In reviewing John Ziman’s book Real Science: What It Is, and What It Means, Craig McConnell and Robert H. March (physics today, May 2001, page 57) explain that the “objectivity” of research resides “not in the individuals who practice it but in the scientific community….”
Acceptance is conferred by the scientific community, objectivity from the natural world, against which all scientific ideas are eventually tested. Individuals may be deluded; the community may be ruled for a while by religion or politics; but in the end, Nature settles matters.
© 2001 American Institute of Physics.
2001
American Institute of Physics
