Science (from
Latin scientia, meaning "knowledge"
[1]) is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes
knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about nature and the
universe.
[nb 1]
In an older and closely related meaning, "science" also refers to a
body of knowledge itself, of the type that can be rationally explained
and reliably applied. Ever since
classical antiquity, science as a type of knowledge has been closely linked to
philosophy. In the
West during the
early modern period the words "science" and "philosophy of nature" were sometimes used interchangeably,
[2]:p.3 and until the 19th century
natural philosophy (which is today called "
natural science") was considered a separate branch of
philosophy in the
West.
[3]
In modern usage, "science" most often refers to a way of pursuing
knowledge, not only the knowledge itself. It is also often restricted to
those branches of study that seek to explain the phenomena of the
material universe.
[4] 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, including
physics,
chemistry,
geology and
biology. It is in the 19th century also that the term
scientist began to be applied to those who sought knowledge and understanding of nature.
[5]
However, "science" has also continued to be used in a broad sense to
denote reliable and teachable knowledge about a topic, as reflected in
modern terms like
library science or
computer science. This is also reflected in the names of some areas of academic study such as "
social science" or "
political science".
The scale of the universe mapped to the branches of science and the hierarchy of science.
[6]
History
An animation showing the movement of the continents from the separation of
Pangaea until the present day.
Science in a broad sense existed before the
modern era, and in many historical
civilizations.
[7] Modern science is distinct in its
approach and successful in its
results: 'modern science' now defines what science is in the strictest sense of the term.
[8] Much earlier than the modern era, another important turning point was the development of classical
natural philosophy in the ancient Greek-speaking world.
Pre-philosophical
Science in its original sense is a word for a type of knowledge (
Latin scientia,
Ancient Greek epistemē),
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.
Philosophical study of nature
Before the invention or discovery of the
concept of "
nature" (
Ancient Greek phusis), by the
Pre-Socratic philosophers, the same words tend to be used to describe the
natural "way" in which a plant grows,
[9]
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".
[10]
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 in
astronomy. In contrast, trying to use knowledge of nature to imitate nature (artifice or
technology, Greek
technē) was seen by classical scientists as a more appropriate interest for lower class artisans.
[11]
Philosophical turn to human things
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.
[12] Aristotle later created a less controversial systematic programme of Socratic philosophy, which was
teleological,
and human-centred. 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 the
actualization
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.
[13]
Medieval science, and foundations for scientific method
During
late antiquity and the
early Middle Ages,
the Aristotelian approach to inquiries on natural phenomenon was used.
Some ancient knowledge was lost, or in some cases kept in obscurity,
during the fall of the Roman Empire and periodic political struggles.
However, the general fields of science, or
natural philosophy
as it was called, and much of the general knowledge from the ancient
world remained preserved though the works of the early Latin
encyclopedists like
Isidore of Seville. Also, in the
Byzantine empire, many Greek science texts were preserved in
Syriac translations done by groups such as Nestorians and Monophysites.
[14] Many of these were translated later on into Arabic under
Caliphate, during which many types of classical learning were preserved and in some cases improved upon.
[14] During the
Islamic Golden Age, a Muslim scholar
Ibn al-Haytham,
who is considered by some to be the father of modern scientific method,
argued for it by emphasizing experimental data and reproducibility of
its results.
[15][16][17][18][19]:pp.60–67[20]:pp.25–29 The
House of Wisdom, considered to be the first university in the world, was established in
Abbasid-era
Baghdad,
Iraq.
[21] It is considered to have been a major intellectual center during the
Islamic Golden Age.
In the later medieval period, as science in Byzantium and the Islamic
world waned, Western Europeans began collecting ancient texts from the
Mediterranean, not only in Latin, but also in Greek, Arabic, and Hebrew.
Knowledge of ancient researchers such as Aristotle,
Ptolemy,
Euclid, amongst Catholic scholars, were recovered with renewed interest in diverse aspects of natural phenomenon. In Europe, men like
Roger Bacon
(13th century) in England argued for more experimental science. By the
late Middle Ages, a synthesis of Catholicism and Aristotelianism known
as
Scholasticism was flourishing in
Western Europe, which had become a new geographic center of science.
Renaissance, and early modern science
Galileo is considered one of the fathers of modern science.
[22]
By the late Middle Ages, especially in Italy there was an influx of Greek texts and scholars from the collapsing
Byzantine empire.
Copernicus formulated a
heliocentric model of the solar system unlike the
geocentric model of
Ptolemy's Almagest. All aspects of scholasticism were criticized in the 15th and 16th centuries; one author who was notoriously persecuted was
Galileo,
who made innovative use of experiment and mathematics. However the
persecution began after Pope Urban VIII blessed Galileo to write about
the Copernican system. Galileo had used arguments from the Pope and put
them in the voice of the simpleton in the work "Dialogue Concerning the
Two Chief World Systems" which caused great offense to him.
[23]
In Northern Europe, the new technology of the printing press was
widely used to publish many arguments including some that disagreed with
church
dogma.
René Descartes and
Francis Bacon
published philosophical arguments in favor of a new type of
non-Aristotelian science. Descartes argued that mathematics could be
used in order to study nature, as Galileo had done, and Bacon emphasized
the importance of experiment over contemplation. Bacon questioned the
Aristotelian concepts of formal cause and final cause, and promoted the
idea that science should study the laws of "simple" natures, such as
heat, rather than assuming that there is any specific nature, or "
formal cause", of each complex type of thing. This new modern science began to see itself as describing "
laws of nature". This updated approach to studies in nature was seen as
mechanistic. Bacon also argued that science should aim for the first time at practical inventions for the improvement of all human life.
