Research project

pp. 262-272

in: Joseph Agassi, Science and society, Berlin, Springer, 1981

Abstract

In the opening of his celebrated Herbert Spencer Lecture, Albert Einstein said, do not listen to what scientists say, look at what they do. This, he added, should prevent him, as a scientist, from continuing bis lecture, yet he went on. This witty remark is packed with serious ideas. On the face of it we have here the claim that scientific method requires observations, not hear-say, as its starting point. This claim is known as classical inductivism. Now what scientists say is inductivism, but inductivism requires that we do not listen to them. The claim that we observe and not listen to hear-say was first made against the scholastic philosophers who allegedly preferred to discuss Aristotle's reports about facts rather than observe the facts. In the present century it was the corner-stone of the revolution in anthropology, especially as advocated by Bronislaw Malinowski. Malinowski rejected reports of travellers, even reports of informants who are members of societies to be studied. Rather, said Malinowski, the society itself must be observed from within, i.e. by participant observers.