In the current climate, I was compelled to pick up one of Carl Sagan’s final books, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. Published in 1996, Sagan discusses what was then termed “pseudoscience” and his concerns about a society that didn’t value or understand science (as distinct from pseudoscience). Some chapters of the book were co-authored with his wife, Ann Druyan.
Instead of summarizing the book in a few paragraphs, I wanted to share a few of Sagan’s points or specific quotes that I found particularly thought provoking or relevant to this moment. I hope you will indulge my divergence of style and unusual length here, particularly as I suspect if you were to read this book, different points would jump out at you.
“Nothing less than the gift of life”
In “Chapter 1: The Most Precious Thing,” Sagan wrote of Queen Anne, the last Stuart Monarch of Great Britain, “In the last 17 years of the seventeenth century, she was pregnant 18 times. Only five children were born alive. Only one of them survived infancy. He died before reaching adulthood, and before her coronation in 1702. There seems to be no evidence of some genetic disorder. She had the best medical care money could buy … parents today have an enormously better chance of seeing their children live to adulthood than did the heir to the throne of one of the most powerful nations on Earth in the late seventeenth century … Longevity is perhaps the best single measure of the physical quality of life … This is a precious offering from science to humanity—nothing less than the gift of life.” (pp. 9-10)
Science or pseudoscience?
Also in Chapter 1, Sagan offered a series of distinctions between science and pseudoscience:
- Pseudoscience “purports to use the methods and findings of science” but the ideas are based on weak evidence, or evidence is ignored if it doesn’t support the notion.
- Pseudoscience is much more easily presented to the public because of the relaxed standards for the evidence.
- Pseudoscience is embraced in proportion to a society’s misunderstanding of science.
- Pseudoscience is framed such that it cannot be disproven with hypothesis-driven experimentation, whereas in science, hypotheses are designed to be disproven. As a result, Sagan wrote, “Science gropes and staggers toward improved understanding.” (p. 20)
- Pseudoscience does not account for human imperfection, whereas scientists regularly self-assess by sharing their methods and acknowledging the limitations of their work.
Sagan offered an example in “Chapter 10: The Dragon in My Garage,” when he wrote of a Harvard psychiatrist describing hallucinations and dreams his patients reported to him: “He wants it both ways — the language and credibility of science, but without being bound by its method and rules. He seems not to realize that the credibility is a consequence of the method.” (p. 184)
“A combustible mixture of ignorance and power”
In “Chapter 2: Science and Hope,” Sagan wrote, “We’ve arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements … profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.” (p. 26)
“The most we can hope for”
Also in Chapter 2, Sagan described, “Humans may crave absolute certainty; they may aspire to it; they may pretend … to have attained it. But the history of science — by far the most successful claim to knowledge accessible to humans — teaches that the most we can hope for is successive improvement in our understanding, learning from our mistakes, an asymptotic approach to the Universe, but with the proviso that absolute certainty will always elude us.” (p. 28)
On science and democracy
At the end of the second chapter, Sagan highlighted the similarities between science and democracy, pointing out that both began at the same time and place in Ancient Greece. Both:
- Confer power on those who learn them
- Require the free exchange of ideas
- Have values antithetical to secrecy
- Offer no one special vantage points or privileged positions
- Encourage unconventional opinions and vigorous debate
- Demand adequate reason, coherent argument and rigorous standards of evidence and honesty
- The more widespread their language, rules and methods, the better chance we have of preserving them
“That’s just your imagination”
Several chapters in the book focus on specific areas of pseudoscience, such as UFOs and alien abductions. In “Chapter 6: Hallucinations,” Sagan described how different parenting styles lead to different approaches to and beliefs about fantasy and reality in adulthood: “… some people emerge with an intact ability to fantasize, and a history, extending well into adulthood, of confabulation. Others grow up believing that anyone who doesn’t know the difference between reality and fantasy is crazy. Most of us are somewhere in between.” (p. 108).
“Not so open that your brains fall out”
In discussing evidence of alien abductions in “Chapter 10: The Dragon in My Garage,” Sagan wrote, “Keeping an open mind is a virtue — but, as the space engineer James Oberg once said, not so open that your brains fall out. Of course we must be willing to change our minds when warranted by new evidence. But the evidence must be strong. Not all claims to knowledge have equal merit.” (p. 187)
On “baloney detection”
In “Chapter 12: The Fine Art of Baloney Detection,” Sagan offered a list of tools for skeptical thinking. Accompanying the list, he wrote, “What skeptical thinking boils down to is the means to construct, and to understand, a reasoned argument and — especially important — to recognize a fallacious or fraudulent argument. The question is not whether we like the conclusion that emerges out of a train of reasoning, but whether the conclusion follows from that premise or starting point and whether that premise is true.” (p. 210).
