[Air-l] Definitions

[Jeremy Hunsinger]

Actually, I take exception with that characterization of science.   
Science is merely systematic study, everything else that you claim is  
science is only part of one kind, or more likely one imagination, of  
science.  There are many notions of science in the world, and the  
word has many basic meanings, some extend to your definition, most do  
not.  The basic meaning that all hold should derive from its origin  
in latin as scire, which means to know through distinguishing or to  
know through comparing as we use the word today 'discriminate',  
yes... science discriminates.  The division that is widely recognized  
is between science and the arts.  The arts create things in the  
world, which is why government is an art, whereas political science  
studies the world as it is or as it was, it studies history in order,  
in some cases to discern, how it will be.  The 'special' or  
predictive sciences are the ones where the emphasis is put on  
experimentation, because experimentation is based in an assumption of  
repeatability, and predictive sciences should show the same findings  
to be true for all times given their initial conditions.....  In any  
case, I think that before we go around assigning labels, we should  
first examine the practices to see what people are really doing.

In any case, we aren't scientists, we are researchers and our  
research takes many forms.  If you want to be a scientist, that is  
fine though, don't be surprised if it ends up as much of a dead-end  
as the 'pure sociology' of the late 60's.

On Oct 17, 2006, at 4:49 PM, Sam Tilden wrote:

> Nancy and all,
>
>   I think I take exception to this characterization.
>
>   1. Science as I understand it is the systematic study,  
> observation or experimentation of a subject so as to determine the  
> nature or principles of what is being studied. A person who does  
> this is a scientist.

Jeremy Hunsinger
School of Library and Information Science
Pratt Institute
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