Science and its Evolution

Science which comes from the Latin word scire, to know, I would say is method of observing natural events and conditions so that we can discover facts about them and to formulate laws based on these observations. Another way of defining science is to say that it is the philosophy that the natural world can be known through human reason and that nature is rational, ordered and regular. When things seem irrational in human eyes, the scientific answer is to say that we don’t have enough data to solve the problem. Also, science has several branches under it such as biology, physics, geology, and astronomy, to name a few. Modern science has been evolving since the foundation was laid by the first scientists ways back then. It wasn’t always highly regarded; it emerged from the darkness of mysticism, alchemy, astrology, and better yet, sorcery. Metaphysics was the first attempt to give rational explanations for natural phenomena. Overall any field was used to try to give an explanation to unanswered questions, some people agree with these “answers” and some people don’t. Ancient civilizations practiced what we now refer to as applied science and mathematics. The discoveries made during these times were sought for practical uses. Counting could’ve been the fundamental beginning of recording information. (Isenhour, 2013) Babylonians, Egyptians and other ancient civilizations practiced astronomy and engineering. Astronomy was and is still useful for the prediction of seasons and defining times for planting and harvesting. Geometry was used to construct buildings and design irrigation ditches and also is the main foundation for mechanical engineering. In 600 B.C. and up, there was increase of a metallurgical culture and it hasn’t stopped until this day. Metallurgy and metallurgical advances divide history into great eras such as the Stone Age, Bronze Age and Iron Age. In this century, many Greek philosophers came about such as Xenophanes, Pythagoras, Zeno and Plato, to name a few. One of the main p you philosophers you could say was Aristotle, and he was one of the emerging Greek philosophers. The main thing he studied was science during the length of time he was a Lyceum. He believed that knowledge could be obtained by interacting with physical objects. He concluded that objects were made up of a potential that circumstances were manipulated to determine the object’s outcome. He also recognized that human interpretations played a role in our understanding of those objects. Another philosopher, though not as famous was Empedocles of Sicily and he first proposed that all things were made up of four basic elements, earth, air, fire and water. The combination of these elements accounted for the different properties of various substances. Then after all these great philosophers came the period of stagnation called the Dark Ages, which was from 300-1400 A.D. This came about after the fall of Rome. Not many philosophers came from this period because of the collapse of the western civilization that had occurred earlier. Jabir is considered to be the father of chemistry and came out of this time period. Another philosopher was Thomas Aquinas, he integrated Aristotle’s ideas into Christian theology into a massive 12 volume Summa Theologica. This was ultimately a book of doubting the Creator of the universe and ultimately trying to figure out His works. Then after 200 years came the Classical Physics and Astronomy which is the period between 1400 and 1600. Here is when the theory that the earth is the center of the solar system began to collapse. This was when Copernicus, born in Poland, came with the idea of heliocentricity which is the idea that the sun is the center of the solar system. During this time another famous philosopher was Isaac Newton. He was the one that launched the scientific revolution with the invention of the dreaded calculus. Then came the Scientific Revolution and the period of Enlightenment. The most prominent figure of this period was Voltaire and he was the most famous of the promoters of Newton. He was also France’s best known philosopher in the 18th century and perhaps the most famous figure of the Enlightenment era. Out of this period emerged the idea of Natural Law. Natural law told us how nature worked, but provided no insights on how once could derive ethics from natural science. John Locke was an English philosopher, and he is most important for understanding the American political philosophy and his best work is Two Treatises on Government, which underpins many of the beliefs of not only the Declaration of Independence, but also the U.S. Constitution. Then after this came along the Industrial Age, in this period many discoveries were made in all the area of science because of the of the prior periods of the Scientific Revolution and the Enlightenment. Along with Aristotle, Galileo, and Newton, Charles Darwin is one of the scientists who define their age. (BBC, n.d.) He came with the prevalent idea of evolution. Fast-forward decades and we then have another great scientist, Albert Einstein. Because of his sub-atomic science had been born. Many smaller things happened that have had an effect in the evolution of science, but it is impossible to mention them all in an essay. Overall the evolution of science occurred because of scientific societies, through publication, correspondence, and meetings have guaranteed the inheritance of facts and ideas from one generation to the next. Building upon the foundation that has been set.

References
BBC. (n.d.). Charles Darwin (1809-1882). Retrieved from BBC: http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/darwin_charles.shtml
Isenhour, T. L. (2013). The Evolution of Modern Science. Norfolk: Bookboon.