NationMaster - Encyclopedia: Theories and sociology of the history of science

The sociology and philosophy of science, as well as the entire field of science studies, have in the 20th century been preoccupied with the question of large-scale patterns and trends in the development of science, and asking questions about how science "works" both in a philosophical and practical sense. The history of science investigates the historical record of human events that are pertinent to the cultural context and the secular development of what is currently called science, namely, a body of empirical and theoretical knowledge, produced by a global community of researchers, making use of specific techniques for the... Image File history File links Download high resolution version (1020x1508, 359 KB) Book cover Frontispiece of : Tabulae Rudolphinae : quibus astronomicae . ... The historiography of science is the study of the history of science (often overlapping with the history of technology, history of medicine, and history of mathematics), generally in an academic context as part of the discipline of the history of science and technology (HST), history and philosophy of science (HPS... A pseudoscience is any body of knowledge purported to be scientific or supported by science but which fails to comply with the scientific method. ... In prehistoric times, advice and knowledge was passed from generation to generation in an oral tradition. ... The Ptolemaic system of celestial motion, from Harmonia Macrocosmica, 1661. ... The history of science in the Middle Ages refers to the discoveries in the field of natural philosophy throughout the Middle Ages - the middle period in a traditional schematic division of European history. ... Leonardo da Vincis Vitruvian Man, an example of the blend of art and science during the Renaissance. ... In the history of science, the scientific revolution was the period that roughly began with the discoveries of Kepler, Galileo, and others at the dawn of the 17th century, ended with the publication of the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1687 by Isaac Newton, and led into a new period... Natural philosophy or the philosophy of nature, known in Latin as philosophia naturalis, is a term applied to the objective study of nature and the physical universe before the development of modern science. ... Table of astronomy, from the 1728 Cyclopaedia Astronomy is probably the oldest of the natural sciences, dating back to antiquity, with its origins in the religious practices of pre-history: vestiges of these are still found in astrology, a discipline long interwoven with astronomy, and not completely separate from it... The history of biology dates as far back as the rise of various civilization as classic philosophers did their own ways of biology as a system of understanding life. ... Portrait of Monsieur Lavoisier and his Wife, by Jacques-Louis David The history of chemistry may be said to begin with the distinction of chemistry from alchemy by Robert Boyle in his work The Skeptical Chymist, which was written after a long and tearfilled talk with his father, and alchymist... Ã›Ecology is generally spoken of as a new science, having only become prominent in the second half of the 20th Century. ... The growth of physics has brought not only fundamental changes in ideas about the material world, mathematics and philosophy, but also, through technology, a transformation of society. ... For more, see: Social science#History In ancient philosophy, there was no difference between the liberal arts of mathematics and the study of history, poetry or politicsâ€”only with the development of mathematical proof did there gradually arise a perceived difference between scientific disciplines and others, the humanities or liberal... The term economics was coined around 1870 and popularized by Alfred Marshall, as a substitute for the earlier term political economy which has been used through the 18th-19th centuries, with Adam Smith, David Ricardo and Karl Marx as its main thinkers and which today is frequently referred to as... Efforts to describe and explain the human language faculty have been undertaken throughout recorded history. ... Antecedents of political science While the study of politics is first found in the Western tradition in Ancient Greece, political science is a late arrival in terms of social sciences. ... The history of psychology consists of a prescientific and a scientific epoch. ... Sociology is a relatively new academic discipline among other social sciences including economics, political science, anthropology, and psychology. ... The wheel was invented circa 4000 BC, and has become one of the worlds most famous and most useful technologies. ... Agronomy today is very different from what it was before about 1950. ... The history of computer science began long before the modern discipline of computer science that emerged in the 20th century. ... The History of materials science is rooted in the history of the Earth and the culture of the peoples of the Earth. ... All human societies have medical beliefs that provide explanations for, and responses to, birth, death, and disease. ... Alternative meanings: Timeline is a 1999 science fiction novel by Michael Crichton Timeline is a 2003 film based on the novel. ... In academics, science studies (sometimes seen as science and technology studies) is an umbrella term for a number of approaches devoted to studying science, and as a discipline its participants often come from a wide variety of disciplines, usually history of science, sociology of science, philosophy of science, sociology of... Philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy that studies the philosophical assumptions, foundations, and implications of science, including the formal sciences, natural sciences, and social sciences. ... Science studies is an interdisciplinary research area that seeks to situate scientific expertise in its broader social, historical, and philosophical context. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999 in the... Science in the broadest sense refers to any knowledge or system of knowledge, attained by verifiable means. ...

