Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning "knowledge") is, in its broadest sense, any systematic knowledge-base or prescriptive practice that is capable of resulting in a prediction or predictable type of outcome.
As the article goes on to mention, science, under a stricter definition, is any systematic study carried out by "the scientific method". The scientific method, as I remember reading a long time ago, refers to the process of observation and acquisition of data, formulation of a hypothesis to explain the observations, and subsequent testing of the hypothesis by further experimentation. In simpler terms, you look at stuff and try to explain it off.
So, what "stuff" do you look at as subjects of study in the course of your mundane existence on this forlorn planet? In school, its balls and slinky toys. In college, perhaps diffraction gratings, colorimeters, or the rare specimen of the fairer gender (though with considerably less success as compared to the other topics). But what about the much more common elements, like say, the fullstop and the comma, or the throes of passion and the pleasure in humour? These are generally topics left for linguists, cognitive psychologists and other such specialists.
So, I figured, why not, with the playful curiosity of a young adolescent kid uncorrupted by 'education', explore these less frequented domains of study? Of course, these searches for the truth in each case can only be shallow, for I am neither a specialist in any of these fields, nor am I in possession of an intellect broad and magnificent enough to have an insight of any significance in anything whatsoever. Such an exercise, I believe, shall not only help understand a whole load of stuff better, but shall also serve to develop skills of reasoning and deduction, which can only be honed by constant practice
Hence, in that spirit, I propose to "publish" over here the results of a few of my exploits. (well, I need to maintain a record somewhere, right?).
As with all sciences, we start with an axiom- something that cannot be proved or derived from anything more fundamental. Following my fancy of fancy names, I call it "The Axiom of Consideration" :
Anything can be considered scientifically.
What that implies is that one can take the scientific method, and apply it to any subject of one's choice, be it grammar, baldness or wheat fields, and actually hope to obtain some sort of an insight into either how the subject works, or how it behaves to a particular set of stimuli, or something similar to what physicists look for in particles and chemists in test tubes.
Now, it is not without some reflection that I decided to take this up as an axiom. For a lot of us would prefer that certain emotionally significant topics like friendship or love would rather be left as they are, unfathomable and mystical. I felt this myself, and I would like to mention here that rationality is quite different from insensitivity. Knowing how something works doesn't take the fun out of it, just as the knowledge that all emotions are nothing more than a few thousand electrical signals in the brain doesn't stop you from being happy or sad. (unless you happen to be a stage magician, where you're broke if you broadcast how your tricks work). So, I figured, the axiom is actually a swell idea to begin with.
I'm working on questions right now, and though not much progress has been made, I can now decorate my language with a brand new set of vivid constructs. Like, for example:
Random bloke: May I ask, when will your blog next be updated?
Me: (with straight face) I do not know, but the answerablitily of that particular question happens to possess a non-trivial degree of temporal dependance.
Random bloke: Vada pochae...
So long then, either until I'm done on questions or until I find something interesting to write about.
Vada pochae...
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