Science

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Science (from Latin scientia 'knowledge')[1] is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.[2][3][4]

The earliest roots of science can be traced to Ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia in around 3000 to 1200 BCE.[5][6] Their contributions to mathematics, astronomy, and medicine entered and shaped Greek natural philosophy of classical antiquity, whereby formal attempts were made to provide explanations of events in the physical world based on natural causes.[5][6] After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, knowledge of Greek conceptions of the world deteriorated in Western Europe during the early centuries (400 to 1000 CE) of the Middle Ages,[7] but was preserved in the Muslim world during the Islamic Golden Age.[8] The recovery and assimilation of Greek works and Islamic inquiries into Western Europe from the 10th to 13th century revived "natural philosophy",[7][9] which was later transformed by the Scientific Revolution that began in the 16th century[10] as new ideas and discoveries departed from previous Greek conceptions and traditions.[11][12][13][14] The scientific method soon played a greater role in knowledge creation and it was not until the 19th century that many of the institutional and professional features of science began to take shape;[15][16][17] along with the changing of "natural philosophy" to "natural science."[18]

Modern science is typically divided into three major branches[19] that consist of the natural sciences (e.g., biology, chemistry, and physics), which study nature in the broadest sense; the social sciences (e.g., economics, psychology, and sociology), which study individuals and societies;[20][21] and the formal sciences (e.g., logic, mathematics, and theoretical computer science), which deal with symbols governed by rules.[22][23] There is disagreement,[24][25][26] however, on whether the formal sciences actually constitute a science as they do not rely on empirical evidence.[27][25] Disciplines that use existing scientific knowledge for practical purposes, such as engineering and medicine, are described as applied sciences.[28][29][30][31][32]

New knowledge in science is advanced by research from scientists who are motivated by curiosity about the world and a desire to solve problems.[33][34] Contemporary scientific research is highly collaborative and is usually done by teams in academic and research institutions,[35] government agencies, and companies.[36][37] The practical impact of their work has led to the emergence of science policies that seek to influence the scientific enterprise by prioritizing the development of commercial products, armaments, health care, public infrastructure, and environmental protection.

This article is based (in parts) on the article Science from the free encyclopedia wikipedia and is licensed under GNU license for free documentation and the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike. On wikipedia there is a List of authors accessible. More about importing from wikipedia on page Imedwiki:Importing from wikipedia.