Science as a social enterprise

Science as a social enterprise has been developing exponentially for the past few centuries. In antiquity, the few people who were able to engage in natural inquiry were either wealthy themselves, had rich benefactors, or had the support of a religious community. In contrast, today there are more scientists alive now than have lived in all previous times. Scientific research has tremendous government support and also ongoing support from the private sector. Available methods of communication have improved tremendously over time. Instead of waiting months or years for a hand-copied letter to arrive, today scientific communication can be practically instantaneous. Earlier, most natural philosophers worked in relative isolation, due to the difficulty and slowness of communication. Still, there was a considerable amount of cross-fertilization between distant groups and individuals.

Nowadays, almost all modern scientists participate in a scientific community, hypothetically global in nature (though often based around a relatively few number of nations and institutions of stature), but also strongly segregated into different fields of study. The scientific community is important because it represents a source of established knowledge which, if used properly, ought to be more reliable than personally acquired knowledge of any given individual. The community also provides a feedback mechanism, often in the form of practices such as peer review and reproducibility. Most items of scientific content (experimental results, theoretical proposals, or literature reviews) are reported in scientific journals and are hypothetically subjected to the scrutiny of their peers, though a number of scholarly critics from both inside and outside the scientific community have, in recent decades, began to question the effect of commercial and government investment in science on the peer review and publishing process, as well as the internal disciplinary limitations to the scientific publication process. The scientific community consists of the interactions and relationships of scientists. ... The adjective global and adverb globally imply that the verb or noun to which they are applied applies to the entire Earth and all of its species and regions. ... Feedback is (generally) information about actions. ... Peer review (known as refereeing in some academic fields) is a scholarly process used in the publication of manuscripts and in the awarding of funding for research. ... This article is in need of attention from an expert on the subject. ... Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. ...

A major development of the Scientific Revolution was the foundation of scientific societies: Academia Secretorum Naturae (Accademia dei Segreti, the Academy of the Mysteries of Nature) can be considered the first scientific community; founded in Naples 1560 by Giambattista della Porta. The Academy had an exclusive membership rule: discovery of a new law of nature was a prequisite for admission. It was soon shut down by Pope Paul V under suspicion of sorcery. In the history of science, the scientific revolution was the period that roughly began with the discoveries of Kepler, Galileo, and others at the dawn of the 17th century, ended with the publication of the Philosophiae Naturalis Principia Mathematica in 1687 by Isaac Newton, and led into a new period... One of the earliest scientific societies, the Academia Secretorum Naturae was founded in Naples 1560 by Giambattista della Porta, a physician. ... Naples (Italian Napoli, Neapolitan NÃ pule, from Greek ÎÎÎ± Î ÏŒÎ»Î¹Ï‚ - NÃ©a PÃ³lis - meaning New City; see also List of traditional Greek place names) is the largest city in southern Italy and capital of Campania Region and the Province of Naples. ... Image:Giovanni della Porta. ... Paul V, nÃ© Camillo Borghese (Rome, September 17, 1552 â€“ January 28, 1621) was Pope from May 16, 1605 until his death. ... Magic (also called magick to distinguish it from stage magic) is a supposed way of influencing the world through supernatural, mystical, or paranormal means. ...

