The modern sciences emerged in the seventeenth century, deepening our understanding of our place in the world by means of theories that offered comprehensive explanations of how nature worked. There was hope that plant, animal and human life could in the end be reduced to physical theories delivering exact predictions, resulting in ever more powerful control over the contingencies of everyday life. By the nineteenth century, the advances in biology had led to a schism between religion and the sciences - one that still exists in many forms. But while some of the sciences have made enormous progress, others have failed to deliver the promised goods. This subject explores what is meant by notions like "explanation", "prediction", the question of scientific methodology, discusses the relationship between theory and observation, and considers whether there are any objective standards by which to judge good and bad science.

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