Science justifies methods by success while ignoring domains where intersubjective certainty fails

Evidence

But if protecting lives and health is what motivates us, perfect certitude may not be the gold standard, and we will not blindly dismiss strong evidence of untested chemicals as “mere correlation.” When many studies of risk factors in the United States and abroad point to the same chemical culprits, this lends power to correlations and should be taken into account when deciding whether to approve their use. — Harriet A. Washington, A Terrible Thing to Waste, 50 (#responds-to, via linked claim)

The system substitutes inner certainty for external certainty9 and in so doing raises its tolerance of uncertainty in external relationships. The problem of the complexity gap thereby shifts to some extent into the secondary problem of inner certainty. Inner certainty can come about in two different, indeed opposite, ways – and it is largely because of this that the development of trust can be pretty reliably anticipated time and again, despite very diverse system conditions. — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 154 (#expands, via linked claim)

Science had gained in the escape from the monopoly of knowledge in terms of time but eventually lost in the development of knowledge in terms of space. — Harold Innis, The Bias of Communication, 804 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Rigorous methods reveal narrower slices of reality; Convergent correlational evidence should justify action absent perfect scientific certainty — Harriet A. Washington, A Terrible Thing to Waste, 50; Trust reduces complexity by substituting inner certainty for external certainty — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 154 (+7 more)

Related

• Convergent correlational evidence should justify action absent perfect scientific certainty (similarity 0.84)
• Science substitutes intersubjective certainty for the older evidence of familiarity (similarity 0.80)

Broader Connections

• Convergent correlational evidence should justify action absent perfect scientific certainty #responds-to (0.55) — Harriet A. Washington, A Terrible Thing to Waste, 50
• Trust reduces complexity by substituting inner certainty for external certainty #expands (0.50) — Niklas Luhmann, Trust and Power, 154
• Science escaped time monopolies of knowledge but succumbed to space monopolies #complicates (0.40) — Harold Innis, The Bias of Communication, 804