Daniel

E. Ropp Philosophy 351 Short Paper 1 In academia we study many of fields. Most of these fields consist of research,

testing, and understanding. The question that has arisen by this is what fields are labeled and what are the criteria that give it that label. For science the criteria are that science aims to explain, aims to predict, and is tentative. The question then is what fields of study are then considered science? Most people you would talk to would probably say fields such as chemistry and biology are science, but I will show how even economics is a form of science. From here we ask how is an aim of science to explain and what does that

mean? Explaining science means that we try to come to an understanding of some kind through the cause and effect. This is done by the intervention of the process and observation of the results. An example of this would be trying to come up with a price function for a product in economics. To do this, you come up with a group of data based on points such as quantity and costs. You can intervene by changing the figures and seeing how the price function is impacted. You can see observe the change and draw out how to become efficient and save cost and increase supply. This helps us to form a prediction as well. Prediction is another aim of science. Prediction is guessing an outcome based

on what we already know and understand, such as how those points make changes on price, as well as demand. In economics a demand function can also be drawn and help predict the future market. Once you have a supply function and it is drawn out

we gather data and make a demand function. The key is that when you draw out these two functions you can get an equilibrium point. From this you can predict what supply is needed and the price at which to place it so that you can attain efficiency. The problem that occurs is that this is not always perfect and that is why the last criteria of science is that it is tentative. In science we must be willing to accept that things could be wrong and that

we must be willing to admit that. People may come out with a theory and then be disproven by another theory that another may come out with. This can be shown in economics as well. In economics when the models for supply and demand functions are drawn there is a system in statistical analysis of the data called error. This means that you can get close but there is never perfect information, therefore all the science that is done is to the best of the economists ability. It may be that in the future another more accurate model may be drawn for supply and demand that may make the current one void. In Science we must be tentative to this possibility that research that is done may become a void point as time goes on and technology increases. Science aims to explain, predict and is tentative. We try to explain by the

process of intervention so that we may understand the causation of certain phenomena. We then try to predict based off the explanations that we may or may not attain so that we can better understand that phenomena. Science must be a tentative field, accepting of change that occurs that would impact the explanations that are attained. We as scientist can hope to achieve the answers to phenomena by taking these criteria as the way that defines what science is.