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What Science IS
So,
what IS science? It has been defined many ways, and its meaning has changed
with time. Like many words, "science" has more than one proper use,
and the word can also be misused. In its most fundamental sense, modern science
is a process by which we try to understand how the natural
world works and how it came to be that way. It is NOT a process for merely
collecting "facts" about, or just describing, the natural world,
although such observations do provide the raw material for scientific
understanding.
As a
process, certain rules must be followed, but there is NO one "scientific
method", contrary to its popular treatment in textbooks. The rules of
science are intended to make the process as objective as is humanly possible,
and thereby produce a degree of understanding that is as close to reality as
possible. One constant theme is that there is no certainty in science.
Scientific understanding can always be challenged, and even changed, with new
ways of observing, and with different interpretations. The same is true of
scientific facts. New tools and techniques have resulted in new observations,
sometimes forcing revision of what had been taken as fact in the past.
Modern
science is based upon several underlying assumptions:
1. The world is real. The physical universe exists, whether we can sense it or
not. In other words, it is not just our imagination.
2.
Humans can accurately perceive and understand the physical universe. In other
words, such understanding is possible.
3.
Natural processes are sufficient to explain the natural world; non-natural
processes are unnecessary.
4.
Nature operates the same way everywhere in the universe, and at all times,
except where we have contrary evidence.
Modern
science has its limitations:
1. Observations are confined to the biological limits of our senses, even with
technological enhancement.
2. The
mental processing of our sensory information is unconsciously influenced by
previous experiences, which may result in inaccurate or biased perceptions of
the world.
3. It
is impossible to know if we have observed every possible aspect of a
phenomenon, have thought of every possible alternative explanation, or
controlled for every possible variable.
4.
Scientific knowledge is necessarily contingent knowledge rather than
absolute knowledge:
--a. Scientific knowledge is based only on the available evidence which must be
assessed and (and is
therefore subject to more than one possible interpretation), not on
indisputable "proof".
--b. The history of science is filled with numerous
examples of scientific knowledge changing.
5. Science must follow certain rules, such as:
--a. Scientific explanations must be based on careful
observations and the testing of hypotheses.
--b. It must be possible to disprove a hypothesis.
--c. Scientific solutions cannot be based merely upon personal opinion, belief,
or judgment.
--d. Scientific explanations cannot include supernatural forces (these can
never be disproved).
--e. The "best" hypothesis, out of the
choices, must be one which best fits several explicit criteria.
6.
Science, as for any human endeavor, can be done poorly.
7.
Science can be misused.
So, if
there are so many limitations and uncertainties to science, why is science
so useful? It turns out that the limitations are the strengths of science.
From the actual use and application of the knowledge of science to real world
problems, we have found that scientific knowledge is the most reliable
knowledge we have about the natural world. In other words, most of the time, it
works! This has enabled much of our work in space exploration, modern
medicine, agriculture and technology
http://www.indiana.edu/~ensiweb/lessons/sci.is.html