a lesson from scientific revolution

The Scientific Revolution was a pivotal aspect of human history. Over the past 500 years humans have witnessed exponential progress in the field of science and technology (from steam engines and electricity to computers and artificial intelligence). If we were to ponder over what was actually the most important discovery in the Scientific Revolution, we would most likely start thinking of different technologies and inventions. But the answer surprisingly is something very different. Yuval Harari in his book ‘Sapiens’ , credits the most important discovery in the Scientific Revolution as the discovery of ignorance. In an age that was governed by multiple religions and religious leaders, humans were told that all that they needed to know about life and the world was present in the religious scriptures. There was no directive that encouraged humans to be curious and explore the unknown. The scriptures did not have concrete answers or solutions to a multitude of important questions and issues that were arising like how to avoid famines or how to cure certain fatal ailments. A crucial turning point was when humans ultimately realized that they have been ignorant to various realities of the world and there is actually a lot in the world that they don’t know which cannot really be answered by religious scriptures. Thus led to birth of scientific exploration where humans began to try and find out answers to the impending questions themselves. The process of scientific exploration involves observing various phenomenon, gathering empirical evidence and formulating theories that best explain the phenomenon (mathematically connecting the various empirical evidence). These theories can then be used to build useful technologies that can help mitigate human challenges and enhance human abilities.

An important philosophical connotation here is the essence of the realization of ignorance. It led to exploration, curiosity and refusal to accept an existing idea as absolute and permanent. It encouraged a continuous multi-directional exploration of new ideas that accumulate on top of pre-existing ones and sometimes even shatter them. At any point we refrain from accepting that any particular idea is absolute and it can always be challenged which is the beauty of science. The ideology of accepting ignorance grounds us and we truly accept the possibility that we can be wrong. This triggers a growing curiosity within us and sets us on a path of constant and infinite knowledge seeking where we are learning and more importantly unlearning if need be. Ultimately this leads to impactful discoveries and innovation in the world.