“Let us temper our criticism with kindness”
In “Chapter 17: The Marriage of Skepticism and Wonder,” Sagan wrote, “In the way that skepticism is sometimes applied to issues of public concern, there is a tendency to belittle, to condescend, to ignore the fact that, deluded or not, supporters of superstition and pseudoscience are human beings with feelings, who, like the skeptics, are trying to figure out how the world works and what our role in it might be. Their motives are in many cases consonant with science. If their culture has not given them all the tools they need to pursue this great quest, let us temper our criticism with kindness. None of us comes fully equipped.” (p. 298)
On “getting science across”
In “Chapter 19: No Such Thing as a Dumb Question,” Sagan offered tips for communicating science to the public:
- Don’t talk to the public in the way you would to your colleagues. Use the simplest language possible.
- Remember which concepts and misunderstandings you initially struggled with and make specific mention of those ideas.
- Don’t oversimplify; “Never forget that native intelligence is widely distributed in our species.” (p. 333)
- Use qualifications and quantifications sparingly.
- Give credit to the many scientists involved.
- Be clear about distinctions between analogies and reality.
- Practice will make you better.
- Over time, you can fine-tune your presentation for the needs of the audience in front of you.
- Realize that making assumptions that the public has limited ability to understand science is arrogant, dismisses a history of popularized science, can be self-confirming, and is self-defeating.
“But reading is still the path”
In “Chapter 21: The Path to Freedom,” Sagan told the story of Frederick Douglass, who as a young, enslaved boy took an interest in learning and was taught to read until the captain he worked for found out about the lessons and put an end to them. Realizing the power of being literate, Douglass continued to find ways to learn in secret, eventually escaping slavery and going on to become a great orator, writer and political leader. Sagan expanded on the advent of books and the importance of literacy in the rest of this chapter, concluding, “Frederick Douglass taught that literacy is the path from slavery to freedom. There are many kinds of slavery and many kinds of freedom. But reading is still the path.” (p. 363)
On freedom
In “Chapter 24: Science and Witchcraft,” Sagan discussed power and freedom. He wrote, “Those who seek power at any price detect a societal weakness, a fear that they can ride into office … The pretexts change from year to year, but the result remains the same: concentrating more power in fewer hands and suppressing diversity of opinion — even though experience plainly shows the dangers of such a course of action.” (p. 406)
Later in the same chapter, he added, “Ethnocentrism, xenophobia, and nationalism are these days rife in many parts of the world. Government repression of unpopular views is still widespread … For the defenders of such attitudes, science is disturbing. It claims access to truths that are largely independent of ethnic or cultural biases. By its very nature, science transcends national boundaries … In disproportionate numbers, scientists are found in the ranks of social critics (or, less charitably, ‘dissidents’), challenging the policies and myths of their own nations.” (pp.416-417)
In “Chapter 25: Real Patriots Ask Questions,” Sagan continued to discuss government and science, including an extensive discussion of the fact that Thomas Jefferson was a self-described scientist and a student of history. Sagan wrote, “Jefferson taught that every government degenerates when it is left to the rulers alone, because rulers — by the very act of ruling — misuse the public trust. The people themselves, he said, are the only prudent repository of power … He [Jefferson] stressed, passionately and repeatedly, that it was essential for the people to understand the risks and benefits of government, to educate themselves, and to involve themselves in the political process. Without that, he said, the wolves will take over.” (pp.426-427)
Finally, Sagan wrote, “When we consider the founders of our nation … They were well-educated. … They knew human fallibility and weakness and corruptibility … They were realistic and practical, and at the same time motivated by high principles. They were not checking the pollsters on what to think this week. They knew what to think. They were comfortable with long-term thinking, planning even further ahead than the next election. They were self-sufficient, not requiring careers as politicians or lobbyists to make a living. They were able to bring out the best in us. They were interested in and, at least two of them, fluent in science.” (p.428)
- Interested in checking out the book?
- If you pick up the book (or if you’ve read it before), let us know what quotes resonated with you.
