The Promise of Science: “…truth [will emerge] as a large number of flawed and limited minds battle it out.” (Jonathan Haidt).
The Method of Science: come up with testable hypotheses, make sure they’re falsifiable, and systematically test each one. Be transparent about data and procedures, so others can critique your approach or try to replicate your findings.
The Spirit of Science:
Awareness of assumptions: A good scientist starts by defining terms, making all assumptions very clear, and reducing necessary assumptions to the smallest number possible. Often we want scientists to make broad statements about a complex world. But scientists are usually very specific about what they "know" or will say with certainty: "When these conditions hold true, the usual outcome is such-and-such."
Intellectual Humility: “It is integral to science, as a self-correcting discipline, to receive criticism, and to be prepared to admit that some particular theory or practice is incomplete or incorrect. Suitably humble scientists are alive to the possibility that their expectations about how nature should behave may be wrong.” W. Jay Wood
Skepticism: Skepticism is a questioning attitude towards truth claims. It is not a knee-jerk or stubborn rejection of such claims but a hesitation to simply accept statements as true without further scrutiny. A skeptical attitude subjects truth claims to standards of evidence and scientific process: What is the evidence? How was it measured? Are there alternative interpretations of the evidence? Is the claim falsifiable? And so on.
Suspended judgment: Scientists need hunches and theories to generate hypotheses. However, it’s important that they work to prevent these hunches and theories from becoming opinions without strong evidence. "A scientist tries hard not to form an opinion on a given issue until he has investigated it, because it is so hard to give up opinion already formed, and they tend to make us find facts that support the opinions." Paul Diederich
Cautious about Drawing Conclusions: “Good research is cautious about drawing conclusions, careful to identify uncertainties and avoids exaggerated claims. It demands multiple types of evidence to reach a conclusion. It does not assume that association (things occur together) proves causation (one thing causes another).” Todd Litman
Willingness to change opinions: Of course, opinions may be justified by the evidence to date. But opinions pertaining to complex cause-and-effect interactions should be held gingerly, as more data, better explanations, or improved computer modeling become available.
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Note: The above is from an earlier post, somewhat revised: here.