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Comment by nickpeterson | Hacker News Reader

Similarly, if you have science in the name, no science is generally involved: Political Science, Computer Science, Exercise Science...

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Computer science at least in my experience of it, definitely involves lots of science. I can't speak for the others.

This one also illustrates that if it has "science" in it, it can't get a joke...

Are you sure the parent was joking? Also, are you sure I wasn't? ;)

In which way - interested - does it involve science or what is your definition of science?

I'm not the OP, but effective debugging makes use of the scientific method.

Not OP, but maths, maths again, and still more maths.

Type systems, algorithm proof, complexity, boolean logic...

And if we go into CS applications: games are maths, bioinformatics is maths, accounting is maths, ...

Or in the implementation: electronics, semi-conductors physic, eletrical engineering, ...

I wouldn't think math is science. Otherwise, the acronym STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) would be awfully redundant. And yeah, I'd say CS is closer to math than science, except maybe when you look at things like manufacturing processes and such, which is more of an engineering or materials science track.

I was thinking of science in terms of "uses the scientific method." This is a pretty loose definition, but I think it's a reasonable one. I find I regularly apply the scientific method in terms of the observe, hypothesize, test, revise cycle.

The quote is of Hal Abelson and one of his lectures at MIT disagrees with you [1]. The introduction is amusing and opens with Computer Science has nothing to do with Computers and little to do with Science. It's really a poorly named field. I believe it's a bit tongue in cheek and not defining science entirely by "uses the scientific method".

[0] https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Hal_Abelson

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Op3QLzMgSY

At least Literary Studies were honest enough not to call themselves a science (in English anyway).

AE Housman called it a science. Of course, the way Housman did it _was_ a science.

(If you haven't read Housman's prose, incidentally, it's a fine as his poetry, and very different.)

The scientific method is a core part of research design in poli sci. We have entire classes dedicated to Karl Popper and fun topics like that. We do real research with hypotheses, testable results, and conclusions. It is science, even if it isn't hard science.

Dunno why it matters....back to your rant.

Not trying to turn my original joke into an argument, but does applying the scientific method make something a science in your mind? By that definition, couldn't any subject be a science?

Joke flew over my head. Sorry too touchy these days...

What is science other than the application of the scientific method?

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