All tagged science
Civilization has spanned millennia, yet modern science—distinct from the ancient and medieval sciences or what was once called natural philosophy—has existed for only a few centuries. Why did it take so long? Why weren’t the ancient Babylonians launching zero-gravity observatories into orbit? Why weren’t the ancient Greeks developing flu vaccines and performing heart transplants? The ancients were certainly not devoid of a thirst to unravel the mysteries of the world.
"Every piece of knowledge contains valuable ingredients side by side with ideas that prevent the discovery of new things."
In a science dominated society, it is easy to forget that science and their methods are not inherently objective. Science is a tradition, with its own method of conceptualizing problems and deriving conclusions. Science is hypothetico-deductive. Scientists frame conjectures and test their logical consequences. A proposition is scientific if only it is falsifiable, otherwise it is metaphysical. However, there is no perfect method. The concept that a single method contains firm, unchangeable and binding principles in all situations is perilous.
