Objectivity in Science

It is commonly claimed that scientists are totally objective in their research and collection of data. This myth is easily busted since there are instance of scientists hiding and manipulating data and the entire peer review process to favor a particular theory. Climate Gate is good example of this. One thing that is often over looked is the fact that it is impossible for human being it to be totally objective since we all have preconceptions about the world. In fact you can’t be truly objective if you know anything about a topic since knowledge on a topic creates opinions that influence preconceptions. So you can only be totally objective if you are totally ignorant.

There are three steps in dealing with data collection, organizing and interpreting. Collecting data includes measuring and recording and it is the most objective part of science particularly since much of the work is done by machines, this is where true scientific objectivity is found. However this process is still not totally objective since the selection of data to be tested is not always is often based on the theory being used says to look for.

Organizing Data includes the categorizing of data sets however once an organizing system exists it influences how the data is seen and this causes a loss of objectivity. The interpretation of data depends on the theoretical system being used to do the interpretation because different theoretical system produces different interpretations.

Scientists using different theoretical systems on the same data can produce different and even contradicting interpretations and a flawed theoretical system causes flawed interpretation,