'Scientists Do Not Demonize Dissenters. Nor Do They Worship Heroes.'

Paul Romer's latest entry on "mathiness" in economics ends with:

Reactions to Solow’s Choice: ...Politics maps directly onto our innate moral machinery. Faced with any disagreement, our moral systems respond by classifying people into our in-group and the out-group. They encourage us to be loyal to members of the in-group and hostile to members of the out-group. The leaders of an in-group demand deference and respect. In selecting leaders, we prize unwavering conviction.

Science can’t function with the personalization of disagreement that these reactions encourage. The question of whether Joan Robinson is someone who is admired and respected as a scientist has to be separated from the question about whether she was right that economists could reason about rates of return in a model that does not have an explicit time dimension.

The only in-group versus out-group distinction that matters in science is the one that distinguishes people who can live by the norms of science from those who cannot. Feynman integrity is the marker of an insider.

In this group, it is flexibility that commands respect, not unwavering conviction. Clearly articulated disagreement is encouraged. Anyone’s claim is subject to challenge. Someone who is right about A can be wrong about B.

Scientists do not demonize dissenters. Nor do they worship heroes.

[The reference to Joan Robinson is clarified in the full text.]