Knowledge versus thinking

摘要

Professor Ian Chubb was quoted in the March issue (p. 32). Of chemistry: 'Its more than a discipline, said Chubb, it's a way of thinking.' This reminded me of Richard Dawkins' essay 'Science, Genetics and Ethics: Memo for Tony Blair" from about 12 years back (A devils chaplain: reflections on hope, lies, science, and love, Mariner Books, 2004). In this essay, Dawkins wrote: Senior Ministers could be forgiven for seeing scientists as tittle more than alternate igniters and quenchers of public panic. If a scientist appears in a newspaper today, it will usually be to pronounce on the dangers of food additives, mobile phones, sunbathing or electricity pylons. I suppose this is inevitable, given the equally forgivable preoccupation of citizens with their own personal safety, and their tendency to hold governments responsible for it. But it casts scientists in a sadly negative role. And it fosters the unfortunate impression that their credentials flow from factual knowledge. What really makes scientists special is less their knowledge than their method of acquiring it - a method that anybody could adopt with advantage.