February 2008 Archives

Is astrology science?
Is astrology pre-science?
Is astrology a barrier to the development of science?
What is the role of astrology in the history of human beings?

This week's reading summarizes the outline of history. The author tries to capture every important aspects in the history of science. But when there is science, there is also astrology. Science and astrology are like twin brothers. So it is of great importance to analyze the history of science with analyzing the history of astrology to see what is the relationship between them.

Are human beings born with science or astrology? Which comes first? Does astrology stimulates the development of science or vice versus? We are now living in a scientific world, why still some of us still believe in astrology? Is there any scientific elements that humans could not understand in astrology? With the development of science, will astrology exist in the future?

After reading Asimov's Guide to Science, What is science, I feel lucky that I am now living in the modern society where induction is equally valued as deduction. Otherwise, people like me, who constantly conduct empirical research were regarded as "slaves" in the past.

As far as I am concerned, I do not think Asimov has explained clearly what is science. He only defines science in terms of what is the drive of science and how to do science. Specifically, he helds that curiosity is the ultimate drive of science and science is the result of being angry of bordem. In other words, science is a kind of upper-construction. In terms of how to do science, Asimov mentions induction and deduction.

So what is the ultimate goal of doing science? At the very beginning, te byword of science, curiosity is used to help people find food. When food is no longer a problem for people, what is the point in pursuing science? Asimov does not explain this well in the chapter. In my opinion, like people use the curiosity to find food in the past, today people still use science to find "food". But today "food" refers not only to things people eat, but also more comfortable life. Science is used by politicians to better control their people. Because if people have no food to eat, no house to live in, they will rebel.