SCIENCE

9 definitions found across Law Mind sources

SCIENCEAuthored
The Law Mind • 1028 words
Definition
In legal contexts, science means a body of knowledge that is methodically organized and arranged according to abstract or speculative principles, making it accessible and communicable to others. The term appears most frequently in law in two settings: 1. Patent and intellectual property law: Science is distinguished from art. Science refers to theoretical or speculative knowledge — the underlying principles explaining why phenomena occur. Art, by contrast, refers to practical skill and application — the doing of something guided by that knowledge. The Constitution empowers Congress to promote the progress of science and the useful arts, and courts have long used this science/art distinction to parse the boundary between protected discovery and patentable invention. 2. Evidence and expert testimony: Science describes a category of specialized knowledge, distinguished from technical skill or other specialized experience. Whether a field of inquiry qualifies as science — and what that requires — is central to the admissibility of expert testimony under modern evidentiary standards.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To use science to solve a problem; to cause to become versed in science; to make skilled or instruct. In general modern English, science most commonly refers to the systematic study of the natural world through observation and experiment — particularly the natural sciences (physics, chemistry, biology, etc.). Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Knowledge; knowledge of principles and causes; ascertained truth of facts. Webster's treated science broadly as any organized body of knowledge, not limited to natural phenomena. Editorial note: The gap between common and legal meaning runs in two directions. In the intellectual property context, legal usage tracks the older, broader Webster's meaning — science as theoretical knowledge generally, not just the natural sciences. In the evidence context, courts have grappled with exactly what makes something "scientific" in a rigorous sense, often importing a narrower, more modern conception tied to empirical testability. Researchers moving between historical and modern sources need to be alert to which conception is operating.
Common Confusion
Science vs. Art: In patent law and constitutional interpretation, science and art are terms of art used in careful opposition. Science denotes abstract or speculative principles; art denotes practical application. The two are not interchangeable. Historically, arts referred to manufactures and practical crafts, while science referred to theoretical learning. Contemporary usage often collapses this distinction, but legal sources — particularly older ones — maintain it. A researcher reading nineteenth-century patent treatises or Supreme Court opinions on the Progress Clause must read science in its older, broader sense, not as a synonym for the natural sciences alone. Science vs. Skill or Experience: In the evidence context, courts distinguish science from other forms of specialized knowledge. Not every expert testifies as a scientist; some testify on the basis of skill or experience. This distinction has bearing on which reliability standard applies to the expert's testimony.
Why It Matters in Research
The term science is a deceptive research target because it carries two distinct legal weights depending on the corpus being searched. In intellectual property and constitutional sources, science is the older, philosophical term inherited from Enlightenment usage. It means organized theoretical knowledge, full stop. Researchers working with founding-era materials, early patent cases, or nineteenth-century treatises will encounter this broad usage consistently. Do not map modern connotations of the natural sciences onto these sources. In evidence and expert testimony sources — particularly post-twentieth century — science has acquired a more precise and contested meaning tied to methodological reliability. Courts and commentators have asked whether a field of inquiry is genuinely scientific in the sense of producing falsifiable, empirically testable propositions. This narrower meaning generates doctrinal distinctions that do not appear in the historical dictionaries at all, because the relevant evidentiary debates postdate them. The corpus therefore contains two largely non-overlapping literatures using the same word. Searches on science in patent and constitutional materials will surface one set of sources; searches in evidence materials will surface another. Cross-contamination is a real research hazard. Historical sources are also incomplete on science as a term of evidentiary art — Black's 2nd, Anderson's, and Bouvier's all define science in the intellectual property and general knowledge sense only, and are silent on expert testimony doctrine, which developed primarily in the twentieth century.