The Academia Secretorum Naturae was replaced by the Accademia dei Lincei, founded in Rome 1603, included Galileo as a member, but failed upon his condemnation in 1633. The Accademia del Cimento, Florence 1657, lasted 10 years. The Royal Society of London, 1660 to the present day, brought together a diverse collection of scientists to discuss theories, conduct experiments, and review each other's work. The Académie des Sciences was created as an institution of the government of France 1666, meeting in the King's library. The Akademie der Wissenschaften began in Berlin 1700. The Accademia dei Lincei, (literally the Academy of the Lynxes, but also known as the Lincean Academy), is located at the Palazzo Corsini on the Via della Lungara in Rome, Italy. ... City motto: Senatus Populusque Romanus â€“ SPQR (The Senate and the People of Rome) coordinates: 41Â°54â€²N 12Â°29â€²E Time Zone: UTC+1 Administration Subdivisions 19 municipi Province Rome Region Latium Mayor Walter Veltroni ( The Union ) Characteristics Area 1,285 kmÂ² Population 2,547,677 (2005 estimate) Density 1983... Galileo can refer to: Galileo Galilei, astronomer, philosopher, and physicist (1564 - 1642) the Galileo spacecraft, a NASA space probe that visited Jupiter and its moons the Galileo positioning system Life of Galileo, a play by Bertolt Brecht Galileo (1975) - screen adaptation of the play Life of Galileo by Bertolt Brecht... The Accademia del Cimento (Academy of Experiment), a early scientific society, was founded in Florence 1657 by students of Galileo, Evangelista Torricelli and Vincenzo Viviani. ... Country Italy Region Tuscany Province Florence (FI) Mayor Leonardo Domenici Elevation 50 m Area 102 kmÂ² Population - Total (as of 2006-06-02) 366,488 - Density 3,593/kmÂ² Time zone CET, UTC+1 Coordinates Gentilic Fiorentini Dialing code 055 Postal code 50100 Frazioni Galluzzo, Settignano Patron St. ... The premises of the Royal Society in London (first four properties only). ... The French Academy of Sciences (AcadÃ©mie des sciences) is a learned society, founded in 1666 by Louis XIV at the suggestion of Jean-Baptiste Colbert, to encourage and protect the spirit of French scientific research. ... Berlin is the capital city and a state of Germany. ...

Early scientific societies provided valuable functions, including a community open to and interested in empirical inquiry, and also more familiar with and more educated about the subject. In 1758, with the aid of his pupils, Lagrange established a society, which was subsequently incorporated as the Turin Academy. Joseph-Louis Lagrange Joseph-Louis Lagrange, comte de lEmpire (January 25, 1736 â€“ April 10, 1813; b. ...

Much of what is considered the modern institution of science was formed during its professionalization in the 19th century. During this time the location of scientific research shifted primarily to universities, though also to some extent it also became a standard component of industry as well. In the early years of the twentieth century, especially after the role of science in the first World War, governments of major industrial nations began to invest heavily in scientific research. This effort was dwarfed by the funding of scientific research undertaken by all sides in World War II, which produced such "wonder weapons" as radar, rocketry, and the atomic bomb. During the Cold War, a large amount of government resources were poured into science by the USA, USSR, and many European powers. It was during this time that ARPA funded nationwide computer networks of networks, one of them eventually under the internet protocol. In the post-Cold War era, a decline in government funding from many countries has been met with an increase of industrial and private investment. The funding of science is a major factor in its historical and global development, as though science is hypothetically international in scope, in a practical sense it has usually centered around wherever it could find the most funding. Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... Representation of a university class, 1350s. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s The 20th century lasted from 1901 to 2000 in the Gregorian calendar (often from (1900 to 1999 in common usage). ... Combatants Allied Powers: British Empire France Italy Russian Empire Kingdom of Serbia United States Central Powers: Austria-Hungary Bulgaria German Empire Ottoman Empire Commanders Douglas Haig John Jellicoe Ferdinand Foch Nikolay II Nikolay Yudenich Radomir Putnik Woodrow Wilson John Pershing Wilhelm II Reinhard Scheer Franz Josef I Oskar Potiorek Ä°smail... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, the use of images on this page may require cleanup, involving adjustment of image placement, formatting, size, or other adjustments. ... This long range radar antenna, known as ALTAIR, is used to detect and track space objects in conjunction with ABM testing at the Ronald Reagan Test Site on the Kwajalein atoll[1]. Radar is a system that uses radio waves to detect, determine the distance of, and map, objects such... A rocket is a vehicle, missile or aircraft which obtains thrust by the reaction to the ejection of fast moving exhaust from within a rocket engine. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 km (11 mi) above the epicenter. ... The Cold War (Russian: Ð¥Ð¾Ð»Ð¾Ð´Ð½Ð°Ñ Ð²Ð¾Ð¹Ð½Ð° Kholodnaya Voina) was the protracted geopolitical, ideological, and economic struggle that emerged after World War II between the global superpowers of the Soviet Union and the United States, supported by their military alliance partners. ... The acronym ARPA has several meanings: It is the former abbreviation of a U.S. military organization now known as the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). ... The Internet Protocol (IP) is a data-oriented protocol used for communicating data across a packet-switched internetwork. ...

