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#195291 - 08/25/06 06:27 AM
What is science?
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Sci/Tech Mod
Registered: 01/17/04
Loc: Earth, Solar System, Milky Way
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What is science? This is what Wikipedia says: Quote:
in the broadest sense refers to any knowledge or trained skill, especially (but not exclusively) when this is attained by verifiable means.[1] The word science also describes any systematic field of study or the knowledge gained from such study. In a more restricted sense, science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge based on empiricism, experimentation, and methodological naturalism, as well as to the organized body of knowledge humans have gained by such research.
Here is what the late great Carl Sagan had to say about science.
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A central lesson of science is that to understand complex issues (or even simple ones), we must try to free our minds of dogma and to guarantee the freedom to publish, to contradict, and to experiment. Arguments from authority are unacceptable.
So we must try to understand things for ourselves and not just accept something because somebody in authority has said it is correct. The Buddha said:
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Do not believe in anything simply because you have heard it. Do not believe in anything simply because it is spoken and rumored by many. Do not believe in anything simply because it is found written in your religious books. Do not believe in anything merely on the authority of your teachers and elders. Do not believe in traditions because they have been handed down for many generations. But after observation and analysis, when you find that anything agrees with reason and is conducive to the good and benefit of one and all, then accept it and live up to it.
So it seems the path to finding out truth lies in observation not in blind acceptance of others words. Science instructs us to use our own minds, eyes and ears.
Sagan also writes:
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Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.
The body of knowledge discovered by science changes but the method of uncovering that knowledge remains the same. Observation and analysis, making models and theories and testing what they say against the results of experiment. Empirical method.
Sagan says:
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Skeptical scrutiny is the means, in both science and religion, by which deep thoughts can be winnowed from deep nonsense.
Many religions teach us not to question ancient words handed down from on high. They teach passive acceptance of authority and that the words of authority have priority over what our senses tell us. Science tells us the question everything, because it is only by questioning that knowledge expands and errors can be corrected.
Sagan says:
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There are many hypotheses in science which are wrong. That's perfectly all right; they're the aperture to finding out what's right. Science is a self-correcting process. To be accepted, new ideas must survive the most rigorous standards of evidence and scrutiny.
If we are afraid to question something, then that something is a dogma. There can be no dogmas in science, science is always trying to correct itself. Does science change? Its method does not, but the body of knowledge uncovered by science is always refining itself and some things once regared as true are discarded as our understanding improves. If something is too important to us to discard even when proved incorrect then that is not science.
What does science mean to you?
_________________________
In varietate concordia - EU motto
For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.
- Carl Sagan
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#195293 - 08/28/06 02:15 AM
Re: What is science?
[Re: Myrddin]
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Sci/Tech Moderator
Registered: 07/10/05
Loc: Moscow, Russia
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What can I say? I agree with definition form Wikipedia. Your question was:” What does science mean to you?” One of the most interesting fields of human activity. Science requires curiosity, honesty and of course, has open mind and good brain. Who are people, who make science? They are very different. Quote:
In May 2006, a committee of nine mathematicians voted to award Perelman a Fields Medal for his work on the Poincaré conjecture. The Fields Medal is the highest award in mathematics; two to four medals are awarded every four years.
Sir John Ball, president of the International Mathematical Union, approached Perelman in St. Petersburg in June 2006 to persuade him to accept the prize. After 10 hours of persuading over 2 days, he gave up. Two weeks later, Perelman summed up the conversation as: "He proposed to me three alternatives: accept and come; accept and don’t come, and we will send you the medal later; third, I don’t accept the prize. From the very beginning, I told him I have chosen the third one." He went on to say that the prize "was completely irrelevant for me. Everybody understood that if the proof is correct then no other recognition is needed."
On August 22, 2006, Perelman was publicly offered the medal at the International Congress of Mathematicians in Madrid, "for his contributions to geometry and his revolutionary insights into the analytical and geometric structure of the Ricci flow". He did not attend the ceremony, and declined to accept the medal.
He had previously turned down a prestigious prize from the European Mathematical Society, allegedly saying that he felt the prize committee was unqualified to assess his work, even positively.
