What is Science?

== what i think science is ==
figuring out how things work, basically.  
but what about observing?  only if it's PART of that [like the finger only being "shooting" if it's holding a gun].  part of the plan [means-ends chain].  [note also:  not merely observing WHETHER something works in a practical sense, or trial and error.  have to figure out WHY there was an error, and WHY there was a success.] neither the telescope (technology) nor the "writing down" of what is observed with the telescope are "the science".  the science is figuring out how things work (and telescopes and writing down observations are merely TOOLS to ACCOMPLISH THAT GOAL.  building THEORETICAL UNDERSTANDING.  explanations [of the observations etc], cause and effect models...
even all the stuff about "falsifiability" as a rule are just tools to accomplish that goal.
and yes the same can be applied to itself:  figuring out what works to figure out what works.  this is known as "methodology".  the theoretical model of methods, and understanding how and why they work [or don't work, or can go wrong, etc.].[so...even "empiricism" is somewhat SUBORDINATE?  just quite unavoidably NECESSARY.  it's so broad]
== Further reading on the subject ==
Carrier:
*"any method of reliably generating hypotheses, and testing them against the evidence"
*it's "just philosophy with better data"
*based on the values of curiosity, empiricism, progress, and logic
*the main advancement of the "scientific revolution" was "the recognition that more reliable methods are more reliable"
**and (or?), paraphrasing: it was revolutionary this time because they were able to finally convince the ELITES of the empire that it was USEFUL and valuable to the power and wealth of the empire
*[link] "If you are only theoretical and unempirical, you get flights of fancy, mythology, no real progress in understanding reality (think, Homeric Greece, Ancient Isreal). If you are empirical but untheoretical, you can accomplish a lot of practical craft knowledge, but you can’t really get at anything deeper. Science requires the productive unification of both, building on a method of formulating hypotheses (models; causal and structural theories), then developing reliable ways to test them for explanatory accuracy."  
== see also: ==
*theoretical knowledge
*reality
*truth
*epistemology
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