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53. Review of Buckley’s Moral Teachings of Science
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345 53 Review of Buckley’s Moral Teachings of Science 2 June 1892 The Nation Moral Teachings of Science. By Arabella B. Buckley. D. Appleton & Co. 1892. Another subject so important, vast, and difficult it would be hard to name—a subject which not every philosopher of the first rank would be competent adequately to treat. Not mere clear insight into one aspect of philosophy is sufficient; a full appreciation of what belongs to the spirit of all the different leading schools of thought is required. To say that the subject is far beyond the powers of the authoress is no disparagement. Nor has she attempted any thorough or philosophical discussion. It is not science which has dictated her teachings, but traditional ideas, for which she ingeniously finds considerable countenance in facts of natural history. But these facts are somewhat isolated and sporadic; they are not the leading facts of any current scientific theory. That they play so little part in science perhaps indicates a defect in scientific theories. Two widely different things might be understood by the “moral teachings of science.” In the first place, the prosecution of scientific research necessarily requires and strengthens certain moral qualities, quite independently of what the results of that research may be, and the moral teachings involved must undeniably be good so far as they go, although they may be one-sided, fortifying only a part of the moral nature, and leaving another part neglected. The first of these teachings is perfect fairness and moral indifference as to the outcome of any inquiry. Suppose, for instance, the inquiry be as to the correct reading of a text of Scripture, “Thou shalt not steal,” or “Thou shalt steal.” (We purposely select an impossible case, in order to free the example from perplexities.) There is a conclusive argument to be drawn from the moral nature of man that the former and not the latter must be the correct reading. Nevertheless, in estimating the force of the purely historical evidence—in order to be scientific, in order to be logical—we must Writings of C. S. Peirce 1890–1892 346 for the time being remove, if we can, all such prepossessions from our mind, and look upon the two commandments with an indifferent eye; not rejecting any considerations, but putting them aside for the time being. Many great scientists go to church, and are there very unlike what they are in their laboratories. At one time they are studying one aspect of truth, at another time another. To regard either aspect fairly and honestly, the other must for the time be excluded. If they conflict, the presumption, the faith of the scientific man is, that it is because the last word has not been said, on one side or on the other; at any rate, it must at least be hoped that there is an ultimate resting-place which will be satisfactory from both points of view. Perfect candor in recognizing facts and their bearings, without trying to explain away real difficulties so as to make out a decided conclusion , is the very first point of scientific morals. To get at the facts of observation, uncolored by any theory or doctrine, moral, political, or physical, is what the scientific man must strive for. It does not please him at all to have his observations agree too well with one another. It makes him suspect that something is wrong. An obstinate discrepancy is his delight, because it shows that he is on the road to learning something he does not yet know. It was a little discrepancy in the place of the planet Mars, of a fourth of the breadth of the moon, that forced Kepler, who would not blink it, to the discovery of his first two laws, and so made the discovery of Newton possible, and opened the way for all modern science. Nothing, it is true, is more common than to find admirable scientific men strangely incapable of seeing the force of certain kinds of evidence; as many medical men long were blind to the evidences of the germ-theory of acute constitutional diseases. Perhaps they are even better scientific men for that, within a limited field; but in a broader field it is a fatal defect. Let lawyers have their rules for excluding certain kinds of testimony if they will, but science must exclude nothing, not even the fancies and traditions...