| 释义 |
scientific, a. and n.|saɪənˈtɪfɪk|
[ad. late L. scientificus, f. scient-em, pr. pple. of scīre to know (or perh., less regularly, f. scienti-am knowledge: see science) + -ficus making, f. facĕre to make. Cf. F. scientifique, Sp. científico, Pg., It. scientifico.
The ultimate source of the word is to be sought in Aristotelian expressions like that in Post. Anal. i. ii. (71 b), where it is said that unless certain essential conditions are fulfilled, a syllogism will not be demonstrative, ‘for it will not produce knowledge’ (ού γὰρ ποιήσει ἐπιοτήµην, rendered in the translation attributed to Boethius ‘non enim faciet scientiam’). In pursuance of the suggestion of this phrase, the translator in the same chapter renders συλλογισµὸν ἐπιστηµονικόν by ‘syllogismum epistemonicon, id est facientem scire’, and in 1. vi. uses ‘scientificæ demonstrationes’ for αἱ ἐπιστηµονικαὶ ἀποδείξεις. In this application the word survived in Latin text-books of logic down to Aldrich, though some of them have instead scientiam pariens or faciens scire.
From having been thus employed as a contextual interpretation of ἐπιστηµονικός (pertaining to science or knowledge; = med.L. scientialis), the L. scientificus was afterwards used inappropriately (instead of scientialis) in the 13th c. translation of Aristotle's Ethics (vi. i. §6) to render this Gr. word where it designates the theoretic as opposed to the deliberative faculty of the soul. This use was followed by Aquinas; it is in this application that the It. scientifico is used by Dante, and the F. scientifique by Oresme (14th c.). Hence the prevailing sense of the adj. in subsequent Latin, in the Rom. langs., and in English, has been ‘pertaining to science’; it is merely by a contextual accident that in phrases like ‘scientific investigation’ the word admits of being interpreted in its etymological meaning. Aquinas also uses scientificus for ‘expert in science, learned’, a sense which still survived in 16th c. Latin. The lateness of the first appearance of the word in English is remarkable.]
A. adj.
†1. Of a syllogism, a proof: Producing knowledge, demonstrative. Cf. scientifical a. 1. Obs.
To be distinguished from the mod. use in phrases like ‘scientific proof’, ‘scientific evidence’, where the adj. has the sense 3 or 4 below.
1637Gillespie Eng. Pop. Cerem. iii. ix. 198 Aquinas..maketh the Law of Nature to containe certaine principles, having the same place in practicall reason, which the principles of scientifike demonstrations have in speculative reason. 1667South Serm. (1823) I. 360 No man who first trafficks into a foreign country has any scientific evidence that there is such a country, but by report, which can produce no more than a moral certainty.
2. a. Of persons, books, institutions, etc.: Occupied in or concerned with science or the sciences. In early use, † concerned with the ‘sciences’ or ‘liberal arts’, opposed to mechanical.
1589Puttenham Eng. Poesie i. i. (Arb.) 19 The premises considered, it giueth to the name and profession no smal dignitie and preheminence, aboue all other artificers, Scientificke or Mechanicall. 1815Banks in Fragm. Rem. Sir H. Davy (1858) 208 By the more brilliant discoveries you have made, the reputation of the Royal Society has been exalted in the opinion of the scientific world. 1822Lamb Elia ii. Detached Th. on Bks. & Reading, In this catalogue of books which are no books..I reckon Court Calendars,..Scientific Treatises, Almanacks, Statutes at Large. 1884F. Temple Relat. Relig. & Sci. i. (1885) 4 The scientific man often asserts that he cannot find God in Science. 1888Rolleston & Jackson Anim. Life Pref. 7, I may mention that scientific periodicals on the general subject and its branches have since 1870 been almost doubled.
¶b. Having scientific knowledge or given to scientific study of something. nonce-use.
1877Ruskin Fors Clav. No. 75 VII. 63 Behold, there is the Universe; and here are we, the British public, in the exact middle of it, and scientific of it in the accuratest manner. 1884Ibid. No. 95 VIII. 257 Most men are not intended to be any wiser than their cocks and bulls—duly scientific of their yard and pasture, peacefully nescient of all beyond.
