caa a22 4500 386319219 CHVBK 20180307111619.0 cr unu---uuuuu 161130e198803 xx s 000 0 eng 10.1017/S0957042X00004739 doi S0957042X00004739 pii (NATIONALLICENCE)cambridge-10.1017/S0957042X00004739 Tiles Mary Scientific Method: Method and the Authority of Science [Elektronische Daten] [Mary Tiles] The thought that it might be possible to develop a method of scientific discovery, a procedure of investigation and reasoning which, so long as its principles were studiously followed, would be guaranteed to result in scientific knowledge, has long been recognized to be a mere philosophers' dream, with no more possibility of fulfilment than the alchemists' dream of producing a philosophers' stone which would turn base metals into gold. Yet it remains the case that the authority of science (the deference given to scientific experts, the credence given to their theories) rests on claims made on behalf of its methods; they are regarded as somehow superior to, or more reliable than, any other means of acquiring beliefs about the world around us. To say that there is no scientific evidence that any of the food additives currently permitted in Britain have any harmful effects is a way of dismissing as groundless and irrational the fears of those who think that such additives do have harmful effects. Whereas to say that it is scientifically established that smoking causes lung cancer is a way of saying that this is something a smoker ought to worry about. Copyright © The Royal Institute of Philosophy and the contributors 1988 Royal Institute of Philosophy Lecture Series Cambridge University Press 24(1988-03), 31-51 0957-042X 24<31 1988 24 PHS https://doi.org/10.1017/S0957042X00004739 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI 1 research-article jats NATIONALLICENCE 856 40 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0957042X00004739 text/html Onlinezugriff via DOI NATIONALLICENCE 100 1- Tiles Mary NATIONALLICENCE 773 0- Royal Institute of Philosophy Lecture Series Cambridge University Press 24(1988-03), 31-51 0957-042X 24<31 1988 24 PHS CC0 http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0 nationallicence BK010053 XK010053 XK010000 NATIONALLICENCE NATIONALLICENCE NL-cambridge