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What is science: Summary

Science is
finding correct answers to questions that we feel have correct answers

This is the essence of what science is, but it is only a starting point to the many facets of the question.

In saying "finding", the implication is that science is a process, i.e. a human activity (rather than, say, "a collection of facts"). It is also implying that while we might try to give correct answers, we might not succeed initially - but the key thing is that the aim is to give correct answers. Furthermore, an assumption is that there are questions to which we feel that there are correct answers.

The fundamental components of the scientific process are:
  • Open-mindedness
  • Impartiality
  • Reproducibility
  • Collaboration
  • Clarity and precision
See https://www.whatisscience.info/2.html for more about the fundamental principles of science.

These are the principles, but what in practice are the methods used? they can be divided into:
  • methods used for clarity and precision in discussing topics in science,
  • methods used in planning investigations,
  • methods used in carrying out investigations,
  • methods used in analysing and interpreting results, and
  • methods used in publishing results.
Some talk or write about "the scientific method", as if there is just one, but in reality there are a whole range of scientific methods that are used in different combinations in different circumstances. Read more about scientific methods at https://www.whatisscience.info/3.html.

The answer in the box (above) is put forward as the best short answer to the question of "what is science". The claim is only that this is the best answer, not that it is the correct answer to "what is science" as this does not seem to be a question with a correct answer. Instead, it is a philosophical question, one for which we can only choose what we feel to be the best answer - we don't have any agreed methods for finding an answer that we can accept as correct. Read more at https://www.whatisscience.info/5.html about how this description of science is justified.

If we say that science is a human activity, then given that humans are fallible, why should we accept any scientific answer as true? The reasons that can be given are
  • scientific methods seem to work - they have led to the ability to predict eclipses, to the eradication of smallpox, to the technology of mobile communications, and so on.
  • when science is done well, any answer comes with an assessment of how reliable that answer is.
  • there is no good alternative to trying to give a correct answer to a question that we feel has a correct answer.
Read more at https://www.whatisscience.info/7.html about how reliable science is.

Scientific methods have been developed to give correct answers to questions. They have a wide applicablility not just in the traditional locations of an observatory or a laboratory. See https://www.whatisscience.info/6.html for more about where scientific methods can be used. In particular they can and many believe should be used in evidence-based policy making (see https://www.whatisscience.info/9.html).






Last updated: 7 May 2018