspirators about the Coronavirus

As things stand, it should come as no surprise that so many in the world begin to doubt that science can satisfy, as doctrines of faith once did, Such a human need for certainty, Which can have, among other things, two opposite consequences: a healthy consequence, in which learning in relation to the true process of scientific knowledge invites us not only to take on the constant challenge of uncertainty but also to a healthy exercise of wisdom, that political virtue that the majority has bestowed upon. Great classical thinkers; Others are dark, as millions resort to some forms of magical thinking, which reinforce beliefs and messianics, as happened in the past, more than once.

You may also like

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *