Q22 - Much of the best scientific

[LolaC289]

So the two statements in brief are first, many earlier scientific work are actually flawed; second, it is valuable for today's scientists to study them.

Point to reconcile: If earlier works are flawed, why study them be valuable to today's scientists?

I totally see why (B) is a straightforward good answer. But I think (A) makes sense too. Because many flawed early works are not yet known to be mistaken, and since scientists "are above all concerned to discover the truth", their study of these works will reveal the flaw and help them disseminate the truth to the public.

[ohthatpatrick]

I feel ya. (A) definitely lends itself to an explanation.

If we're comparing them and thinking, "which one BEST reconciles?", I think we could say

for (A) to be valuable, we have to assume that today's scientists, in reading these early flawed works (that they don't know to be flawed) would

1. NOT accept this flawed work as actual legitimate findings (if today's scientists read an old flawed study and didn't know it was flawed, they might find themselves now being FARTHER from discovering the truth)
and
2. Undertake enough research to eventually prove that the earlier work was flawed/mistaken.

Those are pretty big IF's.

For (B) to be valuable, we don't have to add any ancillary assumptions. Just reading the study, which they already know to be flawed (so we don't have to worry about #1) would provide them with value. They don't need to do #2 in order to get the value.

(B) is more superficially evident of value.

(A) requires more of a background story that adds in some assumptions that are not very high probability. (i.e. it's not very likely that a modern scientist who reads some earlier scientific work would realize that the work is flawed, without having substantial expertise in that specific field and/or without doing substantial research in order to prove that the earlier work was mistaken)

Hope this helps.

[LolaC289]

Thank you, ohthatpatrick! You've always been helpful. Once again, it boiled down to "which is the most straight-forward best answer"? I guess I have put too much stress on the "unknown" and "discover the truth" part which led me to overthink it a bit.