Western Science? There's No Such Thing (and why that matters)

"Western Science" is one of those lazy phrases we use almost without thinking. We mean medicine, particle physics, biology, astronomy and more, but we lump it all together as 'western science'.

But science is no more western than it is Martian. It's science. It's science that North Koreans use to build nuclear reactors, and it's science that Japanese use to build communication satellites. How far east to you want to go and still call it 'the west'?

The point is, this is lazy language, and lazy language leads to lazy thinking. Like labelling every unemployed person a benefit scrounger, or every wealthy person a selfish bastard, it just doesn't do justice to the truth. We make similar assumptions about customers, clients, our staff and our bosses.

We all fall into the cliche trap, probably every day. But when we allow ourselves to carry on with lazy, untested untruths, we do ourselves and everyone else a disservice.

The next time you think about anything important - that's anything that matters to you - ask yourself what assumptions you're making that come from lazy thinking and cliched language - and then ask yourself how this affects the decisions you make.

It's not always easy to think, really think, from first principles, especially when we're being bombarded with cliches and stereotypes, but brave, clear thinking is the only way you'll build a brave new world - either for yourself or for the rest of us.

Roy