discuss the limitation of science?

Answer 1

At its core, science is the study of the universe we live in. The "process" of science involves making observations about something that happens in the universe, making a prediction (called a hypothesis) about future events based on those observations, and then testing the prediction to see if it is valid.

Example: This morning, I observed that the sun rose in the east. Based on that observation, I predict that the sun will rise in the east tomorrow. To test my hypothesis, I will go outside before dawn tomorrow with a working compass. I will wait for the sun to rise, and when it does, I will record the direction the compass says it rises from. If the sun does, indeed, rise in the east tomorrow, I will modify my hypothesis to predict that the sun will rise in the east EVERY morning. To test this modification, I would have to go out before dawn with my compass on a lot of mornings to see where the sun rises.

From this model, you can see the major limitations of science right away. First, science cannot deal with anything it cannot test. That's why science cannot prove God's existence, for example. Science will never be able to address such questions until and unless valid experiments are devised to test them. For the second major limitation of science, take a look at my modified hypothesis. I predicted that the sun would rise in the east EVERY MORNING. With every day that passes, I add a new data point to my collection of observations. Unless time stops, I will never have data for every single morning, so I will never be able to say *definitively* that the sun rises in the east on *every* morning. Science can rarely, if ever, absolutely prove a hypothesis.

This is both an advantage and a limitation of science. The limitation is obvious. Unlike mathematics, science hardly ever gets to write anything in stone and set it out as an incontrovertible truth from now until forever. Even gravity is still up for debate and revision. This flexibility, however, enables science as a whole to grow alongside our knowledge of how the universe works.

And that's the fun part, really.

Answer 2

Science is an empirical search for the truth. In other words, observations determine what is or isn't true. So any truth which can not be validated by observation is beyond the scope of science. There are many such truths, however most modern people don't like to admit it. Most of the ancient Greeks took a more rationalist approach to nature. They believed that the truth could be obtained by just thinking about it.

Answer 3

I think the biggest limitation is that one cannot prove a theory, only disprove it. The standard example is Einstein´s theory of gravity replacing the one of Newton, which was incapable to predict correctly the precession of the orbit of Mercury. However, we know that Einstein´s relativity is incompatible with quantum mechanics.

For lack of better, we stick to both.

Thus the progress of science depends in part of the appearence of another genius to take the next correct theoretical step. But the Einsteins, Darwins and Newtons are born only once a generation.

Answer 4

Science cannot fully accept things that cannot be experimentally verified unlike pure mathematics.

Answer 5

the limitation of science? it is not a PANACEA... meaning, it is not the answser to everything. there will always be things that science can never answer. that is why we turn to religion.

Answer 6

whats comes up must come down and for every action theres a reaction

Answer 7

not much, if any