The Scientific Attitude by Lee Mclntyre

Recent Read - The Scientific Attitude by Lee Mclntyre 

After studying claims of pseudoscience practitioners and their science denial, I am emboldened by Lee McIntyre's deeply insightful examination and clarification of what, exactly, science is and how it differs from pseudoscience. The book tries to defend the authority of science and why it is superior to its imposters.

In fact, even in the age of scientific and technological superiority, 255 members of US National Academy of Sciences in 2010 were compelled to write prestigious journal Science that they were deeply disturbed by the recent escalation of political assaults on scientists in general and on climate scientists in particulars. 

When fake news and alternative facts are circulated through social media day in day out , creationists, climate deniers, and anti-vaxxers are taken seriously not only by common people but also by media, this important book could not come at a more crucial time. Now, more than ever, evidence matters, and the evaluation of evidence is what science does best. 

There are certain sects and cult people who even challenge the basic premise of Darwin’s theory of evolution. There are claims that climate change isn't settled science, that evolution is “only a theory,” and that scientists are conspiring to keep the truth about vaccines from the public are staples of some politicians' rhetorical repertoire. Defenders of science often point to its discoveries (penicillin! relativity!) without explaining exactly why scientific claims are superior. 

In this book, Lee McIntyre argues that what distinguishes science from its rivals is what he calls “the scientific attitude”—caring about evidence and being willing to change theories on the basis of new evidence. The history of science is littered with theories that were scientific but turned out to be wrong; the scientific attitude reveals why even a failed theory can help us to understand what is special about science. 

What makes science special? According to McIntyre it is the attitude of those who engage in it. To engage in science is to care about empirical evidence and be willing to change your mind when it doesn't go your way. This is an important book for our post-truth culture.

The author  offers examples that illustrate both scientific success (a reduction in childbed fever in the nineteenth century) and failure (the flawed “discovery” of cold fusion in the twentieth century). He describes the transformation of medicine from a practice based largely on hunches into a science based on evidence; considers scientific fraud; examines the positions of ideology-driven denialists, pseudoscientists, and “skeptics” who reject scientific findings; and argues that social science, no less than natural science, should embrace the scientific attitude. McIntyre argues that the scientific attitude—the grounding of science in evidence—offers a uniquely powerful tool in the defense of science.

The author shows how the scientific attitude helps society with three major tasks : 

understanding science 

Defending science 

And growing science 

When done right , the philosophy of science is not just descriptive or even explanatory, but prescriptive. It helps to explain not just why science has been so successful in the recent times, but why evidential and experimental methods have so much potential value for other empirical fields in the future.

A must read in the times when half baked pseudo theories are floating in the name of glorification of past, this scientific attitude will only help humanity. 

The author Lee Mclntyre is a research fellow at Boston University.