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Science is a way of knowing that's characterized
by the rules of logic and the methods of experiment.
But the conflict between logic and experiment has created a
long-standing tension in scientific understanding.
The
classical period and the Middle Ages favored rationalism;
most thinkers began with general, self-evident truths, using
deductive reasoning to draw more specific logical
conclusions. Empiricism begins with experimental or sensory
experience; a bottom-up process of inductive reasoning
produces more general hypotheses and theories.
David
Hume emphasized the role of perception
in knowing things, but he argued that past experience
cannot justify firm conclusions about the future. Immanuel Kant emphasized
the role of the mind in all observation, showing that
everything we see is "theory laden;" Auguste Comte and
the "positivists" insisted that what is real is observable.
Karl
Popper emphasized the role of refutation in weeding
out bad scientific theories, and Thomas Kuhn suggested
that scientific progress occurs in a succession of explanatory
"paradigms." Kuhn, Feyerabend, and others have shown
the difficulties of distinguishing between experiment
and theory, or fact and interpretation.
Science
has shown that absolute truth is elusive. Yet when science is
judged by its usefulness, it is one of the most spectacular
achievements of human kind. Science is a never-ending cycle
of questions and answers-a perpetual process of discovery.
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