Page 363 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol IV
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1664 berkshire encyclopedia of world history



                                             The whole history of science has been the gradual realization that events do not
                                       happen in an arbitrary manner, but that they reflect a certain underlying order, which
                                              may or may not be divinely inspired. • Stephen W. Hawking (b. 1942)



            sometimes complex experimental methods. Then, using   There is much truth in the inductivist view of modern
            the results of their observations, they came up with gen-  science. Though examples of careful, empirical observa-
            eral hypotheses about the nature of reality, using the log-  tion can be found in all human societies, never before
            ical method of induction.                           had so many scientific observations been conducted so
              In this view, scientific theories work because they are  systematically and with such care and precision, and
            based on meticulous observation and rigorous logic,  never before had natural philosophers tried so rigorously
            which explains why they offer exceptionally accurate  to build from them universal theories about the nature of
            and useful descriptions of the world. Galileo Galilei  reality. Unfortunately, though, the method of induction
            (1564–1642) is often thought to have exemplified the  cannot guarantee the truth of scientific theories. In the
            new experimental methods in his observations of the sun  first place, it is now clear that our minds shape and reor-
            and planets through the recently invented telescope and  ganize information as they receive it; so we can never sep-
            in his experiments rolling balls down sloping planes to  arate observation from theorization in the neat way
            study the effects of gravity, while the achievement of Isaac  presupposed in the simplest models of inductive logic.
            Newton (1642–1727) in formulating general laws of     But the most fundamental problem is logical. Induc-
            motion is often taken as a paradigm example of the  tion leads us from particular observations about the
            possibilities for radical generalization on the basis of  world to general theories about the world.Yet no obser-
            information derived from careful observation. The   vations can embrace all of reality, so induction involves
            seventeenth-century English natural philosopher (the con-  a leap of faith that the small sample of reality that we can
            temporary term; now we would say  scientist) Francis  observe directly is characteristic of the whole of reality.
            Bacon (1561–1626) was probably the first to describe  Though it makes sense to rely on theories based on a large
            the method of induction systematically, but similar argu-  body of empirical evidence, induction can never yield con-
            ments about the nature of modern science are still widely  clusions whose truth is certain. (Bertrand Russell’s famous
            held today. Here, for example,
            is a modern definition of how
            science works: “Scientists pro-
            pose theories and assess those
            theories in the light of obser-
            vational and experimental evi-
            dence; what distinguishes
            science is the careful and sys-
            tematic way in which its claims
            are based on evidence” (Wor-
            rall 1998, 573).





                    Nine scientists in
                    1907 in the Tian
                  Shan mountains in
             Central Asia oberving a
                solar eclipse through
                      two telescopes.
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