As I understand these words “ambition” and “humility” are not opposed to one another. The revolution that science brought (and still brings) is a) the humility that we don’t know how the world works and b) the ambition, and a method, to find out. Science progresses by creating hypotheses and then discarding and revising those hypotheses when something comes along that doesn’t quite fit. Science has to stay humble but it doesn’t shrug its shoulders and say that since it can only offer hypotheses, all hypotheses are equally valid. It is willing to say that a hypothesis was wrong (or incomplete) and keep seeking. Applying this to the social sciences and humanities is tricky. But that’s the challenge.
I agree. I think humility and ambition are complimentary. I wonder if part of the seeming trickiness of applying the scientific method to social science and humanities is that they are "soft" sciences whereas hard sciences are more conducive to quantifiable measurement and control. It's maybe harder to isolate variables in social sciences. I'm not a scientist in any domain, though, so who am I to say?
As I understand these words “ambition” and “humility” are not opposed to one another. The revolution that science brought (and still brings) is a) the humility that we don’t know how the world works and b) the ambition, and a method, to find out. Science progresses by creating hypotheses and then discarding and revising those hypotheses when something comes along that doesn’t quite fit. Science has to stay humble but it doesn’t shrug its shoulders and say that since it can only offer hypotheses, all hypotheses are equally valid. It is willing to say that a hypothesis was wrong (or incomplete) and keep seeking. Applying this to the social sciences and humanities is tricky. But that’s the challenge.
I agree. I think humility and ambition are complimentary. I wonder if part of the seeming trickiness of applying the scientific method to social science and humanities is that they are "soft" sciences whereas hard sciences are more conducive to quantifiable measurement and control. It's maybe harder to isolate variables in social sciences. I'm not a scientist in any domain, though, so who am I to say?
Very interesting observations about intellectual ambition. Thanks
Thanks, Terry!