3. Of or pertaining to science or the sciences; of the nature of science.
1722Wollaston Relig. Nat. iii. 50 Who by a proper exercise of his mind in scientific studies first opens and enlarges its capacity. 1812Sir H. Davy Chem. Philos. 2 Analogy confirmed by experiment becomes Scientific truth. 1859Darwin Orig. Spec. xiv. 485 It is quite possible that forms now generally acknowledged to be merely varieties may hereafter be thought worthy of specific names,..and in this case scientific and common language will come into accordance. 1871Morley Carlyle in Crit. Misc. Ser. i. (1878) 163 The familiar distinction between the poetic and the scientific temper is another way of stating the same difference. 1902Encycl. Brit. XXVIII. Pref. 15 To study religions in a scientific spirit is to admit that all religions, if not equally good, spring at least from a common source.
4. a. Of an art, practice, operation, or method: Based upon or regulated by science, as opposed to mere traditional rules or empirical dexterity. So of a worker or agent: Guided by a knowledge of science, acting according to scientific principles.
1678Moxon Mech. Dyalling 3 Scientifick Dyalists..have found out Rules, to mark out the irregular motion of the Shaddow... And these Rules of adjusting the motion of the Shaddow to the motion of the Sun may be called Scientifick Dyalling. 1903Chamberlain Sp. Glasgow 6 Oct. 42 The one is profitless taxation, the other scientific taxation.
b. Devised on scientific principles. Also, more loosely: systematic, methodical.
1794Sullivan View Nat. II. 320 Had the Romans any thing so scientific as a sun-dial, even during the second Punic war? 1863Geo. Eliot Let. 18 July (1956) IV. 94 He [sc. Renan] has always seemed to me remarkable as a French mind that is at once ‘scientific’ (in the German sense) and eminently tender and reverent towards the forms in which the religious sentiment has incarnated itself. 1878Disraeli in Times 11 Nov. 10/4 But our North-Western frontier [of India] is a haphazard and not a scientific frontier. 1976National Observer (U.S.) 13 Mar. 1/6 The Observer tally on abortion, however, is consistent with the findings of other recent, more ‘scientific’ polls.
c. Characterized by ‘science’ or trained skill.
1792in G. B. Buckley Fresh Light on 18th Cent. Cricket (1935) 231 Brighton v. Lord Winchilsea, Hon. Mr. Bligh, Mr. Smith & Mr. Hale with 7 approved scientific men from the County of Hants. a1817Jane Austen Persuasion (1818) IV. viii. 155 She had feelings for the tender, spirits for the gay, attention for the scientific, and patience for the wearisome; and had never liked a concert better. 1833J. Nyren Young Cricketer's Tutor 29 In this accomplishment lies the distinction between the scientific player and the random batsman. 1851H. Melville Moby Dick II. xxv. 181 This accomplished swordsman..once more makes a scientific dash at the mass. 1862Lillywhite's Cricket Scores & Biogr. I. 440 William Searle..was..as a batsman..steady and scientific. 1885Field 17 Jan. 82/3 A strong wind and a spongy ground were against a scientific display [of football]. 1891W. G. Grace Cricket xi. 300 From that year [sc. 1859] until 1876 he [sc. R. Daft] was the most scientific batsman amongst the professionals.
5. Of, pertaining to, or inspired by Christian Science. U.S.
1875M. B. Eddy Science & Health viii. 428 The spirituality that abstracts all attention from the body, never manipulates and is the only positive position of scientific healing. Ibid. 429 To be able to discern the cause of sickness after the scientific mode of our Master, depends on your spirituality. 1919H. Crane Let. 7 Mar. (1965) 13, I feel quite certain that Mrs. Brooks is afflicted with consumption against which she is doubtless putting up a strenuous Scientific fight.
