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No short cuts to science

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 October 1999

Bruce G. Charlton
Bruce G. Charlton
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, university of Newcastle upon Tyne, Newcastle NE1 7RU, United [email protected]
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Abstract

Steven Rose regards oversimplification of biology as the supreme sin, inevitably leading to evil consequences, and requiring an unique distortion of scientific practice to avoid it. To avoid this, he proposes a short-cut to scientific knowledge by defining certain areas of biology that are intrinsically flawed. But this achieves only a subordination of science to politics. There are no general-purpose shortcuts for evaluating the validity of theories, and no substitutes for testing specific theories using relevant evidence.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 22 , Issue 5 , October 1999 , pp. 889
Copyright
© 1999 Cambridge University Press

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