Science?

What is science?

To “do science” is to follow a prescribed method to arrive at knowledge. The “scientific method” is not a belief system or religious dogma, but rather a manner of thinking and working towards more complete knowledge of the world. It has been proven to be extremely successful in:

• explaining the world as we observe it;
• predicting what can be further observed, e.g. new observations, new locations, repeat observations, the effect of interventions;
• engineering, i.e. building things that work.

Science is not prescriptive – it can not say what “ought” to be done. It can, however, point out the probable consequences of certain actions, as objectively as possible.

Characteristics of scientific knowledge

• Self-criticism
• Evidence-based
• Theory-based
• Transparency
• No appeal to authority

Types of sciences

• Scientific activity can be classified as experimental, observational, or historical. All three require a separate step of model building.
• Experimental
• Observational
• Historical

Key points of scientific method

• The scientific method is a manner of thinking and working towards more complete knowledge of the world.
• To be scientific, a statement must, in principle, be falsifiable.
• Sciences may be classified as experimental, observational, or historical.
• There are many forms of scientific inference, with different logical foundations and degrees of rigour. to lax.
• Scientific explanation is linked to causality. A parsimonious explanation is preferred.
• A scientific statement may be a fact, hypothesis, theory, or law, each with a level of certainty.
• An important type of scientific reasoning is deductive-inductive.
• Scientific explanation requires sound logical thinking.