Thread: Who is the Father of all the Sciences?

This question recently appeared on a test in one of my college classes: Introduction to Research Design.

The exact question was: "______ is considered to be the father of all the sciences and the first true scientist."

I think that this is a terrible question, but of the multiple choice answers I chose Galileo. My answer was marked incorrect because the teacher was looking for Aristotle.

I was sure that I had previously heard Galileo called the father of science, so I consulted Google. I was able to find that Einstein among others have given Galileo this title.

I presented the teacher with this evidence, but he told me that he would not give me credit for the question because the readings (which are written by himself) call Aristotle the father of science. I informed him that the question did not ask what his own personal opinion was, which made a few other people laugh, but he did not care.

Yesterday, at a review session, the teaching assistant explicitedly stated that the teacher wanted him to inform the class that the same quesiton would appear on the final examination, and that the correct answer is not Galileo.

This was not the only question I took issue with on his test, but discussing the flawed questions with the teacher was pointless.

I am curious if anyone else has encountered something similar to this?

Originally Posted by ins0mniak

The exact question was: "______ is considered to be the father of all the sciences and the first true scientist."

I am under the impression that Thales gets that title. Anyway, I would place money on it being someone in ancient Greece. The phrase "first true scientist" is poorly worded, and might be what confused you. I have no idea what it might mean. Also, "all" is pretty meaningless, although Aristotle did cover a range of topics.

Galileo is the father of experimentation. Without him there is no science, and science is dominated by an Aristotle world - a dark stupid world where people sit around and talk about things to come to conclusions that had to be decided as worthy or not by the top "talkers." Aristotle's people were not scientists, they were philosophers.

Galileo, with his immense progress, influence and fame, is the father of what is today science. There is no doubt about that.

Tell your TA he can kiss my ass.

Are you sure Einstein was meaning galileo was the farther of ALL sciences I don't remember him doing a lot of biology or chemistry. Aristotal did a lot of cutting up of convicts, humours/alchemy work aswell as physics I believe.

A few replies...

Hermes: Thales was who came to my mind also when I read the first scientist, but he was not one of the choices and I don't think he would be considered the father of [all] science[s].

Silkworm: I agree with you. As for the TA, he pretty much agreed with me, but told me that it was the teacher's decision.

Imaplanck: Albert Einstein dubbed Galileo "the father of modern physics—indeed of modern science altogether." Here is a Link.

And Aristotle came up with the scientific method, which was somewhat significant. I can see the issue with that question, though. There are many people that could be considered "The Father of all the Sciences".

I think science has existed since about the age of australopithecus...."simple pebble tools" qualify as scientific progress to me. But I'm weird.

Originally Posted by ins0mniak

Imaplanck: Albert Einstein dubbed Galileo "the father of modern physics—indeed of modern science altogether." Here is a Link.

Yeah it seems to be a question of semantics.
What ever the odds a good teacher would have given you the marks just for your explaination and research into a cursory question IMO. Seems he has a grandure issue.

Well, then tell your teacher he can kiss my ass. PM me what class it is and where you go to school.

Simply put, without Galileo we would know nothing. He looked like a giant goofball when he started - a fool actually doing things to figure things out - but he had so much success he became immensly influencal.

Aristotle is a philosopher.

Originally Posted by ins0mniak

This question recently appeared on a test in one of my college classes: Introduction to Research Design.

The exact question was: "______ is considered to be the father of all the sciences and the first true scientist."

I think that this is a terrible question, but of the multiple choice answers I chose Galileo. My answer was marked incorrect because the teacher was looking for Aristotle.

I was sure that I had previously heard Galileo called the father of science, so I consulted Google. I was able to find that Einstein among others have given Galileo this title.

I presented the teacher with this evidence, but he told me that he would not give me credit for the question because the readings (which are written by himself) call Aristotle the father of science. I informed him that the question did not ask what his own personal opinion was, which made a few other people laugh, but he did not care.

Yesterday, at a review session, the teaching assistant explicitedly stated that the teacher wanted him to inform the class that the same quesiton would appear on the final examination, and that the correct answer is not Galileo.

This was not the only question I took issue with on his test, but discussing the flawed questions with the teacher was pointless.

I am curious if anyone else has encountered something similar to this?

Actually, I think that's not a good question, and you're absolutely right.

