Essays in medical sociology, Volume 2 (of 2)Blackwell, Elizabeth
Science
Essays in medical sociology, Volume 2 (of 2)
Blackwell, Elizabeth
Prostitution; Sexual ethics; Social medicine
_Scientific Inquisitors._--I will here quote a late statement of
Professor Huxley’s, which might well be emblazoned in all our medical
schools. He says: ‘We are at the beginning of our knowledge instead
of at the end of it; the limitation of our faculties is such that we
never can set bounds to the possibilities of nature. The verdict may be
always more or less wrong, the best information being never complete,
and the best reasoning liable to fallacy.
‘The greatest mistake those who are interested in free thought can make
is to overlook these limitations and deck themselves with the dogmatic
feathers which are the traditional adornments of opponents.’
This vigorous protest of our English naturalist against the dictation
of so-called science is in striking accord with the observations of our
French visitors in relation to the futility of compulsory legislation
now urged by scientific specialists.
_What is Science?_--When the investigators in any limited branch
of knowledge glibly use the term ‘science’ to compel assent or to
enforce legislation, we are forced to ask, What _is_ true science or
certain knowledge grounded on demonstration, as distinguished from
false science, which is uncertain knowledge, based upon varying and
imperfectly observed phenomena or upon theory? Knowledge is of various
kinds: Mental, Physical, Mathematical. These separate departments of
knowledge rest equally on bases of fact. Love is as much a fact as
bread-and-butter; justice is as potent in its effects as microbes; and
from their wider range of action and more permanent duration these
mental facts are far more _real_ than the physical phenomena.
In determining the claim of science to obedience the great Law of
Unity gives the guiding principle, which, however humbling to human
arrogance, or however affirmative of the limitations of our intellect,
the truly scientific mind is bound to accept.
_The Law of Unity the Foundation of Science._--The Law of Unity
teaches us that no explanation of any fact is final or ‘true’ if it
contradicts other facts. It announces that no method of examining facts
is reliable that destroys other facts equally patent, and that any
results deducible from partial phenomena, however interesting or even
apparently useful, can only be regarded from the point of view of true
science as temporary expedients. They may possibly be recommendations
for useful trial, but they can never be justified as subjects for
dictation.
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Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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