Contributed by: Charlotte A. Moser, MS
In the current climate, I was compelled to pick up one of Carl Sagan’s final books, The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. Published in 1996, Sagan discusses what was then termed “pseudoscience” and his concerns about a society that didn’t value or understand science (as distinct from pseudoscience). Some chapters of the book were co-authored with his wife, Ann Druyan.
Instead of summarizing the book in a few paragraphs, I wanted to share a few of Sagan’s points or specific quotes that I found particularly thought provoking or relevant to this moment. I hope you will indulge my divergence of style and unusual length here, particularly as I suspect if you were to read this book, different points would jump out at you.
“Nothing less than the gift of life”
In “Chapter 1: The Most Precious Thing,” Sagan wrote of Queen Anne, the last Stuart Monarch of Great Britain, “In the last 17 years of the seventeenth century, she was pregnant 18 times. Only five children were born alive. Only one of them survived infancy. He died before reaching adulthood, and before her coronation in 1702. There seems to be no evidence of some genetic disorder. She had the best medical care money could buy … parents today have an enormously better chance of seeing their children live to adulthood than did the heir to the throne of one of the most powerful nations on Earth in the late seventeenth century … Longevity is perhaps the best single measure of the physical quality of life … This is a precious offering from science to humanity—nothing less than the gift of life.” (pp. 9-10)
Science or pseudoscience?
Also in Chapter 1, Sagan offered a series of distinctions between science and pseudoscience:
- Pseudoscience “purports to use the methods and findings of science” but the ideas are based on weak evidence, or evidence is ignored if it doesn’t support the notion.
- Pseudoscience is much more easily presented to the public because of the relaxed standards for the evidence.
- Pseudoscience is embraced in proportion to a society’s misunderstanding of science.
- Pseudoscience is framed such that it cannot be disproven with hypothesis-driven experimentation, whereas in science, hypotheses are designed to be disproven. As a result, Sagan wrote, “Science gropes and staggers toward improved understanding.” (p. 20)
- Pseudoscience does not account for human imperfection, whereas scientists regularly self-assess by sharing their methods and acknowledging the limitations of their work.
Sagan offered an example in “Chapter 10: The Dragon in My Garage,” when he wrote of a Harvard psychiatrist describing hallucinations and dreams his patients reported to him: “He wants it both ways — the language and credibility of science, but without being bound by its method and rules. He seems not to realize that the credibility is a consequence of the method.” (p. 184)
“A combustible mixture of ignorance and power”
In “Chapter 2: Science and Hope,” Sagan wrote, “We’ve arranged a global civilization in which most crucial elements … profoundly depend on science and technology. We have also arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology. This is a prescription for disaster. We might get away with it for a while, but sooner or later this combustible mixture of ignorance and power is going to blow up in our faces.” (p. 26)
“The most we can hope for”
Also in Chapter 2, Sagan described, “Humans may crave absolute certainty; they may aspire to it; they may pretend … to have attained it. But the history of science — by far the most successful claim to knowledge accessible to humans — teaches that the most we can hope for is successive improvement in our understanding, learning from our mistakes, an asymptotic approach to the Universe, but with the proviso that absolute certainty will always elude us.” (p. 28)
On science and democracy
At the end of the second chapter, Sagan highlighted the similarities between science and democracy, pointing out that both began at the same time and place in Ancient Greece. Both:
- Confer power on those who learn them
- Require the free exchange of ideas
- Have values antithetical to secrecy
- Offer no one special vantage points or privileged positions
- Encourage unconventional opinions and vigorous debate
- Demand adequate reason, coherent argument and rigorous standards of evidence and honesty
- The more widespread their language, rules and methods, the better chance we have of preserving them
“That’s just your imagination”
Several chapters in the book focus on specific areas of pseudoscience, such as UFOs and alien abductions. In “Chapter 6: Hallucinations,” Sagan described how different parenting styles lead to different approaches to and beliefs about fantasy and reality in adulthood: “… some people emerge with an intact ability to fantasize, and a history, extending well into adulthood, of confabulation. Others grow up believing that anyone who doesn’t know the difference between reality and fantasy is crazy. Most of us are somewhere in between.” (p. 108).
“Not so open that your brains fall out”
In discussing evidence of alien abductions in “Chapter 10: The Dragon in My Garage,” Sagan wrote, “Keeping an open mind is a virtue — but, as the space engineer James Oberg once said, not so open that your brains fall out. Of course we must be willing to change our minds when warranted by new evidence. But the evidence must be strong. Not all claims to knowledge have equal merit.” (p. 187)
On “baloney detection”
In “Chapter 12: The Fine Art of Baloney Detection,” Sagan offered a list of tools for skeptical thinking. Accompanying the list, he wrote, “What skeptical thinking boils down to is the means to construct, and to understand, a reasoned argument and — especially important — to recognize a fallacious or fraudulent argument. The question is not whether we like the conclusion that emerges out of a train of reasoning, but whether the conclusion follows from that premise or starting point and whether that premise is true.” (p. 210).
