In the last few years on this board, I've noticed several people come up with the sweeping statement that science doesn't ask (or answer) "why" questions. I've also come across this claim occasionally elsewhere on the internet. The origin of this idea may be in another statement I've seen a few times: "Science answers the "how" questions and religion answers the "why" questions."
Another related claim was made by an EvC member recently:
quote:
"The proper use of "why" is to answer questions of purpose."
Message 143
Although answering questions of purpose is certainly
one use of "why", it was news to me that it is "the
proper use". Suddenly, I was being informed that writers of books, fiction and non-fiction, were all frequently using the word "why" improperly. That newspapers, magazines and other periodicals were all regularly using the word improperly. It appears that all of us in our day to day speech are often using the word improperly, as were past generations of English speakers. And, most relevant to this thread, scientists are regularly using the word improperly. Dictionaries also appear to be wrong when they describe usages that don't imply purpose.
So, this seems to me to be an extraordinary claim.
It's an extraordinary claim because words are sounds, and what determines their "proper use" is merely how they are actually used in a language at any given point in its history. Good dictionaries, like the Oxford English Dictionary, caught on to this in the nineteenth century, and realised that defining words and updating definitions was a matter of systematically studying how words were being used. This is because the evolution of language does not only mean the addition and subtraction of terms, but also changes in the meanings of words, or new meanings coming in alongside old ones.
It's a short cut to look in a dictionary for definitions which, if the research has been done well, should be good. In these days of the internet, it's also much easier than it was in the past for us to do our own research, and the best established current uses of any given word should be found by googling around. So, if we're disputing terms here on EvC, we have a useful tool.
Sometimes how and why questions can be nearly interchangeable. The cause of something or reason behind something (largely the territory or why or what) can be a process (largely how territory). So there can be three valid ways or more to ask pretty much the same question. But on other occasions, there can be significant differences.
For example, we could ask:
Why do birds sing
This is liable to produce "reason" answers. They sing to communicate. More specifically they mark territory, make mating calls etc. That's
why they sing.
Then we could ask:
How do birds sing?
That's liable to produce "process" answers. Physical explanations of
how the birds make the noises that they communicate with.
I hope you'll all agree that both of the above are legitimate scientific questions.
So, does anyone want to defend any or all of the following claims:
(1)
Science doesn't ask/answer "why" questions
(2)
The proper use of "why" is to answer questions of purpose.
(3)
Science answers the "how" questions and religion answers the "why" questions."
The reason for the thread is that I think that the claims above are wrong, and that there's a dubious meme going around the internet promoting the statements. I don't want to see this virus infecting EvC. I think we should pride ourselves here on being able to understand the breadth of the uses of an important word in our language. Why should we let poor
why be restricted and abused?
As well as inviting anyone to defend one or more of the statements, I'd like to hear from those of you who agree that science asks and answers many "why" questions, and any reasons or evidence you can think of that supports the view.
To save people being embarrassed by rash commitments, it might be wise to consider just a tiny bit of the evidence in relation to "why" and science.
Why do plants..
Why do animals.
A definition from:
Why - definition of why by The Free Dictionary
why (hw, w)
adv.
For what purpose, reason, or cause; with what intention, justification, or motive:
Why is the door shut? Why do birds sing?
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