Understanding Science: Definitions and Concepts

• Science coexists with humans and nature, originating when humans started questioning the environment.
• Science includes attitudes, processes, and skills that form a body of knowledge about the natural and physical world.
• The focus of science is to develop reasoning skills to understand nature.
• Science is a way to understand the world and human interactions with it.
• Science is an intellectual and social activity for humans to better comprehend the natural world.
• Other scholars define science as a cultural and personal thinking process.
• Some define it as scientific literacy, including; concepts, skills, processes and the ability to communicate ideas based on reasons.
• Science is a social language made by the scientific community.

Definitions of Science

• Science incorporates beliefs, ideas, and systematic observations regarding the natural and physical world.
• It is a personal and social activity involving human efforts to gain better insights into the world
• It is a subject in education involving teaching and learning about the natural world in a school setting.
• Science is an intellectual activity that methodically studies the physical world, involving observation and experimentation.

The Scientific Revolution

• The scientific revolution began in early 16th to 18th century Europe, spurred by printing machines.
• This allowed printing of books and other reading materials, and the flourishing intellectual undertakings done by scholars in different places

Impact of the Scientific Revolution

• The scientific revolution modernized science understanding and practices, giving rise to scientific processes and experimentations.
• It empowered people to assess their beliefs and way of life
• The scientific revolution significantly improved scientific studies and observations which led to new research fields and institutions
• This period led to useful scientific ideas, inventions and discoveries
• Human creativity and critical thinking in the scientific revolution shifted study from thought experiments to data-driven and experiment based ideas.

Key Figures in the Scientific Revolution

• Scientists are inspired by critical thinking creativity and their love of science is driven by passion to know and discover.
• Nicolaus Copernicus resembled Greek thinkers, contributing scientific ideas through thought experiments.
• Completed his model of the universe in the 1500s, summarized in "Commentariolus."
• His book "De revolutionibus orbium coelestium" (1543) is considered start of the scientific revolution.
• Proposed a universe model with everything moving around the sun, with all the planets orbiting around it
• He outlined that Venus and Mercury orbit inside Earth's orbit while Saturn, Jupiter, and Mars are outside
• He was judged to be be heretic and the Roman Catholic Church prohibited publishing his model.
• Charles Darwin's theory of evolution shifted concept of world creation/evolution and had attention for natural history.
• Darwin published "The Origin of Species" (1589), which presented evidence how species evolve over time.
• Darwin's book, The Descent of Man, argued that evolutionary thinking also applied to humans.
• This challenged religion, he also made contributions to evolutionary biology and philosophy of science.
• Sigmund Freud developed psychoanalysis and focused on human mind study and his insights into the nature of man and sexuality posed challenges.
• His ideas can be found in literature politics philosophy and psychotherapy
• His contributions are valuable to the scientific world.