6. Special collocations: scientific farming, farming conducted according to theories based on science rather than on tradition; also scientific farmer; scientific fiction now rare = science fiction; scientific humanism, a theory that humanism should be based on scientific empiricism (see quot. 1909); a doctrine that man should direct the future and the welfare of the human race by using the scientific methods he applies to other species and to the material environment; so scientific humanist; scientific management orig. U.S., management of a business, industry, etc., according to principles of efficiency derived from experiments in methods of work, production, payment, etc., and esp. from time-and-motion studies; scientific method, a method of procedure that has characterized natural science since the 17th century, consisting in systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses; scientific notation, a system of representing numbers as a product of a number between 1 and 10 (or 0·1 and 1) and a power of 10; scientific revolution, a rapid and far-reaching development in science; spec. the developments occurring in the twentieth century that have involved the introduction of automation, atomic energy, electronics, etc.
1850C. Kingsley Alton Locke II. iv. 43 He had one scientific farmer after another, staying in his house as a friend.
1789A. Young Jrnl. 19 June in Trav. France (1792) I. 115, I wish my brethren to stick to their scientific farming, and leave the practical to those that understand it. 1886C. M. Yonge Chantry House I. xvii. 159 [He] worked off his superfluous energy in scientific farming. 1902A. Bennett Anna of Five Towns ix. 205 A great landowner is exhibiting the beauties of scientific farming for the behoof of his villagers.
1876W. H. L. Barnes in W. H. Rhodes Caxton's Book 7 The great master of scientific fiction, Jules Verne. 1937Discovery Oct. 318 ‘The Man in the Moone’, the fantasy of Bishop Godwin.., is an early excursion into the realms of scientific fiction.
1909W. James Meaning of Truth iii. 59 ‘Energetics’, measuring the bare face of sensible phenomena so as to describe in a single formula all their changes of ‘level’, is the last word of this scientific humanism. 1931J. S. Huxley What dare I Think? iv. 148 The only way in which the conflict between science and human nature can be ended is by combining science and the other fruits of the human spirit in a new alliance, a new attitude, to which we may give the name of Scientific Humanism. 1941― Uniqueness of Man xiii. 274 Scientific humanism..insists that the same scientific procedure can be applied to human life as has been applied to lifeless matter and to animals and plants—scientific survey, study, and analysis, followed by increasing practical control. 1963V. Brome Problem of Progress vii. 144 If the modern scientific humanist would have no truck with the religious tinge in Huxley's creed he equally rejects any divine inspiration in Buddhism, Christianity, [etc.].
1903F. W. Taylor in Trans. Amer. Soc. Mech. Engineers XXIV. 1366 The choice must be made between some of the types of management in common use..and the more modern and scientific management based on an accurate knowledge of how long it should take to do the work. 1910L. D. Brandeis in N.Y. Times 22 Nov. 8/2 As an alternative to the practice of combining to raise rates and hence to increase prices, we offer cooperation to reduce costs... This can be done through the introduction of scientific management. 1911F. W. Taylor in Amer. Mag. Mar. 571/2 The best management is a true science, resting upon clearly defined laws, rules, and principles, and..these fundamental principles of Scientific Management are applicable to all kinds of human activities. 1949Gilbreth & Carey Cheaper by Dozen i. 1 Dad always practised what he preached and it was just impossible to tell where his scientific management company ended and his family life began. 1972Scientific Management in American Industry (Taylor Soc.) i. 2 The body of interlocking procedures which resulted from these investigations came to be known as the ‘Taylor System’, and to the doctrine and principles later derived from them was given the name ‘Scientific Management’.
1854T. H. Huxley Educational Value of Nat. Hist. Sciences 13 The man of business must as much avail himself of the scientific method..as the veriest bookworm. 1871J. A. Froude Short Studies on Great Subjects (ser. 2) 485 Neither history, nor any other knowledge, could be obtained except by scientific methods. 1889‘L. Carroll’ Sylvie & Bruno xviii. 255 That, I believe, is the true Scientific Method. 1908W. McDougall Introd. Soc. Psychol. i. 4 When..the modern principles of scientific method began to be generally accepted. 1927J. S. Huxley Relig. without Revelation iii. 83 There was a great outcry when scientific method was applied, in the form of the so-called ‘Higher Criticism’. 1955Bull. Atomic Sci. Oct. 295/1 Scientists possess a technique which they call the scientific method of thought, and they are impelled by circumstances to use it with the force of a new inspiration. 1959L. W. H. Hull Hist. & Philos. Sci. vii. 194 The subtle blend of observation, hypothesis, mathematics and planned experiment in the Scientific Method is a more effective procedure than that of Bacon.
