I believe "isolation, control and repeatability" would rule out historical and observational sciences.
Moorad
________________________________
From: asa-owner@lists.calvin.edu on behalf of SatTeacher@aol.com
Sent: Sun 4/24/2005 12:55 PM
To: asa@calvin.edu
Subject: Definition of Science
When the question of the definition of science first arose, I sent this but realized later that I only sent it to one person. As I have continued to read the discussion of the topic, I believe even more strongly that what I sent was a good definition and am sending it to all.
"Science is a hierarchy of causal explanations characterized by increasing generalizations, quantifications and mathematical simplicity arrived at by and inductive-deductive process characterized by isolation, control and repeatability." This definition was given at the beginning of a Philosophy of Science course that I took from Dr. David Wolfe at The King's College in the 1960s. He then spent a semester in discussion of that definition -- and after taking a couple of Philosophy of Science courses since and reading, I do not believe that I have seen a more complete one than that.
Helen Martin
Received on Sun Apr 24 13:18:57 2005
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