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Is this a reasonable definition of science?
In a general sense, science is the methodology concerned with the discovery of facts and their classification into a coherent, integrated system.
The definition of a particular science (biology,etc.) is determined by which aspects of reality it seeks to understand
Gino: Must the testing and experimentation have an actual physical component, or is the application of reason and logic enough. Much of mathematics has limited or no testing beyond logical proof, so should we include it as a science or not?
Thanks for answers. You all seem to think that I have ignored testing and verification, but that is implicit in the methodology (if it were not, we would not be discovering facts). I proposed this def. specifically because most people assume that verification must involve the physical. This, however, places certain disciplines (math, psychology to name 2) outside the classification of science because they often lack a physical component.
Additionally, wikipedias dichotomy between science and philosophy seem a fake one based on a lay interpretation of what philosophy entails. Metaphysics and epistemology are implicitly employed by the scientific disciplines, and it seems absurd to say science is not based on science.
For the record, in most bookstores and libraries, philosophy is found under the broader category 'science.'
4 Answers
- 1 decade agoFavorite Answer
I agree with Gino. Maybe you could write, "Concerned with the discovery of facts through testing and experimentation."
That's where the difference between science and mathematics lies...In math, we start with some definitions, and we see what follows from those definitions. For example, we define numbers, and operations, and then we find that we can define a category of numbers called "prime" numbers, and then we can ask questions about them and try to answer the questions.
What's important here is that we KNOW what the "rules" are, because we CHOSE them. If we want to use different rules, we're free to do that.
In science, it works in the other direction. We don't know what the rules are, so we try to set up situations that can help us guess what they are. Or, more precisely, we guess what the rules are, expressing our guesses in terms of mathematics. Then we use math to generate some predictions. And we test those predictions against the world.
- 1 decade ago
Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning "knowledge" or "to know") is the effort to discover, and increase human understanding of how the physical world works. Through controlled methods, scientists use observable physical evidence of natural phenomena to collect data, and analyze this information to explain what and how things work. Such methods include experimentation that tries to simulate natural phenomena under controlled conditions and thought experiments. Knowledge in science is gained through research.
your definition lacks the experiemental part of the Science, without that we do not do science but Philosophy, where Aristotle could describe the World and Everything just by thinking using logic in a coherent way, and that's not enough because with that you can just arrive to a Theory, then you have to prove it.
- 1 decade ago
i would agree although you might want to add something about the involvement of research and testing/experimenting... since all scientific "facts" must be proven as facts. and without facts there would be no science
- Anonymous1 decade ago
Your definition sounds pretty good to me. I think of science as organized common sense (not that sense is all that common).
