“You can’t be neutral on a moving train” - Howard Zinn. This quote possibly refers to there being no neutrality on the ‘train’ or path of life. That your train of thought always has a side and cannot be unbiased. The interpretation of ‘a neutral question’ is a linguistic expression used to make a request for information, where the questioner does not support either side of the argument, for example, the questioner will accept whatever answer emerges, will remain unbiased and refrain from seeking to weight the outcome in favour of preconceived ideas or predictions. Is there such thing? And how can we judge whether a question is neutral or not? I turned the knowledge issue, there is no such thing as a neutral question, into the knowledge questions
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Clearly, the scientific method is predicated on neutral questions and follows a strict, non-biased procedure, but the history of science is littered with instances where the experimental results reveal confirmation bias, perception differences and emotional manipulation of experimental data which threatens the hypothesis. A famous example of this would be in the area of climate science. One of the first scientist to notice the rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, Dr Roger Revelle of Harvard University, asked in 1957 whether this might be a cause for concern. Three decades of studying the question led Revelle to conclude that the catastrophic anthropogenic global warming hypothesis remained unproven and advised that it should not form the basis for drastic action, in the paper “What to do about greenhouse warming: Look before you leap,” which was published in the summer of 1992. This demonstrates the correct attitude towards scientific questioning and scientific hypothesis as the scientist posed a neutral question and remained disinterested in the outcome therefore he wasn’t manipulated by his …show more content…
However, through the natural and human sciences, we have explored claims and counter claims for this debate. It can be seen that there are instances where neutral questions have been formed and asked, such as the Milgram experiment and Revelle’s global warming hypothesis and instances where it hasn’t such as, my Business and Management IA and Gore’s global warming adaptation of the global warming theory. Although it may be argued that there is such thing as a neutral question, such scenarios are rare and unlikely. Therefore it can be concluded that there is no such thing as a neutral questions and questioners are to some extent biased by many factors such as emotions, perceptions or simply personal and shared
Clearly, the scientific method is predicated on neutral questions and follows a strict, non-biased procedure, but the history of science is littered with instances where the experimental results reveal confirmation bias, perception differences and emotional manipulation of experimental data which threatens the hypothesis. A famous example of this would be in the area of climate science. One of the first scientist to notice the rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, Dr Roger Revelle of Harvard University, asked in 1957 whether this might be a cause for concern. Three decades of studying the question led Revelle to conclude that the catastrophic anthropogenic global warming hypothesis remained unproven and advised that it should not form the basis for drastic action, in the paper “What to do about greenhouse warming: Look before you leap,” which was published in the summer of 1992. This demonstrates the correct attitude towards scientific questioning and scientific hypothesis as the scientist posed a neutral question and remained disinterested in the outcome therefore he wasn’t manipulated by his …show more content…
However, through the natural and human sciences, we have explored claims and counter claims for this debate. It can be seen that there are instances where neutral questions have been formed and asked, such as the Milgram experiment and Revelle’s global warming hypothesis and instances where it hasn’t such as, my Business and Management IA and Gore’s global warming adaptation of the global warming theory. Although it may be argued that there is such thing as a neutral question, such scenarios are rare and unlikely. Therefore it can be concluded that there is no such thing as a neutral questions and questioners are to some extent biased by many factors such as emotions, perceptions or simply personal and shared