Yes. I believe you're absolutely right. I should have mentioned that.
I don't define facts as something constructed in the human mind. I define them as a reflection of objective reality, regardless of what people actually believe. The world was not any less round when a majority of people living on it believed it was flat. The world just is, regardless of what people believe about it. The world would still be round even if there were no sentient beings here to perceive it. When I talk about "facts", I am talking about things that can be objectively defined through the scientific method, direct observation or other methods of concrete evidence gathering (such as historical primary sources or archeological evidence). I am a scientist at heart. I believe in evidence.
When you're talking about "facts" such as "women are naturally inferior to men and belong in the home, not in the workforce" or "this race is intellectually or culturally superior to that race" - well, I don't define those as facts. These are judgments, with no basis in physical reality. Yes, scientific facts themselves can also be misused and misinterpreted - I think of IQ tests being used as "evidence" that some races are more intelligent than others, when in fact they were measuring no such thing. All of the measured differences can be attributed to differences in educational opportunity, nutrition (reflecting development delays due to malnutrition in poorer populations), cultural issues around the test design, etc. The fact that different populations performed differently on a specific test at a specific time and place and history does not change. But our understanding of what that fact means - our interpretations and judgments - have evolved (among most of the scientific community, at least). People using those facts to justify racial superiority are just wrong, and have always been wrong.
Moral judgments - right and wrong - are separate for me from facts. Science cannot help us here. Science is neutral. It just defines what it. We have to decide how we interpret it, and what we do with it. I do believe there are ultimate Rights and Wrongs, a moral order to the universe in addition to a physical one. And I hope as a species we are getting closer to it. A couple of years ago I would have said that we were. The last couple of years has shaken my optimism for the human race badly.
I don't think we're as far apart in our thinking as you believe we are. I agree with you - we have to cultivate human heartedness above all, or facts will not help us.
