Galileo Galilei's Reasons: Mathematics Is The Key To Understanding Science

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Galileo Galilei’s quote: “Mathematics is the language that God has written in the universe” can be interpreted in two ways. The first explanation would be that Galileo believed mathematics was the “universal language”, while the second understanding would be that he believed mathematics was found everywhere in the universe and therefore was the “key to understanding science”. Although, the knower agrees with the notion that mathematics is the universal language, he or she does not support the idea that mathematics is the key to understanding science because there is a lack of evidence the aforementioned belief. Many knowers who believe that mathematics is not a language support their claim by providing their definition of the word “language”.…show more content…
In all honesty, mathematics is simply one of the many tools used to unravel the scientific enigmas regarding the workings of the universe. When it comes to investigating science, mathematics does not always lend a hand in finding the answer because the mathematical solutions often only show a pattern, which is assuming that such patterns even exist. What good is it to a researcher to have a pattern if he or she cannot determine where or how it came about? Now besides mathematics, observations play a large role in the comprehension of science. This is shown in many psychology studies where the researchers chose an observational approach because quantitative data does not provide the context and meaning needed to truly understand the scientific issue. Other times, these psychologists use interviews as another method of further understanding the topic; interviews are another example of a strategy that provides results that algebraic formulas simply cannot produce. All in all, since mathematics is not the only factor in the understanding of science, the knower cannot support the claim that mathematics is the “key to understanding science” because the word “key” has the denotation of being “the only thing that provides the means of gaining access to or understanding
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