Abstract
Several argue that truth cannot be science’s sole epistemic goal, for it would fail to do
justice to several scientific practices that advance understanding. I challenge these arguments,
but only after making a small concession: science’s sole epistemic goal is not truth as such;
rather, its goal is finding true answers to relevant questions. Using examples from the natural
and social sciences, I then show that scientific understanding’s epistemically valuable features
are either true answers to relevant questions or a means thereof.