Science consists of overcoming a series of obstacles to reach a verifiable truth.
There are two types of obstacles which oppose a scientist. One can be likened to climbing a hill. The other to surmounting a barrier.
A hill is a creation of nature. The difficulty consists in just going up. I’m not talking about climbing a challenging rock face. I’m speaking about merely going up, up, and on up until one’s legs carry one to the summit. There are few interesting difficulties along the way. The work all comes from getting your physical body to obey your mind.
Let us take the invention of the light bulb as an example. When Thomas Edison invented the light bulb he didn’t have abstract theory to worry about. He didn’t have many parts which all add up to the functioning of a machine; since the parts are all interdependent when you change one you must engineer how all the roles of all of the other parts will be affected. No. Edison had only one criterion to investigate and one goal to satisfy. He had decided to pass a current through various materials until he found a material whose glow would light up the room enough to read by.
Edison’s invention of the light bulb was like climbing a hill. You just keep going up until you are at the top. The labor which Edison made, which merely consisted of keeping on going, was a simple, straightforward body effort.
A barrier is a different sort of obstacle. The implication is that there is something tricky about it.
Sometimes a barrier is merely a saw horse in the road blocking one’s way to walk down the street. There may be a command or a protest sign on it. A figure of authority might be standing guard at the saw horse.
The saw horse barrier could act as a check point. It might mark the border between two countries. The countries may or may not act like each other. In any case, there is usually some required personal ID, such as a passport and a visa, which must be presented to the authority for (him or her) to check and approve.
At a higher level, there may be customary antagonism which is negotiated at a barrier. For example, when one crosses from France into Spain, the Spanish guards might speak French, but they would never let on that they do. They are acting out a role beyond their job requirements to show a French person what people in Spain think of why (him or her) and how he (he or she) can expect to be treated. This is good when people put personal politics into performance of a job. Too often we try to be clinical regarding our job roles. Being personal gives us greater job satisfaction.
At a third level higher there are economic barriers which separate countries. Some of these come from specific tariffs. Some of them come from the legal status a corporation has. Is it domestic? Is it international? Is it subsidized? Does it dump? Does it employ workers in the importee country? How much does it pay its domestic workers? Where does its domicile tax base lie? What kind of public image does that corporation have in the importee country? Did its executives order a proper marketing study before it began its ad campaign? Do its international representatives know how to speak to the natives in the country in which it sells? Does it talk down to the selling market? Does it treat its potential customers with respect?
At a fourth level higher stand the international banking systems which are thoroughly aligned with economic planners in government. The setting of exchange rates must be done effectively and efficiently to foster trade. They have to be able to afford our goods. We must allow them to sell some things to us. This is how the system of comparative advantages works.
The reasoning behind this example from the science of international relations shows what is meant by a scientist having to overcome an obstacle which is a barrier. Such an obstacle can be thought of as fraught with legal questions. To pass such a barrier requires more than a determined trudge up a hill. It requires insight and intuition into the various trappings of the scientific problem being studied.
Thus science is explained as taking a series of steps to overcome obstacles. Sometimes the obstacle will just require a steady, determined effort. Sometimes the obstacle is like a puzzle with a lot of different parts the challenge being to discover what they are and how they fit together into the whole.
After the obstacle has been solved, it can be used by others. They have the mountain. They understand the roadblock.
