The Wisdom of the Wrong
What History Teaches About the Benefits of Mistaken Ideas
We tend to think of wrong ideas as errors to be discarded so the truth can stand clear. Yet history shows a more complex picture. Many wrong ideas, even wildly mistaken ones, have shaped intellectual progress in surprising ways. They’ve spurred discoveries, challenged assumptions, and inspired creativity beyond their originators’ intentions.
Medieval alchemy was a scientifically wrongheaded quest to turn base metals into gold. Yet in chasing this impossible goal, alchemists developed laboratory techniques and chemical knowledge that laid the groundwork for modern chemistry.
The ancient theory of the four humors (blood, phlegm, yellow bile, and black bile) was a flawed medical model. It could not explain disease as modern medicine does. Yet for centuries, it guided observation, diagnosis, and practice, leading physicians to notice patterns in the body and environment that set the stage for better theories.
Isaac Newton’s mechanics accurately described motion in most everyday cases. However, it viewed the universe as a deterministic clockwork, a false picture. Albert Einstein’s relativity showed time and space to be flexible. Without Newton’s useful but imperfect laws, Einstein would have had nothing to refine or challenge. Further, Einstein’s theories were also incomplete, something Einstein himself acknowledged.
Science, and all aspects of life and thinking, is not about final truths. It is a continuous process of developing better approximations of physical reality. Scientific knowledge is always provisional, or working models that must be changed as new data reveal limits and falsehoods.
Of course, not all wrong ideas are beneficial. Some cause harm, superstition, prejudice, or poor decisions. However, wrongness is an integral part of the search for truth and is a teacher, so long as we understand that all our ideas and theories are provisional.
Centuries after his death, Isaac Newton is still generally regarded as history’s greatest and most important scientist. He is also known to be an alchemist whose physics theories were flawed. This duality sums it all up, don’t you think?
Newton also had some wild religious ideas.