Philip Kitcher Quotes
It's a very bad idea for scientific conclusions to be accepted because they fit with the political values of a group of researchers.
Kitcher, Philip. "Deaths in Venice." Interview by Richard Marshall. 3:AM Magazine, 10 Jan. 2014.
This unfortunately happens in Congress all the time. A good example is {640730}.
One classic example is the scientist who is testifying before a Congressional Committee. Typically if there is a political issue, the politician of each viewpoint will find a scientists who supports their view. In a huge country, they can always find on or two to support any idea regardless of its validity. In the world of science, the scientist who has been doing experiments in a field for years and has published articles in peer-reviewed journals, teaches other scientists who do outstanding work, and have won prizes or accolades from his/her peers is given much more credibility than the scientist who has none of these accomplishments and just may have a different point of view and claim that the first scientist is in error UNLESS the critical scientist can show mathematical or other scientific proof that the first is wrong. Often in politics, the lesser critical scientist offers questions which the leading scientist cannot answer bit in science that proves nothing. There is ALWAYS much more a scientists does NOT know about an area than he does know. See {623513}.
Philip Stuart Kitcher is a British philosophy professor teaching at Columbia University who specialises in the philosophy of science, the philosophy of biology, the philosophy of mathematics, the philosophy of literature, and more recently pragmatism.
