(O.1) For this philosophy, science is
defined as a system of acquiring knowledge that is concerned
with the material world and its phenomena. Science is
based on unbiased observations, systematic
experimentation and logic. In historical philosophical inquiry, science
has been called natural philosophy.
(O.1.1) All scientific knowledge is
deduced, directly or indirectly, from sensory data acquired
from the material world by way our senses of
sight, sound, touch, smell, taste. No scientific knowledge
is known a priori. No scientific knowledge can be known
without information from and awareness
of that being observed for cause and effect.
All scientific knowledge must be consistent with the laws
of nature. Because scientific knowledge is based on observation,
all scientific knowledge is subject to a finite degree of uncertainty.
The current body of scientific knowledge is incomplete. We cannot
know what we cannot directly or indirectly sense.
(O.1.1.1) Our sensory system
is capable of directly sensing only a small portion of the physical
phenomena that is essential for complete scientific knowledge. As
examples, we cannot direct sense the electric and magnetic
fields that enable electric motors to convert the electrical energy in these
fields to the mechanical energy of their rotating shafts. We can only directly sense a
portion of the spectrum of electromagnetic radiation to which our eyes are
sensitive. We cannot directly sense the electromagnetic radiation
that is, for example, radio waves, x-rays, and gamma waves nor can we directly sense
gravitational waves or sound waves with frequencies outside the
auditory range of our ears. For these, we must indirectly sense them
using instruments which can sense them
and produce an indirect sensory data that we can sense.
Such instruments include light meters, spectroscopes and antennas; sound
meters; thermometers; voltage meters; electric power meters; and magnetic
compass, among hundreds of others.
(O.1.1.2) Further, our sensory
system is incapable of quantifying only a small
portion of the physical phenomena it can sense that
is essential for complete scientific knowledge.We can distinguish
between light (day) and no light (night) if the absolute quantity of
light reaching our eyes is greater than a certain amount and we can make relative
judgments of the quantity of light (daytime vs.
dawn and clear vs. cloudy) and the iris of our eyes respond to relative amounts
of light being detected by them.
(O.1.1.3) Time is
not a material entity and can be sensed either
directly nor indirectly by our sensory system. Rather time is
a change in a physical entity that can be sensed.
We can count the number of changes in one physical phenomenon (the
ticking of a clock) that occurs in comparison with (relative to) the change of
another physical phenomenon (change in the position of an automobile) as your
drive along (clicks of the clock per mile or miles per click of the clock,
depending upon your perspective). In common usage, time is
typically perceived as a continuum of some perceived entity we
shall call perceived time. We might say I have not seen
you in a long time but from the viewpoint of science we should have said
I have not seen you in many ticks of my wrist watch. If the
ticks of the watch on your wrist is the oscillation of a quartz crystal (in a
quartz watch), we have experienced 32768
oscillations as the perceived time of one second.
But the ticks on the other persons watch may or may not
have ticked the same number of ticks as yours. Indeed, if the other person has
flown around the earth in an airplane, their watch will have ticked fewer times
than your watch. Their perceived time is less
(shorter) than yours as the result of the physical
phenomenon of relativity. That this is, the number of
ticks (perceived time) is determine by how the change
is made. Consider, for example, a circular slide in a playground that wraps
around a pole supporting it and ends on the ground directly below where you
began your journey at the top on the way down the slide to the bottom. Your
watch would tick significantly more times for you to change position from top
of the slide to the bottom of the slide than it would had you simply jumped off
the top of the slide to the ground. In both cases the physical change the
slider experienced was exactly the same but not the perceived time.
The laws of nature were obeyed the same in both cases.
To avoid confusion, we shall call a defined numbers of changes
in some physical entity as intervals of time which is not to
be confused with perceived time. The international scientific
standard for the interval of time called a
second is 9,192,631,770 cycles of the radiation produced by the
transition between two levels of the cesium-133 atom. It is the only interval
of time used in scientific inquire.
We shall further call the present state of nature as time
present which marks either the end of a change or
the beginning of a change. If it marks the end of a change, the
beginning of the change we shall call time past. If it marks the
beginning of a change, the ending of the change we shall call time future.
Both time present and time past are false
perceptions of the mind that do not exist in nature.
Only time present exists.
Science uses counts of time intervals in
conjunction with mathematics to quantify cause and
effect actions that have occurred in time
pas and logic to predict cause and effect actions in
time future. Statistics are used to determine
the possibility of such actions in time future. As a result of observational
errors of actions in time past,
predictions with absolute certainty of actions in time
future is impossible.
(O.1.2) Science makes
extensive use of mathematics, logic, and statistics in
addition to written and spoken language to process the sensory
data as scientific knowledge.
(O.1.2.1) Mathematics is
not a part of the material world.Indeed, the material
world functions empirically without need of mathematics.
But mathematics is a powerful tool in acquiring scientific
knowledge both for quantifying nature and
creation of mathematical models of physical aspects of it
for experimental scientific verification. These mathematical
models typically have no direct correspondence to observable and/or
measurable phenomenon that they model. That is, the
models are abstract constructions of the mind.
Indeed, mathematical models of quantum particles have been
sufficiently accurate to predict the existence of some quantum
particle and describe their material properties and behaviors.
(O.1.2.2) The laws
of nature create an inherent logical framework for
the material world that is inviolate. Scientific knowledge is
both knowable and meaningful as the result of this
inherent logic. Scientist may also apply systematic logic to
observation of actions resulting from the inherent logic
of the laws of nature. Indeed, the laws
of nature are the underlying source of the truths of
logic and operation of the physical logic gates used
to make decisions in the material world.
(O.1.2.3) The action in
the material world result in the production of
measurable data some of which is randomly produced. Statistics is
a branch ofmathematics that is used to grain scientific
knowledge from the measurement data, especially in
the tiny world of quantum particles.
(O.2) Science is devoid of all aspects of nature
that is not material. This includes all nimbus but
not the material aspects of nature that
produce them. As an example, the sensation of emotion is
held to not be material but rather a phenomenon resulting
from physical processes in the brain. Because the nimbus of
sensation is not material in nature, no
further scientific knowledge can be acquired from it.
(O.3) Because science is based on oobservation and
measurement, science always contains inherent errors
and uncertainties.As an example, we cannot know
both the position and rate of change in position of a particle, such as a photon
or electron, with perfect accuracy. But reduction of errors and uncertainties
is always an objective of science to yield the best knowledge
humanly possible.
(O.4) Science is neither a theology nor
a religion as belief of the unobserved has
no role in it.
( O.5) Science is devoid of morality but
may result in the development of moral issues. Nuclear
weapons are an example.
(O) Science is the philosophy of nature that establishes all knowledge that humans can have of reality based on systematic observations and logical deductions of sentient material world around them through by way of sensory data from the outside world to their brains. Humans lack sensors for observing all aspects ofreality therefore knowledge of all reality but, of all philosophies, science yields the best knowledge of reality that is humanly possible.