Science: Encyclopedia II - Science - Goals of science

Science - Goals of science

Despite popular impressions of science, it is not the goal of science to answer all questions. The goal of the physical sciences is to answer only those that pertain to reality. Also, science cannot possibly address nonsensical, or untestable questions, so the choice of which questions to answer becomes important. Science does not and can not produce absolute and unquestionable truth. Rather, physical science often tests hypotheses about some aspect of the physical world, and when necessary revises or replaces it in light of new observations or data.

According to empiricism, science does not make any statements about how nature actually "is"; science can only make conclusions about our observations of nature. Both scientists and the people who accept science believe, and more importantly, act as if nature actually "is" as science claims. Still, this is only a problem if we accept the empiricist notion of science.

Science is not a source of subjective value judgements, though it can certainly speak to matters of ethics and public policy by pointing to the likely consequences of actions. What one projects from the currently most reasonable scientific hypothesis onto other realms of interest is not a scientific issue, and the scientific method offers no assistance for those who wish to do so. Scientific justification (or refutation) for many things is, nevertheless, often claimed. Of course, value judgements are intrinsic to science itself. For example, science values truth and knowledge.

The underlying goal or purpose of science to society and individuals is to produce useful models of reality. It has been said that it is virtually impossible to make inferences from human senses which actually describe what “is.” On the other hand, as stated, science can make predictions based on observations. These predictions often benefit society or human individuals who make use of them. For example, Newtonian physics, and in more extreme cases relativity allow us to predict anything from the effect one moving billiard ball will have on another to things like trajectories of space shuttles and satellites. The social sciences allow us to predict (with limited accuracy for now) things like economic turbulence and also to better understand human behavior and to produce useful models of society and to work more empirically with government policies. Chemistry and biology together have transformed our ability to use and predict chemical and biological reactions and scenarios. In modern times though, these segregated scientific disciplines (notably the latter two) are more often being used together in conjunction to produce more complete models and tools.

In short, science produces useful models which allow us to make often useful predictions. Science attempts to describe what is, but avoids trying to determine what is (which is for practical reasons impossible). Science is a useful tool. . . it is a growing body of understanding that allows us to contend more effectively with our surroundings and to better adapt and evolve as a social whole as well as independently.

Individualism is a tacit assumption underlying most empiricist accounts of science which treat science as if it were purely a matter of a single individual confronting nature, testing and predicting hypotheses. In fact, science is always a collective activity conducted by a scientific community. This can be demonstrated many ways, perhaps the most fundamental and trivial of which is that scientific results must be communicated with language. Thus the values of scientific communities permeate the science they produce.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Goals of science", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki