Scientific method

The scientific method is what most people invoke when they really mean just a higher degree of investigative integrity than ordinary mutual cognition. It is a serious mistake to confuse scientific shared cognition with moral cognition however, this error is called scientism.

One consequence of scientism is that one may try to use the scientific method to resolve a question that actually requires moral choice. For instance one might assume the morality does not apply, as one would do for a scientific experiment, and try to do things that it would forbid to see if one can do so. In science, this effectively disproves theories and clears the way for new ones. In morality, of course, it destroys all trust anyone has anywhere. Some think rogue states have become so by letting this method be used to make major decisions in their diplomacy and international law.

See w:scientific method and w:scientism for more on these issues. We do not discuss them on the R&D wiki directly, but are quite interested in the overall question of what can be reduced to score or price premium and what can't.