The science in computation: An engineer's defence

Abstract

We now recognise three segments of the scientific enterprise: The theoretical stage, the empirical stage and the computational stage. The scientific nature of the theoretical and empirical components of the procedure of investigation into the problems of the natural or hard sciences has been accepted for a long time. It is still not clear if computational modelling and simulation of scientific and engineering problems can have a richness that allows it to be legitimately designated as science. In this paper, an argument has been advanced to show, that the body of knowledge and the modes of enquiry that emerge from a computational discipline like the finite element method also possesses properties that permit it to meet the stipulations of the conceptual legislation demanded by Popper's critical rationalism for admission as a science.