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Truth may be beauty, but more in the eye of the beholder than we generally with biological evolution: science
acknowledge. Does it matter? works by contingently sorting through
available facts or ideas in the context
of their own time, but cannot really be
In science we routinely assume that bursts of change by which we so often, teleologically heading for truth, be-
whatever theory we may have about perhaps so vainly, characterize our cause we have no way to know where
them, facts themselves are things that own research or field. Kuhn argued to find it.
are out there in the world to be ob- that a scientific revolution occurs Kuhn was influenced by a little-
served. However, it has become rather when a new explanation for the avail- known 1935 book he had stumbled
standard for historians and philoso- able data becomes accepted by the across, Genesis and Development of a
phers to assert instead that facts are body of scientists, a sociocultural phe- Scientific Fact, by a Polish physician
human constructs understandable nomenon very different from the pre- named Ludwik Fleck.4 Fleck had antic-
only in a particular historical or soci- vailing notion of science as a fact- ipated (or shaped) many of Kuhns
etal context. They note that scientists driven process. The notion has been ideas. Though rather obscure today,
typically argue over very different the- applied, but not without discussion, to Fleck has been called the founder of the
ories to interpret the same data. We in all fields of endeavor including an- philosophy of modern medicine. His
turn resist this deconstruction by out- thropology.2,3 concern was not so much with revolu-
siders who themselves dont have to A new theory may be more accurate tions but with the way that even the
face the struggles of understanding in some ways, or account for more supposed facts of science are driven by
Nature. Nonetheless, there may have facts, but Kuhns notion of a paradigm context. He stresses that concepts are
been more than idle poetry in Keats shift was not about contests between not spontaneously created but are de-
assertion that truth is beauty and different ways to apply an existing termined by their ancestors. Flecks
that is all ye need to know. Facts may theory, like that of evolution, to the term comparable to Kuhns paradigm
be more determined by the theoretical available facts, such as fights between was thought collective (we might say
lenses through which we view the cladists and phenetic systematists, or school of thought) and his objective
world than we like to think. out-of-Africa versus regional continu- was to understand how an unorches-
ity models of evolution. Rather, a par- trated community of scientists estab-
adigm shift is a gestalt change in lishes what are considered facts around
TRUTH AND PROGRESS IN
which a new interpretation of the a theory that necessarily grows out of
SCIENCE: THE BONDS OF body of existing facts replaces, and is historical roots. What counts as fact
HISTORY CAN NEVER BE CUT incommensurable with, an existing varies with time and context. Fleck lik-
Thomas Kuhns famous book The theory. Evolution contrasts with cre- ens science to troops on the march, a
Structure of Scientific Revolutions1 ationism in this respect, for example. small vanguard followed by a main
had a transforming effect across both Most scientists strongly assertbe- body. New observations provide some
the academic and popular culture lievethat such changes constitute corrective, but which of the vanguards
landscapes. It gave us the satisfying progress in the sense of major steps the main troops follow is unpredictable,
term paradigm shift for the episodic closer to understanding the truth that and affected or determined by so-
we assume is out there to be found. ciopolitical and cultural factors.
However, it is perhaps not sufficiently This challenges our cherished my-
appreciated that scientific theories are thology that we are doing original
almost always inconsistent even with research. Most of us are not as origi-
Kenneth Weiss is Evan Pugh Professor of some of the established facts of their nal nor independent as we may fancy.
Anthropology and Genetics at Penn State
University. time, and this was true of the victors Without a herdlike ideological coher-
in classical Kuhnian revolutions, in- ence, science as the public enterprise
cluding even the archetypal Coperni- we know today might not be possible,
Evolutionary Anthropology 12:168 172 (2003) can one. Whether this is progress to- since any individual can only see or do
DOI 10.1002/evan.10118
Published online in Wiley InterScience ward truth is harder to answer than so much. But the herd itself defines
(www.interscience.wiley.com). we may think. Kuhn drew an analogy what progress is, and the more who
CROTCHETS & QUIDDITIES Evolutionary Anthropology 169
A MODERN RERUN?
There are striking parallels in to-
days AIDS epidemic. AIDS, like syph-
ilis, is viewed as a disease of the blood
(because of immune deficiency), and
Figure 2. Complement fixation test. Left, positive test; right, negative test. Moving top down, has even been seen as another carnal
antigen (diamonds) introduced to blood sample binds to antibody (Y) which captures scourge of moral dimensions. One
complement (dark ovals) in infected (left). Complement remains free in uninfecteds (right).
can have symptoms of AIDS without
When red cells (rbcs, grey ovals) are added, they are bound by the free complement in
uninfecteds, and lysed. In uninfected, no complement is free to lyse the rbcs. Schematic. HIV and vice versa. The standard HIV
test is an indirect one for antibody to
the pathogen, and does not detect per-
fectly nor immediately after infection.
