Why is it important for scientists to balance open-mindedness and skepticism?

Answer 1

Both skepticism and open-mindedness, indeed, must be balanced in science for discovering science-based truth.

First, skepticism is necessary otherwise many new discoveries we currently have may not have been found because no one was willing to question the current standard.

Example: Copernicus disagreed with the then agreed upon idea that everything revolved around the earth, and suggested, through careful study, that the earth, and the rest of the Solar System, revolves around the Sun. Copernicus thoughteverything revolved around the sun, but we now know that our Solar System is part of a galaxy likely orbiting a black hole.

Secondly, open-mindedness must be used otherwise we'd end up with either thousands of hypotheses and each scientist backing his or her own hypothesis or people who will not listen to a new idea because they think the current idea is correct.

Example: Again from Copernicus' time, most people wouldn't listen to Copernicus for various reasons (including that their observations were of the stars, planets, and sun moving).

One key reason this mindset is necessary is because one observation may have several possible causes.

Another key reason is because two things (we'll call them A and B) that seem to have a relation may either:

• A causes B

• B causes A

• no relation exists, it's a mere coincidence

• C causes both A and B, but no direct relation exists between A and B

• etc.

So basically, a scientist should be open-minded to new ideas and skeptical enough to look for other possible explanations unless we come to the point where we can directly observe whatever's in question.

Example: During Columbus' time, people thought the earth was flat. Columbus and several others thought evidence pointed to the earth being round. Nowadays, we can view pictures of the earth from space telescopes to verify that the earth is indeed round.