1.1: Observing the World
- Page ID
- 472499
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What is the role of observation in our lives? We can use our senses, not just our vision, but our hearing, smell, taste, and touch to learn more about the world. We might do this for simple enjoyment, or we might do it because we want a better understanding of how the world works. If we observe something because we want to understand the world, we engage in an act of science, even if we do not realize it yet.
Observations were not necessarily always held in such high regard, however. During the time of Greek philosophy, around 400 BCE, Plato suggested that we cannot truly trust our senses. Plato claimed that to truly understand the world we must apply reason and believe that we can only see the shadows of some more true reality. But reason without observation is merely conjecture. Plato’s student Aristotle wrote that men have more teeth than women. This is a statement that is obviously not based on true observations, but on reasoning alone. (And faulty reasoning at that!) When our reasoning is not based on observations about the natural world it can go in incorrect, and sometimes dangerous, directions. Some credit Aristotle with the beginning of natural philosophy, the precursor to science. However, the approach did not give as much primacy to observations as we now understand them to have in science.
During the medieval period (1100-1700 CE) in Europe, scholasticism became a dominant mode of thought. Like Greek philosophy before it, this mode of thought was also based more on reasoning than on observations of nature. In this case, the reasoning was related to trying to reconcile these same ideas from Greek philosophy with religious texts and writings. Scholastics debated about things such as the bodily functions of angels among other ideas we would now find silly (possibly even another debate about teeth, in this case those of a horse, though it is unclear if this story is factual.) The scholastic tradition did give rise to universities in Europe, and it was from these universities that scientific thought would eventually emerge. However the tradition itself was about appealing to an authority and particular methods of debate rather than about the work of observation and inquiry that would later develop in science.
Throughout time and across many cultures, observations about the world have led to understanding how it works. Sometimes these observations led to useful information such as the knowledge of which plants to eat and which to avoid. Sometimes these observations were paired with ideas about what might have caused a natural effect, perhaps a god throwing around lightning bolts because he is upset about something. Observation itself is the first step of science. But for the field of science to fully develop as it is today, additional steps were also necessary.
Section Summary
- Observation is the first step of science.