Flaws in Scientific Methodology

Just because science is presented as an unbiased and fundamental source of truth doesn’t make it so. There are numerous examples of how science is flawed: it is a pursuit carried out by humans with their own intellectual or emotional flaws.

Emotional shortcomings

Many scientists are out there to make a positive difference. This doesn’t mean they don’t ever feel impatient and take shortcuts. Or that they don’t rush and make mistakes that undermine their results.

Experimental Design

Or, let’s pretend we trust their integrity completely. How likely is it they have designed a perfect scientific methodology without any flaws? Read my upcoming posts if you want some examples of the methodological flaws that can creep into experiments. Often, these reduce the value of results. Sometimes they deem experiments a complete waste of time.

Nietzsche wrote about truth in optimistic terms. He acknowledged that there were many flaws in the human pursuit of knowledge. However, he wrote about truth as though each new discovery pushes us further up the mountain. Of course, we need ways of determining how close to truth scientific results are getting us.

By looking at numerous research articles, we can see if results are repeatable. This is a key method of seeing how much weight can be put on experimental findings because it reduces the likelihood the results were just due to chance.  At a minimum, repeating the exact same experiment should yield very similar results (unless a small sample size is used, or there is a huge variation of characteristics between people).

If the results are not repeatable, it may mean the experiment was not carried out in the way it is described. Or it might mean the results were only true for the subjects of the experiment. In the latter case, it means the results do not give us a discovery about people in general; since only a few people are likely to respond in the same way.

For more on Nietzsche’s philosophy of truth, visit:

http://ndpr.nd.edu/news/24777-nietzsche-and-the-ancient-skeptical-tradition/