MISTAKES AND NEGLIGENCE

Task 1. Survey the unit. Read the objectives and the titles. Look through the words of wisdom of the next task. What do you think this unit will be devoted to?

Task 2. Give your commentaries to the following words of wisdom.

1) "A scientist commonly professes to base his beliefs on observations, not theories. Theories, it is said, are useful in suggesting new ideas and new lines of investigation for the experimenter; but "hard facts" are the only proper ground for conclusion. I have never come across anyone who carries this profession into practice – certainly not the hard-headed experimentalist, who is the more swayed by his theories because he is less accustomed to scrutinise them. Observation is not sufficient. We do not believe our eyes unless we are first convinced that what they appear to tell us is credible. It is better to admit frankly that theory has, and is entitled to have, an important share in determining belief."
(Eddington A., "The Expanding Universe," Penguin: Harmondsworth, Middlesex UK, 1940, p.25)

2) "There must be no barriers for freedom of inquiry. There is no place for dogma in science. The scientist is free, and must be free to ask any question, to doubt any assertion, to seek for any evidence, to correct any errors.

As long as men are free to ask what they must, free to say what they think, free to think what they will, freedom can never to be lost, and science can never regress."

(J. Robert Oppenheimer, physicist, Manhatten Project, Life Magazine 10/10/1949)

3) "Certainly science has moved forward. But when science progresses, it often opens vaster mysteries to our gaze. Moreover, science frequently discovers that it must abandon or modify what it once believed. Sometimes it ends by accepting what it has previously scorned."
(Eiseley, Loren C., [Professor of Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania], "The Firmament of Time," The Scientific Book Club: London, 1960, p.5)

4) "What has kept design outside the scientific mainstream these last 130 years is the absence of precise methods for distinguishing intelligently caused objects from unintelligently caused ones. For design to be a fruitful scientific theory, scientists have to be sure they can reliably determine whether something is designed. Johannes Kepler, for instance, thought the craters on the moon were intelligently designed by moon dwellers. We now know the craters were formed naturally. This fear of falsely attributing something to design only to have it overturned later has prevented design from entering science proper with precise methods for discriminating intelligently from unintelligently caused objects, scientists are now able to avoid Kepler's mistake."

(Dembski, W. A., "Introduction: Mere Creation", Mere Creation Science Faith & Intelligent Design, edited by William Dembski (InterVarsity Press, 1998) pg. 16)

Task 3.Before reading discuss with the partners:

What do the words in the title mean?

Do you often make mistakes?

What is less fatal mistakes or negligence in ordinary life?

Do scientists have the right to be negligent while doing research?

Task 4.Read Text A. Say what author thinks about scientists’ right to make and correct their mistakes.

Text A