Page 10 - Cognition and Thinking of the history of Science and Technology
P. 10
The change of scientific methodology: from Why to How
• Because of the need of exchanges science has forged
a spirit of a community. Scientists across the ages had
the feeling to belong to a specific community, which
was neither cultural or linguistic but cognitive.
• This community developed its own methods. Methods
of pre-Modern science differed significantly from
those of Modern science.
• Ancient science sought for the meaning and aim of
the Cosmos. This kind of questions were gradually
banned by Modern science. They will be answered by
theology and later by philosophy too.
• Isaac Newton investigated the proportions of the
Temple of Solomon to find similarities with the
Universe, but this quest was not promoted by him as
part of his scientific activity. The Temple of Solomon
• This shift of scientific methodology from the question drawn by Newton
“why” to “how” is also related to the gradual
separation of science from philosophy.
• The methodological differences between pre-Modern
and Modern science apply to the scientific fields as
well. In pre-Modern science Astrology and Alchemy
were considered as part of the same cognitive field as
Astronomy or Physics.
