Any society, starting with the family and ending with humanity as a whole, has a social consciousness. Its forms are experience, morality, religion, and so on. But, undoubtedly, one of the most important forms is science. It is she who forms new knowledge in society.
What is science
Science is nothing but the most complex spiritual education based on a number of basic aspects. The concept, signs of science and its aspects determine the whole essence of scientific knowledge. Based on the main aspects, science is seen as:
- Knowledge system. In other words, as a process of obtaining new knowledge. This aspect involves studying with the help of epistemology - the doctrine of the knowledge of science. The basis is the subject and object of knowledge. Scientific knowledge has a result in the form of objective knowledge about the world. It is objective because it does not depend on the state of the subject.
- A special kind of worldview. In fact, this is a product caused by the spirituality of human life, embodying creative development. From this point of view, science is considered to be among such important man-made products asreligion, art, law, philosophy, etc. When science develops, other areas of culture undergo changes along with it. This pattern also works in the opposite direction.
- Social institution. In this case, we are talking about social life, in which science is perceived as a network of very different interconnected institutions. Examples of such institutions are universities, libraries, academies and others. They are engaged in solving problems of a certain level and perform functions corresponding to their position. Thus, science is a clearly structured organization whose purpose is to satisfy the needs of society.
Distinguishing features of science
In order to determine the distinguishing features of science, it is necessary first of all to delve into the essence of such a concept as the criteria of scientificity. They are mainly considered in the theory of knowledge. Their study is primarily based on the desire to determine the epistemological side of scientific knowledge, endowed with a unique specificity in comparison with other products of knowledge. Even ancient scientists thought about finding the essential features of scientificity through the correlation of knowledge with such forms as opinions, conjectures, assumptions, etc. In the process of development, scientists deduced the general signs of science, which helped to understand the term more deeply. Research has identified seven main ones.
- The first sign of science is the integrity and consistency of scientific knowledge, which is an undoubted difference from ordinary consciousness.
- Second - openness, or, in other words, the incompleteness of scientific knowledge, that is, its refinement and complementarity in the process of the emergence of new facts.
- Third - includes the desire to explain the provisions using facts and a logically consistent way.
- Critical attitude towards knowledge is the fourth sign of science.
- The fifth is the ability to reproduce scientific knowledge under appropriate conditions in absolutely any place and regardless of time.
- The sixth and seventh signs of science are the lack of dependence of scientific knowledge on the personal characteristics of the scientist and the presence of their own language, equipment, method, respectively.
General classification of all sciences
Answering the question on what grounds sciences are classified, BM Kedrov came up with a general definition. According to him, all sciences can be divided into four classes. The first class is the philosophical sciences, which include dialectics and logic. To the second he attributed the mathematical sciences, including mathematics and mathematical logic. The third is the most extensive, as it includes technical and natural sciences at once, in the list of which:
- mechanics;
- astronomy;
- astrophysics;
- physics (chemical and physical);
- chemistry;
- geochemistry;
- geography;
- geology;
- biochemistry;
- physiology;
- biology;
- anthropology.
And the final class according to Kedrov is the social sciences, whichdivided into three subcategories:
- History, ethnography, archeology.
- Political economy, art history, jurisprudence and art history.
- Linguistics, pedagogical sciences and psychology.
Signs of modern science are classified on a variety of grounds. The most common is the subject and method of cognition, on the basis of which the sciences of nature (natural science), society (social science) and thinking (logic) are distinguished. Technical sciences are allocated in a separate category. Of course, each of the presented groups of sciences can be further divided into subgroups.
Classification of sciences in different historical periods
For the first time, Aristotle addressed the issue of dividing sciences into classes back in antiquity. He singled out three large groups: practical, theoretical and creative. The Roman encyclopedist Mark Vorron defined the classification as a list of generalizing sciences: dialectics, grammar, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, astrology, architecture and medicine. The classification of Muslim Arab scholars was the simplest and most understandable. They singled out two classes of sciences - Arabic and foreign. The former include oratory and poetics, the latter - mathematics, medicine and astronomy. In the Middle Ages, scientists also sought to put forward their own version of the division. Hugo Saint-Victoria, in his vision, identified four independent groups of sciences:
- Theoretical - physics and mathematics.
- Practical.
- Mechanical - hunting, agriculture, medicine, navigation,theatre.
- Logical - grammar and rhetoric.
In turn, R. Bacon introduced a classification based on cognitive abilities. The first group includes history describing facts, the second - theoretical sciences, the third - art, poetry and literature in the broadest sense. Rojan Bacon believed that it was necessary to classify the sciences in four directions. Logic, grammar, ethics, metaphysics should stand separately, and mathematics, as well as natural philosophy, should stand out as independent units. Mathematics, in his opinion, is the most important science of nature.
Classification of animal sciences
Speaking about the criteria by which animal sciences are classified, one important feature stands out - belonging to a particular species. The classifier divides animals into vertebrates and invertebrates. Vertebrates are studied by five basic sciences: ornithology (birds), theriology (mammals), batrachology (amphibians), herpetology (reptiles), ichthyology (fish). There are cases when the science that studies primates is singled out separately, but in most cases it is included in theriology, since by their nature primates are mammals. Invertebrates can also be divided according to how the animal sciences are classified. Protozoology studies the simplest organisms, arthropodology studies arthropods, malacology knows everything about mollusks, and entomology can tell about all the features of insect life. But there is also a science that unitesall these areas are zoology, which studies all animals.
