The Economist (taken from Intelligent Life magazine). "The Limits of Science," by Anthony Gottlieb.
Main argument: Science does have limits and all of it cannot be trusted as it always changing or not always right.
The field of science is an ever-growing and an ever-changing one. New discoveries are made every day about technology, the environment, or something in outer space, but can all this science be trusted? According Anthony Gottlieb in "The Limits of Science," science is not always accurate because most if it is changed overtime, or disproved among scientists. Science is truly not concrete and right, which can be reflected in the argument over global warming, the mystery behind dreams, and many other theories that have been disproved and abandoned.
The issue of global warming has taken over the world. Cutting down trees is bad because less carbon dioxide is absorbed. Driving cars is bad because cars give out gases that contribute to the increasing levels of greenhouse gases. Using lots of water is bad because the Earth is going to run out water when all the glaciers melt and the ocean evaporates. All these problems could arise, but why isn't the whole world taking action? The fact is, there are more theories that explain the rise in temperature and the melting of glaciers and the increasing levels of gases. The theory of global warming is not the only theory, and there are people who believe in logic other than that of global warming. Some people believe that global warming is just an impetus for the ice age, while some believe that global warming is a sham by environmentalists to exercise political power. Scientific results have shown multiple results to be likely, and in the end, there's no actual conclusion to the phenomenon. Science has no actual proof in this case, and shows that science does have its limits.
Dreams are another idea for which no concrete results have been found. There exist many speculations on why people have dreams, and none of them have been proven. There is Freud's theory that dreams are a person's unconscious desires, while others say that dreams could be our way of reacting to things around us while we sleep. Our dreams are said to make us feel better sometimes, or just a way that our brain organizes all the signals that may be going through our bodies while we are sleeping. Dreams are truly a mystery, and no science has been able to prove what it actually is. Ideas have existed for a long time, from the early 1900's by Freud, to the present day, where dreams are being studied by psychologists all around the world. Dreams cannot be explained by science, and go beyond the logic of science.
There are numerous other theories that have been found to be wrong throughout time. There was the theory that the earth was flat, which was disproved when people realized that the world was actually round. There was the belief that the universe was geocentric, which meant that everything revolved around the Earth. This was disproved with the heliocentric theory by Copernicus, which stated that everything, including the Earth revolved around the Sun. There was the blank slate theory which Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas contributed to, stating that all humans were born without any personalities and that they developed based on external influences. It has been found that genes already influence our personalities before we have been exposed to external factors. Though these theories are at this point, accepted, they could very well be disproved in the future, just like how the previous theories were abandoned for new ones.
Science can't always be right because it is always contradicted or changed, as stated by Anthony Gottlieb in his article. There are multiple theories on global warming and dreams, each more extreme than the other. There are numerous theories that have been proven wrong in the past, and could very well be disproved of in the future. Science, like the Earth, seems to be changing constantly, and cannot be relied upon all the time. Science has shown itself to have limits, and these limits prove that science is not as concrete and rooted as many believe.
Main argument: Science does have limits and all of it cannot be trusted as it always changing or not always right.
The field of science is an ever-growing and an ever-changing one. New discoveries are made every day about technology, the environment, or something in outer space, but can all this science be trusted? According Anthony Gottlieb in "The Limits of Science," science is not always accurate because most if it is changed overtime, or disproved among scientists. Science is truly not concrete and right, which can be reflected in the argument over global warming, the mystery behind dreams, and many other theories that have been disproved and abandoned.
The issue of global warming has taken over the world. Cutting down trees is bad because less carbon dioxide is absorbed. Driving cars is bad because cars give out gases that contribute to the increasing levels of greenhouse gases. Using lots of water is bad because the Earth is going to run out water when all the glaciers melt and the ocean evaporates. All these problems could arise, but why isn't the whole world taking action? The fact is, there are more theories that explain the rise in temperature and the melting of glaciers and the increasing levels of gases. The theory of global warming is not the only theory, and there are people who believe in logic other than that of global warming. Some people believe that global warming is just an impetus for the ice age, while some believe that global warming is a sham by environmentalists to exercise political power. Scientific results have shown multiple results to be likely, and in the end, there's no actual conclusion to the phenomenon. Science has no actual proof in this case, and shows that science does have its limits.
Dreams are another idea for which no concrete results have been found. There exist many speculations on why people have dreams, and none of them have been proven. There is Freud's theory that dreams are a person's unconscious desires, while others say that dreams could be our way of reacting to things around us while we sleep. Our dreams are said to make us feel better sometimes, or just a way that our brain organizes all the signals that may be going through our bodies while we are sleeping. Dreams are truly a mystery, and no science has been able to prove what it actually is. Ideas have existed for a long time, from the early 1900's by Freud, to the present day, where dreams are being studied by psychologists all around the world. Dreams cannot be explained by science, and go beyond the logic of science.
There are numerous other theories that have been found to be wrong throughout time. There was the theory that the earth was flat, which was disproved when people realized that the world was actually round. There was the belief that the universe was geocentric, which meant that everything revolved around the Earth. This was disproved with the heliocentric theory by Copernicus, which stated that everything, including the Earth revolved around the Sun. There was the blank slate theory which Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas contributed to, stating that all humans were born without any personalities and that they developed based on external influences. It has been found that genes already influence our personalities before we have been exposed to external factors. Though these theories are at this point, accepted, they could very well be disproved in the future, just like how the previous theories were abandoned for new ones.
Science can't always be right because it is always contradicted or changed, as stated by Anthony Gottlieb in his article. There are multiple theories on global warming and dreams, each more extreme than the other. There are numerous theories that have been proven wrong in the past, and could very well be disproved of in the future. Science, like the Earth, seems to be changing constantly, and cannot be relied upon all the time. Science has shown itself to have limits, and these limits prove that science is not as concrete and rooted as many believe.
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