Science: Introduction

 Mago Bill, science: Getting to know the method of knowing called science.

 

            Science is the practice of a method of understanding and of communication. It may be called the scientific method. This method can be a great help in self-development and in being a successful human being.

            As you become better acquainted with this method of understanding you become a more effective person. You will also develop a better understanding of the sciences in general and of each individual science, even ytterbiumology.

            The scientific method generally includes the following doings: observation, identification/recognition, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of natural phenomena. So, a scientist observes a doing or happening and begins to explain it. The method is much about how she does this. That is, how you do it may be more important than what you do.

            To start well, lets try to define some of our terms. We can begin with the word 'science.' Starting at the beginning we see that science means knowledge, the business of knowing. Just how one knows is a serious subject. A subject we could check into later. Early in its history science became knowledge gained  by study. Science brings its history with it. It still means knowledge and it still means knowledge gained by study. The science quickly came to be the study of particular and specific subjects. In its more modern meaning it has come to mean the technical and mathematical study  of a subject. However the basic method of doing science is both a simpler and more powerful attitude then one might suppose.

            We already know that "method" means "the way how." So, science is a particular way of understanding, a particularly effective way of understanding. It may be useful to remember that the suffix -ology means study. So anthropology is the study of human species, of humanity in most of its aspects. It has often been a comparative study of behavior, biology, societies. Whereas biology is the natural scientific study of life and of living organisms. It is one of the more nicely developed sciences. Cells and genes are now important factors in this study.

            It is important that a person interested in science develop a good grasp on the nature of scientific: observation, identification, explanation, knowing, researching,  and theoretical description. Also to develop their ability to recognize and observe natural phenomena is helpful to their use of scientific methodology.

            To gain and to communicate scientific knowledge one needs to become familiar with its concepts and vocabulary. As interest is shown, I hope to write more on the topic. I believe that you already have an understanding of the scientific method as a way many have found usful for gaining practical, productive knowledge and of communicating that knowledge.

            You probably already have the understanding that science is well begun and carried out with studied and practiced observation. 

            The ways of scientific observation are important to the development of knowledge. My dictionary says this about "to observe:" to notice, to perceive, to watch attentively, to make a scientific or systematic observation. "Systematic," that implies that there is a system to be learned. It seems that the way of a scientific doing is, at least, as the what.

            Observation is the act of observing; that is the act of noting and recording of a phenomena, doing, or happening, perhaps with instruments. Observation might lead to developing a judgement or inference. What are the methods for developing a judgement or an inference!

            "Identify" could be our next term to examine. If you would like me to continue some sort of exposition of science, please leave a comment to thar effect in the "comment" window below.

            Identifying a phenomena is, in large part, for the purpose of being able to recognize the phenomena yourself and to enable others to also recognize it. There is more to say about the recognize/identify part of of our scientific process,  but I will leave it for another time.

            Oh, yes. Ytterbiumology is beyond my present knowledge; still it can be studied, known, and used. Its a chemical element with the symbol Yb and atomic number of 70. I may not live long enough to get deeply into the study of this element. Perhaps you can tell us more about it.     

            Thank you for reading

                                                    RCS

 

 

Truman Capote, Writer

A bit about an author and a book. The Author is Truman Capote and the book is Portraits and Observations

            A recent reading of Portraits and Observations reminds me that Mr. Capote was a fine craftsman and a pleasure to read today. He seemed to love New Orleans and New York. His feelings for our West Coast and our Southwest was not love. Some might call him a regionalist. His observations of Europe are congenial. He does not make a secret of his likes and dislikes.

            His observations of persons have a journalistic feel and he still revels himself in them.

             He wrote so well that I suspect that one or two very good contemporary writers became envious.     

            Truman Capote is, I believe, a pen name. He was born in 1924 and died in 1984. Hus childhood, I believe, was unusual, uneasy, and interesting.

 

            I missed his first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms published in 1948. I remember talk of and the film of Breakfast at Tiffany's and his his nonfiction novel, In Cold Blood.

            Reading Portraits and Observations may be a good way for you to get to know his work and a bit about him. The Modern Library paperback edition in front of me mentions all, I believe, of his published works. It also devotes a page and half of biographical information about thi excellent author.

