What does it mean to decribe a scientist as skeptical ?

Question

What does it mean to decribe a scientist as skeptical ?

Why is skeptism considered a valuable quality in a scientist?

Suppose a community proposes a law to require the wearing of seatbelts in all moving vehicles. How could science play a role in the decision?

Answer 1

Describing a scientist as "skeptical" means you are saying he is always experimenting and the results he gets always lead to other questions. Results produce questions. Therefore, the scientist is never sure that what he finds out is final and/or definitive. It is a valuable quality for a scientist because he is always questioning which leads to further experimenting.

Chow!!

Answer 2

A skeptic is a person who doesnt beleive what he's told until there is some proof that it is true.

So, this is very useful to a scientist... they have a hypothesis - an idea about how things work - but they dont believe it until they have actually gotten some measurements or observations, some kind of real proof or evidence that it is true. And whenever some one claims that something is true, the scientist knows that it is always up to the person making the claim to provide the proof. It is not up to the scientist to prove that someone elses claim is wrong. So if you want to be a scientist and act like a scientist, you have to provide proof for what you say, and not believe other people's claims until they show proof.

Answer 3

The scientist does not take things on faith, or the revealed word, but must subject all things to the hypothtico-deductive method. The patron saint of science, if there was such a thing, would be the apostle Thomas.

Answer 4

He questions, confirms and verifies all his findings, and he will not believe or suppose or take things for granted or faith; he uses deductive reasoning, evidence and concrete verifiable and confirmable proof not beliefs or suppositions. His findings must work all the times and not most of the times or almost every time but...ALWAYS or it ain't it! He leaves no stone unturned until he finds the solution to whatever he seeks to prove or disprove.

Answer 5

He needs info earlier pondering an announcement as authentic. He would not position self belief in all and multiple's note. he's like a jury member. He needs evidence earlier he will supply the state a conviction. He needs evidence earlier he will supply the guy making statements his credence.

Answer 6

Here is some really good information:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_skepticism