reliableat least for clear-cut or late- flected in G.B. Shaws introduction to
Many host factors like nutrition and
stage cases. They had to filter the his 1911 play The Doctors Dilemma:6
the burden of other disease affect the
facts empirically and selectively The whole art of healing could be course of the disease, which can be
through their presumptive lens be- summed up in the formula: Find the indefinitely delayed. As with syphilis,
cause, among other things, it was later microbe and kill it. . . . When there the symptoms are not unique to HIV
found that uninfected tissue used as a was no bacillus it was assumed that, as the cause; there are many ways to
source of antigen could also generate since no disease could exist without a get pneumonia, but pneumonia in
a positive reaction. We now know that bacillus, it was simply eluding obser- someone HIV-positive is defined as
a constituent of healthy tissue, cardi- vation. These views were so en- AIDS. There is even a cottage industry
olipin, mimics the antigenic proper- trenched that Shaw mused that it was that claims the huge momentum of
ties of T. pallidum. Other conditions not clear whether vaccination pro- the AIDS thought collective has
also induce antibodies to cardiolipin, grams are forced by doctors onto the been misdirected by an unjustified
including the other treponemal organ- public or vice versa. proclamation in the 1980s that HIV is
isms, and why T. pallidium does so is The causal metaphor of the time a proper etiological entity. Are they
still unclear. Nonetheless, the drive was one of combat between an indi- flat-earthers or could the thought col-
for a blood test paid off. The reason- vidual against an invasion of microor- lective actually be wrong? Or if truth
ing by which a positive reaction was ganisms. However, many microorgan- is not clearly an attainable goal, is
related to syphilis was wrong. But the isms live commensally with us, and wrong even the wrong concept?
test became fact. the highly variable relationship be-
We can consider this in light of late tween the spirochete and symptoms
PARADIGM OR
19th Century science, with its belief in shows that the metaphor was imper-
atomic units of ultimate, universal fect. The parasite and antibodies are PROPAGANDA?
causation. Biomedical science found found in the blood, but syphilis is not Fleck describes how a thought col-
its causal units in infectious organ- really a disease of the blood the way lective maintains itself by various
isms. The contemporary view was re- anemia or leukemia are. The patho- ways of inculcation. Academic de-
CROTCHETS & QUIDDITIES Evolutionary Anthropology 171
Figure 3. Ideogrammatic schema rather than detail in earlier scientific anatomical drawings: what is the rib cage? A,B: medieval ideas; B:
Vesalius Hamlet and the deeper meaning of death; C: a modern (19th Century) mechanical view showing all the scientific details
(Sources: A, B, D,4 C7).
grees are required for induction into Fleck goes to some lengths to show requires much advance preparation
the guild. Popular science ensures its how scientific illustrations are ideo- and decision-making (e.g., dissecting
dominance in the public arena, as can grams of the accepted view. Here he away all material but the skeleton,
be seen today on Nova and in the chooses examples of anthropological leaving the cartilage but not intercos-
Times, through oversimplified, emo- interest. He compares anatomical tal muscle, membranes or ligaments,
tive vividness, personal narrative, and drawings from medieval times to the identifying muscle attachments) that
gossipy controversies to lionize fig- present (for a visual tour of this fasci- makes the result a product of our cur-
ureheads for the prevailing view (e.g., nating history see www.nlm.nih.gov/ rent view of what the skeleton is.
Wassermann, Pasteur) and promote exhibition/dreamanatomy/da_intro.
enthusiasm for the accepted theory. html). The earlier drawings were func-
Isolated facts are fitted gropingly to tionally schematic. For example (Fig- BUT TOASTERS WORK!
the theory in professional journals, ure 3), 12th Century figures show the Fleck and many analysts since
and stereotypical digests are then thorax as a figurative rib cage, while Kuhn have stressed the ways histori-
built into textbooks, handbooks, or in 1543 Vesalius drew a death-meta- cal context leads a view to become
laboratory manuals that inculcate phor that obscured anatomic details. accepted, and that the accepted view
new students. The latter are often out Today we feel it is scientific to know is not the only possible one. The incul-
of date even when published.7 those details, but Fleck notes that this cation process converts observations
172 Evolutionary Anthropology CROTCHETS & QUIDDITIES
into facts that define what is true and sometimes indefinitely delayed. on a path to the presumed absolute
because the thought collective agrees There are countless examples, but our truth. But the chosen view of the world
about them. This leads historians, bi- determination to find genes is un- can have impact beyond the mere intel-
ographers, and philosophers to pro- checked.8 Ironically, in having our lectual imprisonment of ideas. For ev-
claim the fallibility of science, that sci- collective heads turned the genetic ery path taken there is a path not taken.
entists are but arbitrary products of way, we may be overlooking elusive For example, putting our effort errone-
their times, or even that the only infectious pathogens responsible for ously into genetics when environment
Truth we approach is that of our own many chronic diseases after all.9,10 or infection are the more important
vested interest. Evolutionary theory may be espe- cause of disease, or misapplying evolu-
There is some merit to these allega- cially vulnerable to these kinds of ideo- tionary theory to justify racial profiling,
tions, but scientists do not cling to their logical problems, because inferences would be detrimental to knowledge and
belief system only out of ideology or that deal with the unobservable past our own society.
