- science (n.) - c.1300, "knowledge (of something) acquired by
study," also "a particular branch of knowledge," from Old French
science, from Latin scientia "knowledge," from sciens (genitive
scientis), present participle of scire "to know," probably
originally "to separate one thing from another, to distinguish,"
related to scindere "to cut, divide," from PIE root *skei- (cf.
Greek skhizein "to split, rend, cleave," Gothic skaidan, Old
English sceadan "to divide, separate;" see shed (v.)). Science,
since people must do it, is a socially embedded activity. It
progresses by hunch, vision, and intuition. Much of its change
through time does not record a closer approach to absolute
truth, but the alteration of cultural contexts that influence it
so strongly. Facts are not pure and unsullied bits of
information; culture also influences what we see and how we see
it. Theories, moreover, are not inexorable inductions from
facts. The most creative theories are often imaginative visions
imposed upon facts; the source