Science as a Human Endeavor
What can possibly get someone to study for years, read science journals, repeat experiments countless times,write applications for funding, and present results? Just like a child reaches for a new object, touches it, looks at it, takes it apart, and tries to make it work again, so the scientist looks at nature and tries to understand it. The curiosity almost seems to be innate, and the thrill that comes from understanding nature, or making a new experiment work is well expressed in the following quote.
“I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success… Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.”
—Nikola Tesla, physicist and inventor
Scientists are driven by curiosity and the thrill that comes from understanding or creating something. At the same time, they are motivated by the desire to improve the quality of life—making everyday chores easier, curing diseases, and solving global and environmental problems. Scientists also seek to use, predict, and control nature—to use sunlight and water for electrical power generation, to forecast the weather and earthquakes, to prevent floods, and to prevent infection of crops and cattle.
The result is that over the years, our understanding of science has greatly improved. Humanity has gone from attributing disease to supernatural beings to developing vaccines, antibiotics, and gene therapy to prevent and cure disease. Since Thales ofMiletus proposed in 625 B.C. that the Earth is a disc that floats on water, humans have discovered the true nature of their planet, have observed other galaxies, and have landed on the moon. The immense progress people have made in science is well expressed in this quote:
The Essay on An Enquiry On Human Understanding
An Enquiry on Human Understanding Rene Descartes is considered to be the initiator of metodological skepticism, the principles of which he described in his books, such as Meditations on First Philosophy and Discourse on the Method. The book Meditations on First Philosophy consists of 6 meditations. It begins with Descartescalling into doubt all beliefs in things which are not absolutely certain, ...
The simplest schoolboy is now familiar with truths for which Archimedes would have sacrificed his life.”
