T.S. Kuhn in his Structure of Scientific Revolutions (1962) articulated the concept of paradigm shifts to describe the process by which science transitions from one theory to another. The classic example is the Copernican Revolution when the scientific community shifted from the Ptolemaic System (geocentric) to the Copernican System (heliocentric). With hindsight it’s obvious why the Copernican System won out – it’s more or less correct, the Earth goes round the Sun not the other way around. However, at the time there wasn’t any clear evidence why the Copernican System was empirically superior – it came down to it being aesthetically superior. It was more intuitive and less artificial in how it described the motion of the planets. That’s why it won out, though it took some time for the Ptolemaic System to fade away. History often gives us the illusion that the advance of our society and technology is inevitable, we have some hiccups from time to time, but ‘truth’ always wins out. Maybe, maybe not, but when we’re in the middle of a transition it can be very hard to see the truth.
Consider one of Kuhn’s iconic metaphors: do you see a duck or a rabbit?
In 1543 when the Copernicus’ De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres) was published and the Copernican System was introduced to the world it was the rabbit and the Ptolemaic System was the duck. Everyone could see the duck as that was the model everyone accepted as true. Copernicus saw something different in the empirical evidence, he saw the duck but he also saw the rabbit. Many at the time rejected the Copernican System because they couldn’t see it. They could only see the rabbit. Wisdom is the ability to see both the rabbit and the duck – you can’t reach truth unless you can see both sides.
Consider an issue that currently divides American society: same-sex marriage. A few decades ago, not many Americans could see both sides of this issue and the vast majority could only see heterosexual marriage as proper. Over time this has changed. Today most Americans can perceive both sides and this allows them to accept and support same-sex marriage. There’s a lot of reasons for this. Foremost is the picking apart of the biases and false assumptions that blind us from seeing both the duck and the rabbit. Those who can see both are well-positioned to help others see both as well. This feeds into that illusion of history that we on an inevitable march of progress. It’s more that as we develop new ideas it’s easier to challenge old ones. That is if we’re willing to try to see things that we are currently blind to. Once we can see both, one idea will usually have superior aspects.
The problem we face in our day-to-day lives is that a lot of people, including ourselves, might not want us to see both the duck and the rabbit. Consider this exchange from Return of the Jedi:
Luke: Obi-Wan? Why didn’t you tell me? You told me Vader betrayed and murdered my father.
Obi-Wan: Your father was seduced by the dark side of the Force. He ceased to be Anakin Skywalker and became Darth Vader. When that happened, the good man who was your father was destroyed. So what I told you was true, from a certain point of view.
Luke: “A certain point of view”?
Obi-Wan: Luke, you will find that many of the truths we cling to depend greatly on our own point of view.
Let’s be honest, Obi-Wan and Yoda did their best to keep Luke from seeing both the duck and the rabbit. They only wanted him to see the duck to further their agenda – to use Luke to kill Darth Vader. When Luke finally sees the duck AND rabbit he accepts a new truth – he can turn his father from the Dark Side. This is a truth that is totally anathema to Obi-Wan and Yoda, who represent the conservative establishment because they can’t see both the duck and rabbit anymore they can only see the duck.
I imagine at this point you’re sick of hearing about ducks and rabbits. The point is that sometimes it’s very hard to see things from a different point of view. However, this is a necessity to finding a truth that is stronger than the truths we accept from a certain, limited point of view. Is there an objective, ultimate truth? I personally don’t think so. I do believe that some truths are better than others but the nature of the universe and our existence perhaps defies ultimate truth. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive for truth for in the end that’s the only pursuit worth pursuing. This doesn’t mean settling on a convenient truth but on exploring different points of view and making honest evaluations of those points of view.
