java physics

Science is the organized systematic enterprise that gathers knowledge about the world and condenses the knowledge into testable laws and principles. Its defining traits are

first, the confirmation of discoveries and support of hypotheses through repetition by independent investigators, preferably with different tests and analyses;
second, mensuration, the quantitative description of the phenomena on universally accepted scales;


third, economy, by which the largest amount of information is abstracted into a simple and precise form, which can be unpacked to re-create detail;
fourth, heuristics, the opening of avenues to new discovery and interpretation.

Physical science, like all the natural sciences, is concerned with describing and relating to one another those experiences of the surrounding world that are shared by different observers and whose description can be agreed upon. One of its principal fields, physics, deals with the most general properties of matter, such as the behaviour of bodies under the influence of forces, and with the origins of those forces. In the discussion of this question, the mass and shape of a body are the only properties that play a significant role, its composition often being irrelevant. Physics, however, does not focus solely on the gross mechanical behaviour of bodies, but shares with chemistry the goal of understanding how the arrangement of individual atoms into molecules and larger assemblies confers particular properties. Moreover, the atom itself may be analyzed into its more basic constituents and their interactions.

The present opinion, rather generally held by physicists, is that these fundamental particles and forces, treated quantitatively by the methods of quantum mechanics, can reveal in detail the behaviour of all material objects. This is not to say that everything can be deduced mathematically from a small number of fundamental principles, since the complexity of real things defeats the power of mathematics or of the largest computers. Nevertheless, whenever it has been found possible to calculate the relationship between an observed property of a body and its deeper structure, no evidence has ever emerged to suggest that the more complex objects, even living organisms, require that special new principles be invoked, at least so long as only matter, and not mind, is in question. The physical scientist thus has two very different roles to play: on the one hand, he has to reveal the most basic constituents and the laws that govern them; and, on the other, he must discover techniques for elucidating the peculiar features that arise from complexity of structure without having recourse each time to the fundamentals.

This modern view of a unified science, embracing fundamental particles, everyday phenomena, and the vastness of the Cosmos, is a synthesis of originally independent disciplines, many of which grew out of useful arts. The extraction and refining of metals, the occult manipulations of alchemists, and the astrological interests of priests and politicians all played a part in initiating systematic studies that expanded in scope until their mutual relationships became clear, giving rise to what is customarily recognized as modern physical science.

Excerpt from the Encyclopedia Britannica without permission.

Skepticism is the philosophical attitude of doubting the knowledge claims set forth in various areas and asking what they are based upon, what they actually establish, and whether they are indubitable or necessarily true. Skeptics have thus challenged the alleged grounds of accepted assumptions in metaphysics, in science, in morals and manners, and especially in religion.

Skeptical philosophical attitudes are prominent throughout the course of Western philosophy; as early as the 5th century BC the Eleatic school of thinkers denied that reality could be described in terms of ordinary experience. Evidence of Skeptical thought appears even earlier in non-Western philosophy, in particular in the Upanisads, philosophic texts of the later Vedic period (c. 1000-c. 600 BC) in India.

Pyrrhon of Elis (c. 360-c. 272 BC), credited with founding Greek Skepticism, sought mental peace by avoiding commitment to any particular view; his approach gave rise in the lst century BC to Pyrrhonism, proponents of which sought to achieve epoche (suspension of judgment) by systematically opposing various kinds of knowledge claims. One of its later leaders, Sextus Empiricus (2nd or 3rd century BC), challenged the claims of dogmatic philosophers to know more than what is evident. His goal was the state of ataraxia, wherein a person willing to suspend judgment would be relieved of the frustration of not knowing reality and would live, without dogma, according to appearances, customs, and natural inclination. The Pyrrhonians criticized Academic Skepticism, first developed in Plato's Academy in Greece in the 3rd century BC; the Academics argued that nothing could be known, and that only reasonable or probable standards could be established for knowledge.

Academic Skepticism survived into the Middle Ages in Europe and was considered and refuted by St. Augustine, whose conversion to Christianity convinced him that faith could lead to understanding. Among Islamic philosophers also there arose an antirational Skepticism that encouraged the acceptance of religious truths by faith.

Modern Skepticism dates from the 16th century, when the accepted Western picture of the world was radically altered by the rediscovery of ancient learning, by newly emerging science, and by voyages of exploration, as well as by the Reformation, which manifested fundamental disagreement among Roman Catholics and Protestants about the bases and criteria of religious knowledge. Prominent among modern Skeptical philosophers is Michel de Montaigne, who in the 17th century opposed science and all other disciplines and encouraged acceptance, instead, of whatever God reveals. His view was refuted in part by Pierre Gassendi, who remained doubtful about knowledge of reality but championed science as useful and informative. Reni Descartes also refuted Montaigne's Skepticism, maintaining that by doubting all beliefs that could possibly be false, a person can discover one genuinely indubitable truth: "I think, therefore I am" (cogito ergo sum), and that from that truth one can establish the existence of God and the existence of the external world, which Descartes claimed can be known through mathematical principles. At the end of the 17th century Pierre Bayle employed Skeptical arguments to urge that rational activity be abandoned in favour of pursuit of the conscience.

In the 18th century David Hume assembled some of the most important and enduring Skeptical arguments. He claimed that the very basis of modern science, the method of induction--by which regularities observed in the past justify the prediction that they will continue--is based on the uniformity of nature, itself an unjustifiable metaphysical assumption. Hume also sought to demonstrate that the notion of causality, the identity of the self, and the existence of an external world lacked any basis. In rebuttal, Immanuel Kant maintained that, in order to have and describe even the simplest experience, certain universal and necessary conditions must prevail.

In the 19th century Soren Kierkegaard developed religious Existentialist thought from an irrational Skepticism, asserting that certainty can be found only by making an unjustifiable "leap into faith." Nonreligious Existentialist writers, such as Albert Camus in the 20th century, have claimed that rational and scientific examination of the world shows it to be unintelligible and absurd, but that it is necessary for the individual to struggle with that absurdity. In the 20th century other forms of Skepticism have been expressed among Logical Positivist and Linguistic philosophers.

Excerpt from the Encyclopedia Britannica without permission.

Superstition is a belief, half-belief, or practice for which there appears to be no rational substance. Those who use the term imply that they have certain knowledge or superior evidence for their own scientific, philosophical, or religious convictions. An ambiguous word, it probably cannot be used except subjectively. With this qualification in mind, superstitions may be classified roughly as religious, cultural, and personal.

Every religious system tends to accumulate superstitions as peripheral beliefs--a Christian, for example, may believe that in time of trouble he will be guided by the Bible if he opens it at random and reads the text that first strikes his eye. Often one person's religion is another one's superstition: Constantine called paganism superstition; Tacitus called Christianity a pernicious superstition; Roman Catholic veneration of relics, images, and the saints is dismissed as superstitious to many Protestants; Christians regard many Hindu practices as superstitious; and adherents of all "higher" religions may consider the Australian Aborigine's relation to his totem superstitious. Finally, all religious beliefs and practices may seem superstitious to the person without religion.

Superstitions that belong to the cultural tradition (in some cases inseparable from religious superstition) are enormous in their variety. Many persons, in nearly all times, have held, seriously or half-seriously, irrational beliefs concerning methods of warding off ill or bringing good, foretelling the future, and healing or preventing sickness or accident. A few specific folk traditions, such as belief in the evil eye or in the efficacy of amulets, have been found in most periods of history and in most parts of the world. Others may be limited to one country, region, or village, to one family, or to one social or vocational group.

Finally, people develop personal superstitions: a schoolboy writes a good examination paper with a certain pen, and from then on that pen is lucky; a horseplayer may be convinced that gray horses run well for him.

Superstition has been deeply influential in history. Even in so-called modern times, in a day when objective evidence is highly valued, there are few people who would not, if pressed, admit to cherishing secretly one or two irrational beliefs or superstitions.

Excerpt from the Encyclopedia Britannica without permission.