TABLE OF CONTENTS Scientists study the world as it is; engineers create the world that has never been.
Theodore von Karman
Adapting von Karman's observations, it may be said that engineering science is the study of that part of the world which has been created by man.
Michael Griffin, 2007
Since the intent of this book is to define a science of SE (although most or all of the pieces already exist), we start laying out MOSES with a chapter on science and its relation to engineering, and their role in a science of SE. Such a discussion is necessitated by the expansion of SE to include organic elements such as humans. This entails some reorientation in how we think about science and engineering, especially with regard to natural and artificial systems. This chapter addresses the reorientation in the expanded SE context, including the relation between systems science (SS) and complex systems science (CSS). It also introduces the foundation portion of the systems taxonomy shown in dashed outline in the left part of the reduced graphic above.
This section presents the MOSES view of science in general and introduces a set of prerequisite laws for a science.
We start with some common definitions of science.
Random House (2008):
A branch of knowledge or study dealing with a body of facts or truths systematically arranged and showing the operation of general laws: the mathematical sciences.
Systematic knowledge of the physical or material world gained through observation...
