From Charles Merfield
While I fully agree with your leader article on the need for better science education (12 December 2015, p 5), I am concerned that an uncritical approach will increase scientism.
For example, my field is agriculture. In mainstream farming, the value system demands maximising yield and profit. Organic agriculture has values of sustainability, observing the precautionary principle and fair trade. Many of the debates around agriculture, such as those on genetic engineering and pesticides, are fundamentally not about the science, they are about values, ethics and morals.
The only aspect of the natural world that is fundamentally beyond the scientific method is value judgement. It is vital that alongside science education students also learn about the relationship between science and values, and how to tell one from the other.
Lincoln, New Zealand
