Difference Between hard Science and Soft Science
Science is the systematic approach to gather and organize scientific information in the form of predictions and testable explanations about the world around us. Science is based on the Laws of Newtonian Physics and the Theory of relativity. The work of scientists attempts to answer questions and present new evidence in support of their statements. The scope of sciences is vast and includes space, stars, earth and human body.
A major part of scientific research is experiment and observation. It is through experiments that scientists attempt to determine the nature and properties of matter. The accumulation and analysis of data are the basis of science. In fact, without the accumulated data it is impossible to make any progress in the subject of science.
The second part of science is the scientific method. The scientific method starts by hypothesis and deduction to a theory. Once the theory is tested scientifically, the hypothesis is discarded and the next theory becomes the accepted one. In other words, according to the laws of science, every hypothesis is subjected to close scrutiny and if found to be false, the theory is discarded and another theory is made.
Scientists are still busy researching the phenomena under study in order to find out the laws of nature and use them to test other theories. Scientists make use of the different methods in order to test theories. They formulate testable statements through scientific investigation and experiment to provide sufficient evidence for their statements. There are two types of scientific method – deductive and inductive. Deductive scientific method is more common in science fiction, where the scientists make use of deductive reasoning to explain and predict the results of an experiment or observation. Thus they have to use Occam’s razor to eliminate the possibilities of conflicting observations and data.
On the other hand, inductive method is used by most scientists who believe in the general principles of science and the unprovoked leaps they have made just to confirm their prior hypotheses. The principle of sufficient quantity and quality of evidence is applied here too. For instance, a scientist once made a great leap of imagination and said that the Earth is round. Later on, he was forced to back off his statement because of the lack of enough evidence but he was just confirming his theory.
According to William Dembsy, science is not a hard science as the term suggests. It is a progressive science that evolves with time. It also has two types of progress, forward and backward progression. Forward progression is the theory of generalizations made through repeated experiments or observation, while the opposite type of progress is the theory of strict science that makes use of only objective means. Thus we can see how many kinds of progress there are in science.