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by xibalba 1578 days ago
Then all of the greatest scientists in human history were arrogant (by your judgement). So what?

Progress and truth are much, much more important than fitting in and pleasing others’ sense of propriety.

3 comments

No reasonable scientist has ever claimed that their theory is 100% correct and that it is an objective truth.

Scientific theories are merely our best approximations of how the world works.

Usually it is the anti-scientific drivel that is full of assertions and absolute statements, which is also what makes it so popular, especially among the less educated crowd.

I agree that making progress is of utmost importance, but the concept of truth is much more nuanced and, imo, difficult to define in objective terms.

"I have reasons to believe X" (1) vs "I know the truth X" (2).

1 sounds less arrogant than 2 IMHO and is what I would expect a scientific minded person to say. That makes it way simpler to discuss the actual reasons to believe X, without necessarily going against the individual who believes X.

That's not what the parent comment was saying - they're communicating that presuming to know the truth with complete confidence is arrogant, not that actual knowledge of truth (i.e. expertise) is arrogant.