NATURAL SCIENCE
human endeavor with the goal of increasing our knowledge of nature (the world around us)

physical sciences -- biological sciences

physical sciences:

• physics
• chemistry
• astronomy (obs. astronomy, astrophysics, cosmology,..)
• earth sciences (geology, geography, geophysics)
• .....

physics:

• most fundamental, most mature of all sciences;
• basic fund for understanding the workings of the universe;
• is experimental science:
  the ultimate basis of what we know of the universe and its functioning is based on observation of nature and results of experiments;
• but experimental facts have to be filtered and digested by human intelligence;
• experimental facts are meaningless without guidance and interpretation by theoretical concepts
• circle of science:
  observation/measurement -- hypothesis -- guidance for further observation -- observation -- update of hypothesis (refinement and formulation of theory, or discarding of hypothesis/theory) -- observation -- .....
• theory cannot be proved by observation,
  but can be made more plausible
  or can be disproved by observation
• science does not claim to have the ultimate truth
  
• scientific statements (theories,..) are falsifiable

objectivity

• imaginatively constructed theories form essential underpinnings of highly developed science (e.g. physics)
• question: are constructs and/or underlying facts influenced by extra-scientific considerations?
• consensus among scientists: try to eliminate personal bias as far as possible;
  confirmation by other experiments, independent considerations needed before new idea/finding is accepted;
• openness and accessibility of science make it self-correcting in the long run,
  any existing bias eventually found out, provided objectivity remains the guiding ideal.

role of beauty:
aesthetics plays role in construction of scientific theories and adoption of scientific concepts
guiding principles:
beauty, simplicity, economy of means;
wide agreement among scientists about which theories are beautiful and which ugly.