pilgrim.not.wanderer

I know physics does.  I know biology does.  I know chemistry does.  But does science exist?  

If by science you mean the collection of the sciences, then obviously science does exist.  

But is there a thing called science which can speak with its own voice?  

Who gets to say what counts as physics?  

Someone will say that the physicists do.  After all, they are the people doing physics, so they’re in the best position to know what physics is.  Physics is what the physicists do, so if we want to know what physics is we need to ask the physicists what they’re doing.

But that’s circular, right?  How do we know what a physicist is?  They are the people who do physics. How do we what physics is?  It is what the physicists do.

Given that it seems possible that the physicists could do something as physics which isn’t rightly physics (e.g. baking banana muffins), we can’t be satisfied with the circular definition.

The domain of inquiry which constitutes physics is handed to the physicists from somewhere else.  It is known by other means than physics itself.  Physics begins with the recognition of this domain of inquiry, it does not establish it.

Isn’t the same true of biology, chemistry and all the rest?