AtomicQuote

Robert A. Burton Quote

Stephen Jay Gould offered this practical compromise: In science, ‘fact’ can only mean confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.16 The key phrase is provisional assent. We can strive for objectivity; we cannot reach the shores of dispassionate observation. The problem is that to play according to the rules of scientific method, we must concede the possibility that we cannot know if one day contrary evidence might appear and overthrow a cherished theory. Faith-driven arguments, by invoking irrefutable divine authority that will always be right, do not have to make this concession.

Robert A. Burton

Stephen Jay Gould offered this practical compromise: In science, ‘fact’ can only mean confirmed to such a degree that it would be perverse to withhold provisional assent.16 The key phrase is provisional assent. We can strive for objectivity; we cannot reach the shores of dispassionate observation. The problem is that to play according to the rules of scientific method, we must concede the possibility that we cannot know if one day contrary evidence might appear and overthrow a cherished theory. Faith-driven arguments, by invoking irrefutable divine authority that will always be right, do not have to make this concession.

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About Robert A. Burton

Robert A. Burton is an American physician, novelist, nonfiction author and columnist. He has written three novels, as well as the nonfiction books On Being Certain: Believing You Are Right Even When You're Not and A Skeptic's Guide to the Mind: What Neuroscience Can and Cannot Tell Us About Ourselves. His essays have appeared in The New York Times, Salon, Aeon, and Nautilus, among other others. His medical career includes being the chief of the Division of Neurology at Mt. Zion UCSF, and Associate Chief of the Department of Neurosciences.
Burton graduated from Yale University and the University of California, San Francisco medical school, where he also completed his neurology residency. He is a resident of the San Francisco Bay Area.