Of course the teacher has the right to make you answer his exams the way he believes to be the right way, but it doesn't make it fair/correct/smart.
Thinking about it, the title Einstein gived Galilei isn't relevant neither...

Galileo is renowned as the 'father of experimental science'. Indisputably.

There seems to be a general agreement here that the issued teacher is a jerk. Certainly my ring is in insOmniac's square.

There's no mention of Pythagoras (so far, until now, in this thread), probably because he picked up the long standing reputation as being 'the father of numbers (about 595 BC)' - which is, after all, a very pure, hard science.

Speaking for myself, although Aristotle followed Pythagoras by about 200 years, I've always sorta placed him - as a categorized icon - between Pythatoras and Galileo - Aristotle being more the philosopher-scientist than either of the other two issued men leaning heavily into science per se.
While we're speaking of precedents and founders and icons:
Then you got Euclid and his geometry which is every bit as hard a science as mathematics. Don't know if he was ever anointed as the father of geometry but he was certainly in that ball park.
Then you got Galen as the father of anatomical medicine.

Incidentally, Newton was probly the father of Classical-modern science; did not hold a degree in physics, but rather, in philosophy, because all Ph.D's, to this day, are Doctor's of Philosophy. From this we are assured that science interprets all kinds of different philsophies in as many different categories.

I'm likely to be corrected for chronology here, as well as leaving out pioneers in biology, archeology, paleontology, anthropology, zoology, ethnology, ethology (Konrad Lorenz)
The intermediate zone between Classical and Modern science includes considerations such as the achievements and inspirations of Ben Franklin, Leyden, Faraday, Hertz, Maxwell, Joules, Ohm, Watts, Marconi
Moving right along, M'sieur and Madam Curie may take their places as the father and mother of radiological science, and Oppeheimer and Fermi as the co-founders of the atomic bomb. And not even I will be rightfully faulted for leaving out our Dear Max Planck and last but not least, Albert - The Axe - Einstein (With a later nomination for Dr. Richard Feynman?).

Realizing the surface has only been scratched here, however miserably, would it not be educational and possibly even politically - if not scientifically- correct if someone were to take the time in this thread for which we may duely thank insOmniak, to assemble a more comprehensive abbreviated outline of the evolution of science and its key contributors.

Perhaps I may take my place as the esquire of apology with regard to this raggety effort to bring order to chaos - with ambiguity intended.
(Any resemblence to reality is purely coincidental whereas, any dissonance is insOmniak's teacher's - and assistant's - fault, on accounta this keyboard is only the player piano?) Gratzie Mille. Ciao.

Define "scientist?"

Aristotle is not the correct answer. Thales is. Aristotle finds his origin in Thales, who first sought to explain the universe by naturalistic terms (at least in Greek philosophy) and is believed by many to be the father of science.

As such, your teacher is wrong. If he wishes to debate the issue, remember him that both Archimedes, Galilei and Democritus are equally likely answers because history - after all - is not a science.

Slap him with a book if needed.

Mr U

Originally Posted by .:Elusive.Neutrino:.

Define "scientist?"

First, define science... what is science..

is it the way of interpretation information.

is it knowledge.

is it exploring.

is it experience.

is it the action of a lifeless object without interpretation of something living.

there is science in hunting for deer's, and there should be science in a subatomic hyperspace extractor as well.. but what science does define the beginning point.

on some points the same science is what holds everything together, just practically, and nothing theoreticly. we can't understand practics, to our mind will bring it to theoretics. so there is no defenition for science, nothing will ever be able to capture every aspect as it combines everything together.

a scientist is anyone who ever combines things like that in his head, if he's living dead, consists of matter or energy. the only thing he needs to be to be a scientist is a person (human standards)

we are all in some ways scientist

I would say that the first scientist would have to be a mathematician, since the issues probed by all sciences have been built by the patterns and laws set by mathematics, and cannot be completely understood WITHOUT mathematics. The others, in my opinion, are clerics, not scientists.

Unfortunately, I don't happen to know the first mathematician in history off the top of my head. :-D

Though, if "scientist" is understood to mean simply an explorer of the natural world, then to name the first scientist... I don't know. Name the first conscious human being. Our brains are specifically engineered to search for knowledge, and I'm sure ideas about nature were conceptualized long before Thales was able to promulgate them.