Video: The Pursuit of Ignorance (18:33)

Watch this TED Talk, which introduces a model of scientific discovery that focuses on the never-ending cycle of scientific inquiry. Please watch the first 11 ½ minutes of this video.

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Overview

Stuart Firestein, in his 2013 TED Talk The Pursuit of Ignorance, discusses the importance of the unknown in science. We introduced you to the scientific method earlier in the course, which is important in informing and organizing the way we ask questions. Firestein argues that it is the acknowledgment of all that data do not tell us that really drives scientific discovery. The focus then turns to the new questions we form after we answer our first question. Social scientific inquiry is no longer a stepwise process in which you are finished when you reach the final step. Scientific inquiry turns into a cycle and—one could argue—even a never-ending spiral in which knowledge gained is continuously informing the next question asked.

Firestein (2013) quotes George Bernard Shaw, a playwright born in the mid-nineteenth century, in saying “Science is always wrong. It never solves a problem without creating 10 more.” This is the true scientific method. Instead of thinking about scientific inquiry like finding pieces of a puzzle, one must think of scientific inquiry like ripples in the ocean, because in a puzzle, there is a set number of pieces, while in the ocean, there is no limit to the ripples.

Firestein (2013) states, “The purpose of knowing lots of stuff is not just to know it, because that just makes you a geek, it’s to be able to ask interesting questions.” Even though there is an acknowledgment that we will never know all the answers, by asking questions and finding answers, social scientists strive to improve quality of life and move in an upward spiral of knowledge.

Firestein, S. (2013). The pursuit of ignorance [Video file]. TED. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/stuart_firestein_the_pur…

Library Article: A Review of Facebook Research in the Social Sciences

Read this article, which illustrates how a body of research grows over time as researchers from different social science disciplines refer back to the work of previous scholars and build on the findings of their peers to create a larger, more comprehensive body of research related to a topic.

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