根据下面资料，回答31-35题 Science is supposedly based on evidence, but
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根据下面资料，回答31-35题
Science is supposedly based on evidence, but in reality, for most people, it is based on trust. Scientific evidence is mostly inaccessible. Scientific journals are difficult to obtain and their articles are written in a specialized language that is incomprehensible to all but a few experts in the field. We trust what those experts say about their results without having the ability to question the results themselves. We trust that some knowledgeable person would question them if necessary.
And so, historically, the reputation of individual scientists has been important in facilitating the spread of scientific theories and discoveries. If a scientist is, or can appear to be, trustworthy, so might that scientist’s ideas. That’s why Robert Boyle’s name appears on the reports produced in his 17th-century lab, even though his technicians did the experimental work, took the notes and in some cases even wrote the reports themselves.
This can lead to odd consequences. For example, one of the best ways to appear trustworthy is to already be associated with a popular theory or discovery. Sociologists Robert Merton and Harriet Zuckerman identified how this can result in the “Matthew effect,” a principle derived from Matthew 25:29, “For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken even that which he hath.” In other words, recognizable scientists receive disproportionate credit, and therefore trust, in a repeating cycle. Those scientists who are unrecognizable, whose names are obscure, have the credit for their work allocated elsewhere; that is, of course, if their work is even appreciated in the first place.
If we don’t recognize who the thousands of individuals are that make up these big science projects, and if it is so difficult to learn who the literal authors are that present the evidence on their behalf, in whom are we placing our trust? In “science” itself, I would say, regardless of the integrity or rigor of the individual scientists involved; in whoever or whatever organization has the credentials to be regarded as scientific. Our trust has shifted from the individual to the enterprise.
But trusting the enterprise of science itself leads to its own problems. What if someone thinks that someone else is an expert when they aren’t? What if someone trusts someone else, even an expert, who lies? These scenarios open the enterprise of science to abuse. The most blatant display of this abuse is presented in the book Merchants of Doubt, where experts and supposed experts use their scientific credibility to obscure the consensus on issues ranging from acid rain to tobacco smoke to global warming.
