Philosophy of science, economy and environment

Index
1. What is science?
2. Basic characteristic of nature
3. Basic characteristic of science
4. What is technology?
5. Difference between philosophy, science and technology
6. The main objective of science
7. Appearance and reality
8. The scientific method
9. From where does the inspiration come?
10. The attraction for the abstraction
11. Economics is a branch of politics
12. The objective reality
13. Idealism and materialism
14. The contradiction created by the scientific and technological development
15. Conclusion
Introduction
The most important objective of the learning process is to ensure the comprehension of the matter studied. The first step in that sense is the clarity of the explanation, the clarity of the ideas that are exposed.
It is the comprehension of the ideas that allow the student to apply what’s learned into a practice sense and transform that knowledge into new knowledge. That is the base of the success at research and the innovation.
The great fail of the educative process is to obligate students to repeat ideas, remember rigid concepts, formulas and other knowledge’s that in the majority of the cases are not used in the reality of the life.
The world would be better, with less poverty and unhappiness if the education would be different. The philosophy of science might contribute to find new roads to knowledge and the education; hence the philosophy of science is important.
In the next paragraphs we will answer some important questions about the matter.
1. What is science?
Science is the study of the reality of nature.
2. Basic characteristic of nature
Nature is an integral system of exact laws that determine the behavior of the Universe and life at all the times.
3. Basic characteristic of science
The basic characteristic of science is its exactitude and validity at all times.
The laws of nature integrate a complex system of exact cycles of changes; it is a predictable system, this means that you can anticipate its behavior. The system does not change in its essence; what changes is our knowledge of it; hence our perception of science is in constant evolution; but the laws and principles of nature are permanent, immutable.
4. What is technology?
Technology is the practice application of the principles and discoveries of science for the development of new material things.
5. Difference between philosophy, science and technology
Philosophy studies the first causes, the origin of life and knowledge.
Science studies nature and its laws.
Technology creates material things in the base of knowledge that is obtained from science.
6. The main objective of science
The main objective of science is to discover the hidden reality of nature.
Two realities exist: the observable and the hidden reality. You can appreciate at simple view the observable reality, for example, trees, sun, moon, but you cannot appreciate at simple view the hidden reality, for example, atoms.
7. Appearance and reality
The world seems flat and still but it is in fact round and rotates. One thing is the appearance of the things and other different its reality. To discover the truth of things beyond appearance is the purpose of science.
8. The scientific method
The basic steps of the scientific method are: a) the observation of reality, b) research about that reality and c) the elaboration of the hypothesis.
9. From where does the inspiration come?
If those are the basic steps of the scientific method two key questions arise as a consequence:
a) How can man know something that he has never observed? and
b) From where does the inspiration to know the unknown come?
In Prehistory man made the principal discoveries that we today know, among them instruments of stones, hunting, fire, road, fishing, agriculture, metals, tools, textiles and architecture. But it was in the 18th century when began the most intense process of knowledge development with the discovery of new forms of energy, vapor and its applications to the mechanic and, later, in the 19th and 20th centuries petroleum, electricity and atomic energy. Since the 18th century until now the speed of scientific discoveries has reached unthinkable levels.
What leads man to discover new things?
Has he innate ideas that are responsible for the creative process?
If it is so then from where do those innate ideas come?
10. The attraction for the abstraction
Man has a natural trend toward abstraction. Perhaps it is a form of escaping of hard reality. Hence he creates ideal scenarios not possible in the practice of life. In the disciplines of the social sciences this trend is very intense.
The social sciences support a good part of its postulates in abstractions. It is easier conceiving an abstraction than a concrete and real idea ascertainable and applicable in the reality.
The reality, the practice, is the purgatory where the conceptions of the ideal word are tested.
The economy is one of the disciplines with a major charge of abstractions and ideal conceptions.
11. Economics is a branch of politics
The economy is not a science in the strictest sense of the word science.
Why?
This is because the economic postulates are not exact laws of universal validity at all the times.
The economy is a branch of the politics.
Why?
It is because the main economic decisions ---economic policies--- are adopted by governments in all societies and in all types of political regimes.
The market, the supply, demand and prices are influenced by governments in a decisive form.
Two economies exist: the true economy and the academic economy.
The true economy is the economy of reality. The academic economy focuses its attention on the theorist and ideal aspects of the discipline, that in many cases are very far from reality.
The same occurs with other disciplines like law. Practice law of the courts is completely different to theorist and academic law. One thing is the theorist and other different the practice. This presents to us another key question:
What is true and what not?
12. The objective reality
An objective reality exists in nature but it is not appreciated ever by our senses. The truth of nature is not relative neither ambiguous; what is relative is our knowledge.
The appreciation of reality depends on our analytic capacity and, even, on the place from where you see. For example, your vision from a helicopter is completely different of your vision from a street of a city where there are big buildings. A rich banker and a poor person have each one of them different opinions on the economic process.
Knowledge is in constant change as consequence of the advances and development of our thought. The capacity of our thought is infinite; hence our creative capacity is also infinite.
The conceptions considered so far true might in the future not be certain; in the history of the human knowledge this has happened already; for example, over centuries the intellectual elite of the world believed that the Earth was flat. A practical demonstration was necessary to ascertain the contrary; that demonstration was the circumvallation of the Earth by Juan Sebastian Elcano (1476-1526).
Practice is the essential way to ascertain the truth. Thought is not enough; thought must be accompanied of the practice.
13. Idealism and Materialism
To reach knowledge it is necessary to develop a synthesis between theorist and practice.
The Idealism, alone, cannot explain the truth of things; practice, alone, can neither enhance the knowledge.
14. The contradiction created by the scientific and technological development
The scientific and technological development brought great advances but, in turn, new situations that were not previously known. The main contradiction has been the damage to the environment.
The great change in the life of the world was promoted by science through the discovery of new sources of energy: vapor, petroleum, electricity and later nuclear energy. Those sources of energy are a very important cause of pollution everyday worldwide. A clear example in that sense was the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico that began on April 20 2010 until July 15 2010, almost three months pouring millions of gallons of petroleum in the sea. Similar situations of minor scale occur every day in the world with forests, rivers and all the expressions of nature.
15. Conclusion
- The philosophy of science explains why, for what and the laws that govern the science.
- The main objective of the science is to discover the hidden reality of nature.
- In the reality, in the practice, the economy is not an autonomous discipline but a branch of the politics.
- The scientific and technological development has created, in turn, a new situation: the environment damage. Nevertheless, the science and technology has the duty of finding the ways for diminishing and, in many cases, to avoid that damage that is one of the most important challenges of the 21st century.