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.
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 always true when it comes to the deep and profound questions of reality.
All the following are assumptions made in science:
1) THAT THE LAWS OF PHYSICS ARE FIXED OR SLOWLY CHANGING (MOST CONSTANTS AND
LAW OF PHYSICS ARE KNOWN TO BE FAIRLY CONSTANT BUT IT IS NOT KNOWN, FOR EXAMPLE,
FOR CERTAIN THAT EVEN THE SPEED OF LIGHT HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE SAME AS IT IS NOW.)
2) THE LAWS OF PHYSICS ARE KNOWABLE BY THE HUMAN INTELLECT AND MODELABLE VIA
MATHEMATICAL FORMULA (MATHEMATICS IS A SIMPLE NUMERICAL LANGUAGE) AND ARE
AMENABLE TO UNDERSTANDING AND SOLUTION.
3) SIMPLE (LAB TESTABLE) SUBSETS OF PHENOMENA ARE REPRESENTATIVE OF MORE COMPLEX
SYSTEMS IN THAT NO EMERGENT PROPERTIES WILL ARISE IN THE LARGER SUBSETS WHICH ARE NOT
MEASURABLE IN THE SUBSET.
4) 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) SCIENCE MODELS ARE NOT ABSOLUTE AND WILL BE REPLACED OR AT LEAST AMENDED IF
AND WHEN THEIR 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)
6) REDUCTIONISM IS VALID IN MOST CASES (THE WHOLE IS JUST THE SUM OF THE PARTS)
7) LOCAL REALITY (WHAT HAPPENS LOCALLY CANNOT BE AFFECTED BY OTHER EVENTS WHICH
ARE SUFFICIENTLY DISTANT.)
8) PREVIOUS SCIENCE KNOWLEDGE BASE HAS NO MAJOR ERRORS (THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE 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) ALL OF THE UNIVERSE IS REDUCIBLE TO MATHEMATICAL FORMULA.
10) ALL THE UNIVERSE IS KNOWABLE BY THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD.