root wrote in message ...
Richard Alexander wrote:
Historical events are--surprise!--History, not Science, and History is
distinct from Science.

But it might take science to reveal history. The distinction isn't
as clear as you suggest.

There is a difference between science involvement and being a science.
Many church auditoriums are designed through the science of acoustics,
but that doesn't mean that religion is a science.

Certain terms have taken on a life of their own. A "quantum leap" or
"quantum advance" is used where we would normally say a "huge leap" or
a "huge advance." Of course, a true quantum leap is an extremely small
thing, the difference, say, in electron orbits. Likewise, saying that
something is not scientific has become akin to saying that something
is erroneous. In reality, something is scientific if it is observed
under the scientific method, which includes testability. Very few
things qualify, but that should not be taken to mean that everything
else is untrustworthy or false.

There may be some gray area. Is Engineering a Science? I would
generally say it is not, because Engineering is the application of
knowledge, not the exploration for additional knowledge. Even so, it
is quite possible or even likely that a cutting-edge engineering
project will require real, old-fashioned Science to reach a successful
conclusion. And, is Engineering scientific? Well, it can be--though
Engineering can also be intuitive. Intuitive projects are not
scientific, at least partly because they are not quantified (and I
distinguish between intuition and mathematical talent, as Gauss is
said to have possessed).