This science philosophy in a nutshell has a number of consequences for the social life of scientists. The first one is, that among them there has to be trust that everybody is objectively striving for the truth. Fabrication of data without proper observation is depreciated, and so is twisting arguments, selective quotation or any other intent to deceive.


However, like anybody, scientists make mistakes and therefore the trust among each other should in principle also include that faults may have been introduced unintentionally.

It is by open discussion that this should be revealed. The record of cases of alleged misconduct shows that most of these allegations were not justified and arose from corrupted discussion. Grave cases of scientific dishonesty are rare events.

Since the large number of published unjustified allegations have discredited science more than the justified ones, this has in recent times led to writing rules for careful investigations of such allegations, of which is a major one that the intent to deceive must be proven.

–> 1.3 Problems with written Rules

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