Thursday 27 November 2014

Science or not?


What is science?


The Science Council's definition of science
Science is the pursuit and application of knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world following a systematic methodology based on evidence.

Sirs/Mesdames,
Whilst warmly applauding your defining science for your users and your definition, I wonder about two points.
Firstly, perhaps natural and social might be too much in need of pre-definition, and, secondly, perhaps evidence might also be so addressed.

I know I shall not be the first to address these points, so perhaps there is a prepared comment. If so it would be helpful to know that I make the first suggestion based on the inevitable position that much of what science investigates and seeks evidence upon is not neither natural nor social if one removes the actions of humans from the equation. This will only be aggravated as we, humans, progress. Perhaps merely removing 'natural and social' from the definition might suffice as a short route.


My second point on evidence concerns the inevitable place of conflicting evidence. Whilst science will always seek to remove conflict through research and proof via further evidence-gathering, it is in the application of science when proof is still partial or ambiguous that poor outcomes occur. A pre-definition of 'application' might need to include one or more of 'current', 'values-based', or even 'best fit' as health-warnings - and all notwithstanding our continuing issues with unhelpful media.
All this said, I do confirm my congratulations.
Yours,
Ian F. Lewis FRSA FInstLM
ian@lifecollege.org