Wednesday, December 01, 2004
The Problem With Science
Governments of any stripe in the UK have a problem with science.
It's natural that those who are most certain if the right policies will reach the top in politics. However, in politics, to a large extennt that certainty must be based on faith rather than evidence.
A scientist is taught to examine the premises as much as the logical structure based on them. Political debate generally simply assumes a consensual set of premises. The people who insist on examining those premises or even rejecting them tend to be excluded from the political mainstream. So, left or right, those who apply a scientific mind set to politics are unlikely to have a successful political career since they'll spend too much time arguing against party orthodoxies to ever be influential.
That's why there's long been a class divide in what subjects are studied at university, which is reflected in the make up of the political establishment. To rise to the top you need the ability to develop a logical seeming argument regardless of the premises. That has led to a bias towards law and philosophy as subjexts studied by those who grow up woth an expectation of being the decision makers. That reinforces the whole problem.
Some people with a scientific mind set respons by settling for being political mavericks, others simply settle for not thinking very deeply about politics. Either way faith based politics has the edge, whether it's faith in God, Allah, Marx or the Free Market.
It's natural that those who are most certain if the right policies will reach the top in politics. However, in politics, to a large extennt that certainty must be based on faith rather than evidence.
A scientist is taught to examine the premises as much as the logical structure based on them. Political debate generally simply assumes a consensual set of premises. The people who insist on examining those premises or even rejecting them tend to be excluded from the political mainstream. So, left or right, those who apply a scientific mind set to politics are unlikely to have a successful political career since they'll spend too much time arguing against party orthodoxies to ever be influential.
That's why there's long been a class divide in what subjects are studied at university, which is reflected in the make up of the political establishment. To rise to the top you need the ability to develop a logical seeming argument regardless of the premises. That has led to a bias towards law and philosophy as subjexts studied by those who grow up woth an expectation of being the decision makers. That reinforces the whole problem.
Some people with a scientific mind set respons by settling for being political mavericks, others simply settle for not thinking very deeply about politics. Either way faith based politics has the edge, whether it's faith in God, Allah, Marx or the Free Market.
