Facts, Objectivity, Failure, and Trust

A common picture of the enterprise of science is the pursuit of truth based on facts and objectivity. However, the ubiquity of idealizations – intentional misrepresentations – in scientific reasoning and difficulties with the value-free ideal suggest a revised picture is needed. This picture must incorporate a role for trust in heterogeneous scientific communities, failure as a normal part of research, and diversity in how scientists undertake inquiry into the natural world. Philosophers have begun filling out this picture of the sciences (rather than Science), and its contours are relevant for engagement with theology. More realistic accounts of scientific representation, objectivity, and methodology, in combination with an increased appreciation of the relational dimensions of trust within and outside of research communities, make it possible to conceptualize more nuanced forms of dialogue between different dimensions of science and theology. They foreground intellectual humility and honesty as they facilitate making explicit what is at stake in these efforts and how they can yield more productive outcomes for our socio-political moment.