Deceit in Science: Does It Really Matter?

Abstract

Science has two aspects: it is a burgeoning integrated knowledge and understanding of the natural world (discovery) and it is a series of human processes and ways of thinking which generate such understanding, and also make use of it for human advantages (invention). The natural world exists apart from humanity, but the processes and types of thinking which we use in investigating and using it represent one of our highest intellectual and ethical activities. To falsify the discovery aspect can only have temporary results, since Nature is the final referee. False accounts of human pathways to discovery and invention are ethical and intellectual sins which may often not be detected, but which misrepresent the way science works and may induce false approaches to investigation.