Culture is “mankind's primary adaptive mechanism". Essentially, culture is a shared store of values and beliefs common to a group of people. The prevalence of culture in the life of the individual leads to the question, " Can we have beliefs or knowledge which are independent of our culture?" Two terms must first be defined: knowledge and beliefs. A belief may be defined as “the ideas in which we have faith in and are emotionally linked to”. Knowledge may be defined as a “justified true belief” . Essentially the question asks whether knowledge may be produced or acquired independently of culture. From my perspective, this differs from one area of knowledge to another and differs from one individual to the next.
The natural sciences are an area of knowledge which have significantly impacted our perception of the natural world. The natural sciences denote subjects such as physics, biology and chemistry. From my perspective, the natural sciences are an area of knowledge independent of culture. In order to reach this conclusion, I examined the scientific method. The scientific method is a method used to distinguish a science from a pseudo science ( fake science). According to the traditional picture of the scientific method, science is divided into 5 steps known as inductivism.
1. observation
2. hypothesis
3. experiment
4. law
5. theory
A scientist would initially observe and classify data. He would proceed to look for pattern in the data and formulate a hypothesis. Following this, the scientist would make a predication. The scientist would test this predictions through experiments. If the experimental results confirm the hypothesis, a scientific law has been discovered. The scientific method limits the influence of bias and prejudice in the experimenter. It provides an objective, standardized approach to conducting an experiment and, in doing