[Air-l] Definitions

[Sam Tilden]

I reluctantly quote the "untrusted" source Wikipedia. I don't have the advantage of library resources as many of you do, so I am limited to the online references I can access. 
   
  Since we all seem to agree that Netspace is largely social, I assume the approach to studying it is scientific and will, if mature, be in the general category of a social science.
   
  If I have offended by complementing the discourse I apologize.
   
  Science in the broadest sense refers to any system of knowledge attained by verifiable means.[1] In a more restricted sense, science refers to a system of acquiring knowledge based on empiricism, experimentation, and methodological naturalism, as well as to the organized body of knowledge humans have gained by such research. This article focuses on the meaning of science in the latter sense.
  Scientists maintain that scientific investigation must adhere to the scientific method, a process for evaluating empirical knowledge that explains observable events in nature as results of natural causes, rejecting supernatural notions.
  Fields of science are commonly classified along two major lines:
    
       
   Natural sciences, the study of the natural phenomena;   
   Social sciences, the systematic study of human behavior and societies. 
  Mathematics has both similarities and differences compared to other fields of science. It is similar to other sciences, because it is a rigorous, structured study of topics such as quantity, structure, space, and change. It is, however, different in its method of arriving at results. Mathematics as a whole is vital to the sciences — indeed, major advances in mathematics have often led to major advances in other sciences. Certain aspects of mathematics are indispensable for the formation of hypotheses, theories, and laws, both in discovering and describing how things work (natural sciences) and how people think and act (social sciences).
  Science as defined above is sometimes termed pure science in order to differentiate it from applied science, the latter being the application of scientific research to human needs.
  
I would assume that a person that practices science is a scientist.
   
  Sam
Casey O'Donnell <odonnc at rpi.edu> wrote:

 		
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