Volume 1: About

page 6:

Science

Every organism survives by obtaining resources from its environment, by avoiding danger, and by reproduction. Knowledge is essential to each of these activities. Life at every level is an endless cycle of sense, think, act, sense . . . . As Aristotle wrote at the beginning of his Metaphysics, "All people naturally desire knowledge". Darwin explains this natural desire: knowledge confers fitness. Aristotle: Metaphysics

In day-to day life, the value of a particular item of knowledge is very subjective. For an organism looking for water, or trying to avoid it, the discovery of water is important. Otherwise it might be ignored. Investors are much more likely to be interested in the price of the stocks that they own, or plan to buy, than all the others. People are much more likely to seek information about someone they find attractive or dangerous than all the other inhabitants of the Earth.

We might call such moment to moment knowledge concrete. I need to know this nail and this piece of wood in order to aim this hammer blow to move closer to my goal of a snugly driven nail. Scientific knowledge, by contrast is more abstract. It applies not to this nail, but all nails, not this hammer blow but all hammer blows and so on.

The beauty of abstract knowledge is that it compresses a lot of experience into a very compact form, easy to use and remember. So Isaac Newton captured the essence thousands of years of planetary observation in his succinct mathematical expression of universal gravitation. Newton

Two features of humanity work together to distill science from the everyday concrete knowledge. First, we can learn, so that repeated encounters with similar situations increase the clarity, detail and certainty of our knowledge.

Second, we live in communities, so each person can share in the experience of others, adding to the knowledge of all. A functioning community has a far higher chance of survival than a lone individual because of its superior ability to know and act.

The invention of writing added another dimension to human learning, memory and communication through space and time. Writing serves as an archetype of science, since the development of written language required careful analysis of the sounds of speech to give them symbolic representation. With written language dawned the thousands of years of recorded scientific tradition upon which we stand and build.

We see the growth of science as an evolutionary process. For every scientific question there is a community devoted to its answer. Within this community data and ideas are generated and shared. Every now and then someone achieves enough clarity to document their vision. This document joins the scientific literature, to become a foundation for further progress. Fortun & Bernstein

Formally, science might be defined as knowledge gained by the scientific method. In practice, the scientific method at any point is simply all that has gone before. Each step forward takes a critical view of the story so far, looking for strengths and weaknesses, and then builds on the strengths. Popper, Lonergan

Many would deny that theology is a science, because its content is determined more by the needs of large religious institutions than by the genuine search for knowledge. Such institutions often decree that their collective knowledge is absolute, in no way subject to evolutionary change. In this they are kidding themselves. Theology has a history, like every other science.

Here we are trying to add a little to that history by stepping away from the absolutist, authoritarian book based approach to theology and seeking to emphasize its evolutionary nature. The authoritarians claim privileged knowledge of God's secrets and the power to demand that we believe them. Reality suggests that they are deluded.

Here we take the view that the world is divine so that all human experience is experience of God. We do not need self appointed authorities to tell us what God wants, we can see for ourselves. Given this hypothesis, theology can become a real science like all the others. Given the effectiveness of science for approaching the truth, we can can expect the ultimate unification of theology as we have seen with the other sciences. Life is one, so biology has become one. God is one, so we can expect theology to eventually shed its sectarian divisions and become one also. Science - Wikipedia

(Revised 13 July 2014)

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Further reading

Books

Click on the "Amazon" link below each book entry to see details of a book (and possibly buy it!)

Aristotle, and H Tedennick (translator), Metaphysics I-IX , Harvard University Press, William Heinemann 1980 Introduction: "[Aristotle] felt that there must be a regular system of sciences, each concerned with a different aspect of reality. At the same time it was only reasonable to suppose that there was a supreme science which was more ultimate, more exact, more truly Wisdom than the others. The discussion of ths science - Wisdom, Primary Philosophy or Theology, as it is variously called - and of its scope, forms the subject of the Metaphysics' page xxv.  Amazon   back

Bronowski, Jacob, Science and Human Values, Harper and Row 1972 Jacket: 'A classic collection of essays on the theme of science as an integral part of the culture of our age, ... by Dr Bronowski, a renowned leader in the modern movement for scientific humanism.' First given as lectures at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, February and March 1953.  Amazon   back

Darwin, Charles, and Greg Suriano (editor), The Origin of Species, Gramercy 1998 Introduction: 'In considering the Origin of Species, it is quite conceivable that a naturalist, reflecting on the mutual affinities of organic beings, on their embryological relations, their geographical distribution, geological succession, and other such facts, might come to the conclusion that each species has not been independently created, but has descended, like varieties, from other species.'  Amazon   back

Drake, Stillman, Essays on Galileo and the History and Philsophy of Science, University of Toronto Press 1999 Amazon from Book News, Inc: 'In this three-volume set, Swerdlow (U. of Toronto) and Levere (U. of Chicago) provide a synopsis of the life and work of the prolific Galileo scholar, Stillman Drake (deceased, U. of Toronto) as an introduction to their selection of about 80 of Drake's essays. The essays are grouped by subject: biographical and textual studies, scientific method and philosophy of science, astronomy, a translation and essays on the Dialogue concerning the two chief world systems, motion and mechanics, instruments, history of science, and philosophy of science and language.'  Amazon   back

