Science
Scientific progress can be regarded as a three-way contest between rival theories and a stock of valid evidence held in common. If rival interpretations are denied or if evidence is falsified or denied, then this impairs the possibility for rational debate and criticism, and consequently the growth of knowledge. On that ground, many scientists have proclaimed themselves in favour of freedom of thought and expression.
Read more about this topic: Objective Approach
Famous quotes containing the word science:
“Science is built up with facts, as a house is with stones. But a collection of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house.”
—Jules Henri Poincare (1854–1912)
“It is an axiom in political science that unless a people are educated and enlightened it is idle to expect the continuance of civil liberty or the capacity for self-government.”
—Texas Declaration of Independence (March 2, 1836)
“Already nature is serving all those uses which science slowly derives on a much higher and grander scale to him that will be served by her. When the sunshine falls on the path of the poet, he enjoys all those pure benefits and pleasures which the arts slowly and partially realize from age to age. The winds which fan his cheek waft him the sum of that profit and happiness which their lagging inventions supply.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)