Path: ...!fu-berlin.de!uni-berlin.de!individual.net!not-for-mail From: Aidan Kehoe Newsgroups: sci.lang Subject: Re: World Science Day for Peace and Development (10 November) Date: Tue, 12 Nov 2024 06:52:45 +0000 Lines: 42 Message-ID: <87a5e5eyf6.fsf@parhasard.net> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Trace: individual.net +xows6XESevgDVn0cs9RTQFlO15HfNQKj/gN5vWlloV+3APh0d Cancel-Lock: sha1:6/BfJmFN6kPCdUb4VmZ/CON+rjA= sha1:aeMGxIfaUhbQCyNQPRRbRf2L7ec= sha256:TvJmNH7B+RrUxki6tLlGLfZCpgoKPlDO+YQq3tfqbEM= User-Agent: Gnus/5.101 (Gnus v5.10.10) XEmacs/21.5-b35 (Linux-aarch64) Bytes: 2657 Ar an dara lá déag de mí na Samhain, scríobh Ross Clark: > On 11/11/2024 11:08 p.m., Athel Cornish-Bowden wrote: > > On 2024-11-11 09:43:56 +0000, Ross Clark said: > > > >> zzzzzz....Oh! UNESCO, 2002- > >> > >> "It might be thought that language isn't a relevant topic on this day..." > >> But Crystal has a few words to say about alternative terms for > >> linguistics (or some sub- or super-field thereof) which involve the word > >> "science": language science(s), linguistic science, speech science, > >> phonetic science > >> > >> OK, still boring. Let's move on. > > > > Best to omit the "science" from all of these. > > > > "Anything with 'science' in its name isn't a science." See > > https://quoteinvestigator.com/2015/06/26/not-science/ > > > > Think of Christian Science, social science, political science, etc. > > > ...not to mention Religious Science (est. 1922), and Dianetics: The Modern > Science of Mental Health (est.1950), forerunner of S****tology. > > It is also true that in some academic realms, being a Science gets you a > higher level of funding than being an Art. > > Just where the boundary of "science" is to be drawn is a topic I've long > since fulfilled my lifetime quota of arguing about. For me Computer Science is a science (there are underlying facts that have needed to be discovered by careful study by humans, e.g. the superiority of Quicksort, or the fast inverse square root constant), but when Computer Science is taught at undergraduate level the bulk of the coursework is software development. Software development is not a science, it is a craft. -- ‘As I sat looking up at the Guinness ad, I could never figure out / How your man stayed up on the surfboard after fourteen pints of stout’ (C. Moore)