Current mind meandering...
What is "science?"
In ancient times, there were seven sciences: Grammar, Rhetoric, Logic, Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, Astronomy.
When I hear "science" without any context, my mind jumps first to hard sciences like Physics and Chemistry; fields that weren't even conceived back then.
It's hard to think of Music as a science today. I mean, everyone knows Music is an art, right?
Then there's medicine. Science or art? On the one hand, you have people in lab coats doing research that's undeniably science. On the other, you have "the healing arts" or even "the art of medicine." I don't think I've ever heard anyone refer to "the science of medicine."
Are the healing arts separate from the scientific aspect of medicine? Once I put it like that, it's obvious. Of course they are!
@sda A scientific hypothesis is usually defined as a proposition that is:
1. Reproducible by anyone, anywhere and;
2. Could be proved false.
Those two principles are embodied in the scientific method.
Scientific research is usually made by using the principle of induction. But a scientific hypothesis can be made up by pure random guessing too, as long as it obeys 1 and 2.
Medicine is not usually considered a science because a lot of what doctors do is based on their intuition and personal experiences. Which are not reproducible. Much like engineering, which also is not a science.
Of course both of those rely heavily on science as a tool.
You can have a scientific approach to music. For example a lot of boy bands just do what the market research tells them to do. From lyrics to social media activity.
Since most what we call music does not do that, we don't call music a science.
An interesting example. The following *IS* a perfectly valid scientific hypothesis.
"Water crystals can cure any disease through quantum effects as long as the patient repeats a sacred mantra for at least one hour per day, for 7 days."
@sda Look up a philosopher of science called Karl Popper with you want to know more.
Two great places to read about philosophy are:
The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy and The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.
@compass_straight_edge
Though philosophy isn't one of my burning passions, I have taken A philosophy course. If you define philosophy as "How do we know what we know?" and science as "How we know what we know," they're obviously very strongly related.
Yeah, I was just mentally meandering about the meaning of "science" as opposed to "the scientific method." I'm well aware of the latter, but the former seems to have as many meanings as there are people who've thought about it.
@sda science is justiciable, music is not