by Judith Curry
The word “doubt” has a bad connotation in the climate debate owing to the merchants of doubt meme. Richard Feynman puts the word “doubt” into the appropriate perspective in the context of science:
When a scientist doesn’t know the answer to a problem, he is ignorant. When he has a hunch as to what the result is, he is uncertain. And when he is pretty damn sure of what the result is going to be, he is still in some doubt. We have found it of paramount importance that in order to progress, we must recognize our ignorance and leave room for doubt. Scientific knowledge is a body of statements of varying degrees of certainty — some most unsure, some nearly sure, but none absolutely certain.
