The Relativity of Wrong

"The Relativity of Wrong" is a 1988 essay collection by Isaac Asimov, which takes its title from the most ambitious essay it contains. Like most of the essays Asimov wrote for "F&SF" Magazine, each one in "The Relativity of Wrong" begins with an autobiographical anecdote which serves to set the mood. Several of the essays form a sequence explaining the discovery and uses of isotopes; the introductory passages in these essays recount Asimov's not particularly pleasant personal relationship with Harold C. Urey, whom he met at Columbia University.

He also describes seeing the film "Amadeus," which he enjoyed and admired extravagantly. In the cinema, he told his wife Janet Asimov that F. Murray Abraham was sure to win an Academy Award for playing Salieri. Later, after Abraham had in fact won, he and Asimov met, and Asimov subjected Abraham to a continuous flood of praise.

Title essay

In the title essay, Asimov argues that there exist degrees of wrongness, and being wrong in one way is not necessarily as bad as being wrong in another way. For example, if a child spells the word "sugar" as "xyzzy" or "1138", the child is clearly incorrect. Yet, Asimov says, a child who spells the word "shuger" (or in some other phonetic way) is "less wrong" than one who writes a random sequence of letters. Furthermore, a child who writes "sucrose" or "C₁₂H₂₂O₁₁" completely disregards the "correct" spelling but shows a degree of knowledge about the real thing under study. Asimov proposes that a better test question would ask the student to spell "sugar" in as many ways as possible, justifying each.

Likewise, believing that the Earth is a sphere is less wrong than believing that the Earth is flat, but wrong nonetheless, since it is really an oblate spheroid or a reasonable approximation thereof. As the state of knowledge advanced, the statement of the Earth's shape became more refined, and each successive advance required a more careful and subtle investigation.

Asimov wrote "The Relativity of Wrong" in response to an "English major" who criticized him for believing in scientific progress. This unnamed individual took the postmodern viewpoint that all scientific explanations of the world are equally in error. Irritated, the rationalist Asimov put forth his views in his monthly "F&SF" column, and the result became the title essay of this collection.

According to Asimov fan John Jenkins, who has reviewed most of Asimov's written output, the essays in this collection do not on the whole stand out above the author's average. They are pleasant, interesting and informative, says Jenkins, but not much more so than any others Asimov wrote for "F&SF." The exception, which "does" stand out above the rest, is the title essay, "which I think is important both for understanding Asimov's thinking about science and for arming oneself against the inevitable anti-science attack that one often hears — [that] theories are always preliminary and science really doesn't 'know' anything."

References

* Asimov, Isaac. "The Relativity of Wrong." ISBN 1-55817-169-X (paperback, 1989); ISBN 1-57566-008-3 (paperback reissue, 1996).

* Jenkins, John. "Spoiler-Laden Guide to Isaac Asimov: Review of The Relativity of Wrong." [http://homepage.mac.com/jhjenkins/Asimov/Books/Book378.html Book 378] . Link accessed 26 February 2006.