Ford, David, The Modern Theologians : An Introduction to Christian Theology in the Twentieth Century, Blackwell 1997 Preface: 'The main aim of this volume is to introduce the theology of most leading twentieth-century Christian theologians and movements in theology. . . . The contributors are mostly based in Europe of North America and come from a wide range of institutions, denominational backgrounds, and countries. Most are themselves constructively engaged in modern theology, and their purpose has been to produce a scholarly account of their subject and also carry further the theological dialogue in each case.'   Amazon   back

Fortun, Mike, and Herbert J Bernstein, Muddling Through: Pursuing Science and Truths in the Twenty-First Century, Counterpoint 1998 Amazon editorial review: 'Does science discover truths or create them? Does dioxin cause cancer or not? Is corporate-sponsored research valid or not? Although these questions reflect the way we're used to thinking, maybe they're not the best way to approach science and its place in our culture. Physicist Herbert J. Bernstein and science historian Mike Fortun, both of the Institute for Science and Interdisciplinary Studies (ISIS), suggest a third way of seeing, beyond taking one side or another, in Muddling Through: Pursuing Science and Truths in the 21st Century. While they deal with weighty issues and encourage us to completely rethink our beliefs about science and truth, they do so with such grace and humor that we follow with ease discussions of toxic-waste disposal, the Human Genome Project, and retooling our language to better fit the way science is actually done.'  Amazon   back

Galilei, Galileo, Dialogues Concerning Two New Sciences (translated by Henry Crew and Alfonso de Salvio) , Dover 1954 Jacket: 'Despite the fact that this book encompasses thirty years of highly original experimentation and theorizing on the part of this singular man, it is eminently readable. Written as a discussion between a master and two students, it sets forth its hundreds of experiments and summarizes the conclusions Galileo drew from these experiements in a brisk direct style. Using helpful geometric demonstrations, Galileo discusses aspects of fracture of solid bodies, cohesion, leverage, the speed of light, sound, pendulums, falling bodies, projectiles, uniform motion, accelerated motion, and the strengths of wires, rods and beams under different loadings and placements. Not only does the book display the genius of one of the makers of our civilization, but it also presents, for the historian of science, considerable information about Renaissance misapprehensions which Galileo refuted.'  Amazon   back

Lonergan, Bernard J F, Method in Theology, University of Toronto Press for Lonergan Research Institute 1996 Introduction: 'A theology mediates between a cultural matrix and the signifcance and role of religion in that matrix. ... When the classicist notion of culture prevails, theology is conceived as a permanent achievement, and then one discourses on its nature. When culture is conceived empirically, theology is known to be an ongoing process, and then one writes on its method. Method ... is a framework for collaborative creativity.'  Amazon   back

Nasr, Seyyed Hossein, and (photographs by Roland Michaud), Islamic Science: An Illustrated Study, World of Islam Festival Publishing Company 1976 Jacket: ' ... Basing himself on the traditional Islamic concept of science and its transmission and classification, the author discusses various branches of the Islamic sciences from cosmology, geography, and other qualitative and descriptive sciences to the mathematical sciences which include arithmetic, algebra, trigonometry, geometry, astronomy and music as well as certain branches of physics. .. The author then turns to the application of the Islamic sciences ... . In the final section of the work the author discusses the role of man in the Universe, the equilibrium between man and nature and the integration of the sciences of the Cosmos into the total scheme of knowledge drawn from the Quranic revelation. ... .'  Amazon   back

Needham, Joseph, Science and Civilisation in China (Volume 1) Introductory Orientations, Cambridge UP 1954 Jacket: 'This is the exciting first instalment of a comprehensive work . . . The author has set himself to interpret the Chinese mind in Western terms, and he is perhaps unique among living scholars in possessing the necessay combination of qualifications for this formidable undertaking. The practical importance of Dr Needham's work is as great as its intellectual interest. It is a westerm act of 'recognition' on a higher plane than the diplomatic one.' Arnold Toynbee, The Observer, London.  Amazon   back

Needham, Joseph, Science and Civilisation in China (Volume 1) Introductory Orientations, Cambridge UP 1954 Jacket: 'This is the exciting first instalment of a comprehensive work . . . The author has set himself to interpret the Chinese mind in Western terms, and he is perhaps unique among living scholars in possessing the necessay combination of qualifications for this formidable undertaking. The practical importance of Dr Needham's work is as great as its intellectual interest. It is a westerm act of 'recognition' on a higher plane than the diplomatic one.' Arnold Toynbee, The Observer, London.  Amazon   back

Newton, Isaac, and Julia Budenz, I. Bernard Cohen, Anne Whitman (Translators), The Principia : Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy, University of California Press 1999 This completely new translation, the first in 270 years, is based on the third (1726) edition, the final revised version approved by Newton; it includes extracts from the earlier editions, corrects errors found in earlier versions, and replaces archaic English with contemporary prose and up-to-date mathematical forms. ... The illuminating Guide to the Principia by I. Bernard Cohen, along with his and Anne Whitman's translation, will make this preeminent work truly accessible for today's scientists, scholars, and students.  Amazon   back

