In dementia care, we are looking to science for the
cure. We are hoping that someone will study
the facts about dementia, come up with that epic hypothesis for what’s going on,
test it with an equally epic experiment and present us with a little white pill
that will save the day. Yeah, keep
writing those care plans.
Actually, to do science, you have to cultivate your inner ignorance. Ignorance: How It Drives Science is the title of biologist Stuart Firestein’s 2012 book. He has surprising advice for his college students and readers, “Forget the answers, work on the questions.” (p.16) He documents how knowledge is piling up at a very disconcerting speed and how, based on the experience most of us had in school, laypeople think science is all about this pile of facts. However, Firestein claims that real scientists select facts “for the questions they create, for the ignorance they point to.” (p. 12) That is, scientists aim their research at what they wish they knew. He compares it to looking for a black cat in a dark room when there might not be any cat after all.
Firestein goes on to discuss the problems with facts. Not only are there are way too many of them to digest, but they tend to, um …, change with time. “No datum is safe from the next generation of scientists with the next generation of tools,” he points out on p. 21. He also states that it’s ridiculous to think that the facts that we are presented with are untainted by biased observation or interpretation. He agrees that the more widely accepted a fact is, the more of a risk there is that it will become too entrenched and resist needed revision.
All of this aside, Firestein has another purpose in writing this book. He wants to encourage non-scientists to peek in more often on what’s happening. So what if you can’t follow the details of current research? He cajoles, “You can enjoy a painting or a symphony without possessing any of the know-how of an artist or a musician. Why not science?” (p. 125)
This sounds good, to a point. Still, if I go to a concert or look at a painting, I can think about it. I can form my own opinion. That’s part of the deal. Saying the emperor has no clothes is not just a fashion opinion, it is an assessment of a “fact.” Laypeople might not follow the calculations that a physicist uses, but we are often pretty good at spotting bias and politicalization. You can look for the black cat that might or might not be in the dark room, but we see the elephant that definitely is in the room, namely that the “facts” are not as dependable as we are told and that it does matter.
As part of a case history, Firestein explains on p. 120, “The universe is not so much expanding; rather space is being created and the universe, the things in it, galaxies and the like, are simply filling up the expanded space.” Then he adds “… No sense asking what’s on the other side of that expanding edge of the universe. It isn’t there; it hasn’t been created yet. Just because a question can be asked doesn’t make it a meaningful question.”
Really?!? I’d be ‘lacking sense’ if ask a question? Oh, sorry, my question isn’t “meaningful.” Well, history is full of examples where scientists said there was “nothing else there,” when there really was something else on the other side. Firestein blithely goes on to document how, in this case, they had to tweak the original theory to fit some new data. Yes, that happens. Theories get changed. Regularly.
To me, the main time when science has credibility issues is when scientists are the only ones who get to ask the questions. Don’t tell me to just enjoy what science dishes out today, without any comment other than “Bravo!” I’m not going to be an uncritical consumer. What we call “science” is constantly upgrading itself like your average cell phone. Science has always been politicized, funding-driven, and pock marked with cover-ups and in-fighting. When science gets it wrong, it affects my life, my residents’ lives, our future, our children’s future. I do enjoy science – but I like to add a grain of salt myself.
© Donna Stuart, ADC December
10, 2016
Firestein, Stuart. Ignorance: How It
Drives Science. New York: Oxford University Press, 2012.
