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Unit 8. Science as the findings foundation in Nature , Industry

and Society

Text A. The Purposes of science

We may ask what we have a right to expect of science in its relation to our natural world. We shall list two general purposes that it may be said to have.

The fundamental aim of science is to describe the facts of nature and natural events 'arid not, as is so commonly thought to "explain things". Confusion on this point has probably been the cause of the so-called conflict between science and religion.

The basis of science is the belief that natural events have natural causes. Consequently, when science looks for the cause of any given natural phenomenon, it is simply looking for a set of circumstances which gave rise to the event, circumstances which themselves grew out of a still earlier set of conditions. It makes this search by observing facts, by organizing these facts. It does not attempt to say why the chain of events originated.

For example, it is within the province of science to build a picture of the universe with its myriad celestial bodies, a picture or theory which to be satisfactory must agree with all of the observed facts about the motions, positions, and other attributes of these bodies. It is not a part of the business of science to say why a sequence of occurrences was begun which led to the present astronomical organization. Such a problem involves factors which do not lend themselves to the соllection of experimental data

Ex.1. Read and translate the text with a dictionary. Ex.2. Answer the questions:

a)How can we consider science to be in the world? b)What is the fundamental aim of science?

c)What is the basis of science? d)What does science look for?

e)What is the main idea within the province of science?

Text B. Predictions in science

The basis of a science is its ability to predict. To predict means to tell what will happen in an experiment that has never been done. How can we do that? By assuming that we know what is there, independent of the experiment.

We must extrapolate the experiments to a region where they have not been done. We must take our concepts and extend them to places where they have not yet been checked. If we do not do that, we have no prediction.

So it was perfectly sensible for the classical physicists to go happily along and suppose that the position – which obviously means something for a baseball –

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