Scientific approach to knowledge

Describe the scientific approach to knowledge. How does it differ from other approaches ... 

Recall the discussion of the scientific approach to knowledge from Chapter 1. The theory that aU matter is composed of atoms grew out of observations and laws. The three most important laws that led to the development and acceptance of the atomic theory are the law of conservation of mass, the law of definite proportions, and the law of multiple proportions. 

It might be argued that not being limited by profound knowledge of, or belief in the known laws of nature (it is the feebleness of our understanding of those laws that make the purely scientific approach to innovation impractical. . . ), it is really the unusual thinkers such as science-fiction writers - people like Jules Verne come to mind - who take the lead in expanding our minds with respect to new materials functions and applications, as well as entirely new concepts for food, shelter, safety, transportation and communication. 

As will be seen in the following sections, the newly achieved scientific knowledge seems to support some of the ancient traditions by reaffirming the effects and properties described in yesterday s folklore. At the same time, a few of the qualities seem to be based on superstitions and religious beliefs that are no longer valid, and thus, most likely will never be proven by a scientific approach to the subject. 

The traditional scientific approach to pharmaceutical safety assessment was based largely on the concept of xenobiotic-mediated direct injury to the whole animal, organ, tissue, or cell manifested by death altered function or modified growth rates. As scientific knowledge advanced, it became apparent that a variety of mechanisms were involved including direct injury to cellular macromolecules (e.g., DNA, RNA, proteins) or organelles (e.g., mitochondria, endoplasmic reticulum), adaptive responses (e.g., induction or inhibition of cyto-... 

The production of animal-based foods from domestic animal species has generally involved two distinct steps. The first of these has concerned itself with the production of the animal and the second step has been the acquisition and further processing of the animal-based food product. A knowledge of both animal and food sciences is necessary for maximizing the quality of these food products. Traditionally, livestock production has been the concern of animal scientists, while investigation of food quality has been the concern of food scientists. There is a distinct need for a scientific approach to animal-based food products to encompass both of these disciplines. 

If specification is to be a rigorous discipline, tlien tliere must be a proper scientific approach to tlie subject. We suggest a new approach to specification, in which all specification knowledge is embedded within an axiomatic or rule-based theory, though this theory is nonnally concealed from users. This requires ... 

Tlie use of formal metliods mandates a rigorous and scientific approach to specification, so tliat reasoning about the system can be supported. One possible way, tliougli not tlie only one, is to formalise specification knowledge as an axiomatic system. If we not only construct tlie reasoning system but also build and animate tlie specification in tliis (axiomatic) way, then all operations in the system are provable and traceable. We have constructed tlic whole of the reasoning system (tliougli not tlie rest of the workbench) in tliis way and demonstrated its consistency and correctness. 

Scientific method (Section 6 6) A systematic approach to es tabhshmg new knowledge m which observations lead to laws laws to theories theories to testable hypotheses and hypotheses to expenments... 

Most of the applications of artificial intelligence in chemistry so far have not involved numerical computation as a primary goal. Yet there are aspects of the AI approach to problem-solving which have relevance to computation. In scientific computation, one could view the knowledge base as the set of equations, input variable values, and unit conversions relevant to the problem, and the inference engine the numerical method used to solve the equations. This paper describes such a software system,... 

The red book s recommendations regarding the conduct of risk assessment contained the following remedies for this potential and serious problem, and for ensuring in other ways that risk assessments are conducted with maximum adherence to whatever scientific knowledge is available, and with a consistent approach to dealing with the uncertainties in that knowledge (many of which relate to the need for extrapolation). 

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