            Capote met famous persons and tells of some of their doings and ways in a way beyond charming.

            He seems not to have been very "political," but he was a journalist with a deep feeling for fairness. Among his essays is a piece on another great American writer. Ezra Pound, of Idaho. Capote leads me to believe that Pound had the misfortune of having his love of history lead him to an interest in economics. It seems that speaking of some individual's source of money or wealth makes them very nervous. Americans seem not to be excepted. The American "people" accused him of treason an convicted Pound of insanity. I am not really well informed on that history. If you know some of it, please use the "comments" section below to inform us a bit.

            Just now that history sounds much like the worst that has come from Russia. Pound was incarcerated in Washington DC for over a decade and then declared incurably insane and released as not being a danger to himself or anyone else. I intend to take care of what I say about U.S. economics.

             Capote has written of himself that he is not attracted to people who care more for their pets than for their friends. First friends and then cities seem to be among his top loves. In cities, he says, that one can be pleased to be among different people with  different sets of friends with none of them overlapping. My experience has been similar.

            Talking of friends Capote intimates that intelligence and attention is important and says, "I pay attention to my friends, am concerned about them and expect them to to do the same in return."

            He says that he has always liked to read and enjoys and admires writers such as Flannery, O'Connor, Norman Mailer, William Styron, Eudora Welty, Katherine Ann Portior, and others, but that in his later life he has enjoyed reading the better of what he has already read: Proust, Flaubert, Jane Austen, Raymond Chandler, and Dickens.

            He liked driving off and considered it therapy. He found betrayal of affections traumatic. As a politician he like Adlai Stevenson. (Stevenson was the first politician for whom I felt some admiration!) Mrs. Roosevelt liked him too. Capote knew and liked conversation and dialogue.

            Seems a lot like a regular person, and a super writer.

                            RCS

Science and Fundamentals

 Mago Bill Science: Fundamentals, no mathematics yet, a new look at some vocabulary, scientific method (the way science is done), and observation of natural phenomena.

                    

                Science! We benefit from what we know about it. We have found it useful in our thinking and in our doing. Our understanding of science is an aid to our understanding of our world. Science can be a way of approaching realty.

                Too many of us lack a grounding in it's fundamentals. Without this grounding we lack an important way of understanding others and of being understood by them. By the time you have read to the end of this post you will know more about the basics of science than do most individuals in the world. Perhaps you already do; you are likely to learn more here.

                You have already begun.  An old aunt of mind used to repeat, "By beginning you are half way there." You will benefit by increasing your knowledge of a very few of the words I will use. Most of the individual sciences have a lot of new word meanings to learn. Here at the heart of the fundamentals of science, there are very few. "Science" could be among those few. Science still means knowledge. Now it more refers more to a special way of getting knowledge. We will go on to learn more of the "what" and the "how of science an perhaps a bit more.

                Some people tell me that mathematics, math, is vital to understanding and doing science. They have a point, but it is not completely true. In some fields of science it is now very, even extremely, important. In most of the science of physics its close enough to true to be called true. For many others a bit of arithmetic will do. I see no need for math, or even, arithmetic in this discussion of fundamentals.

                As a reminder, there is still some vocabulary to learn. For practice you could check out the difference between scientific fact and and scientific theory on line. It might be interesting to check the definitions of "fact" and "theory" in a dictionary. If you could even check out the meaning of "Hypothesis" and tell us some of your findings in the "comments" just below this post. Oh, I can tell you that both scientific fact and theory are both, correctly, subject to change.

                I'll say something about "theory" right now. A theory is a useful explanation. At least that is the usual intention. A theory may even be predictive. Kind of tell the future. For example it could tell us the probability of a specific happening when a specific action is taken. Check it out.

                Its about time for us to  take a first look at the scientific method. The method or methods can be extensive, but this important method has a small powerful heart. We will check out that heart. We can know science as a doing, a process. The method is the way science is done. We will look a the heart of how science is done.

                  There is more power in checking out the meaning of words in science. You develop your word power. you make your understanding of science stronger.