Semiotics as one of the most important sciences
Any disease is easiest to cure at the initial stage. In order to identify it in a timely manner, it is necessary to carefully monitor the emerging symptoms. Semiotics, as the science of the signs and manifestations of disease, deals deeply with this issue. It refers to practical medicine, which, using the methods of medical research, studies the symptoms of diseases. The science of the signs of the disease is divided into general and particular. The general one includes a descriptive description and a complete classification of all symptoms, as well as methods and mechanisms for their appearance due to the patterns of growth of pathologies. An example of such symptoms is inflammation, dystrophy, degeneration, and others. General semiotics also has its symptomatic varieties in terms of diagnostic significance:
- pathological;
- compensatory (reflect organic and functional changes in substrates);
- pathognomonic;
- general.
According to the time of onset, the symptoms are divided into early and late. In turn, private semiotics deals with the description of the signs and symptoms of certain types of diseases. Any medical discipline begins clinical research with the study of semiotics of a particular kind. There is also a semiotics based on hereditary pathologies. Within the framework of this scientific direction, hereditary diseases, their symptoms and pathologies are studied.
On guard of order
Legal science is a system of knowledge about the state and law, the laws of their occurrence, development and work. Signs of legal science are divided into three categories. In accordance with the first, this science is called social applied nature. As part of this feature, it should study the needs of society, legal practice and education, as well as provide workers in this field with up-to-date information for the issuance of new laws.
In the second it is considered as belonging to the exact sciences. This is due to the fact that legal science is based on specific knowledge, which is expressed in exact proportions. There is an opinion that most of all jurisprudence is similar to medicine, since both of them combine both theoretical and applied components. Just like a doctor, a lawyer is faced with solving issues related to he alth and life. The work of a lawyer includes carrying out preventive work to “cure” the vices in the life of society and the spiritual world of each person. This manifests the humanistic signs of science (in this case, jurisprudence and medicine), which originated in ancient times.
The third principle of the existence of legal science is its ability to embody the virtues of mental sciences. This statement is based on the fact that jurisprudence studies the issues of reflecting objective reality in legal aspects that arise in the process of formation and implementation of new laws in practice. That's whycriminology, as one of the disciplines of legal science, is aimed at understanding the specific features of human thinking and applying specially acquired knowledge in the investigation process.
Who studies the past
Everyone knows that without knowing the past, it is impossible to build the future. Each person without fail will find out how his city, country and the whole world lived at different times. To convey information about the past takes on the well-known science of history. It is she who studies the sources that have been preserved from previous periods of human life, on the basis of which she establishes the sequence of events. In fact, the main features of science and its historical method are to follow the norms and rules for working with primary sources, as well as other evidence found in the process of research work and drawing conclusions that allow writing a correct historical work. For the first time these methods were applied in practice by Thucydides. It was the work in accordance with historical methods that made it possible to isolate historical periods: primitiveness, the ancient world, the Middle Ages, modern and then modern times. There are dozens of historical disciplines, the functioning of which allows not only to recognize the past, but also to structure it and convey it to people. The main ones are:
- archeology is the science of searching and studying material sources of the past;
- genealogy - the science of the relationship of people;
- chronology is the science of timesequence of historical events.
Following the footsteps of Jules Verne
Science popularization is nothing more than the dissemination of scientific knowledge to a wide range of people in an understandable format. The main task of popularizing scientists is the processing of specialized data from the scientific language into the language of a listener who is not related to science. They must also create an interesting narrative from dry scientific knowledge that will awaken a desire to immerse themselves in its study.
Science fiction is considered one of the main methods of popularization of science. Jules Verne, beloved by many, played a huge role in the development of this trend. It is important to understand that the more is invested in the popularization of science, the more likely it is that young people will come to this area. Scientists are doing their best to preserve their works and achievements and introduce them to the younger generation. But there are also people in history who believe that scientific knowledge should be available only to people at the helm, because they, unlike the rest of the masses, know exactly how to use it. This opinion was shared by Tycho Brahe. Ludwig Fadeev, academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, believes that, of course, it is necessary to popularize scientific knowledge (for example, every taxpayer must understand why taxation exists). But there are moments that absolutely cannot be reworked, and therefore information about quarks, strings, Yang-Mills fields reaches people with a small amount of deception.
21st century sciences
The emergence of new scientific fields, first of all,associated with the desire of each science to become more specialized. In this regard, a number of new areas of scientific knowledge have appeared in our century:
- Neuroparasitology is a science that studies macroparasites that live mainly in the bodies of the cat family, but are also able to live in such warm-blooded animals as people.
- Quantum biology is a direction in biology, in which living beings are considered from the perspective of quantum theory.
- Exometeorology is the science of studying natural processes taking place on the territory of other planets using powerful telescopes.
- Nutrigenomics is the study of the complex interplay between food and genome expression.
- Cliodynamics is a scientific discipline that combines a complex structure of interaction between historical macrosociology, economic history, mathematical modeling of long-term processes of society, systematization and analysis of historical data.
- Synthetic biology is the science of designing and building new biologically active systems.
- Computational sociology is a science aimed at studying phenomena and trends in society using computer technologies for information processing.
- Recombinant memetics is a nascent scientific discipline that studies the transfer of ideas from one person to another, how to correct them and combine them with other memes.
