179. Does ideology have a place in the scientific method?

This article is prompted by confessions, in the context of climate change, of several so called scientists who sided with oil industry efforts to systematically deny, or rather cast doubt, on climate change. Apparently, some of them now understand their positions were based on an aversion to regulation, a fear that government and legislator intervention on climate change would set us off on the slippery slope to communism. Firstly, this denotes a complete misunderstanding of politics, the role of the state in society and the concept of communism, but these might be forgivable in a scientist. But, more seriously, it denotes a complete misunderstanding of what the scientific method and, by extension, being a scientist is. The scientific method demands observation of fact, and the issuing of conclusions strictly on the basis of those facts. Opinion, ideology and intentionality are barred. Facts are objective and measurable, objective logic the only permissible path from them to conclusion

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