Galileo on science

In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual. 

~ Galileo Galilei, physicist and astronomer (1564-1642)

Leonardo da Vinci on art and science

To develop a complete mind: Study the science of art; Study the art of science.  Learn how to see.  Realize that everything connects to everything else.

~ Leonardo da Vinci

Aaron Rodgers on "the science"

If science can't be questioned anymore it's not science, it's propaganda.

~ Aaron Rodgers, Pat McAfee Show, December 28, 2021

Michael Crichton on consensus science

I want to pause here and talk about this notion of consensus, and the rise of what has been called consensus science.  I regard consensus science as an extremely pernicious development that ought to be stopped cold in its tracks.  Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled.  Whenever you hear the consensus of scientists agrees on something or other, reach for your wallet, because you're being had. 

Let's be clear: the work of science has nothing whatever to do with consensus.  Consensus is the business of politics.  Science, on the contrary, requires only one investigator who happens to be right, which means that he or she has results that are verifiable by reference to the real world. In science consensus is irrelevant.  What is relevant is reproducible results.  The greatest scientists in history are great precisely because they broke with the consensus. 

There is no such thing as consensus science.  If it's consensus, it isn't science.  If it's science, it isn't consensus.  Period.

~ Michael Crichton

Carl Sagan on science and skepticism

Science is more than a body of knowledge.  It's a way of thinking, a way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility.  If we are not able to ask skeptical questions, to interrogate those who tell us that something is true, to be skeptical of those in authority, then we're up for grabs for the next charlatan - political or religious - who comes ambling along.

It's a thing that Jefferson lay great stress on.  It wasn't enough, he said, to enshrine some rights in a Constitution or Bill of Rights.  The people had to be educated and they had to practice their skepticism and their education, otherwise we don't run the government; the government runs us.

~ Carl Sagan, interview with Charlie Rose, 3:00 mark, May 27, 1996

Gad Saad on the Left vs. Right attacks on truth

I would argue that the types of nonsense that the Right and Life espouse - the attacks on truth - are not equivalent in how poisonous they are.  Let me explain why.  The Right might reject a particular theory, whereas that we know is true.  A scientific theory. Say we reject evolution because... whatever, our Christian beliefs.  But on the other hand, the Left has completely rejected the possibility that truth even exists.  So one of the idea pathogens that I discuss in the book - the grand-daddy of all idea pathogens - is false modernism.  False modernism is the "philosophical movement" that argues that there are no objective truths.  Right?  Everything is shackled by subjectivity.  Everything is shackled by your own personal biases.  There is no such thing as truth. 

Well, as you might imagine that's very disconcerting to a scientist because we do wake up every morning thinking that there are truths to be uncovered.  We do use the scientific method thinking that we're going to make some contribution to some greater truth.  Now, of course, truth can change.  Right?  What was truth in science 300 years ago may need updating.   That's why we talk about provisional truths in science.   But the epistemological attack on truth - the fact that Left or some Leftists negate even the possibility that truth exists - that strikes me as profoundly more nefarious as an idea pathogen than anything coming from the Right.

~ Gad Saad, "How Infectious Ideas Are Killing Common Sense," Stansberry Investor Hour, October 8, 2020

Jenin Younes on the politicization of mask wearing

I do not have the credentials to determine whether or not – or to what extent — masks work.  But it is obvious that the issue has become so politicized that mainstream media outlets, politicians, and even scientists seize upon the slightest bit of favorable evidence, dismiss out of hand anything that conflicts with their theory, and most egregiously of all misrepresent the data, to support the conclusion that masks worn by asymptomatic people prevent coronavirus transmission.

~ Jenin Younes, "The Strangely Unscientific Masking of America," AIER.org, November 27, 2020

Tom Woods on obedience to the scientific priesthood

So of course no expert can tell if the costs are worth the benefits because no expert can know your value scale. So when people say, "we need to listen to the experts," as they urge us to dismantle everything that makes a society function and brings people joy, they have no idea what they are talking about. This is a philosophical question, not one that a scientific source would have the standing to answer. Unfortunately science, for some people, is not an ongoing search for the truth, and whose findings can help us make good decisions, it's a kind of priesthood. And whatever scientists tell us about anything, no matter how far removed from their areas of expertise, these people will obey. And the dangers of that should be obvious.

~ Tom Woods, "The Fact-Free COVID Dystopia," 38:00 mark, Mises Institute speech in Jeckyll Island, George, October 8-10

Jeff Harris on scientific consensus

Maybe you’ve heard of Ignaz Semmelweis, an Austrian-Hungarian obstetrician with a prickly personality. If not, you will quickly recognize his contribution to the medical profession with the three words he made famous:

“Wash your hands.”

This was way back in 1847.

Dr. Semmelweis provided hard data clearly demonstrating that once he and his staff began washing their hands and disinfecting equipment between patients the number of infections and deaths dropped dramatically. Unfortunately, the scientific “consensus” at the time held that there was no benefit to these measures and his advice was almost completely ignored by the learned medical community. In fact, many of his medical peers were incensed with his suggestion that they could be responsible for transmitting illness and disease!

At the time doctors took pride in their soiled gowns as a mark of their industrious work! It was commonplace for doctors who had just completed an autopsy to go to the maternity ward and deliver babies without ever washing up! After all it was the “consensus” and with so many doctors in agreement how could they be wrong?

Dr. Semmelweis died in an insane asylum in 1865 knowing that untold numbers of patients had needlessly suffered and died because the medical community refused to accept his findings and instead chose to follow the "consensus."

~ Jeff Harris, The Ron Paul Institute for Peace &scie Prosperity, "Science Is Not About Consensus," ZeroHedge.com, August 27, 2020

Greta Thunberg on the value of listening to science experts

It is even more important that we listen to science, to the experts. That goes for all crises, whether it is the corona crisis or the climate crisis.

~ Greta Thunberg, April 29, 2020

(This was a live chat at the Nobel Museum in Stockholm with environmental science professor Johan Rockstrom in Germany.)