Hi Chris & Everyone,
That is a surprising definition of "science" from an authoritative
source. My undergraduate degree is in physics. I then studied
philosophy of science because quantum mechanics disillusioned me and
made me wonder if science really can tell us anything special. After
being satisfied with traditional philosophy of science, but dismayed
by newer philosophy of science, I returned to science by studying
developmental psychology. Here's my definition:
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Science is the pursuit of knowledge by predicting new phenomena from
prior phenomena, while imposing the greatest degree of skepticism
possible and yet assuming just enough to allow shared knowledge among
those maintaining just as much skepticism. Repeated consistently-
found evidence of phenomena by independent observers leads this
pursuit of knowledge to tentatively-accepted truths. Two minimal
assumptions of science that allow shared knowledge while remaining as
skeptical as possible are: (1) truth is a correspondence between
observed phenomena and statements (e.g.., hypotheses, mathematical
equations) and (2) an understanding of a whole phenomena is the
combination of understanding of parts of the phenomena.
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The definition excludes religion, intuition, values, and common
sense. However, the definition does not include so much skepticism
that we end up believing nothing (e.g., solipsism) or extreme forms of
post-modernism. Intelligent Design is not science because it makes an
assumption that is not necessary to predict phenomena (i.e., it is not
as skeptical as possible) and because it invokes teleological
mechanisms instead of explaining solely from prior causes. Any domain
can be studied scientifically. "Content analysis" by our colleagues
in mass communication is scientific study of television and there is
no reason the same can not be done for art, literature, or history
(e.g., Herb Simon's computation models based on diaries of
historically important scientists, Howard Gardener's studies of
children's changing appreciation of different kinds of paintings).
Nobody always does science; I teach with intuition and make choices
according to moral feelings. So I am certainly not saying that
because something is not science, that it is somehow not worthwhile.
Nevertheless, science has a special place in our lives precisely
because its truths required so much skepticism be overcome to be
produced. No matter how much we disagree on issues of faith,
intuition, common sense, or emotion - we can still agree to
incorporate scientific truth into our world-views.
Kevin
_.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._.,-*~'`^`'~*-,._
~ all that you can take with you is that which you've given away ~
~ teaching & learning developmental psychology ~
~ http://www.DevPsy.org ~
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