Unveiling the Veil: Understanding the Flaws Behind the Scientific Curtain

Words have power, a phrase that might be common in our everyday lives. Perhaps, it was famous because it is true. Love, hate, failure, and acceptance are some examples of words that have strength, both bad and good. However, none of them are as convincing as the word ‘science’. Words such as ‘scientifically proven’ became famous in the marketing industry. People tend to believe in science and some even believe nothing besides science or what is commonly known as scientism. 

According to Haack (2012), here are some of the signs of scientism: 

1. Only acknowledging science as the one true knowledge.
2. Imitating scientific methods in other branches of science where it could be inappropriate.
3. Wanting to demarcate science and non-science until it became an obsession. 
4. Putting scientific methods as the ‘one true method’ when it is an expansion of the basic human cognitive abilities.
5. Believing that science could answer everything.
6. Thinking negatively about things that are not officially science. 

We all probably have met someone who saw signs of scientism. However, there is more to see when we talk about science. The thing we need to remember is that science is done by humans and humans are flawed by nature. People often talk about science as if it is completely objective. That could not be more than false. 

One of the things that we need to consider is the possibility of false or bad science. The science community is filled with the ‘publish or perish’ drama in which academics are forced to publish a paper once a year or they will lose their job. Being put into a corner makes for people doing bad things. This of course includes scientists. A number of social misconduct was committed because of this pressure, including data falsification, fabrication, and questionable methods of research. Some of the journals that did this were noticed and were taken back. However, a good number of them went unnoticed and were approved to be true. 

Going back to the notion of objectivity, it is worth noting that behind science, there are scientists, which means that there is bound to be subjectivity. People typically do not know how far this subjectivity goes. The subjectivity of scientific research could be traced to the beginning of the study, the problem that the scientist chose. A scientist could choose a problem based on their specialty, or just pick the things that they know would get them published in a high-impact factor journal. Of course that was only the beginning, we can see that there are other things such as how samples are chosen, sources of funding, and analysis of data. 

The thing we can do as a society is to be aware of these kinds of problems and think critically about the things we read. Being a good reader and reading things as it is would not suffice in the modern world. Critical thinking is needed so that we can distinguish what we should and should not believe in.

This article is not to discredit good science, of course, but as a society, we all must be aware of the danger of putting the word ‘science’ on a pedestal. Behind the powerful word of ‘science’, some things go unnoticed by the public such as fabrication and falsification of data. The aim of this article is so that you would think twice before believing an article published in a scientific journal. The drama of ‘publish or perish’ is also a thing that the public needs to be aware of as this puts pressure on scientists. 

References

Haack, S. (2021). Six signs of scientism. Logos & Episteme. 3(1). 75-95. 

Harvey, L. (2020). Research fraud: A long-term problem exacerbated by the clamour for research grants. Quality in Higher Education. 26(3). 243-261.