Science From Medieval Time to Modern Era-Summary of Prof. Jamal Mimouni’s Presentation

Science From Medieval Time to Modern Era-Summary of Prof. Jamal Mimouni’s Presentation

Outline

1.The scholastic Age
• The scholastic discourse
• The great chain of beings

2. The Scientific Revolution
• The new mathematical legacy
• Firing up the technological revolution
• Ambiguities in the scientific endeavor
• Various versions of the History of Science

3. Physics: the Paradigmatic Science
• The new magicians
• Various schemes

4. The Limits of Science
• Science & Non Science
• New Epistemological stances
• The modesty of science…

Science Coming out
I. The Scholastic Age
• The scholastic discourse
• Method of critical thought and learning:
- Extend knowledge by inference from the previous scholars
- Harmonizing knowledge and avoid any conflict wit doma
• The great chain of beings
- Religious hierarchical structure of all matter and life

II. The Scientific Revolution
• Galileo’s tribulation
• The new mathematical legacy
• Firing up the technological revolution

III.Societal Debates
• Western Science
• The Great Chain of Beings
• Scala naturae
• Principle of plenitude: “From the anthropocentric principle that theUniverse is made uniquely for Mankind.”

Modern Science-Its Philosophie, its Epistemology 1

What is Science?
• Ambiguities in the scientific endeavor
• Various versions of the History of Science
• Ordered ensemble of knowledge concerning the physical
• Method allowing to establish /validate knowledge
• …il contains also a certain vision of the World
• « La science c’est ce que les scientifiques font! »

Two characteristic Features:
• Constant recourse to experiment
• Simplification and constant quest to generalization
- « Découvrir les principes simples cachés par la complexité du réel» Perrin
- « Science may be described as the art of systematic oversimplification» Karl Popper

Modern Science-Its Philosophie, its Epistemology 2
1. What is Science (Sciences pures)?
• Physical sciences + Earth Sciences
• Life Science : Biology, medicine (?)
• Applied sciences2
It is not Technology!
• Les Sciences de l’ingénieur

Modern Science-Its Philosophie, its Epistemology 3
1. The Scientific Method
• The scientific method …and its mirages! « …don’t listen to their words, fix your attention to their deeds» A.Einstein
• Science and non science
• Towards a dynamical definition of science
• The Baconian science …the Newtonian, the Einsteinian ones

Modern Science Its Philosophie, its Epistemology 4
1. The Scientific Method and its Mirages
• From the history of Science:Major breakthroughs:
- The axiological role of genuises
- Mazes and cul-de-sac…
• Performing the appropriate experimentsBut there is no method for it!
- Astérisme
- Earlobe
• Producing the right hypothesis How to filter the various factors?… you need some genius !

Modern Science-Its Philosophie, its Epistemology 5
1. The Scientific Method and its Mirages!Interprétation of results…depends on the theory!
- Radiography
- Neutrinos
- Particle physics
- Astrophysics

2.Science & Non ScienceThe Provocative Vision of Feyerabend:« Everything goes ! »
Characteristics of Science
- Objectivity
- Repetitivity
- Total control on the experimental conditions
- Refutability (« Falsifiabity»)
- Predictive power
- Simplicity: « Okham’s razor » rule« Entities should not be multiplied unnecessarily »

3.Alternate (Feynman’s) Way of Doing Science(According to M.Gell-Mann)
• Write down the problem
• Think very hard about it
• Write down the answer
Third axis of Holton’s theory on Einsteinian’s brand of science

4.Science in Modern Era
• Physics: Fundamental constitution of matter
• Astronomy: Content, properties of the Universe
• Biology: Working of life, evolution of life…
• Chemistry: new materials, new drugs, pesticids…
• Mathematics: dynamical sytems, stochastic analysis, non linearity…

IV.Physics: the Paradigmatic Science
• The new magicians
• Various schemes

Physics/ Science as Magic
1. Physics /Science is like Magic
- Better than magicians
- We manipulate and we understand…
- More fitting to God’s Majesty…
2. Better than Science Fiction
- Science fiction imagines things
- Science is not only imagines but it explains things and makesthem!
3. Model for other sciences…Higgs: God’s particleLHC-Geneva

Quantum Physics:Bulk matterManipulating light
- Laser physics
- Entanglement:
- Qantum logic
- Quantum computing
- Stopping light
- Making matter out of photons

Physics: the Various schemes
1. Top down view of the material world
2. According to Energy /Length scale
3. Physics from its Historical development
4. Physics According to the main theories
5. « Tawhidi » physics
6. Fundamentalist perspective
7. Physics interconnected
8. Physics on complexity scale
9. Yet another physics map

Do we have the Science of One’s Ideology?
• The Various Ideological Sciences and their deadends
1- National brands of Science American, Chinese, French …
• Specificities of the la recherche en France…
2- Ideological brands of Science :Islamic, Chinese, Christian, Communist, Nazi
• Communist science (Lyssenko, SR, Cosmology…)
• Ijmali’s conception. (Z.Sardar, M.Anees, …) Gone
• Quantum Mechanics quantique (intricate…): Dirac, Blokinshev, Heisenberg, Landau, De Broglie
• S-Matrix approach of G.Chew (Hadron Democracy)

Limits of Science
• The Problem of induction Ï.ÚáÇ ...
The Limits of Knowledge« I notice that Physics changes but the world stays the same » R.Bandler
– Subjective limits :
- It is naive to believe that science discovers raw mechanisms:… but on the other hand, Science do more than describing the World, it attemptat explaining it…
-Sixth Hilbert’s problem : axiomatise physics
-Physics starts with a circular definition : space-time / objects.
– Objective limits :
- Imprédictabilité des phénomènes macroscopiques: chaos
- Microscopic Impredictability : QM (Incertitude Relations)
- Gödel’s Théorèm– Human limits (neuronal):

The Modesty of Science
• The Modesty of Science… is its Strenght!
• Don’t convocate it on subjects which do not concern it: It doesn’t have the required methodology
• Beyond its domain, it keeps silent- Existence of extraterrestrial creatures.
• «Science proves that God exist» : non sens!
• That science lead to God for those who have the proper fitra, then yes. And Hidaya…

Limits of Science
• The Science is ever changing
– In its conclusions Other théories more inclusive could arise
– In its methodology The Baconian Science … …the Newtonian one …then the Einsteinian one
• New Epistemological stances on ScienceBuilders of Worlds…on paper«Beauty primes over truth»
– Interpretation à la Wolfram (A New Kind of Science , Wolfram Media, 2002)
• Sociologie of science
– Only those who practise it can truly understand science«…don’t listen to their words, fix your attention to their deeds ». Einstein

And above every one endowed with knowledge, there is One who knows all (Koran, Joseph- 76)

---Zainab---