Historical Dictionary Support
Anderson's and Bouvier's agree closely on the core definition: science is knowledge of many, methodically arranged, resting on abstract or speculative principles. Both sources explicitly contrast science with art, defining art as practical skill directed by theory. This science/art opposition was the central legal use of the term in the period these dictionaries addressed. Bouvier's cites Louisiana and New York authority for the proposition, indicating the distinction had concrete judicial application, not merely theoretical import. Black's 2nd Ed. does not appear to contain a standalone entry for science as a general legal term, which is itself informative: by the early twentieth century, the term's legal significance was sufficiently absorbed into patent and constitutional doctrine that it required treatment there rather than as a freestanding definition. Webster's 1913 tracks the historical legal meaning closely — science as ascertained truth and organized knowledge — confirming that the legal dictionaries of the same era were drawing on a shared intellectual vocabulary, not a specialized legal coinage. None of the historical sources anticipate the evidentiary dimension of science that would become central through expert testimony doctrine. This is a genuine gap in the historical dictionary record that researchers must supplement with twentieth-century treatises and procedural rules materials.
Jurisdictional Note
The science/art distinction in patent law operates at the federal level through constitutional text and federal statute, so the definition is nationally uniform in that context. In the evidence context, state and federal courts may apply different standards for what qualifies as sufficiently scientific to support expert testimony, and state evidence codes vary. Researchers working on expert admissibility questions should not assume federal doctrine maps onto the state courts in their corpus.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See: Patents and the Progress Clause; Expert Testimony and Scientific Evidence
Related Terms
Art (legal); Useful Arts; Patent; Expert Witness; Evidence; Knowledge; Skill; Technology; Progress Clause; Daubert Standard; Opinion Evidence
SCIENCEmain
Anderson's Dictionary of Law • 1890
In its broadest sense, knowledge; the knowledge of many, methodically digested and arranged, so as to be attainable by many; a body of principles and deductions to explain the nature of some matter.5 Depends upon abstract or speculative principles. "Art" relates to practice or performance - is practical skill as directed by theory or science; the mere application of knowledge. Rifle-shooting is not a "science." "The Congress shall have Power to promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing to Authors and Inventors, the exclusive Right to their Writings and Discoveries." 6 1 Dawson v. Lee, 83 Ky. 56 (1885). 2 Kelly v. Pittsburgh, 104 U. S. 82 (1881), Miller, J. • Cooper v. Roberts, 18 How. 177-82 (1855); Sherman ข. Beuick, 93 U. S. 209 (1876). 422 Cent. Law J. 326-28 (1887), cases; 54 Ga. 281; 79
SCIENCEmain
Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928
The lord chancellor-form- erly an ecclesiastic. Anderson.
SCIENCEmain
Bouvier's Law Dictionary • 1928
The knowledge of many, methodically digested and arranged, so as to be attainable by one; a body of princi- ples and deductions to explain the nature of some matter. 33 La. Am. 637. See 13 Wend. 205; BOOKS OF SCIENCE. Depends upon abstract or speculative principles. "Art" relates to practice or performance-is practical skill as directed by theory or science; the mere application of knowledge. Rifle-shooting is not a "science." Anderson; 33 La. An. 637. The term "science" cannot, with propriety, be applied to a work of so fluctuating and fugi- tive a form as that of a newspaper or price- current, the subject-matter of which is daily changing, and is of mere temporary use. Prices-current, catalogues of merchandise, a scoring-sheet for games, a chart of patterns for dresses, blank account-books, and the like are not subjects of the copyright laws passed in execution of the foregoing power. Id.; 2 Paine 392. Scientific Works. A medical expert may cite standard authorities as sustaining his views, and then they may be used by the opposite side to discredit him; but they may not be read as evidence or argument. Id.; 77 N. C. 58, 59. SCIENDUM (L. Lat.). In English Law. The name given to a clause inserted in the record by which it is made "known that the justice here in court, in this same term, delivered a writ thereupon to the deputy sheriff of the county aforesaid, to be executed in due form of law." Lee, Dict. Record. SCIENTER (Lat. knowingly). The allegation in a pleading of knowledge; Webb's Poll. Torts 614; on the part of a defendant or person accused, which is necessary to charge upon him the conse- quence of the crime or tort. A man may do many acts which are justifiable or not, as he is ignorant or not ignorant of certain facts. He may pass a counterfeit coin, when he is ignorant of its being counterfeit, and is guilty of no of- fence; but if he knew the coin to be coun- terfeit, which is called the scienter, he is guilty of passing counterfeit money. Where evidence of the scienter has been