Marmot M, Friel S
Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, University College London, 1-19 Torrington Place, London WC1E 6BT, UK.
J Epidemiol Community Health. 2008 Dec;62(12):1095-7. doi: 10.1136/jech.2008.081695.
More than 30 years ago, the older of us published a paper with the proposal that all scientific papers should start with a statement along the lines of: "These are the opinions on which I base my facts". Why pretend? To take a topical example, if you are on the nature side of the nature/nurture debates, is it likely that your next paper will be an apologia: "I take it all back; genes don't matter at all; it is all environment"? Unlikely. Similarly, if you are on the other side. (We know. It's both.) Here, we are not in any way arguing for a relativist credo that would say opinions are all. Along with other readers of this journal, we spend a good part of our working lives gathering, analysing and interpreting empirical evidence. Evidence matters. But everyone has values and they do affect our positions.
30多年前，我们中的年长者发表了一篇论文，提议所有科学论文都应以如下表述开头：“这些是我用以支撑事实的观点”。何必假装呢？举个当下的例子，如果你在天性与 nurture 之争中站在天性这一边，你接下来的论文会是一篇辩解书吗：“我收回之前的话；基因根本不重要；一切都是环境的作用”？不太可能。同样，如果你站在另一边。（我们知道，两者都有影响。）在此，我们绝不是在主张一种相对主义信条，即认为观点就是一切。和本期刊的其他读者一样，我们在工作生涯的很大一部分时间里都在收集、分析和解读实证证据。证据很重要。但每个人都有价值观，而这些价值观确实会影响我们的立场。
