Science

Science is demonstrative knowledge from necessary first principles: we know a thing scientifically when we know why it could not be otherwise.

Sacred doctrine is a science; it borrows its first principles from a higher science — the knowledge of God — just as music borrows its principles from arithmetic.

The reform of the sciences requires abandoning ancient authority and beginning again from the senses; knowledge is power, and the purpose of science is the relief of man's estate.

True science is the universal mathematics — a single method of clear deduction from first principles that can explain all natural phenomena through the laws of matter and motion.

Science proceeds by gathering propositions from phenomena by induction; hypotheses about hidden causes that go beyond what observation warrants have no place in experimental philosophy.

The only genuine science is either mathematics or experimental reasoning concerning matters of fact; anything that passes neither test deserves to be committed to the flames.

Science is synthetic a priori cognition: it achieves necessity and universality because the understanding prescribes its forms to nature, not because it reads them off from experience.

Science is organized common sense: it proceeds by the same inductive methods as ordinary observation, but with greater rigor, precision, and self-awareness about its own procedures.

There is no source of knowledge of the universe other than the intellectual manipulation of carefully verified observations; religion and philosophy offer no genuine alternative to science.