主题：【原创】谈谈数学之用----探讨数学与自然科学的关系 -- 不爱吱声

The following paragraphs are taken from one article of Jos Elstgeest. The reason that I cited this paper here is that I think it is one of the best definitions of science.

Jos, Consultant at the Regional Pedagogic Centre, Zeeland, Netherland.Was involved in developing materials for the African Primary Science Programme, later on a Unesco Programme for Science Education at the University of Lesotho. Author or Numerous articles on science education.

...And we might begin by considering what we mean when we use the word "science". Unfortunately, many people in the past (still many at now) have mistaken the results of science for science itself.

Science is not a list of discoveries. Science is a way of thinking.

Science is not a scheme for naming animals and plants. Science is the practice of looking at the world around us with an inquiring mind.

Science is not a mass of formulae. Science is the method by which the creative mind can construct order out of chaos and unity out of variety. Any formula is the result of such creativity.

Science is not a body of sterile knowledge. Science is the fertile skill of acquiring new knowledge to be added to the body and to keep it alive.

Science is not a string of dogmatic answers. Science is a logic approach to solving problems. Science is not the ultimate truth. Science is the careful search for truth. And this search sits between the question and the answer.

Science is the same process through which babies and toddlers go when they feel, look, touch and taste and generally explore anything that comes within their reach. Thus they begin to adjust them selves to the world in which they were born. It is of little use to lecture to a toddler on the hotness of the kitchen stove; each one of us has learned this by painful scientific discovery.