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Question 1: In daily life, people are often praised for maintaining some particular point of view, for the "courage of their convictions." A change of mind is seen as a weakness. How is this different in science?

Question 2: In daily life, we see many cases of people who are caught misrepresenting things and who soon thereafter are excused and accepted by their contemporaries. How is this different from science?

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Verified Answer :

Informer

Hi,

In science it is definitely different, people who praise these types of views, are probably not scientists, or lack the ability to question things. Often a lie is believed to be true when it is the 'lie' which is conveyed with confidence. That's the whole thing. But in science, empirical and updated, research and theories are important. One example about this, if you have seen the movie "Good Will Hunting", in that this Howard guy confronts Will's friend at the bar, and starts, quoting some history passages with confidence, but Will takes his friends place, and scientifically breaks everybody views. That's just one point.

Secondly, misrepresenting among common men is taken lightly, we forgive our peers in a community for doing that. But science is different because, there's no such thing as forgiving or accepting, nothing is truly accepted by the way, views change overtime. Like for example, Newton once asked perhaps the greatest questions of all time, he asked, If an apple falls, does the moon also fall? Newton concluded saying that the same thing that pulls an apple down holds the moon above, he was criticized because he said he had no idea what gravity was. His views were later accepted but, defused by Einstein, when he said there's no such thing as gravitational pull, nothing pulls me down, it is the wind above my head that's pushing me down. So in science, it is different because you must be scientific or else some else would diffuse your view by being more scientific. Newton is still very well accepted.

Sincerely,

Informer

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