“Science as a wonderful tool for understanding the world”. Commentary by the Secretary of the Security Council

Security Council Secretary Armen Grigoryan writes:

“Over time, I am more and more convinced that there is no big difference between social science and exact science. both are essentially ways of thinking to understand the phenomena around us.

If social science is looking for the logic of human interactions, then exact sciences are trying to find patterns of interaction of “particles”.
Of course, in the educational process, we were often scared by the “difficult world” of exact sciences, but it turns out that any branch of science can become interesting and understandable when the explainers are willing to make the necessary effort.

The book “The Grand Design” by Stephen Hawking and Leonard Mlodinov further confirmed this belief. It shows that even the most complex physical theories are ultimately models that we construct to explain reality.

Model-dependent realism. In this context, the authors propose the concept of “model-dependent realism”. According to it, our brain processes any information through certain models. The authors explain it with the example of a fish living in an aquarium. if a fish looks at the world through a curved glass, for him reality is a curve, and the laws of physics defined by him are correct from his point of view.

Of course, this does not imply the extreme approach that there is no objective reality outside of our mind. The problem is different. in many cases, we do not have the opportunity to see and understand reality directly. It’s about cognitive limitations. Therefore, what we call “real” depends greatly on the way of thinking we choose and the scientific or social models with which we try to explain the world.

Science as creativity. From this point of view, the exact sciences cease to be only a dry world of numbers and formulas. They become a creative process where the human mind constantly expands the boundaries of knowledge. This brings us to an important conclusion. our perception of reality is not a passive observation, but an active participation in the construction of the world.

After all, “The Great Project” is not only about the universe, but also about the infinite possibilities of the human mind. It breaks stereotypes, proving that being interested in science becomes a necessity to get to know ourselves, the surrounding world and the universe better.

This book may not answer all the questions, but it definitely reframes the existing questions. And that is the most important thing in life.”