| | 1 | Author: | Williams, Henry Smith, 1863-1943 | Requires cookie* | | | Title: | A History of Science: in Five Volumes. Volume I: The Beginnings of Science  | | | | Published: | 2000 | | | | Subjects: | University of Virginia Library, Text collection | UVA-LIB-Text | | | | Description: | TO speak of a prehistoric science may seem like
a contradiction of terms. The word prehistoric
seems to imply barbarism, while science, clearly
enough, seems the outgrowth of civilization; but
rightly considered, there is no contradiction. For,
on the one hand, man had ceased to be a barbarian
long before the beginning of what we call the historical
period; and, on the other hand, science, of a kind, is
no less a precursor and a cause of civilization than it
is a consequent. To get this clearly in mind, we must
ask ourselves: What, then, is science? The word
runs glibly enough upon the tongue of our every-day
speech, but it is not often, perhaps, that they who use
it habitually ask themselves just what it means. Yet
the answer is not difficult. A little attention will
show that science, as the word is commonly used,
implies these things: first, the gathering of knowledge
through observation; second, the classification of such
knowledge, and through this classification, the elaboration
of general ideas or principles. In the familiar
definition of Herbert Spencer, science is organized
knowledge. | | | Similar Items: | Find |
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