Science as Exploration: A Metaphysics of Science beyond Phenomena

What is Science?
This book offers an answer from a metaphysical approach.

The author understands the question “What is science?” as an ontological issue, analyzing the meaning of “is” in this question from the perspectives of the “is” as nature and the “is” as identity. Additionally, the author addresses this question by considering the subjective, normative aim of science, arguing that the “primary aim of science” is “scientific exploration into the world,” not the “scientific explanation” proposed by many philosophers of science. The author further defines “scientific exploration” as the “exploration into various objects in being (i.e., ontic categories) in the real world.” These “objects in being” span a range of ontic categories, including entities (divided into individuals and kinds), features/states, relations, activities/actions/interactions, capacities/functions, space, time, systems, structures, mechanisms, events, and regularities. The author argues that science indeed, and should, explore these ontic categories in terms of numerous examples from science in practice.

The book presents a metaphysical theory of science that goes beyond phenomena, which is built to fit with the science in the contemporary scientific-technological society. This theory aligns well with today’s science and offers a general image of science.