“AND THOSE ARE THE FACTS!”

“Let’s get some clarification here before we vote….”

“So all of what we have here is THE KNOWN.” Science can/does deal with the KNOWN.

“But then we have THE UNKNOWN, the not known.”   Maybe.

“So all of that could be THE KNOW-ABLE?” Science can/will/might deal with the KNOWABLE.

“But what about the other unknown, THE UN-KNOW-ABLE?” Science cannot, through/by theory, assumption, or and scientific principles, deal with the UNKNOWABLE.

“So all of that may have to do with theology, philosophy, psychology, anthropology, sociology?”  Maybe.

In our thinking, reasoning, problem solving, the KNOWN or KNOWLEDGE–by societal agreement–becomes the basis for the thinking about a subject or problem under study.

“Like global warming?” Yes, knowing what to know. “Like ‘Why are we here?’”

SO: “Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known.” –Carl Sagan

* * *

 “Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.” –Mark Twain

“Hey, look. Here are the facts.”

“The fact of the matter is…”

“Let’s look at the facts.”

“Just the facts, Ma’am.”

“Well, look, I like the fact that…”–Gov. John Kasich

* * *

 “Everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is a perspective, not the truth.” –Marcus Aurelius

FACT = a bit of information, verifiable; something known with certainty or asserted as certain; objectively verified; something having real, demonstrable existence. (However, “facts” can change, are not ALWAYS immutable, are necessarily incomplete, dependent upon science and uses of technology.)

OPINION = a belief or conclusion held with confidence, but not substantiated by positive KNOWLEDGE or proof.

JUDGMENT is an opinion based upon reasoning or evaluation; a feeling or sentiment; any conclusion to which one adheres without ruling out the possibility of debate.

TRUTH = conformity to KNOWLEDGE, fact, actuality, logic; or a statement proven to be accepted as true.

BELIEF = a conclusion, not necessarily derived first hand, to which a person subscribes strongly. [Sometimes is explained as “What I stand up for”; whereas a VALUE is sometimes explained as “What I stand around in.”]

CONVICTION = a belief that excludes doubt and usually proceeds from weight of evidence. [a mental construct]

PERSUASION = a strong belief, but not based necessarily on the intellectual. [an emotional construct]

CONCEPT = a general idea or understanding; a thought or notion; a representation formed by generalizing from particulars.

IDEA = that which exists in the mind, actually or potentially, as a product of mental activity (thought or KNOWLEDGE).

LAW = a generalization based upon the observation of respected events [Gravity must be caused by an Agent acting constantly according to certain laws, but whether this Agent be material or immaterial I have left to the consideration of my readers.” –Isaac Newton]; a rule established; a PRINCIPLE or rule obeyed in all cases to which it is applicable. [Gravity]

PRINCIPLE = an accepted or professed rule of action or conduct; a fundamental, primary, or general law or truth from which others are derived; a fundamental doctrine or tenet; a distinctive ruling opinion; a personal or specific basis of conduct or management; a guiding sense of the requirements and obligations of right conduct; an adopted rule or method for application in action; a rule or law exemplified in natural phenomena or the working of a system; an actuating agency in the mind or character, as an instinct, faculty, or natural tendency. [Bernoulli’s principle]

VALIDITY = being sound, supportable, correctly inferred from a premise; whereas RELIABILITY = dependable.

SCIENCE = the body of interrelated superordinated, subordinated statements, which are generalizations which deal with realities. [Generalizations are in the form of theories.] SCIENCE is observation, identification, description, experimental investigation, and theoretical explanation of natural phenomena. [A science is any methodological activity, discipline, or study.]

ASSUMPTION = a statement accepted or proposed as TRUE without proof or demonstration. It can be used as or become the basis for drawing hypotheses that can be investigated.

HYPOTHESIS = an assertion subject to verification or proof; a premise from which a conclusion can be drawn; an ASSUMPTION used as the basis for an action; a conjecture; a basis for further investigation.

AND

THEORY = systematically organized KNOWLEDGE applicable in a relatively wide variety of circumstances, especially a system of ASSUMPTIONS, accepted PRINCIPLES, and rules of procedure devised to analyze, predict, or explain the nature or behavior of a specified set of phenomena.