This material for UGA GEOL 1122 consists of five pages:
1. What Science Is
What is science?
Why do science? I - the individual perspective
Why do science? II - the societal perspective
How research becomes scientific knowledge
Science and change (and Miss Marple)
Science and knowledge
The material above this line is required reading before
class for Railsback's UGA GEOL 1122 students.
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Parts 2, 3, and 4 below this line are also GEOL 1122
required reading, but they need not be read before class.
2. What Science Isn't
What science isn't I: A historical perspective on scholasticism and science
What science isn't II: Science isn't Art
What science isn't III: Science is not technology
What science isn't IV: Science isn't Truth, and it's not certainty
What science isn't V: Science isn't Religion, or a religion
3. Scientific Thought: Facts, Hypotheses, Theories, and all that stuff
4. Definitions of Science
Definitions by goal and process
Definitions by contrast
Not quite definitions, but critical statements
1122 students are expected to read at least the four pages above. The fifth, below, may be too relevant and is therefore optional.
5. A Tabular History of Scientific Ideas Challenging Fundamental Notions of the World
The sixth cuts even closer to home and therefore cannot be required.
6. Science and its societal implications