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An\\xa0exploration\\xa0of the scientific mindset \\u2014 such character virtues as curiosity, veracity, attentiveness, and humility to evidence \\u2014 and its importance for science, democracy, and human flourishing. Exemplary scientists have a characteristic way of viewing the world and their work: their mindset and methods all aim at discovering truths about nature. In An\\xa0Instinct for Truth, Robert Pennock explores this scientific mindset and argues that what Charles Darwin called \\u201can instinct for truth, knowledge, and discovery\\u201d has a tacit moral structure \\u2014 that it is important not only for scientific excellence and integrity but also for democracy and human flourishing. In an era of \\u201cpost-truth,\\u201d the scientific drive to discover empirical truths has a special value. Taking a virtue-theoretic perspective, Pennock explores curiosity, veracity, skepticism, humility to evidence, and other scientific virtues and vices. Shermer and Pennock discuss:
Robert T. Pennock is University Distinguished Professor of History, Philosophy, and Sociology of Science at Michigan State University in the Lyman Briggs College and the Departments of Philosophy and Computer Science and Engineering. He is the author of Tower of Babel: The Evidence Against the New Creationism.
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