given, it may be rebutted, as where the charge is passing counterfeit money, the defendant may show that the bill was gen- uine or that under the circumstances he had reason to suppose it was, or that he ex- amined a counterfeit detector in regard to it; 8 Wis. 167. Proof of a conspiracy to put forth counterfeit bills is admissible to show the scienter as against one of the parties to it; 19 Conn. 233. In an action against the owner of a dog, alleged to be a dangerous animal, the fact that it is a watch-dog, chained during the day and loosed at night, is sufficient with- out further proof of scienter; 35 La. Ann. 1091. The averment of a scienter in an indict- ment is not sufficient to supply omission of the positive statement that the defendant did the act; 2 McCord 377; and a charge in an indictment that the defendant passed, etc., a counterfeit, without alleging that he knew it to be such, is insufficient even after verdict; 105 U. S. 611. SCILICET (Lat. scire, to know, licet, it is permitted: you may know: translated by to wit, in its old sense of to know). That is to say; to wit; namely. It is a clause to usher in the sentence of another, to particularize that which was too general before, distribute what was too gross, or to explain what was doubtful and obscure. It neither increases nor di- minishes the premises or habendum, for it gives nothing of itself; it may make a re- striction when the preceding words may be restrained; Hob. 171; 1 P. Wms. 18; Co. Litt. 180 b, n. 1. When the scilicet is repugnant to the precedent matter, it is void: for example, when a declaration in trover states that the plaintiff on the third day of May was possessed of certain goods which on the fourth day of May came to the defendant's hands, who afterward, to wit, on the first day of May, converted them, the scilicet was rejected as surplusage; Cro. Jac. 428. And see 6 Binn. 15; 3 Saund. 291, note 1. Stating material and traversable matter under a scilicet will not avoid the conse- quences of a variance: 1 M'Cl. & Y. 277; 2 B. & P. 170, n. 2; 4 Johns. 450; 2 Pick. 223; nor will the mere omission of a scilicet render immaterial matter material; 2 Saund. 206 a; even in a criminal proceed- ing; 2 Camp. 307, n. See 3 Term 68; 3 Maule & S. 173. SCINTILLA (Lat.). A spark; a remaining particle; the least particle.
SCIENCEn.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
Knowledge; lnowledge of principles and causes; ascertained truth of facts. If we conceive God's or science, before the creation, to be extended to all and every part of the world, seeing everything as it is, . . . his science or sight from all eternity lays no necessity on anything to come to pass. Hammond. Shakespeare's deep and accurate science in mental philosophy. Coleridge. Accumulated and established knowledge, which has been systematized and formulated with reference to the discovery of general truths or the operation of general laws; knowledge classified and made available in work, life, or the search for truth; comprehensive, profound, or philosophical knowledge. All this new science that men lere [teach]. Chaucer. Science is . . . a complement of cognitions, having, in point of form, the character of logical perfection, and in point of matter, the character of real truth. Sir W. Hamilton. Especially, such knowledge when it relates to the physical world and its phenomena, the nature, constitution, and forces of matter, the qualities and function of living tissues, etc.; -- called also natural science, and physical science. Voltaire hardly left a single corner of the field entirely unexplored in science, poetry, history, philosophy. J. Morley. Any branch or departament of systematized knowledge considered as a distinct field of investigation or object of study; as, the science of astronomy, of chemistry, or of mind. Art, skill, or expertness, regarded as the result of knowledge of laws and principles. His science, coolness, and great strength. G. A. Lawrence.
SCIENCEv.
Websters Unabridged Dictionary (1913) • 1913
To cause to become versed in science; to make skilled; to instruct. [R.] Francis.
scienceverb
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
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To cause to become versed in science; to make skilled; to instruct. | To use science to solve a problem.
sciencenoun
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
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Obsolete spelling of scion.
sciencenoun
Wiktionary (English) • 2026
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A particular discipline or branch of knowledge that is natural, measurable or consisting of systematic principles rather than intuition or technical skill. | Specifically the natural sciences. | Knowledge gained through study or practice; mastery of a particular discipline or area. | The fact of knowing something; knowledge or understanding of a truth. | The collective discipline of study or learning acquired through the scientific method; the sum of knowledge gained from such methods and discipline. | Knowledge derived from scientific disciplines, scientific method, or any systematic effort. | The scientific community. | Synonym of sweet science (“the sport of boxing”).

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