To all of you guys, what science means to you ?

On the whole I see science as the cultivation and distillation of knowledge about how energy/matter does and has behaved within the universe in a manner that can be applied by many individuals across multiple generations. While an individual can engage in science and apply the scientific method to better understand the world around them I think of "science" as the wider shared endeavor.

 

It's worth noting that science does not tell us what to do with that knowledge, just what we can expect to do with it. It may tell us what to do in order to achieve a given objective most efficiently with the highest probability of success but it does not create or dictate those objectives. We set objectives based on philosophy at some level or another.

To me science means "natural knowledge".

What about us gals?

 

Science is the most successful epistemology we humans have - and thus it's meaning to me is: Our best (and perhaps only real) hope for understanding our universe and ourselves.

Science, at it's core, is "Oooh, that's neat! I wonder what happens if I poke it with a stick?"

 

Seriously, for all the high-minded philosophy of science, it can really all be traced back to "poke it with a stick".

Seriously, for all the high-minded philosophy of science, it can really all be traced back to "poke it with a stick".

 

I think I agree with that. Finding out "what happens if", is a large part of science philosophy.