Early scientific societies provided valuable functions, including a community open to and interested in empirical inquiry, and also more familiar with and more educated about the subject.

Major events in the history of scientific communication

Reproduction of Gutenberg-era Press on display at Printing History Museum in Lyon, France. ... Reproduction of Gutenberg-era Press on display at Printing History Museum in Lyon, France. ... This article or section is missing references or citation of sources. ... The printing press is a mechanical device for printing many copies of a text on rectangular sheets of paper. ... Cave or rock paintings are paintings painted on cave or rock walls and ceilings, usually dating to prehistoric times. ... The Ishango bone is a tally stick, made of bone, which contains sequences of prime numbers, and some series of multiples. ... Tally marks are a variation of the unary numeral system. ... Mathematical notation is used in mathematics, and throughout the physical sciences, engineering, and economics. ... // Centuries 31st century | 32nd century | 33rd century | 34th century | 35th century | 36th century | 37th century | 38th century | 39th century | 40th century Astronomical events The Earth will experience 2366 solar eclipses. ... The Chinese poem Quatrain on Heavenly Mountain by Emperor Gaozong. ... A rhyme is a repetition of identical or similar sounds in two or more different words and is most often used in poetry. ... Generation name is half of the two-Chinese character given name given to newborns in the same generation of one surname lineage. ... German parchmenter, 1568 Parchment is a material for the pages of a book or codex, made from fine calf skin, sheep skin or goat skin. ... Piece of A4 paper Paper is a thin, flat material produced by the amalgamation of plant fibres, which are subsequently held together without extra binder, largely by hydrogen bonds and to a small degree by fiber entanglement. ... Scroll can have different meanings: A scroll is a roll of parchment, papyrus, or paper which has been drawn or written upon. ... The Kingdom of Pergamon (colored olive) shown at its greatest extent in 188 BC. Pergamon or Pergamum (Greek: Î ÎÏÎ³Î±Î¼Î¿Ï‚, modern day Bergama in Turkey, ) was an ancient Greek city, in Mysia, northwestern Anatolia, 16 miles from the Aegean Sea, located on a promontory on the north side of the river Caicus... (3rd century BC - 2nd century BC - 1st century BC - other centuries) (2nd millennium BC - 1st millennium BC - 1st millennium AD) // Events 175 BCE - Antiochus IV Epiphanes, took possession of the Syrian throne, at the murder of his brother Seleucus IV Philopator, which rightly belonged to his nephew Demetrius I Soter. ... first page of the Codex Argenteus A codex (Latin for block of wood, book; plural codices) is a handwritten book, in general one produced from Late Antiquity through the Middle Ages. ... Brockhaus Konversations-Lexikon, 1902. ... The 1st century was that century which lasted from 1 to 100 according the Gregorian calendar. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s The 20th century lasted from 1901 to 2000 in the Gregorian calendar (often from (1900 to 1999 in common usage). ... Collaboration (co+labor+ation) refers abstractly to all processes wherein people work together â€”applying both to the work of individuals as well as larger collectives and societies. ... In the field of telecommunications, a communications protocol is the set of standard rules for data representation, signaling, authentication, and error detection required to send information over a communications channel. ...

Political support

One of the basic requirements for a scientific community is the existence and approval of a political sponsor; in England, the Royal Society operates under the aegis of the monarchy; in the US, the National Academy of Sciences was founded by Act of Congress; etc. Otherwise, when the basic elements of knowledge were being formulated, the political rulers of the respective communities could choose to arbitrarily either support or disallow the nascent scientific communities. For example, Alhazen had to feign madness to avoid execution. The polymath Shen Kuo lost political support, and could not continue his studies until he came up with discoveries that showed his worth to the political rulers. The admiral Zheng He could not continue his voyages of exploration after the emperors withdrew their support. Another famous example was the suppression of the work of Galileo, and before him, Giordano Bruno, burned at the stake (though for his views on theology rather than cosmology); by the twentieth century, Galileo would be pardoned. The premises of the Royal Society in London (first four properties only). ... President Harding and the National Academy of Sciences at the White House, Washington, DC, April 1921 The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine. ... A congress is a gathering of people, especially a gathering for a political purpose. ... Alhazen Abu Ali al-Hasan Ibn Al-Haitham (also: Ibn al Haitham) (965-1040) (Arabic: Ø£Ø¨Ùˆ Ø¹Ù„ÙŠ Ø§Ù„ØØ³Ù† Ø¨Ù† Ø§Ù„Ù‡ÙŠØ«Ù…) was an Arab Muslim mathematician; he is sometimes called al-Basri (Arabic: Ø§Ù„Ø¨ØµØ±ÙŠ), after his birthplace Basra, Arab Islamic Caliphate (now Iraq). ... Shen Kuo (沈括) (1033 – 1097) was a noted Chinese scientist. ... The picture of Ming dynastys Islamic missionary navigator Hajji Mahmud Zheng He wearing the formal Ming dynastys official dress. ... Galileo can refer to: Galileo Galilei, astronomer, philosopher, and physicist (1564 - 1642) the Galileo spacecraft, a NASA space probe that visited Jupiter and its moons the Galileo positioning system Life of Galileo, a play by Bertolt Brecht Galileo (1975) - screen adaptation of the play Life of Galileo by Bertolt Brecht... Giordano Bruno. ... Theology (Greek Î¸ÎµÎ¿Ï‚, theos, God, + Î»Î¿Î³Î¿Ï‚, logos, word or reason) means reasoned discourse concerning religion, spirituality and God. ... // Cosmology, from the Greek: ÎºÎ¿ÏƒÎ¼Î¿Î»Î¿Î³Î¯Î± (cosmologia, ÎºÏŒÏƒÎ¼Î¿Ï‚ (cosmos) order + Î»Î¿Î³Î¹Î± (logia) discourse) is the study of the Universe in its totality, and by extension, humanitys place in it. ...

Patterns in the history of science

One of the major preoccupations with those interested in the history of science is whether or not it displays certain patterns or trends, usually along the question of change between one or more scientific theories. Generally speaking, there have historically been three major models adopted in various forms within the philosophy of science. Philosophy of science is the branch of philosophy that studies the philosophical assumptions, foundations, and implications of science, including the formal sciences, natural sciences, and social sciences. ...

The first major model, implicit in most early histories of science and generally a model put forward by practicing scientists themselves in their textbook literature, is associated with the criticisms of logical positivism by Karl Popper (1902-1994) from the 1930s. Popper's model of science is one in which scientific progress is achieved through a falsification of incorrect theories and the adoption instead of theories which are progressively closer to truth. In this model, scientific progress is a linear accumulation of facts, each one adding to the last. In this model, the physics of Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC) was simply subsumed by the work of Isaac Newton (1642-1727) (classical mechanics), which itself was eclipsed by the work of Albert Einstein (1879-1955) (Relativity), and later the theory of quantum mechanics (established in 1925), each one more accurate than the last. Image File history File links Three_models_of_theory_change. ... Sir Karl Raimund Popper, CH, KT, MA, Ph. ... Thomas Samuel Kuhn (July 18, 1922 – June 17, 1996) was an American intellectual who wrote extensively on the history of science and developed several important notions in the philosophy of science. ... Paul Karl Feyerabend (January 13, 1924 - February 11, 1994) was an Austrian-born philosopher of science, who later lived in England, the United States, New Zealand, Italy, and finally Switzerland. ... Logical positivism (later referred to as logical empiricism, rational empiricism, or neo-positivism) is a philosophy that combines positivismâ€”which states that the only authentic knowledge is scientific knowledgeâ€”with a version of apriorismâ€”the notion that some propositional knowledge can be had without, or prior to, experience. ... Sir Karl Raimund Popper, CH, KT, MA, Ph. ... Scientific progress is the idea that scientific knowledge accumulates and refines through either the application of a scientific method, or some more haphazard heuristic. ... Falsification may mean: The act of disproving a proposition, hypothesis, or theory. ... The first few hydrogen atom electron orbitals shown as cross-sections with color-coded probability density. ... Aristotle (Ancient Greek: , AristotÃ©lÄ“s) (384 BC â€“ March 7, 322 BC) was an ancient Greek philosopher, a student of Plato and teacher of Alexander the Great. ... Sir Isaac Newton, President of the Royal Society, (4 January 1643 â€“ 31 March 1727) [OS: 25 December 1642 â€“ 20 March 1727] was an English mathematician, physicist, astronomer, alchemist, and natural philosopher who is generally regarded as one of the greatest scientists and mathematicians in history. ... Classical mechanics is a branch of physics which studies the deterministic motion of objects. ... Albert Einstein, photographed in 1947 by Oren J. Turner. ... In physics, the term relativity is used in several, related contexts: Galileo first developed the principle of relativity, which is the postulate that the laws of physics are the same for all observers. ... For a non-technical introduction to the topic, please see Introduction to Quantum mechanics. ...

