The Scientific Mind: Ever Searching, Never Certain

• Main Author: Leonard N. Ezegbunam
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of the Bahamas 2008-02-01
• Series: International Journal of Bahamian Studies
• Online Access: https://journals.sfu.ca/cob/index.php/files/article/view/12

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?