Even in physics, there is no such thing as truth. We should carry on trying to categorise the world, though, providing we realise that it sometimes resists such efforts
Life
| Leader
11 December 2019
Getty Images
IF THE Platonic ideal of science is that it guides us towards truth by extracting simplicity from a complex world, then the messy reality is that it often just ends up adding to the confusion – and sending us down the odd rabbit hole.
It isn’t science’s fault: the world is complex. Our 13 mini-articles in this issue on some of the fiddliest concepts in contemporary science and technology give a flavour of the difficulties (see “In the quantum world, uncertainty reigns – or is it all in the mind?“). Even physics, the branch of science with the greatest drive to simplify and reduce to fundamental statements of universal validity, rapidly introduces ideas beyond common comprehension: quantum uncertainty, dark energy and the big bang singularity, to name three we highlight.
They are at least just challenges to our understanding – cosmic mysteries uncovered by science, and into which further scientific investigation may bring us more insight. The real messiness can come when we attempt to understand the complexities of life, and by extension ourselves.
Advertisement
Evolution provides a simple, powerful framework to understand much about the living world, but in its very simplicity is prone to misrepresentation. Meanwhile, concepts we build on top of it to aid our understanding – species, intelligence, the self and the power of nature versus nurture – turn out to have deep flaws.
“Philosopher Immanuel Kant floated the idea that there is the world as it is and the world as we represent it to ourselves”
On the back of the first wave of modern scientific investigation, the philosopher Immanuel Kant floated the idea that there is the world as it is and the world as we represent it to ourselves, and we shouldn’t necessarily assume they have much in common.
That doesn’t mean we should cease our attempts to categorise the world, only that we should realise it might sometimes resist our categorisation. When we ran a similar “how to think about” feature back in 2018, with 13 entirely different concepts, one of them was truth itself – the point being there is no such thing, only successive attempts to get closer to it. Scientific concepts are powerful, but only as powerful as our continuing desire to question, refine and, where necessary, discard them.
More on these topics: