Metascience and Better Science

Abstract

Central to science is a set of norms for the correct, systematic acquisition of empirical knowledge, such as that data should be objective, results repeatable, and that theories should bring predictive success. These norms remain contested, however. Science cannot evaluate its own norms since doing so is a distinctly philosophical enterprise. This tells us that scientism is wrong: the idea that science can answer every question. A question that it cannot answer is what justifies science. We will answer this and other questions philosophically with a focus on the causal sciences. Science and metascience may then achieve a reflective equilibrium.