BASIC ASSUMPTIONS IN SCIENCE;

It is necessary to understand the assumptions which underpin all of science to realize that science is not absolutely objective truth.  All science is open to questions as to the validity of these basic assumptions in the particular case of interest.

"Concepts which have been proved to be useful in ordering things easily acquire such an authority over us that we forget their human origin and accept them as invariable."  Albert Einstein

The following assumptions are somewhat like axioms in mathematics; that is, these issues are assumed to be true but cannot be proven to be true.  Science has a limited ability to prove that the assumptions are true when it comes to the deep and profound questions of reality. 

The following are some of the basic;  "Assumptions made in science:"

1) IT IS ASSUMED THAT THE LAWS OF PHYSICS ARE CHANGING OVER VERY LONG PERIODS OF TIME.  IT IS KNOWN THAT THEY HAVE CHANGED VERY LITTLE OVER THE APPARENT AGE OF THE UNIVERSE, BUT IT IS POSSIBLE THAT CERTAIN CONCLUSIONS SUCH AS THE AGE AND ORIGIN OF THE UNIVERSE ARE SIGNIFICANTLY IN ERROR. (MOST CONSTANTS AND LAW OF PHYSICS ARE KNOWN TO BE FAIRLY CONSTANT OVER EVEN GEOLOGICAL TIME, BUT IT IS NOT KNOWN, FOR EXAMPLE, FOR CERTAIN THAT EVEN THE SPEED OF LIGHT HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE SAME AS IT IS NOW.  IT IS POSSIBLE THAT THE LAWS ARE CHANGING AT AN EXTREMELY LOW LEVEL IN WAYS (COMBINATIONS OF MORE THAN ONE LAW CHANGING) WHICH GIVES THE APPEARANCE OF BEING UNCHANGING.

2) IT IS ASSUMED THAT THE LAWS OF PHYSICS ARE KNOWABLE BY THE HUMAN INTELLECT AND CAN BE MODELED VIA MATHEMATICAL FORMULA (MATHEMATICS IS A SIMPLE NUMERICAL LANGUAGE) TO AN UNLIMITED DEGREE OF ACCURACY AND ARE AMENABLE TO COMPLETE UNDERSTANDING AND MATHEMATICAL SOLUTION.

3) IT IS ASSUMED THAT SIMPLE (LAB TESTABLE) SUBSETS OF PHENOMENA ARE REPRESENTATIVE OF MORE COMPLEX SYSTEMS AND THAT NO EMERGENT PROPERTIES WILL ARISE IN THE LARGER SUBSETS WHICH ARE NOT MEASURABLE IN THE SUBSET.   THE OPPOSITE COULD BE THE TRUE.   A Defense of Emergent Downward Causation. 

4) IT IS ASSUMED THAT MODELS OF THE LAWS OF PHYSICS ARE REPRESENTATIVE OVER MORE THAN THE CURRENT PARAMETER RANGE OF INTEREST  (IN MOST SITUATIONS LAB TESTS HAVE A VERY LIMITED RANGE OF VARIABLES AND SCIENCE MUST USUALLY WORK WITH A VERY SIMPLIFIED MODEL OF REALITY TO ALLOW REASONABLE MATHEMATICAL ANALYSIS.)

5) IT IS ASSUMED TO BE UNDERSTOOD BY SCIENTISTS, THAT SCIENCE MODELS ARE NOT ABSOLUTE AND WILL BE REPLACED OR AT LEAST AMENDED IF AND WHEN THEY ARE FOUND INVALID BY SOME FUTURE FINDING (IT CAN NEVER BE KNOWN THAT THE NEXT TEST BEYOND CONDITIONS OF PREVIOUS TESTS WILL NOT INVALIDATE THE MODEL)  SADLY, THE MODELS OFTEN BECOME DOGMA AND ARE RARELY REPLACED EVEN WHEN A SIGNIFICANT BODY OF EVIDENCE IS NOT EXPLAINABLE BY THE MODEL.   The Future of Physics.

6) IT IS ASSUMED THAT REDUCTIONISM IS VALID IN MOST PHYSICS EXPERIMENTS (THE WHOLE IS JUST THE SUM OF THE PARTS) AND THAT EMERGENT PROPERTIES ONLY ARISE IN MORE COMPLEX SITUATIONS.  THIS COULD BE CALLED THE BOTTOM UP APPROACH.  A Different Universe: Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down.

7) LOCAL REALITY IS ASSUMED (WHAT HAPPENS LOCALLY IS ASSUMED TO NOT BE AFFECTED BY OTHER EVENTS WHICH ARE SUFFICIENTLY DISTANT.)   SCIENCE HAS RECENTLY PROVED IN THE LABORATORY THAT THIS IS NOT ALWAYS TRUE!  The Non-Local Universe: The New Physics and Matters of the Mind.

8) IT IS ASSUMED THAT THE PREVIOUS SCIENCE KNOWLEDGE BASE HAS NO MAJOR ERRORS. (THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE, HOWEVER, PROVES THAT MAJOR ERRORS ARE THE RULE RATHER THAN THE EXCEPTION, BUT SCIENTISTS MUST ASSUME CERTAIN TRUTHS TO AVOID HAVING TO REPEAT ALL EXPERIMENTS DONE IN THE PAST RELATIVE TO THE EXPERIMENTAL SETUP.)

9) IT IS ASSUMED THAT ALL OF THE UNIVERSE IS REDUCIBLE TO MATHEMATICAL FORMULA.

10) IT IS ASSUMED THAT ALL THE UNIVERSE IS COMPLETELY KNOWABLE BY THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD.

A SEARCH IN GOOGLE FOR "SCIENCE ASSUMPTIONS" (WITHOUT THE QUOTATION MARKS) WILL GIVE 9 MILLION HITS!  MUCH OF SCIENCE IS UNQUESTIONABLY NOT ABSOLUTE WHEN IT HAS 9 MILLION ASSOCIATIONS WITH ASSUMPTIONS.

The Ten Assumptions of Science: Toward a New Scientific Worldview

The Basic Assumptions of Science and their Limits

Value of Examining Assumptions. (Near bottom of page.)

Ten Myths about Science.

Assumptions in Science.'

Assumptions of Science

Postmodern Philosophy of Science: Assumptions of Modern Science

Why is materialism NOT a valid assumption?

The Great Unconformity.  (Could it be that some science assumption about the age of the earth and geologic processes is not correct?)