A major challenge to this model came from the work of the historian and philosopher Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996) in his work The Structure of Scientific Revolutions published in 1962. Kuhn, a former physicist, argued against the view that scientific progress was linear, and that modern scientific theories were necessarily just more accurate versions of theories of the past. Rather, Kuhn's version of scientific development consisted of dominant structures of thought and practices, which he called "paradigms", in which research went through phases of "normal" science ("puzzle solving") and "revolutionary" science (testing out new theories based on new assumptions, brought on by uncertainty and crisis in existing theories). In Kuhn's model, different paradigms represented entirely different and incommensurate assumptions about the universe, and was uncertain about whether paradigms shifted in a way which necessarily relied upon greater attainment of truth. In Kuhn's view, Aristotle's physics, Newton's classical mechanics, and Einstein's Relativity were entirely different ways to think about the world; each successive paradigm defined what questions could be asked about the world and (perhaps arbitrarily) discarded aspects of the previous paradigm which no longer seemed applicable or important. Kuhn claimed that far from merely building on the previous theory's accomplishments, each one essentially throws out the old way of looking at the universe, and comes up with its own vocabulary to describe it and its own guidelines for expanding knowledge within the new paradigm. Thomas Samuel Kuhn (July 18, 1922 – June 17, 1996) was an American intellectual who wrote extensively on the history of science and developed several important notions in the philosophy of science. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Since the late 1960s, the word paradigm (IPA: ) has referred to a thought pattern in any scientific discipline or other epistemological context. ... Normal science is a concept originated by Thomas Samuel Kuhn and elaborated in The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. ... A paradigm shift is the term first used by Thomas Kuhn in his famous 1962 book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions to describe the process and result of a change in basic assumptions within the ruling theory of science. ... // Commensurability in general Generally, two quantities are commensurable if both can be measured in the same units. ... Since the late 1960s, the word paradigm (IPA: ) has referred to a thought pattern in any scientific discipline or other epistemological context. ...

Kuhn's model met with much suspicion from scientists, historians, and philosophers. Some scientists felt that Kuhn went too far in divorcing scientific progress from truth; many historians felt that his argument was too codified for something as polyvariant and historically contingent as scientific change; and many philosophers felt that the argument did not go far enough. The furthest extreme of such reasoning was put forth by the philosopher Paul Feyerabend (1924-1994), who argued that there were no consistent methodologies used by all scientists at all times which allowed certain forms of inquiry to be labeled "scientific" in a way which made them different from any other form of inquiry, such as witchcraft. Feyerabend argued harshly against the notion that falsification was ever truly followed in the history of science, and noted that scientists had long undertaken practices to arbitrarily consider theories to be accurate even if they failed many sets of tests. Feyerabend argued that a pluralistic methodology should be undertaken for the investigation of knowledge, and noted that many forms of knowledge which were previously thought to be "non-scientific" were later accepted as a valid part of scientific canon. Paul Karl Feyerabend (January 13, 1924 - February 11, 1994) was an Austrian-born philosopher of science, who later lived in England, the United States, New Zealand, Italy, and finally Switzerland. ... Witchcraft, in various historical, religious and mythical contexts, is the use of certain kinds of alleged supernatural or magical powers. ...