1961Webster, Scientific notation. 1963W. H. Ware Digital Computer Technol. & Design I. ii. 22 The power of the base appearing in an expression which is in scientific notation in effect indicates the position of the point. 1973C. W. Gear Introd. Computer Sci. ii. 61 The number ·00000001 is represented as ·1 × 10-7... We call this floating-point or scientific notation for numbers. 1975Physics Bull. Mar. 135/3 The most important [feature of the calculators]..is the provision of exponential or ‘scientific’ notation.
1803S. Miller Brief Retrospect of Eighteenth Cent. I. ii. 416 The frequency and rapidity of scientific revolutions may be accounted for in various ways. 1946Amer. Jrnl. Sociol. Jan. 267/1 The use of atomic energy appears to be a beginning of the ‘scientific revolution’. 1959C. P. Snow in Encounter July 22/2, I believe the industrial society of electronics, atomic energy, automation, is in cardinal respects different in kind from any that has gone before... It is this transformation that, in my view, is entitled to the name of ‘scientific revolution’. 1977G. Clark World Prehistory (ed. 3) ii. 41 A Neolithic Revolution comparable in importance with the Industrial and Scientific Revolutions.
B. n.
1. A man of science. colloq.
1830Lyell Let. in Smiles Mem. J. Murray (1891) II. xxxii. 391 The scientifics having at last a government to which they are not ashamed to turn courtiers. 1853De Morgan in Graves Sir W. R. Hamilton (1889) III. 464 This meeting of literaries and arts—not a scientific among them but myself. 1883Black Shandon Bells xxi, Some of the scientifics, as she calls them, are very fond of shooting.
2. pl. [See -ic 2, -ics.] Scientific matters. nonce-use or vulgar.
1842S. Lover Handy Andy v, ‘Leave off your confounded scientifics, there,’ shouted Murphy, from the head of the table, ‘and let us have a song.’
C. quasi-adv., as scientific-minded adj.
1946J. Cary Moonlight xxiii. 179 Our admirals are uneducated men who despise science, and the Germans are really scientific-minded men. 1976I. Levin Boys from Brazil iii. 78 He's hardly a scientific-minded man.
Add:[A.] [3.] b. Site of Special Scientific Interest, an area of land designated (and thereby protected) by the Nature Conservancy Council as of special scientific interest in terms of flora, fauna, or geology; = S.S.S.I. s.v. S 4.
[1949National Parks & Access to Countryside Act 12, 13 & 14 Geo. VI c. 97 §23 (side-note) Duty of Conservancy to inform local planning authorities of areas of special scientific interest.] 1953Rep. Nature Conservancy to 30th Sept. 1952 i. 8 (heading) Sites of special scientific interest. 1962(title) Notifications under the National Parks..Act, 1949 in East Riding, Yorkshire. Sites of Special Scientific Interest (S.S.S.I.) notified under Section 23. 1979Jrnl. R. Soc. Arts CXXVII. 405/2 The whole of the harbour and its shorelines have been defined as a Site of Special Scientific Interest. 1986Oban Times 22 May 2 It was declared a site of special scientific interest in 1974 and is an important area for all year round mountain recreation.
▸ scientific misconduct n. conduct on the part of a scientist which wilfully damages the integrity of scientific research, such as plagiarism or falsification or fabrication of data.
1978New German Critique Autumn 55 He complains that the book was put together in a biased way. He considers this *scientific misconduct, rather than seeing it as an expression of the essential shift in the social atmosphere and in the process of self-reflection. 1981Calif. Appellate Rep. (3rd Ser.) 119516 It is alleged that the remaining petitioners..had ‘willfully concealed from plaintiff [sic] the true evaluations of at least one committee of academic peers appointed to evaluate charges of scientific misconduct’. 1993Brit. Med. Jrnl. (BNC) 30 Jan. 329 We propose that the GMC's remit should include censure of those members of the medical profession who commit scientific misconduct by distorting published evidence in reviews and consensus statements. |