Einstein's Four Norms Of A Scientific Revolution
Although Albert and Christi were wrongly advocating for this discovery, they do have validity in the way they approached this topic to the scientific community. Firstly, Albert’s comment “A groundbreaking discovery is treated as a measurement error simply because scientists are unwilling to question their dogma” is based off of Kuhn’s theory of scientific revolutions. The current paradigm of this time was that the fastest particle on Earth travels at the speed of light. A paradigm dictates the methods and boundaries regarding what is studied in the scientific community. This proposed discovery defies the established paradigm of Einstein’s theory of relativity and would have lead to backlash according to Kuhn’s six steps of a scientific revolution.
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According to Merton, the four norms that control science include universalism, communism, organized skepticism, and disinterestedness. Ereditato violated the norm of organized skepticism because he jumped to the conclusion that he was “confident of the results” before the final data was collected. Ereditato did not wait to share the progress before all of the data was collected and his judgment proved incorrect. Since the physicists working on CERN shared their work with the scientific community, they followed the norm of communism. Merton would have agreed that universalism was maintained throughout this process. The physicians working for the European Organization for Nuclear Research are not as qualified as Einstein, as he is one of the greatest scientists to live. However, their contribution was taken seriously and was not simply dismissed due to their qualifications compared to Einstein. If the data turned out to be accurate, this theory developed at CERN would have dismissed Einstein’s theory, which proves that universalism did apply. Lastly, Ereditato did follow the norm of disinterestedness. Ereditato accepted the fact that the results were a product of a measurement error even though this contradicted his earlier statement and lead to him being forced to step down. Ereditato’s priority was towards the advancement of the scientific community, rather than personal gain from this potential discovery. The fact that Ereditato increased the scope of his scientific observation to find this error furthers Popper’s concept of
According to Merton, the four norms that control science include universalism, communism, organized skepticism, and disinterestedness. Ereditato violated the norm of organized skepticism because he jumped to the conclusion that he was “confident of the results” before the final data was collected. Ereditato did not wait to share the progress before all of the data was collected and his judgment proved incorrect. Since the physicists working on CERN shared their work with the scientific community, they followed the norm of communism. Merton would have agreed that universalism was maintained throughout this process. The physicians working for the European Organization for Nuclear Research are not as qualified as Einstein, as he is one of the greatest scientists to live. However, their contribution was taken seriously and was not simply dismissed due to their qualifications compared to Einstein. If the data turned out to be accurate, this theory developed at CERN would have dismissed Einstein’s theory, which proves that universalism did apply. Lastly, Ereditato did follow the norm of disinterestedness. Ereditato accepted the fact that the results were a product of a measurement error even though this contradicted his earlier statement and lead to him being forced to step down. Ereditato’s priority was towards the advancement of the scientific community, rather than personal gain from this potential discovery. The fact that Ereditato increased the scope of his scientific observation to find this error furthers Popper’s concept of