Chapter 17.

More About the Structure of Science

17.1. Public and Private Practice of Science

• No single method of science exists on individual level
  • Common elements do exist
  • Methods of science really have meaning at a collective or public level, not private
• Individual scientists are motivated by variety of issues
  • even non-rational, mystical and religious
• Individual scientists
  • Are tenacious
  • Are driven by a sense of exhilaration by scientific activity
  • Are responsive to wonder and beauty
  • Feel sense of fulfillment when successful
• Scientific theories have aesthetic value and qualities which are part of driving motivation
• Objectivity is gained at time of absorption of individual science into collective body of public science
• Facts, experience, and observation must be interpreted in context of themes that have and continue to thread over time through practice of science

17.2. Themes or Preconceptions in Science

• Unity theme
  • There exists a unity in nature deriving from nature's operation through a few simple principles which give rise to the multiplicity and diversity we observe to exist
• Mathematical theme
  • These principles are mathematical in nature and they give rise to the mathematical laws that exist between nature's observable aspects and such mathematical laws are independent of any act of human perception
• Transformation theme
  • Nothing springs from nothing, but all exists as transformations of some fundamental units, not necessarily material, in a multiplicity of ways
• Nature of phenomena theme
  • What exists must have either
    • Discrete character (locality)
    • Continuous character (non-locality)
    • Both continuous and discrete character (both local and non-local)
    • Neither continuous nor discrete character (void)
• Inevitability theme
  • Scientific thinking will inevitably comprehend all as a consequence of the fact that directions in nature are not totally random but point toward a certain inevitable conclusion (meaning)--albeit that such a conclusion need not be known until the very end

17.3. Science, A Way of Knowing

• To understand science, we need a mental picture of the relational structure within the scientific enterprise
  • Pyramid relational model, pure or abstract science flows down pyramid to create applied science and then to lowest level to create technology
  • Circular relational model, like wedges in a pie, activities in science and technology relate to nearest neighbors both beside and across
  • Tapestry relational model, threads are various fields of astronomy, physics, chemistry, and mathematics
    • Threads do not interact with each other at just one point
    • Are interwoven so that they interact at numerous points
    • Trying to be selective in what one accepts as valid and what is not valid is to misunderstand this interlocking structure
    • Any attempt to remove one thread would unravel whole fabric of science
• Knowing that you know and how you know are as important as what you know
• In contrast to science, technology is what human being have done to provide for our existence, and technology is an outgrowth of our instinct for survival
• Science is not a process that can be learned devoid of content, i.e., mind does not work like computer with learned algorithms
• Science is a human effort to devise a way of thinking
  • Albeit a very sophisticated method of thinking
  • About physical aspects of human existence
  • To use that way of thinking to conceive of theories that are logical representations of our sense experiences
  • Theories are most logical and economical means of representing past, present, and future events
  • Business of science is to trace in physical phenomena a consistent structure with order and meaning
  • In this way to interpret and to transcend our direct experiences