A conversation.
"When experts disagree, usually the best thing to do is listen to what the majority of experts say. There's no *guarantee* that they're right, but they're more likely right than wrong. And if the majority view is overturned, it's almost guaranteed that this will be done by other experts in the field presenting evidence for the minority view, not by random kibitzers."
"For the history buffs in here, while most scientific knowledge is advanced incrementally, the true breakthroughs are usually ridiculed by the reigning experts. That is why appeals to authority are the worst kind of logical fallacy for a scientist."
"That's the pop-history version of scientific progress. The actual #history of #science is very different. Kind of like the difference between 'history buffs' and historians."
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Yes, there are examples—a few—of genuine breakthroughs that were ridiculed by the scientific establishment of the day. I bet you know what they are, because everyone does. They laughed at #Semmelweis, they laughed at #Wegner, they laughed at Luis and Walter #Alvarez, they laughed at #Marshall and #Warren. These things happened.
But they did *not* laugh at #Galileo: indeed, they took his work with deadly seriousness. (And there really wasn't any such thing as a "scientific establishment" at the time.) They did not laugh at #Newton, or #Watt, or #Darwin, or #Gibbs, or #Pasteur, or #Einstein, or #Curie, or #Heisenberg, or #Fisher, or #Watson and #Crick and poor unacknowledged #Franklin, or #Tharp and #Heezen, or #Ostrom and #Bakker, or #Hansen, or the *vast majority* of scientists whose work has fundamentally changed our understanding of the universe.
At least if by "they" you mean scientists working in relevant fields, who understood the questions at hand ... not, in most cases, scientists from other fields, or those with no scientific experience at all. Nor the religious and political ideologues who muddy the waters by creating fake "controversies" to cast doubt on results they know are true, but cannot accept.
In some cases they *disagreed*, quite vociferously. There were debates that descended into shouting matches, professional disagreements turned into personal feuds, once-eminent researchers become sad cranks, ruined careers and shortened lives. Yes. These things happened too, and that's a tragedy.
But most of the time, most researchers in the same fields as the revolutionaries said, "Oh, that makes sense!" Problems that had seemed insoluble suddenly became simple, or at least it was possible to see how there *might* be an elegant solution. Major discoveries spawned a host of medium-sized ones, each of which in turn spawned endless minor ones—and endless minor papers, academic bread and butter for when you can't get steak and lobster. Everyone wins.
Those ideologues I mentioned above? They really, really want you to believe the narrative of ridicule. You might want to consider why.
First, are you actually quoting someone, or starting from a hypothetically typical situation?
@MalthusJohn I'm quoting a Facebook conversation. Happy to provide the link if you want. The first and third quoted paragraphs are mine, the second ("For the history buffs ...") is from someone else. He *pretended* to ask a legitimate question about "what do we do when experts disagree," but was clearly more interested in pushing a narrative than getting an answer.
@medigoth
That helps a lot. I do disagree that when those revolution-type ideas were presented, it was usually by other experts. The biggest reason being that a new field has no experts when launched!
But there is a problem with the ratio, and what its importance would be. I've never counted (or seen anyone else do so) the total # of discoveries, then crossed with the person's expert status, or how many did the laughing or ridiculing (vs harshly, vociferously disagreeing).
That said, I also understand your point (I think) about anti-intellectualism and/or cranks using it as the opposite of an appeal to authority (forgot the name of that fallacy).
Aside from those purposes, I'd ask how many ridiculers does it take to take the wind out of one's sails? How many better models have been abandoned or postponed from this behavior? How many poor models have stayed in the pole position because of it?
That's why I asked about the weight of "most": because we are so susceptible to claims from authoritative figures, just a few of them outweigh a more 'democratic' outcome, which science is not supposed to be of course, but is anyway to a large extent when we talk about consensus, and how many people who 'voted' for the status quo actually read & understand (ie, at least quasi-experts) the proposed alternatives. ("Vote" just meaning going along with the majority as an evolutionary, statistical bet.)
As you opened with, that is the safest bet to place. Until it's not..