1 + 1 = 2

So after two snow days and a 2 hour delay, I finally had my first day of classes.  Modern Physics, Japanese and Philosophy of Science.  And I was happily surprised at how interesting all my classes were.

Modern appears to be a bit more about the history of quantum theory as opposed to the actual derivations.  But hey, how's complaining?  Japanese was pretty laid back.  There's only five of us in the class and I'm under the impression that as long as I keep up with the reading, there won't be too much to worry about in terms of understand.

I should note here that I'm taking the highest level Japanese class because the lower level one didn't fit my schedule (thank you Modern).  So I'm a little bit nervous in terms of my comprehension level, but the challenge might be good for me.

And then Philosophy of Science... the source of my title for today.  I'm starting to think this may be my fvaourite course for the semester.  Right off the bat, we started delving into what categorizes a "theory" vs a "fact." And why science is unlike anything else humans have been involved with.

In all other types of philosophy, the outside world directly affects our thoughts, morality and the perspective with which we view ourselves.  However, while the source of science may come from the external world, the results of science are of pure human conception.  We change the world by changing our perspective.  When a new theory replaces an old one, it's not just simply "correcting" our world view, but ultimately changing it.


There is no "right" or "wrong" answer for science.  It is all about perspective and interpretation.  And why there will always be debates amongst philosophers as far as classifying these questions, speculations, theories and "truths." 


So while the idea of one object added to another object produces two objects came from the visual interpreation of counting, the actual constructs of 1, 2, + and = will have the same meanings regardless of what the external world does.  In a sense, humans have created their own filter to process information from the random outside world in order to form a clearer concept.  To use the cliche, humans essentially use science to make order from chaos.


So for all those Fairly Oddparent fans out there, Timmy nearly destroyed reality as we know it when he wished that 2 + 2 = 5!  I feel as if we would have been safer if we'd gone with Cosmo's answer of 2 + 2 = FISH, mostly because of this beauty: