The Scientific Mind: Ever Searching, Never Certain

Leonard N. Ezegbunam

doi:10.15362/ijbs.v6i0.12

Authors

Leonard N. Ezegbunam The College of the Bahamas

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15362/ijbs.v6i0.12

Keywords:

Teaching, Physics

Abstract

This article examines the nature of scientific thought and looks at how "the scientific method" has propelled mankind's understanding of natural phenomena from the embryonic metaphysics to the present-day quantum and plasma physics. The scientific mind is always in search of ways to improve the present knowledge about nature, and is never satisfied that the present knowledge is "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth". "Science is grounded on a firm foundation of doubt" - Don Cupitt. "The moderns have subjected the phenomena of nature to the laws of mathematics" - Isaac Newton. The scholastic adage, "all men by nature desire to know" has driven philosophers, from as far back as the Aristotelian era, to ponder the question "what are the conditions of knowing?", Or, simply put "how do you know that you know something?” Under what conditions can something be called knowledge?

Author Biography

Leonard N. Ezegbunam, The College of the Bahamas

Lecturer and Coordinator of the Department of Physics Division of Natural Sciences College of The Bahamas

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