scientific adj.
1580s, "
By 1670s as "
Sciential (mid-15c., sciencial, "
The phrase scientific revolution for "
Entries linking to scientific
mid-14c., "
The original notion in the Latin verb probably is "
OED writes that the oldest English sense of the word now is restricted to theology and philosophy. From late 14c. in English as "
From late 14c. in the more specific sense of "
The sense of "
The predominant modern use, "
The men who founded modern science had two merits which are not necessarily found together: Immense patience in observation, and great boldness in framing hypotheses. The second of these merits had belonged to the earliest Greek philosophers; the first existed, to a considerable degree, in the later astronomers of antiquity. But no one among the ancients, except perhaps Aristarchus, possessed both merits, and no one in the Middle Ages possessed either. [Bertrand Russell, "A History of Western Philosophy," 1945]
Science, since people must do it, is a socially embedded activity. It progresses by hunch, vision, and intuition. Much of its change through time does not record a closer approach to absolute truth, but the alteration of cultural contexts that influence it so strongly. Facts are not pure and unsullied bits of information; culture also influences what we see and how we see it. Theories, moreover, are not inexorable inductions from facts. The most creative theories are often imaginative visions imposed upon facts; the source of imagination is also strongly cultural. [Stephen Jay Gould, introduction to "The Mismeasure of Man," 1981]
updated on February 17, 2022