What Is Science?

The Core Idea: Producing Reliable Knowledge

Science is an activity that systematically accumulates knowledge about nature and society, continuously testing that knowledge against empirical evidence and revising it when necessary. This self-correcting character fundamentally distinguishes science from dogmatic doctrines and from the ordinary accumulation of personal experience and everyday opinion. Scientific knowledge extends beyond individual observations; it is validated at the community level through shared procedures and grows cumulatively. Reliability does not mean absolute certainty — science derives its strength precisely from acknowledging its own fallibility.

Key Concepts: Empiricism, Theory, and Intersubjectivity

Empirical testing requires that scientific claims be checked through observation and experiment. Yet raw observation is never independent of theory; every observation acquires meaning within a particular conceptual framework. Theories aim to explain not merely facts but the relationships among them. Objectivity, in turn, should be understood not as complete freedom from individual bias but as intersubjectivity — the ability of researchers applying the same procedures to arrive at the same results. This understanding anchors scientific validity in communal scrutiny.

Criticisms and Limitations

The claim that science is a universal and neutral source of knowledge has met with significant objections. The theory-ladenness of observation thesis reveals the indefensibility of naive empiricism. It has also been argued compellingly that scientific activity is not independent of social, cultural, and institutional conditioning. Furthermore, science cannot claim to answer every question; ethical, aesthetic, and metaphysical questions are not directly amenable to empirical testing. Rather than diminishing science, these limitations allow us to situate it within a more realistic framework.

Significance: Relation to Scientific Practice

Philosophical clarity about what science is directly influences how researchers make methodological choices, interpret their findings, and understand the relationship between science and society. Philosophy of science offers both a historical and a conceptual background for methodological questions that arise across disciplines. Clarifying the boundary between pseudoscience and legitimate inquiry also serves a critical function for public trust and science policy. Questions about the nature of science therefore carry not only academic but also societal importance.

Key thinkers

• A. F. Chalmers (1939–)Known for 'What Is This Thing Called Science?', which made the foundational questions of philosophy of science accessible to a broad readership.

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