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The principle that science itself—the enterprise, the institution—exists on a spectrum between absolute and relative, with infinite gradations and multiple dimensions. Under this law, science is neither purely universal nor purely local, neither purely objective nor purely constructed—it's a spectral phenomenon, with aspects that approach the absolute and aspects that are irreducibly relative. The law of spectral science recognizes that science is a human activity that produces reliable knowledge, not despite its humanness but through it—through community, criticism, and self-correction. Science is spectral: it's the best we have, not the best possible.
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