"Perhaps it would be better for science, that all criticism should be avowed"
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Babbage is doing something deceptively radical here: he’s not pleading for kinder criticism, he’s demanding criticism with a return address. In the early 19th-century scientific world he inhabited, knowledge moved through gentlemanly networks, societies, and committees where anonymity and insinuation could function as social weapons. “Avowed” isn’t just a preference for transparency; it’s a proposal to change the power dynamics of scientific disagreement.
The line’s force comes from its careful hedging. “Perhaps” makes the sentence sound modest, even tentative, while smuggling in an institutional critique: science is being harmed not by criticism itself, but by criticism that refuses to own its motives, standards, or expertise. Unavowed critique can be petty, factional, or reputationally strategic; it can police ideas without exposing itself to reciprocal scrutiny. Avowed criticism, by contrast, creates accountability. It forces the critic to stake their name, methods, and social standing on the judgment, which raises the cost of bad-faith takedowns and lowers the reward for gossip dressed up as review.
Babbage’s subtext also reflects a mathematician’s temperament: an argument should be traceable to its premises and provenance. If science is a collective enterprise, then criticism is part of the apparatus, not a shadow system running alongside it. In that sense, the sentence isn’t merely about etiquette; it’s about making dissent legible so the community can evaluate not just claims, but the credibility of the evaluators. That is how a culture of correction becomes a culture of progress rather than a culture of whispers.
The line’s force comes from its careful hedging. “Perhaps” makes the sentence sound modest, even tentative, while smuggling in an institutional critique: science is being harmed not by criticism itself, but by criticism that refuses to own its motives, standards, or expertise. Unavowed critique can be petty, factional, or reputationally strategic; it can police ideas without exposing itself to reciprocal scrutiny. Avowed criticism, by contrast, creates accountability. It forces the critic to stake their name, methods, and social standing on the judgment, which raises the cost of bad-faith takedowns and lowers the reward for gossip dressed up as review.
Babbage’s subtext also reflects a mathematician’s temperament: an argument should be traceable to its premises and provenance. If science is a collective enterprise, then criticism is part of the apparatus, not a shadow system running alongside it. In that sense, the sentence isn’t merely about etiquette; it’s about making dissent legible so the community can evaluate not just claims, but the credibility of the evaluators. That is how a culture of correction becomes a culture of progress rather than a culture of whispers.
Quote Details
| Topic | Science |
|---|---|
| Source | Reflections on the Decline of Science in England, and on Some of Its Causes (Charles Babbage, 1830) — passage discussing criticism of scientific work in the 1830 essay. |
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