Naomi Oreskes Talk Analysis

The thesis of Naomi Oreskes’ talk “Why we should trust scientists” occurs quite early in her talk, although not right in the beginning. She delivers her thesis at 2 minutes and 38 seconds into the talk, stating “[So, if even scientists themselves have to make a leap of faith outside their own fields, then why do they accept the claims of other scientists? Why do they believe each other's claims?] And should we believe those claims? So what I'd like to argue is yes, we should, but not for the reason that most of us think.” She stated her thesis at an optimal time. The first 51 seconds of her talk serve as an introduction, where she prepares her audience for her general topic. Then she segues into a rhetorical question, where she asks her audience …show more content…
Even though we know the Copernican model of the universe to be true, as Naomi states “The Ptolemaic model was believed by many very smart people for many centuries.” The reason? It predicted things that came true. During the same time, when Nicolai Copernicus put forth his model for the universe, it was quickly turned down as when it was tested, no evidence for it was found. So, even though a theory may fit in or prove a law of nature, does not necessarily mean that that theory is true. Here, she was able to show her audience scientists should not be trusted for the textbook “scientific model”, rather she proves through a real life example in the the scientific past, of a man whose scientific model we know and use today, being turned down because of the distrust of anything other than the sometimes illogical scientific method. The second, and more often used method of science is the of the inductive nature. Again, Naomi uses an example very well known in history, one of Charles Darwin. Charles Darwin had no theory in mind when he travelled the world, all he knew was that he had a love for science, and so, he