{"id":68010,"date":"2018-12-05T14:49:33","date_gmt":"2018-12-05T21:49:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=68010"},"modified":"2018-12-05T14:49:33","modified_gmt":"2018-12-05T21:49:33","slug":"on-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2018\/12\/on-science.html","title":{"rendered":"On “Science”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Cambridge's<\/a>
The famous Mathematical Bridge, first constructed in 1749, connects two parts of Queens\u2019 College, University of Cambridge, across the River Cam. \u00a0\u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Our English word science<\/em> derives, ultimately, from the Latin verb scire<\/em>, which meant \u201cto know.\u201d \u00a0In modern English, though, science<\/em> doesn\u2019t refer simply to knowledge in general. \u00a0Rather, it denotes a certain kind<\/em> of knowledge \u2014 or, even, to be really precise, a certain methodology (or bundle of methodologies; after all, cosmology and botany and geology and particle physics and genetics and astrophysics and ecology employ quite distinct methods and styles of reasoning) for attaining<\/em> that certain kind of knowledge.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Very few if any people in the English-speaking world, for instance, would describe art history as a \u201cscience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Is history, more generally, a \u201cscience\u201d? \u00a0Some historians have aspired to that status \u2014 Leopold von Ranke\u2019s famous goal of recording or writing history wie es eigentlich gewesen<\/em> (\u201cas it actually was\u201d) surely expresses some such ambition \u2014 but most today probably don\u2019t. \u00a0And, while history can be ranked among the \u201csocial sciences\u201d (as at BYU), it\u2019s often placed within colleges of \u201cArts and Letters\u201d). \u00a0And it\u2019s arguably at least as close to literature as it is to nuclear physics.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Is \u201cpolitical science\u201d really a \u201cscience\u201d? \u00a0As practiced by some (e.g., by those who work with survey data), it may tend in a genuinely \u201cscientific\u201d direction. \u00a0But more than a few \u201cpolitical scientists\u201d are either uncomfortable with or irritated by the notion that they\u2019re doing \u201cscience.\u201d \u00a0Courses on political philosophy, for instance, don\u2019t seem \u201cscientific\u201d at all \u2014 though that doesn\u2019t even begin<\/em> to render without value the study of Plato\u2019s Republic<\/em> and Laws<\/em>, Aristotle\u2019s Politics<\/em>, or the work of John Rawls.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are valuable areas of scholarship, study, and thought that have nothing to do with \u201cscience\u201d as it is generally conceived in English.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

In German, though, the word Wissenschaft<\/em> is quite a different matter. \u00a0On which, some additional notes to come.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re interested in the topic at all<\/em>, I think there\u2019s good reason to expect that you\u2019ll find this provocative article extremely<\/em> interesting:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe One-sided Worldview of Eco-Pessimists\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

More revisionism:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cVolcanoes fed by \u2018mush\u2019 reservoirs rather than molten magma chambers\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the outer edges of current astronomical research:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAstronomers find far-flung wind from a black hole in the universe\u2019s first light: The discovery could shed light on how galaxies and black holes grow up together\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAstronomers have measured all the starlight ever emitted: The tally counts up the stray photons roaming through space\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cScientists\u2019 collection of gravitational waves just got a lot bigger: Scientists added 4 new sets of spacetime ripples to their inventory\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLargest ever black hole collision detected by scientists:\u00a0<\/span>Two black holes are thought to have formed a new black hole 80 times larger than the Sun and sent ripples through space-time\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Our English word science derives, ultimately, from the Latin verb scire, which meant \u201cto know.\u201d \u00a0In modern English, though, science doesn\u2019t refer simply to knowledge in general. \u00a0Rather, it denotes a certain kind of knowledge \u2014 or, even, to be really precise, a certain methodology (or bundle of methodologies; after all, cosmology and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68010","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nOn "Science"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Our English word science derives, ultimately, from the Latin verb scire, which meant "to know." \u00a0In modern English, though, science doesn't\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, 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