​How does scientific curiosity lead to theories like Darwinian evolution?

Answer Podcast

Transcript

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If I say that science also progresses by combination of curiosity and faith how would we apply this to Darwin’s theory of evolution? Yes when we talk about curiosity and faith now this does not necessarily mean that this combination will always lead to right conclusions now I may see some pattern of ink on a paper it might just not be the language at all, there might be nothing to learn over there that possibility is also there so like that when I start exploring something I may not always come to the right conclusions so yes Darwin observed certain similarities when he went on his famous shipping tour to the Beagle, he observed certain similarities between humans and simians and based on those similarities, he made certain inferences there is observed data and there is extrapolation from that data so there are certain observed similarities between humans and monkeys but there is extrapolation from that data to a large extent since science itself is the technical word is amoral, science does not talk about morality, science does not talk about immorality, science is amoral it is basically a mode of acquiring knowledge now from that various strands of thought can be extrapolated so Hitler used the science of his time to justify the holocaust that was the outgrowth of what is called social darwinism, he had the idea that the nazis are the top most race and the jews are the lower most race and anyway according to evolution the fitter races are going to eliminate the unfit races so he says what we will do is we will help evolution on the way so this was his idea in fact his whole autobiography Mein Kampf, my struggle that’s a direct derivation from the darwinian struggle for existence now I am not saying that darwinian evolution naturally leads inevitably to nazism that’s not my point, the point I am making is this was one thread of thought which evolved and evolution so Hitler at that time justified his pogroms against the jews by saying that actually they are unfit race and they are meant to die and we will help nature along the way for them to die so science itself is a value neutral way of acquiring knowledge but different people based on their ideologies can interpret science in different ways to support their ideologies so the interpretations that they make they are themselves not scientific they are extra scientific so the methodology of science of curiosity and faith combined together that can lead to right conclusions or if people are ideologically having certain biases they may misappropriate the methodology of science to try to promote their own schools of thought also so that’s why science as a mode of knowledge can be used to lead to a lot of progress in society or it can be misused to cause a lot of destruction in society also does that answer your question? yes please