“Let us temper our criticism with kindness”
In “Chapter 17: The Marriage of Skepticism and Wonder,” Sagan wrote, “In the way that skepticism is sometimes applied to issues of public concern, there is a tendency to belittle, to condescend, to ignore the fact that, deluded or not, supporters of superstition and pseudoscience are human beings with feelings, who, like the skeptics, are trying to figure out how the world works and what our role in it might be. Their motives are in many cases consonant with science. If their culture has not given them all the tools they need to pursue this great quest, let us temper our criticism with kindness. None of us comes fully equipped.” (p. 298)
On “getting science across”
In “Chapter 19: No Such Thing as a Dumb Question,” Sagan offered tips for communicating science to the public:
- Don’t talk to the public in the way you would to your colleagues. Use the simplest language possible.
- Remember which concepts and misunderstandings you initially struggled with and make specific mention of those ideas.
- Don’t oversimplify; “Never forget that native intelligence is widely distributed in our species.” (p. 333)
- Use qualifications and quantifications sparingly.
- Give credit to the many scientists involved.
- Be clear about distinctions between analogies and reality.
- Practice will make you better.
- Over time, you can fine-tune your presentation for the needs of the audience in front of you.
- Realize that making assumptions that the public has limited ability to understand science is arrogant, dismisses a history of popularized science, can be self-confirming, and is self-defeating.
“But reading is still the path”
In “Chapter 21: The Path to Freedom,” Sagan told the story of Frederick Douglass, who as a young, enslaved boy took an interest in learning and was taught to read until the captain he worked for found out about the lessons and put an end to them. Realizing the power of being literate, Douglass continued to find ways to learn in secret, eventually escaping slavery and going on to become a great orator, writer and political leader. Sagan expanded on the advent of books and the importance of literacy in the rest of this chapter, concluding, “Frederick Douglass taught that literacy is the path from slavery to freedom. There are many kinds of slavery and many kinds of freedom. But reading is still the path.” (p. 363)
On freedom
In “Chapter 24: Science and Witchcraft,” Sagan discussed power and freedom. He wrote, “Those who seek power at any price detect a societal weakness, a fear that they can ride into office … The pretexts change from year to year, but the result remains the same: concentrating more power in fewer hands and suppressing diversity of opinion — even though experience plainly shows the dangers of such a course of action.” (p. 406)
Later in the same chapter, he added, “Ethnocentrism, xenophobia, and nationalism are these days rife in many parts of the world. Government repression of unpopular views is still widespread … For the defenders of such attitudes, science is disturbing. It claims access to truths that are largely independent of ethnic or cultural biases. By its very nature, science transcends national boundaries … In disproportionate numbers, scientists are found in the ranks of social critics (or, less charitably, ‘dissidents’), challenging the policies and myths of their own nations.” (pp.416-417)
In “Chapter 25: Real Patriots Ask Questions,” Sagan continued to discuss government and science, including an extensive discussion of the fact that Thomas Jefferson was a self-described scientist and a student of history. Sagan wrote, “Jefferson taught that every government degenerates when it is left to the rulers alone, because rulers — by the very act of ruling — misuse the public trust. The people themselves, he said, are the only prudent repository of power … He [Jefferson] stressed, passionately and repeatedly, that it was essential for the people to understand the risks and benefits of government, to educate themselves, and to involve themselves in the political process. Without that, he said, the wolves will take over.” (pp.426-427)
Finally, Sagan wrote, “When we consider the founders of our nation … They were well-educated. … They knew human fallibility and weakness and corruptibility … They were realistic and practical, and at the same time motivated by high principles. They were not checking the pollsters on what to think this week. They knew what to think. They were comfortable with long-term thinking, planning even further ahead than the next election. They were self-sufficient, not requiring careers as politicians or lobbyists to make a living. They were able to bring out the best in us. They were interested in and, at least two of them, fluent in science.” (p.428)
- Interested in checking out the book?
- If you pick up the book (or if you’ve read it before), let us know what quotes resonated with you.
Contributed by: Charlotte A. Moser, MS