definition of science

I found additional science definitions in my notes:

"The most certain fact of physics is that physics is not true -- not true
as an account of what nature is -- or even how nature works."
(Clarke: The Philosophy of Science, 1987).

I like to accompany this definition with Polkinghornes' use of the term
"verisimilitude."

It is wrong to think that the task of physics is to find out how nature
is. Physics concerns only what we can SAY about nature."
(Niels Bohr)

"It is clear that science is not in contact with ultimate reality, that
it is describing the waves and not the water of the ocean of reality."
(don't know who wrote this one)

"Science may be regarded as a minimal problem consisting of the complete
presentation of facts with the least expenditure of thought."
(Ernst mach) (as quoted in HUMAN NATURE by E. O. Wilson)

It is nevertheless recognized that what we know (epistemology) will never
be the way Nature really is (ontology). In other words, as stated by
physicist Werner Heisenberg, our knowledge of Nature can never mean
anything more that the perception of connections, unifying features or
marks of affinity in the manifold."
(Gopala Rao)

As we know
There are known knowns.
That is, there are things we know we know..

And there are known unknowns,
That is, we know there are some things that we don't know.

But -- there are also unknown unknowns.
The ones we don't know we don't know.
(Donald Rumsfield)

As a practicing scientist, I share the credo of my colleagues: I believe
that a factual reality exists and that science, though often in an obtuse
and erratic manner, can learn about it.
(Gould, in THE MISMEASURE OF MAN)

Burgy
Received on Wed May 4 15:52:01 2005