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Science: Science Is A Systematic Enterprise That Builds and Organizes

Science is a systematic method of acquiring knowledge through observation and experimentation. It has evolved over time from natural philosophy linked to religion and mythology in ancient civilizations, to the modern scientific method that aims to understand nature through empirical evidence and testable theories. Key developments included the ancient Greeks distinguishing natural science from other forms of knowledge, and the scientific revolution of the 17th-18th centuries that established science as a systematic process based on experimentation and mathematics rather than religion or philosophy.

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64 views

Science: Science Is A Systematic Enterprise That Builds and Organizes

Science is a systematic method of acquiring knowledge through observation and experimentation. It has evolved over time from natural philosophy linked to religion and mythology in ancient civilizations, to the modern scientific method that aims to understand nature through empirical evidence and testable theories. Key developments included the ancient Greeks distinguishing natural science from other forms of knowledge, and the scientific revolution of the 17th-18th centuries that established science as a systematic process based on experimentation and mathematics rather than religion or philosophy.

Uploaded by

AgronaSlaughter
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Science

Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of
testable explanations andpredictions about the universe.
Contemporary science is typically subdivided into the natural sciences, which study the material
universe; the social sciences, which study people and societies; and the formal sciences, such
as mathematics.

The

formal

sciences

are

often

excluded

as

they

do

not

depend

on empirical observations. Disciplines which use science like engineering and medicine may also be
considered to beapplied sciences.
During the Middle Ages in the Middle East, foundations for the scientific method were laid
by Alhazen in his Book of Optics. From classical antiquity through the 19th century, science as a
type of knowledge was more closely linked to philosophy than it is now and, in fact, in the Western
world, the term "natural philosophy" encompassed fields of study that are today associated with
science, such as astronomy, medicine, and physics. While the classification of the material world by
the ancient Indians andGreeks into air, earth, fire and water was more philosophical, medieval
Middle Eastern scientists used practical, experimental observation to classify materials. [10]
In the 17th and 18th centuries, scientists increasingly sought to formulate knowledge in terms
of laws of nature. Over the course of the 19th century, the word "science" became increasingly
associated with the scientific method itself, as a disciplined way to study the natural world. It was in
the 19th century that scientific disciplines such as biology, chemistry, and physics reached their
modern shapes. The same time period also included the origin of the terms "scientist" and "scientific
community," the founding of scientific institutions, and increasing significance of the interactions with
society and other aspects of culture.

History
Science in a broad sense existed before the modern era, and in many historical civilizations. Modern
science is distinct in its approachand successful in its results: 'modern science' now defines what
science is in the strictest sense of the term.
Science in its original sense is a word for a type of knowledge, rather than a specialized word for the
pursuit of such knowledge. In particular it is one of the types of knowledge which people can
communicate to each other and share. For example, knowledge about the working of natural things
was gathered long before recorded history and led to the development of complex abstract thinking.
This is shown by the construction of complex calendars, techniques for making poisonous plants
edible, and buildings such as the pyramids. However no consistent conscientious distinction was
made between knowledge of such things which are true in every community and other types of
communal knowledge, such as mythologies and legal systems.

Antiquity
Before the invention or discovery of the concept of "nature" (Ancient Greek phusis), by the PreSocratic philosophers, the same words tend to be used to describe the natural "way" in which a plant
grows, and the "way" in which, for example, one tribe worships a particular god. For this reason it is
claimed these men were the first philosophers in the strict sense, and also the first people to clearly
distinguish "nature" and "convention". Science was therefore distinguished as the knowledge of
nature, and the things which are true for every community, and the name of the specialized pursuit of
such knowledge was philosophy the realm of the first philosopher-physicists. They were mainly
speculators or theorists, particularly interested inastronomy. In contrast, trying to use knowledge of
nature to imitate nature (artifice or technology, Greek techn) was seen by classical scientists as a
more appropriate interest for lower class artisans. A clear-cut distinction between formal (eon) and
empirical science (doxa) was made by pre-Socratic philosopher Parmenides (fl. late sixth or early
fifth century BCE). Although his work peri physeos is a poem, it may be viewed as an
epistemological essay, an essay on method in natural science. Parmenides' may refer to a
formal system, a calculus which can describe nature more precisely than natural languages. 'Physis'
may be identical to .

A major turning point in the history of early philosophical science was the controversial but
successful attempt by Socrates to apply philosophy to the study of human things, including human
nature, the nature of political communities, and human knowledge itself. He criticized the older type
of study of physics as too purely speculative, and lacking in self-criticism. He was particularly
concerned that some of the early physicists treated nature as if it could be assumed that it had no
intelligent order, explaining things merely in terms of motion and matter. The study of human things
had been the realm of mythology and tradition, and Socrates was executed. Aristotlelater created a
less controversial systematic programme of Socratic philosophy, which was teleological, and humancentred. He rejected many of the conclusions of earlier scientists. For example, in his physics the
sun goes around the earth, and many things have it as part of their nature that they are for humans.
Each thing has a formal cause and final cause and a role in the rational cosmic order. Motion and
change is described as theactualization of potentials already in things, according to what types of
things they are. While the Socratics insisted that philosophy should be used to consider the practical
question of the best way to live for a human being (a study Aristotle divided into ethics and political
philosophy), they did not argue for any other types of applied science.
Aristotle maintained the sharp distinction between science and the practical knowledge of artisans,
treating theoretical speculation as the highest type of human activity, practical thinking about good
living as something less lofty, and the knowledge of artisans as something only suitable for the lower
classes. In contrast to modern science, Aristotle's influential emphasis was upon the "theoretical"
steps of deducing universal rules from raw data, and did not treat the gathering of experience and
raw data as part of science itself.

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