Science, Physics, Relativity, Faq's and Feedback

Contents

• 1. The Philosophy of Science
• 2. The Philosophy of Time

1. The Philosophy of Science

Philosophy of Science is the branch of science that studies what science is and how to perform science.
Science starts from three main concepts: The Universe, the Earth and we humans. Those three concepts are highly linked.
Two other important concepts of science are Physics and evolution.
Physics is the art that studies the different processes that takes in the Universe, here on Earth and in humans. In the case of the universe we call that mechanics, astronomy and quantum mechanics. In the case of the earth this is called geology. In the case of humans this is called medicine. Also the interrelations between the different concepts are studied.
Evolution is the art that studies how the three main process evolved in time.
A much more important division is between science and pseudo science, however this division is not always as simple. Science it self involves four main concepts: Experiments, Laws, Theories and Thought-experiments.

• The main idea behind experiments is to unravel more detail about similar processes.
  
• Laws are descriptions of the links or relations between the parameters of similar experiments as demonstrated by different experiments
  
• Theories are the proposed links or relations between the parameters of similar experiments still to demonstrated by different experiments.
  
• Thought-experiments are proposed experiments to chalenge the proposed links or relations between the parameters of similar experiments i.e. to chalenge certain theories.

Laws are demonstrated by experiments. That does not mean that laws cannot be replaced by new laws which are more detailed. A good example is Newton's Law which is replaced by SR and GR theory.
Both theories and laws are often based on certain underlying concepts or assumptions. It is often these underlying concepts that thought-experiments try to chalenge.

Physical laws are descriptions of physical processes or experiments. To perform science certain rules should be taken into account:

• Starting point of these descriptions is based on observations and experiments.
• The observations should be objective and indepent of the observers or tools used to make these observations.
• The experiments should be described completely.
  • From an agreed upon starting condition.
  • Along certain intermediate states
  • To a final state
  This allows to measure the final state or to predict the final state
• Independent groups should be able to verify the experiments and should come to the same results.

The physical processes (and the laws involved) themself are also independent of any human activity and are controled from within (the forces of) the (surrounding) processes themself. A typical case is the movement of the planets around the Sun.

Back to my home page Index