We live in a complex, constantly changing, ever more amazing, astonishing world. One of the things which takes me aback every time I come across it is a claim to know something for certain, and, beyond that, the claim that this certain knowledge is the ONLY possible explanation or choice.
Margaret Thatcher once famously said “There is no alternative”. The moment she said that she revealed she was living in a state of delusion. In complex, interconnected phenomena (like Life, the environment, the economy…..) there are countless alternatives. What she really meant was she didn’t wish to consider anybody else’s opinions, views, or values.
We’re facing a similar situation in economics. The latest fashion is for “austerity” (which seems to mean protect the profit making potential of the finance sector by reducing everyone else’s standard of living). The advocates of this view, who are in the seats of power throughout Europe, are certain that this is the right policy to adopt. In fact they are so certain, (“there is no Plan B”), that they maintain there are no alternatives.
It’s the same in Medicine. I read a piece recently by a Pain Specialist (that’s someone who tries to reduce pain, not inflict it!), who used the phrase “the Ayatollahs of Evidence Based Medicine”. Health policy makers, claiming the certainties of science, cite “evidence bases” to support their choices based on their world view ie their values, prejudices and preferences. They are convinced they are right, that they know best, not just what is best for them, but what is best for you. If you think differently they will tell you you are wrong.
Yesterday, reading The Edge, I came across this statement by Carlo Rovelli.
The very expression ‘scientifically proven’ is a contradiction in terms. There is nothing that is scientifically proven. The core of science is the deep awareness that we have wrong ideas, we have prejudices. We have ingrained prejudices
CARLO ROVELLI is a theoretical physicist, working on quantum gravity and on foundations of spacetime physics. He is professor of physics at the University of the Mediterranean in Marseille, France and member of the Intitut Universitaire de France. He is the author of The First Scientist: Anaximander and His Legacy; and Quantum Gravity.
It’s a good point, and one worth remembering……science is NOT about certainty, it’s about unceasing wonder and having the humility to know that you will never know everything.
I don’t trust those who claim there are no alternatives to their own “certain” one. There’s nothing appealing about the arrogance of conviction.
Heroes Not Zombies 
some words by a genuine scientist …..
You see, one thing is, I can live with doubt and uncertainty and not knowing. I think it’s much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong. I have approximate answers and possible beliefs and different degrees of uncertainty about different things, but I am not absolutely sure of anything and there are many things I don’t know anything about, such as whether it means anything to ask why we’re here … I don’t have to know an answer. I don’t feel frightened not knowing things, by being lost in a mysterious universe without any purpose, which is the way it really is as far as I can tell. It doesn’t frighten me.
Richard Feynman
‘I can live with doubt and unknowing……I don’t feel frightened by not knowing things ….to doubt and ask is a fundamental part of my soul…..
Beautiful video to go with it …..
Re: Science and Certainty
Well said!
Regarding the latest cult economic fad of the 1%ers and their unthinking sycophantic followers and supporters, “austerity”, you may wish to review the results of the latest French election where, apparently, the “austerity” advocate was soundly defeated.
Spontaneous outbursts of public outrage and resistance to the charade of advocacy of austerity, “austerity” often espoused by the very people whose financial manipulations caused major economic disturbances with their incessant profiteering binges instead of real business activities, are now occurring in major cities across the U.S., and indeed, the world.
This process of awakening is happening at every level, as well in science as in other areas. The result will be the overthrow of orthodoxy and a new openness to the winds of individual change, the imposition of fairness and the return of reason.
Picking up the pieces and instituting reforms will not be easy after the wild destruction of the logical positivists, who are absolutely “certain” that Homeopathy could not possibly work and that if it did, it would “violate all the laws” of chemistry and physics. That such anti-homeopathic opinion is even remotely entertained at any level of validity is an example of the levels to which the corporatist controlled media have descended. It is unexpected that they will recover from this sort of pseudo-skepticism and scientism any time soon.
But the “evidence” is that there is growing resentment as exposure of the fallacies of the anti-homeopathists, and of their doctrinaire denialism continues.