What is Science?

This material for UGA GEOL 1122 consists of five pages: 1. What Science Is What is science? Why do science? I - the individual perspective Why do science? II - the societal perspective How research becomes scientific knowledge Science and change (and Miss Marple) Science and knowledge The material above this line is required reading before class for Railsback's UGA GEOL 1122 students. ---------------------------------------Parts 2, 3, and 4 below this line are also GEOL 1122 required reading, but they need not be read before class. 2. What Science Isn't What science isn't I: A historical perspective on scholasticism and science What science isn't II: Science isn't Art What science isn't III: Science is not technology What science isn't IV: Science isn't Truth, and it's not certainty What science isn't V: Science isn't Religion, or a religion 3. Scientific Thought: Facts, Hypotheses, Theories, and all that stuff 4. Definitions of Science Definitions by goal and process Definitions by contrast Not quite definitions, but critical statements 1122 students are expected to read at least the four pages above. The fifth, below, may be too relevant and is therefore optional. 5. A Tabular History of Scientific Ideas Challenging Fundamental Notions of the World The sixth cuts even closer to home and therefore cannot be required. 6. Science and its societal implications

Some other webpages on "What is Science?" . . . for a Physical Science course at Arizona State University. . . . for an Earth and Atmospheric Sciences class at Saint Louis University. (brief but good) . . . from a lecture series at the University of South Alabama (probably the best of these three). Some other relevant webpages: . . . A history of gravitational theories from Aristotle to Newton to Einstein. . . . Some links on astronomer Maria Mitchell. Back to Railsback's GEOL 1122 main page