Assumptions

A fellow blogger (Adam) recently pointed out how skewed scientific observations can be. For instance he pointed to two news articles. The first blames the serious melting of the arctic icecaps to global warming. And then the other report recounts the recent underwater volcanic activity in the arctic. (And although the latter article does not say it, it is obvious - and inferred to by Adam - that the arctic might be heating, not because of global warming, but because of localized volcanic activity.) What this tells us is that the scientific data on which the first article is based is making assumptions as to the reasons for the melting of the ice.

While I believe in the value of scientific study, I think that the scientific community is often ignorant of the many assumptions their findings are built on.

And not only the scientific community, but us all have assumptions from which we interpret the world. I doubt such assumptions are inescapably – we need a paradigm to work from. But our assumptions often prevent us from seeing other possibilities, solutions, alternatives.

Thus my challenge: Identify assumptions and evaluate alternatives.