Matt+King+-+What+is+Science?+(Due+Sept.+17)

What is //This// Science? Co-written by Ian LaBounty and Matt King

What is //this // science can be answered many different ways. Many years of research and experimenting have gone into science, but no one can really tell you the true definition of science itself. One way to look at science is its contribution to the advancement of society. Another way to define this science would be to look at it from the point of view of the scientist. One could even define science from the point of view of the general population. Yet another way to describe science would be to use the literal definition of the word from the dictionary.

We can describe science by its impact on society. Science has been used as the tool to find new inventions and develop civilization and knowledge about the world around us. Science has also changed throughout the years. The science that we use today and the science of the past isn’t completely different, it has just evolved. Science was originally used for the necessity of the people such as medicine and land distribution for example the ancient Egyptians used measurement to divide land and collect taxes. We still use science for these same purposes, but our methods for doing so have become more efficient over the years. Once civilization had advanced enough that their basic needs were met they could focus scientific discoveries from necessity to curiosity of things that were not understood. An example of this is the heliocentric model replacing the geocentric model. This doesn’t affect daily life, but people have always searched for understanding of the world and universe around them.

The next way to describe science is from the point of view of the scientists themselves. Early scientists such as Aristotle would have described science as a way to logically solve problems. Other early scientists would also say that science is a way to discover more about the environment and all living things. More recent scientists have even created a method for carrying out science. They would call it the scientific method. This method would be used to help other scientists replicate their experiments. The problem with this method is that most scientists would not use this method, because their own style would work better. Scientists would find it hard to define what science is without having a biased view. The questions also wouldn’t matter much to a scientist, because they would be more worried about the further “advancement” of science. We say “advanced” since scientific discovery can be a large step backwards such as Plato view on matter, “ without resort to experiment, proved counterproductive to the further development of scientific understanding for centuries" (Fowler).

The population would view science in a different light. Early populations didn’t really care about scientific discoveries unless it affected daily life. Discoveries such as the cycle of the seasons and the flooding of the Nile were the most important scientific discoveries to common people since this information was useful for farming. Once the sciences became more involved with technologies the common people cared more about those advancements. The discovery of things like the printing press and electricity had a huge impact on everyday life of the common people. Although; the common people didn’t really care as much about how the device works they learned to appreciate the technology and science that allowed the creation of the device. A good example of this would be the invention of the cell phone, many people wouldn’t understand the inner workings of the cell phone but almost everyone uses one and would find life hard without its practicality.  The final part of defining science is the literal definition. The definition from www.merriam-webster.com is “ knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws, especially as obtained and tested through the scientific method, such knowledge or such a system of knowledge concerned with the physical world and its phenomena”. The problem with this definition is that there are ways to disprove incorrect scientific theories, but there is really no way to prove “knowledge” or these “truths”. Those ideas which we believe to be “truths” are so because they are generally accepted by the scientific community, generally make sense to us, and show some sort of evidence coming from data or experiments. The “truth” is often only considered truth by those who believe in it, and the truth can also be influenced by other outside of the scientific community. An example of this is the Church, which influenced the Darwin theory of evolution through the use of fear and opposition.  Science has not always had a strong relationship with technology. In ancient Greece, for example, science took the form of philosophizing about the planets and properties of matter, and did not influence inventions or engineering. However, as science advanced and evolved, its relationship to technology has grown over the years. With the discoveries of electricity, gas laws, and kinematics came the complete consolidation of science and technology. These discoveries allowed for such inventions as the steam and internal combustion engines, light bulbs, computers, cell phones, and most modern technology. Science, in essence, has become the father to technology, guiding its development and discovering the necessary laws and theories to allow for advances in technology.

Science was originally conducted through the institutions of government. For instance, in Babylon, barleycorn was used as both weight and a unit of measuring length, as well as an early form of currency. The use of barleycorn in these applications was decided by the Babylonian government (Fowler 2). Later on in history, science was conducted through schools such as the Academy and Lyceum in ancient Greece. In these schools, where students learned about philosophy and science (Fowler 3). Today, science is conducted in classrooms as early as in middle school, in the everyday lives of the members of society (use of currency, mathematics, and basic physics understanding in sports, for example), in the military, universities, and research labs, of course; science, in the modern world, is used practically everywhere. It seems somewhat odd that an aspect of the world which we apply countless times each day is itself so difficult to trace the origins of and to define.