otto (06/19/82)
I have seen several items on the net to the effect that anyone (or any field) that engages in the *scientific method* is a science. I'm not sure this is correct. In fact, I would think that adhering to the scientific method would be a necessary but not sufficient condition for a field to be a science. A science is more than just an attitude toward how data is acquired and dealt with, it is the interpretation of that data according to an overall framework that explains how things fit together. It was the absence of such a framework that kept Alchemy from being a science (regardless of how methodical the Alchemists were in the collection of their data) and it was the presence of such a framework that permitted scientific status to Chemistry. It is this framework that has been termed the *paradigm* for the science (or pre-science) in question. George Otto Bell Labs, Indian Hill ----------------------