                Onward! Many can agree that observation is the beginning of science, scientific investigation and the scientific method. It probably ought to be part of your attitude toward science and in science.

                If I were a master scientist and you my disciple, we could review some a case of scientific investigation as is often in the teaching of law.. Or as sometimes is done in a school of engineering, we might move through a flowchart of a piece of scientific work. The flow might follow a winding trail from ,say, from discovery, to hypothesis, and on to research and revision. But I am not a scientist, and you would have to check out the scientific meaning of more words.

                It is up to us and to scientists to communicate coherently. If I am not doing my part you can tell me and part of humanity about it in the "comments' section below.

                When you know what "knowledge" means you understand much about science. You are already learning that science is a effective way to knowledge.

                Science is practiced in many particular fields. Biology is one of those fields. A biologist works and learns in the field of biology. There are many other such fields of knowledge.

                So, a science can be a particular branch or field of study, research, and practice. Examples of fields of science; astronomy. barology, chemistry, and, perhaps dermatology. I think that your understanding of science has gone beyond the a,b,c, of science.

                Modern science has been and still is much about the study of natural stuff, matter, and material often in a technical or mathematical way. It also often includes search, research, and experimentation.

                I imagine that I seem slow in getting to the "how?" of science. It seems to me that there is a lot of "what?" to science. I'll try to speed up. I think that I can satisfy my preoccupation with "what" in about two short paragraphs.

                A science is usually a department of systematized knowledge as an object of study. By "systematized" is meant, arranged for ease of understanding, communication, and use. Science in general may include knowledge so arranged that an understanding of it may be more easily communicated from one person to another. I'm not a scientist, remember.

                "Science" may refer to the possession of a particular knowledge as distinguished from not knowing or from misunderstanding. That knowledge is gained through study, practice, and the use of the scientific method.

                Lets get to that method; that way to knowledge.

                We know that each individual science has it's individual ways. However, we also learn that at the center and heart of science is a small set of individual steps which combined form a powerful method.

                Science may sad to be the practiced of a method of understanding, the central steps of which are:

~ Observation

~ Identification including discovery, and description

~ Experimental investigation

~ Theoretical explanation of natural phenomena

            There are a variety of ways to write and word these steps. They are all designed to express the same method. The steps or processes above are most often done in the order given.

            You can learn to carry out these steps. it can be done. We can do them. You can do them. When we learn to complete them well, you may do better than some scientists. Your general knowledge is growing.

             Right now I feel unsure of my understanding of "discovery" in this context. I am pretty sure that it is simply the finding and reporting of something new in your observation or in the process of reviewing your observation. Click on "comments" when you have questions, answers, or comments.

            When I know that you are interested I'll posts more about the use of the method.

            May you stay well and participate a bit more.

             bye for now

                                                RCS

     

                

 

"We" is an Activity

"We" Forms a Unit and united we stand:

                Can we agree that "we" is a relationship? When we agree to relate it may be good to speak of the level at which we wish to relate. At what level might it be good for us to relate? We could speak of the reason for our relationship. How might we go about relating ? Might it be important that we show our concern for our "we?"

                What's in it for you? What's your interest? How is a mutual or reciprocal relationship handled?

                A "we" must consist of people, persons, individuals, right? Have you seen
the start of a "we?" Was there a kind of joining? Doesn't a "we" require some kind of maintenance?

                What do you suspect, believe, or know about the "we" in the "We the people..." document?

                That "we" could refer to us. How do we go about keeping track of our common interests? How do we reciprocate? "We the people" are a social relationship, aren't they?

                Let's say that we are the people in the "We the people" we know about.
What is the nature of our relationship? What is reason for our relationship? What's in it for you?

                "We" implies a unity, a union. We can probably agree that better and worse unions can be detected. How might we form a more perfect union?

                You may have some notions of "we" stirring in your mind now.

                Communication is important. Talk, dialogue, discussion are important. Talk of "us" and "we"  may be so important as to be called vitally important.

                I say that communication of persons is vitally important for the initiation and maintenance of a "we".    

                To have a good nation we have to have a good "we". 

                Some find a sentence or two above worth contemplating.

                Thank you for reading! 

                                            RCS