Many other theories of scientific change have been proposed over the years with various changes of emphasis and implications. In general, though, most float somewhere between these three models for change in scientific theory, the connection between theory and truth, and the nature of scientific progress.

The nature of scientific discovery

Individual ideas and accomplishments are among the most famous aspects of science, both internally and in larger society. Prolific figures like Sir Isaac Newton, or breakthrough thinkers like Albert Einstein are often celebrated as geniuses and heroes of science. Popularizers of science, including the news media and scientific biographers, contribute to this phenomenon. But many scientific historians emphasize the collective aspects of scientific discovery, and de-emphasize the importance of the "Eureka!" moment. Sir Isaac Newton in Knellers portrait of 1689. ... Albert Einstein, photographed in 1947 by Oren J. Turner. ... A genius is a person with distinguished mental abilities. ... From the Greek cognate , in mythology and folklore, a hero (male) or heroine (female) is an eminent character archetype that quintessentially embodies key traits valued by its originating culture. ... Eureka (or Heureka; Greek ) is a famous exclamation attributed to Archimedes. ...

A detailed look at the history of science often reveals that the minds of great thinkers were primed with the results of previous efforts, and often arrive on the scene to find a crisis of one kind or another. For example, Einstein did not consider the physics of motion and gravitation in isolation. His major accomplishments solved a problem which had come to a head in the field only in recent years - empirical data showing that the speed of light was inexplicably constant, no matter the apparent speed of the observer. (See Michelson-Morley experiment.) Without this information, it is very unlikely that Einstein would have conceived of anything like relativity. The Michelson-Morley experiment, one of the most important and famous experiments in the history of physics, was performed in 1887 by Albert Michelson and Edward Morley at what is now Case Western Reserve University, and is considered by some to be the first strong evidence against the theory of...

The question of who should get credit for any given discovery is often a source of some controversy. There are many priority disputes, in which multiple individuals or teams have competing claims over who discovered something first. Multiple simultaneous discovery is actually a surprisingly common phenomenon, perhaps largely explained by the idea that previous contributions (including the emergence of contradictions between existing theories, or unexpected empirical results) make a certain concept ready for discovery. Simple priority disputes are often a matter of documenting when certain experiments were performed, or when certain ideas were first articulated to colleagues or recorded in a fixed medium.

Many times the question of exactly which event is should qualify as the moment of discovery is difficult to answer. One of the most famous examples of this is the question of the discovery of oxygen. While Carl Wilhelm Scheele and Joseph Priestley were able to concentrate oxygen, in the laboratory and characterize its properties, they did not recognize it as a component of air. Priestly actually thought it was missing a hypothetical component of air, known as phlogiston, which air was supposed to absorb from materials that are being burned. It was only several years later that Antoine Lavoisier first conceived of the modern notion of oxygen - as a substance that is consumed from the air in the processes of burning and respiration. General Name, Symbol, Number oxygen, O, 8 Chemical series Nonmetals, chalcogens Group, Period, Block 16, 2, p Appearance transparent (gas) very pale blue (liquid) Atomic mass 15. ... Carl Wilhelm Scheele Scheeles house with his pharmacy in KÃ¶ping. ... Joseph Priestley is often credited for the discovery of oxygen. ... The phlogiston theory is an obsolete scientific theory of combustion. ... Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier (August 26, 1743 â€“ May 8, 1794) was a French nobleman prominent in the histories of chemistry, finance, biology, and economics. ...

By the late 20th Century, scientific research has become a large-scale effort, largely accomplished in institutional teams. The amount and frequency of inter-team collaboration has continued to increase, especially after the rise of the Internet, which is a central tool for the modern scientific community. This further complicates the notion of individual accomplishment in science.

Contents

Science as a social enterprise

Major events in the history of scientific communication

Political support

Patterns in the history of science

The nature of scientific discovery

See also

Contents

Science as a social enterprise GA_googleFillSlot("encyclopedia_square");

Major events in the history of scientific communication

Political support

Patterns in the history of science

The nature of scientific discovery

See also

Science as a social enterprise