Bertrand Russell on the lack of exact truth

by jaskaw

"Although this may seem a paradox, all exact science is dominated by the idea of approximation. When a man tells you that he knows the exact truth about anything, you are safe in inferring that he is an inexact man." - Bertrand Russell in "The Scientific Outlook" (1931)- Bertrand Russell - Wikipedia

(November 19, Colombo, Sri Lanka Guardian) This idea presented by Bertrand Russell may seem odd at first glance, as we have very often learned to see science as something very exact and rigid.
A fact of life is that the current central findings of science are often presented as some kind of absolute truths in schools at least, even if this kind of thinking is exactly the opposite of the true scientific method.

True science does not have any final truths, as there just must always be the ability to take every single scientific fact and theory under new scrutiny.
There always must exist also the possibility to modify and correct it, if it then proves to be wrong in some way.

For example also the current theory of gravity must be corrected, if we get new information on its nature, even if this theory has been quite unchanged and unchallenged for a very long time.

Science gives good, great and even magnificent answers about the most important questions concerning human life and universe, but they are never final and unchanging answers.
As Bertrand Russell says science is art of approximation based on available facts. As the facts change, must the answers given by science change too.

Of course a degree of rigidity is inbuilt in this system, as to change well-established scientific findings one needs really compelling new evidence and getting them accepted can be a tedious and long job.

This inbuilt inertia however makes sure that the central scientific explanations do not change in a whim of a single genius for example. The international scientific community makes thorough checks on all new ideas before they are universally accepted.

However, Bertrand Russell is here referring to those who claim to have found exact and final answers to the big questions concerning for example the nature of life and universe.

They are however normally not scientists at all, but followers of different kinds of ideologies that claim to know the 'final truth', which is of course different in every single ideology.