Perelman is also due to receive a share of a Millennium Prize (probably to be shared with Hamilton). While he has not pursued formal publication in a peer-reviewed mathematics journal of his proof, as the rules for this prize require, many mathematicians feel that the scrutiny to which his eprints outlining his alleged proof have been subjected to exceeds the "proof-checking" implicit in a normal peer review. The Clay Mathematics Institute has explicitly stated that the governing board which awards the prizes may change the formal requirements, in which case Perelman would become eligible to receive a share of the prize. Perelman has stated that "I’m not going to decide whether to accept the prize until it is offered."
Perelman
I can’t understand how it is possible to refuse to receive one million USA$.
_________________________
"It is better to be roughly right than precisely wrong"
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#195297 - 10/24/06 05:59 AM
Re: What is science?
[Re: MoleMan]
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Sci/Tech Mod
Registered: 01/17/04
Loc: Earth, Solar System, Milky Way
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You cannot make sure really, unless by making sure you are saying you want to make sure that every child has the correct facts to regurgitate to pass those examinations. I don't think that is what you mean, but that is what the system is designed to do. If you get more than that, well then that is a bonus. I don't think the educational system is about preserving wonder; if it is preserved in the child, then that is because the teacher is naturally gifted and loves what they teach, and the lucky fact that the child has not had the wonder squeezed out of them before that teacher even met them.
For actual love of science to stay in a kid all through high school, you would have to keep alive their sense of wonder and in today’s world, wonder is often sacrificed for installing the knowledge that will get you that place in that Ivy League University or that job, or by peer pressure, or by boring teaching methods or by the desire to be cool or by parental expectation or parents not caring enough or...
So many factors and wonder is such a fragile thing...
_________________________
In varietate concordia - EU motto
For small creatures such as we the vastness is bearable only through love.
- Carl Sagan
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#273073 - 06/23/08 02:53 PM
Re: What is science?
[Re: Cy_Click]
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experienced member
Registered: 02/17/08
Loc: WA, USA
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Are you pro-science or anti-science? Raw meat isn't necessarily bad or fire terribly scientific. 1) By standing not too close and not too far away, one can stay comfortably warm when air is cold. 2) Fire is found only on wood or grass. 3) Fire consumes wood or grass. 4) Fire seems to spread to new wood when in contact. Experimental verification: place more wood on fire and observe that fire always spreads to new piece of dry wood or grass. Hypothesis: Heat can be obtained by keeping fire “alive” in a non-combustible area. Experimental Verification: Carry burning stick to cave and feed it with new wood. Further observation of natural wildfires:5) Meat from some animals killed by fire is good—tasty, juicy, and easy to chew. 6) Meat from some animals killed by fire is not good—tastes like bitter old wood, no juice. Hypothesis: Just the right exposure to fire makes meat good. Experimental verification: put meat on stick next to fire and see what happens. Remove meat when juicy. Enjoy. Conclusion: “Science” is a natural process of the human mind—at least for some human minds.
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Bad Bird
A rising tide sinks all leaky boats. (Paraphrased view of an economic theory, by me.)
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#273662 - 06/28/08 02:56 PM
Re: What is science?
[Re: Bad Bird]
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new member
Registered: 06/23/04
Loc: South Georgia
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My definition of science is this: The pursuit of fact through observation and the use of these facts and observations to gain knowledge. I can't object to your definition if we have a common understanding that "facts" are not immutable truths (as a certain habitue of the Religion forums thinks), but merely what is commonly agreed to be--at this point in time--the best explanation for all of our observations. "Facts" when defined this way can change based on new observations. Yes I meant fact with a small 'f'. Fact with a capital 'F', in my opinion, belongs more with philosophy, where it is called 'Truth.' I think there's a line in one of the Indiana Jones movies along similiar lines. By the way, I like your tag-line Although I don't agree with some of Campbell's conclusions, I still think he had some good things to say about the history of religions and their cross-pollination.
_________________________
God is a metaphor for that which trancends all level of intellectual thought. It's as simple as that. Joseph Campbell
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