Pais, Abraham, 'Subtle is the Lord...': The Science and Life of Albert Einstein, Oxford UP 1982 Jacket: In this ... major work Abraham Pais, himself an eminent physicist who worked alongside Einstein in the post-war years, traces the development of Einstein's entire ouvre. ... Running through the book is a completely non-scientific biography ... including many letters which appear in English for the first time, as well as other information not published before.'  Amazon   back

Popper, Karl Raimund, Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge, Routledge and Kegan Paul 1972 Preface: 'The way in which knowledge progresses, and expecially our scientific knowledge, is by unjustified (and unjustifiable) anticipations, by guesses, by tentative solutions to our problems, by conjectures. These conjectures are controlled by criticism; that is, by attempted refutations, which include severely critical tests.' [p viii]   Amazon   back

Popper, Karl Raimund, The Logic of Scientific Discovery, 1992 Jacket: 'A striking picture of the logical character of scientific discovery is presented here ... Science is presented as ... the attempt to find a coherent theory of the world composed of bold conjectures and disciplines by penetrating criticism.'  Amazon   back

Papers

Padilla, Ana Padilla, Ian Gibson, "Science moves to centre stage", Nature, 403, 6768, 27 January 2000, page 357-359. 'Science is playing an increasing part in many decisions made by the UK Parliament, and probably in other legislation. What are the implications?. back

Links

AAAS, Science Magazine Home, Published by the American Association for the Advancement of Science. 'The AAAS seeks to advance science and innovation throughout the world for the benefit of all people.' back

AMS, American Mathematical Society, 'Founded in 1888 to further mathematical research and scholarship, the American Mathematical Society fulfills its mission through programs and services that promote mathematical research and its uses, strengthen mathematical education, and foster awareness and appreciation of mathematics and its connections to other disciplines and to everyday life.' back

APS, The American Physical Society, '...represents actively its more than 40,000 members in the arena of national, international, and governmental affairs; ...publishes the world's most prestigious and widely-read physics research journals; ...conducts over 20 national, divisional and regional meetings every year;...develops and implements effective programs in physics education and outreach; ...fosters the health of the profession through its career and development initiatives and its committees on women and minorities; ...informs its members of the latest developments through APS News, Physical Review Focus, What's New, and articles in Physics Today ; ...communicates with the public and policymakers via the national media and a public web site, www.physicscentral.com ; ...monitors the human rights of scientists around the globe ; [and] ...recognizes professional accomplishment with a spectrum of prizes, awards and the election of APS Fellows' back

Aristotle, Metaphysics, 'Written 350 B.C.E, Translated by W. D. Ross. Book I Part 1 "ALL men by nature desire to know. An indication of this is the delight we take in our senses; for even apart from their usefulness they are loved for themselves; and above all others the sense of sight. For not only with a view to action, but even when we are not going to do anything, we prefer seeing (one might say) to everything else. The reason is that this, most of all the senses, makes us know and brings to light many differences between things. ' back

Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, IEEE Computer Society, 'With nearly 100,000 members, the IEEE Computer Society is the world's leading organization of computer professionals. Founded in 1946, it is the largest of the 36 societies of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). The Computer Society's vision is to be the leading provider of technical information and services to the world's computing professionals.' back

Isaac Newton, Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica, Project Gutenberg latin text of Newton's masterpiece back

Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, Meopotamia: The Invention of Writing, 'Writing emerged in many different cultures and in numerous locations throughout the ancient world. It was not the creation of any one people. However, the Sumerians of ancient Mesopotamia are credited with inventing the earliest form of writing, which appeared ca. 3500B.C. The clay tablets shown . . . date from around 3200 B.C. They were unearthed by Oriental Institute archaeologists at the site of Tell Asmar in Iraq. back

Royal Institute of Philosophy, Royal Insitute of Philosophy, 'The Institute, founded in 1925, aims to promote the study and discussion of philosophy and original work through its journals PHILOSOPHY and THINK and by arranging and sponsoring programmes of lectures and conferences. The Council of the Institute welcomes applications for membership from all those interested in Philosophy.' back

Science - Google directory, Science - Google directory, 'The web organized by topic into categories' back

Science - Wikipedia, Science - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia, 'Science (from Latin scientia, meaning "knowledge") is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.' back

Warner, Shafta, Baker & Tenenbaum, Abstract knowledge guides search and prediction in novel situations, 'Abstract: People combine their abstract knowledge about the world with data they have gathered in order to guide search and prediction in everyday life. We present a Bayesian model that formalizes knowledge transfer. Our model consists of two components: a hierarchical Bayesian model of learning and a Markov Decision Pro- cess modeling planning and search. An experiment tests qualitative predictions of the model, showing a strong fit between human data and model predictions. We con- clude by discussing relations to previous work and future directions.' back