caprice. Science has grown to predom- have to be so highly indirect. The way In practice, organized science may
inance because, as one of my students we apply genetics to adaptive argu- depend upon thought-collectives
put it, toasters work. But does this ments, for example, rests heavily on theory, paradigms, or even ideology.
mean that we understand the real na- theory.7 This applies to anthropological But if these are cultural artifacts, and
ture of metals (bimetallic thermostats), interests, and in my next installment Ill the best we humans can actually
polymers (plastic knobs), and electrons look at another anatomical example achieve is an approximation with pre-
(heating elements)? Or is a toaster sim- raised by Fleck: the structure of the hu- dictive value but unknown relevance
ply well within the empirical predictive man brain, in the subtle lights and to truth, then the art-of-fact may be
power of our experience? Similarly, the shadows of evolutionary theory. what counts most in science.
Wassermann test has successfully diag- In regard to progress, scientists
nosed exposure in many thousands of when pressed often claim that all NOTES
instances, and nobody questions a rela- were trying to do is to develop better
tionship between the pathogen and predictive approximations. But deep I welcome comments on this column:
symptoms. So are we really being mis- down, we act as if we believe, and kenweiss@psu.edu. I have a feedback
led in any important way by our collec- many assert that were approaching page at www.anthro.psu.edu/rsrch/
tive ideologies? Is it of more than mild the real truth. Whether or not thats weiss_lab/index.html. I thank Anne
historical interest why or that we view an illusion, it is a powerful motivator. Buchanan, Malia Fullerton, Nancy
the pathogen as the cause of AIDS or But there are often alternative expla- Tuana, and John Fleagle for critically
syphilis? nations. Wassermann and his contem- reading this manuscript, and Dom Eg-
We still seek point causes today, but poraries tuned their work to melo- gart on toasters.
they are a different kind of scourge: dies to which they could resonate.
bad behavior or bad genes. The mid- Exceptions were overlooked, ignored, REFERENCES
dle 20th Century proclaimed the con- or rationalized, and experiments de-
Many things discussed here can be
quest of infectious disease, and our signed that left little room for alterna-
profitably explored by web searching.
biomedical fixation moved dramati- tive interpretation. The same kind of
cally, first to environmental, and then phenomenon as been observed in eth- 1 Kuhn T. 1962. The structure of scientific revo-
lutions. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
to genetic causation, the idol of to- nology and archeology, such as what
2 Chamberlain JG, Hartwig WC. 1999. Thomas
days biological thought collective. To the facts are regarding sophisticated Kuhn and paleoanthropology. Evol Anthropol 8:
paraphrase Shaw, when there is no pre-Columbian Amazonian culture 4244.
gene we assume that since no disease and technology,11 or whether behav- 3 Cartmill M. 1999. Revolution, evolution, and
Kuhn: a response to Chamberlain and Hartwig.
can exist without such a gene, it must ioral evolution explains why (or that?) Evol Anthropol 8:4547.
simply be eluding observation. In the the Yanomami are the fierce people. 4 Fleck L. 1935. Genesis and development of a
sense that theory and fact are insepa- Kuhn notes that scientists struggle to scientific fact (1976 reprint, with editorial com-
ment by Kuhn and others). Chicago: University
rable, the assumed gene is considered accommodate anomalies that are of Chicago Press.
factwe even name the gene for the reinterpreted to make them con- 5 Latour B. 2000. The pasteurization of France.
traitwhen it has not yet been iden- form. Almost all theories contain Cambridge, Mass: Harvard Press.
tified (genes for dyslexia, homosex- some element of wishful thinking by 6 Shaw GB. 1911. The doctors dilemma (1980
reprint). New York: Penguin.
uality, and diabetes are examples). their scientific proponents. Thats not
7 Weiss KM. 2002. Come to me my melancholic
Every issue described here in regard what engineers do: they build in em- baby! Evol Anthropol 12:36.
to infectious causation also applies to pirical safety factors so they need not 8 Weiss KM, Buchanan AV. 2003. Evolution by
current genetic view of disease causa- worry about the ultimate theory, be- phenotype. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine
in press.
tion. We develop DNA (blood) tests to cause they really are just trying to
9 Ewald P. 1994. Evolution of infectious disease.
detect mutations in clear-cut cases, make toasters that work. New York: Oxford Press.
but genetic causation is far less clear The point is not that a given view of 10 Ewald P. 2000. Plague time: how stealth in-
in most cases, because a person can the world is superficial or wrong, but fections cause cancers, heart disease, and other
deadly ailments. New York: Free Press.
have the symptoms without the allele that it is somewhat arbitrary and con-
11 Raffles H. 2002. In Amazonia: a natural his-
or the allele without the symptoms, textual and neither necessarily more tory. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
and the symptoms are highly variable true than alternative views, nor a step 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.