Scientific Temperament

There is a huge discussion around scientific temperament

in India. A section of intellectuals believes that scientific
temperament is declining in the current scenario. They
believe that it is happening because some powers are
promoting religious dogmas radically. For them, promoting
a scientific temperament is a necessity in India. These
people give references to Article 51A, Fundamental Duties
of Indian citizens, which also include the duty to develop a
scientific temper. But, these people will never tell you what
exactly scientific temper is. They will never release a single
profound document on scientific temperament, which can
perhaps define what it means. But, for our convenience, we
can assume that it probably is an extension of scientific
methods in our daily lives. The problem starts right here.
When we use the term ‘scientific method’, it comes with a
certain criterion, like seeking a reason and proof for any
belief. And where there is ‘scientific method’, there is no
space for faith.
Faith and scientific method are incompatible. But, when we
question if scientific temper destroys people’s beliefs and
takes away their faith, the classical answer is that
scientific temperament, in fact, is not against faith but a
tool to eradicate all kinds of superstitions from the society.
But the question remains, how would you differentiate
between faith and superstition. What we might consider
superstition, might be faith for someone else. For example,
in the valley of Narmada, people worship the river and take
a bath in it twice in a month. It is their ritual. And the same
people hang lemon and chilly on a thread in front of their
houses, they pour milk on Shiv Ling as well. So, can anyone
infer which of these is faith and which is superstition? How
would you distinguish between the two? The fact is, nobody
can. And neither can scientific methods be distinguished
from faith and superstition. Ultimately all three can be
called superstition, which very dangerous in a country like
in India, where religious faith has been deep-rooted since
centuries.

Also, scientific methods are not enough by themselves.

They do not help us find answers to various questions. They
do not guarantee us the truth. They make people’s life dry,
they make them sceptical. To live happily on this planet, we
need illusions and faith. But scientific temper does not give
specs for faith. Imagine a world where everyone practices
scientific temper and apply scientific methods in their daily
life. This world would just become colourless. For example,
problems of free will (free will is an illusion) get support
from scientific temper and scientific reasoning. We all
know the uncomfortable implication of determinism.

So what I want to say is, that we do not need to make

scientific temperament a necessity for our ordinary
citizens. We need to promote the understanding of
humanity as well. For this, we need better civic education.
We need not promote scientific methods, but we need to
promote civic values.
 The Branches of Science
The Physical Sciences
 Physics: The study of matter and energy and the interactions
between them. Physicists study such subjects as gravity, light, and
time. Albert Einstein, a famous physicist, developed the Theory of
Relativity.
 Chemistry: The science that deals with the composition, properties,
reactions, and the structure of matter. The chemist Louis Pasteur, for
example, discovered pasteurization, which is the process of heating
liquids such as milk and orange juice to kill harmful germs.
 Astronomy: The study of the universe beyond the Earth's
atmosphere.

The Earth Sciences

 Geology: The science of the origin, history, and structure of the
Earth, and the physical, chemical, and biological changes that it has
experienced or is experiencing.
 Oceanography: The exploration and study of the ocean.
 Paleontology: The science of the forms of life that existed in
prehistoric or geologic periods.
 Meteorology: The science that deals with the atmosphere and its
phenomena, such as weather and climate.

The Life Sciences (Biology)

 Botany: The study of plants.
 Zoology: The science that covers animals and animal life.
 Genetics: The study of heredity.
 Medicine: The science of diagnosing, treating, and preventing
illness, disease, and injury.
 Science And Values
Science and values is a multifaceted discussion in the philosophy of science, as
there are a variety of ways the conjunction of the two can be understood. Two
major theses in this area are that scientific inquiry, rather than being a simple
matter of evidence and logic or rule-governed inference, requires a variety of
value judgments, and that social (ethical, prudential, political, etc.) values play
some role in scientific inquiry. Arguments for the first thesis have generally
proceeded from some sort of uncertainty or indeterminacy in the relationship
of evidence and theory, such as the underdetermination of theory by evidence.
Defenders of this thesis have posited a special set of values, termed
"epistemic" or "cognitive", which play a privileged role in scientific inquiry, e.g.,
simplicity, scope or universality, fruitfulness, accuracy. Proponents of the
second thesis have argued either that epistemic values have no special status
vis-a-vis other sorts of values, that epistemic values are insufficient to
determine theory appraisal, or that decisions about epistemic values depend
on contextual social values. Feminist philosophers of science and social studies
of science have been particularly important in forwarding the second sort of
argument. Those who argue that science is laden with social values have also
relied on the argument from inductive risk (the trade-off between false
negative and false positive errors). In addition to these two main issues, the
category of social values includes a variety of other important issues, such as
the responsible conduct of research, the relation between science and religion,
the role of science in policy and politics, the politics of science, the
democratization of science, and the extent to which science can generate
social and ethical norms.