Kytro wrote on Nov 8
th, 2012 at 10:40pm:
Science is the application of the scientific method. We had technology before this, and the approaches of science were partly adopted throughout history in different cultures, but it wasn't until after the enlightenment it started to become more widely applied.
Science boosted technological achievements significantly by allowing us to test systematically. It not as though it was never done in the past, just called different things (like natural philosophy) and was more isolated and somewhat less rigorous.
No argument there, but a systematic approach is not limited by any requirement for an "experiment".
Here are some definitions of Science from the University of Georgia. Note that Science can have a number of different definitions.
http://www.gly.uga.edu/railsback/1122sciencedefns.htmlNote particularly:
Quote:There is no philosophical high-road in science, with epistemological signposts. No, we are in a jungle and find our way by trial and error, building our roads behind us as we proceed. We do not find sign-posts at cross-roads, but our own scouts erect them, to help the rest.
Max Born (1882-1970), Nobel Prize-winning physicist,
quoted in Gerald Holton's Thematic Origins of Scientific Thought
If he was a Nobel winning physicist, I guess he might have had a clue as to what Science was all about.