Disclaimer: we still have pragmatic reason to follow the evidence suggested by our best scientific theories. I'm just poking fun at scientists in the spirit of Hume. There's no guarantee that the future will resemble the past, and even our best scientific theories are amenable to future evidence.
Except this isn’t a criticism of the scientific position…
We absolutely do not expect our instruments and our math to be reliable in the future. Literally everything about science is done with the understanding that we’re still figuring things out and that our tools and models will change as we learn more, and that we will learn more as our tools and models change. The problem isn’t posting a philosophical meme, the problem is that it’s a bit ass-backward.
Evolutionary ecology and multilevel selection theory have undergone massive changes just in the course of my career. I remember when the news that mitochondria and chloroplasts had their evolutionary origin as independent and then symbiotic organisms really started to penetrate public awareness. I remember when evolutionary developmental biology started to pick up steam. There’s far too many books about all of those kinds of things and new papers being written every day. That’s not even touching on the world-view changing developments in physics, material sciences, social sciences, and so on. We update our models as we learn - that is what learning is.
Fair enough, I concede that the meme falsely portrays scientists as being unaware of this limitation. But maybe that's where the humor comes in; although I don't think many people see the meme as funny. Maybe I should have used a different format...
For these kind of pedantic complaints about the scientific method, I just propose an experiment where I push a boulder off a cliff they’re standing under and see what they think about repeatable, demonstrable evidence.
Somewhat tangential, but this reminds me of an oft-cited factoid. Centuries ago, in Europe, everyone accepted the fact that all swans are white. Europeans had observed swans for years and they were, without fail, all white. There was so much overwhelming evidence that swans are white that it became obvious. Later, during the age of exploration, Europeans went to Australia and realize that not all swans are white. A single black swan flew in the face of all prior evidence (pun intended). We could say something similar about the shift from Newtonian physics to Einstein's general relativity.
I believe in following science--especially the theory of gravity if a boulder is above my head. However, people forget that science doesn't investigate the foundations of science itself. Things like causation, mathematics, and continued unchanging laws are presupposed. We humans have an incomplete picture and so have no choice but to work based on the information available, but we shouldn't forget that all we have is an approximation of reality.
“All observed swans are white” is not incompatible with the unobserved existence of a black swan.
Of course we aren’t omniscient and there’s a possibility of an anti-gravity anomaly stopping the boulder, but not standing under them is still the most rational response to the data we do have.
Well, if you don't like that example, take the actual refutation of Newtonian physics by Einstein. The point remains the same.
And if you're willing to concede our fallibility, then I think I've addressed all your concerns in the disclaimer I wrote under the meme.
Both Newtonian and Einstein’s physics suggest a boulder pushed off a cliff will fall, as far as I know. The observable data is more intrinsically valuable than the theories using them.
Fallibility isn’t something science shies away from. There’s nothing more exciting in the scientific community than when science is wrong about something.
Philosophers grandiosely proclaiming that nothing is knowable is fine, but it’s not what put a man on the moon.
We aren't even disagreeing now but you would rather argue than grasp the point. Point being, the presuppositions of science are not themselves within the purview of science. All our best theories start with axioms.
You continue to talk about the usefulness of science, which I conceded before you ever typed your first comment. At this stage, I have to assume that you're being willfully obtuse.
You said you were poking fun, I poked back. I appreciate the conversation, I enjoy thinking about these things.
I think about this a lot. There are places you see this logical flaw that are actually more concrete. A good example is retirement accounts. There is an implicit assumption that even safe investments will go up in the long term.
I'm probably in the Hume camp of skepticism and I like this meme :)
The fuck does this even mean? Does it try to imply that the specific equipment used for science has to keep working indefinitely?
Science is better if use many different sets and types of equipment. Sometimes we discover the equipment was flawed, or less capable than one could hope for.
Don't post philosophy memes here, got it lol. Well, I can't say this reception is entirely unexpected.