References

  1. Harper, Douglas. "science". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved September 20, 2014.
  2. Wilson, E.O. (1999). "The natural sciences". Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge (Reprint ed.). New York, New York: Vintage. pp. 49–71. ISBN 978-0-679-76867-8.
  3. "... modern science is a discovery as well as an invention. It was a discovery that nature generally acts regularly enough to be described by laws and even by mathematics; and required invention to devise the techniques, abstractions, apparatus, and organization for exhibiting the regularities and securing their law-like descriptions."— p.vii Heilbron, J.L. (editor-in-chief) (2003). "Preface". The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science. New York: Oxford University Press. pp. vii–X. ISBN 978-0-19-511229-0.
  4. "science". Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. Merriam-Webster, Inc. Archived from the original on September 1, 2019. Retrieved October 16, 2011. 3 a: knowledge or a system of knowledge covering general truths or the operation of general laws especially as obtained and tested through scientific method b: such knowledge or such a system of knowledge concerned with the physical world and its phenomena.
  5. 5.0 5.1 "The historian ... requires a very broad definition of "science" – one that ... will help us to understand the modern scientific enterprise. We need to be broad and inclusive, rather than narrow and exclusive ... and we should expect that the farther back we go [in time] the broader we will need to be."  p.3—Lindberg, David C. (2007). "Science before the Greeks". The beginnings of Western science: the European Scientific tradition in philosophical, religious, and institutional context (Second ed.). Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. pp. 1–20. ISBN 978-0-226-48205-7.
  6. 6.0 6.1 Grant, Edward (2007). "Ancient Egypt to Plato". A History of Natural Philosophy: From the Ancient World to the Nineteenth Century (First ed.). New York, New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–26. ISBN 978-052-1-68957-1.
  7. 7.0 7.1 Lindberg, David C. (2007). "The revival of learning in the West". The beginnings of Western science: the European Scientific tradition in philosophical, religious, and institutional context (Second ed.). Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. pp. 193–224. ISBN 978-0-226-48205-7.
  8. Lindberg, David C. (2007). "Islamic science". The beginnings of Western science: the European Scientific tradition in philosophical, religious, and institutional context (Second ed.). Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. pp. 163–92. ISBN 978-0-226-48205-7.
  9. Lindberg, David C. (2007). "The recovery and assimilation of Greek and Islamic science". The beginnings of Western science: the European Scientific tradition in philosophical, religious, and institutional context (2nd ed.). Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. pp. 225–53. ISBN 978-0-226-48205-7.
  10. Principe, Lawrence M. (2011). "Introduction". Scientific Revolution: A Very Short Introduction (First ed.). New York, New York: Oxford University Press. pp. 1–3. ISBN 978-0-199-56741-6.
  11. Lindberg, David C. (1990). "Conceptions of the Scientific Revolution from Baker to Butterfield: A preliminary sketch". In Lindberg, David C.; Westman, Robert S. (eds.). Reappraisals of the Scientific Revolution (First ed.). Chicago, Illinois: Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–26. ISBN 978-0-521-34262-9.
  12. Lindberg, David C. (2007). "The legacy of ancient and medieval science". The beginnings of Western science: the European Scientific tradition in philosophical, religious, and institutional context (2nd ed.). Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. pp. 357–368. ISBN 978-0-226-48205-7.
  13. Del Soldato, Eva (2016). Zalta, Edward N. (ed.). The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Fall 2016 ed.). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University. Archived from the original on December 11, 2019. Retrieved June 1, 2018.
  14. Grant, Edward (2007). "Transformation of medieval natural philosophy from the early period modern period to the end of the nineteenth century". A History of Natural Philosophy: From the Ancient World to the Nineteenth Century (First ed.). New York, New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 274–322. ISBN 978-052-1-68957-1.
  15. Cahan, David, ed. (2003). From Natural Philosophy to the Sciences: Writing the History of Nineteenth-Century Science. Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. ISBN 978-0-226-08928-7.
  16. The Oxford English Dictionary dates the origin of the word "scientist" to 1834.
  17. Cite error: Invalid <ref> tag; no text was provided for refs named Lightman 19th
  18. Harrison, Peter (2015). The Territories of Science and Religion. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. pp. 164–165. ISBN 978-0-226-18451-7. The changing character of those engaged in scientific endeavors was matched by a new nomenclature for their endeavors. The most conspicuous marker of this change was the replacement of "natural philosophy" by "natural science". In 1800 few had spoken of the "natural sciences" but by 1880, this expression had overtaken the traditional label "natural philosophy". The persistence of "natural philosophy" in the twentieth century is owing largely to historical references to a past practice (see figure 11). As should now be apparent, this was not simply the substitution of one term by another, but involved the jettisoning of a range of personal qualities relating to the conduct of philosophy and the living of the philosophical life.
  19. Cohen, Eliel (2021). "The boundary lens: theorising academic actitity". The University and its Boundaries: Thriving or Surviving in the 21st Century 1st Edition. New York, New York: Routledge. pp. 14–41. ISBN 978-0367562984.
  20. Colander, David C.; Hunt, Elgin F. (2019). "Social science and its methods". Social Science: An Introduction to the Study of Society (17th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. pp. 1–22.
  21. Nisbet, Robert A.; Greenfeld, Liah (16 October 2020). "Social Science". Encyclopedia Britannica. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  22. Löwe, Benedikt (2002). "The formal sciences: their scope, their foundations, and their unity". Synthese. 133 (1/2): 5–11. doi:10.1023/A:1020887832028. S2CID 9272212.
  23. Rucker, Rudy (2019). "Robots and souls". Infinity and the Mind: The Science and Philosophy of the Infinite (Reprint ed.). Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. pp. 157–188. ISBN 978-0691191386.
  24. Bishop, Alan (1991). "Environmental activities and mathematical culture". Mathematical Enculturation: A Cultural Perspective on Mathematics Education. Norwell, Massachusetts: Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 20–59. ISBN 978-0-792-31270-3. Archived from the original on December 25, 2020. Retrieved March 24, 2018.
  25. 25.0 25.1 Nickles, Thomas (2013). "The Problem of Demarcation". Philosophy of Pseudoscience: Reconsidering the Demarcation Problem. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press. p. 104.
  26. Bunge, Mario (1998). "The Scientific Approach". Philosophy of Science: Volume 1, From Problem to Theory. 1 (revised ed.). New York, New York: Routledge. pp. 3–50. ISBN 978-0-765-80413-6.
  27. Fetzer, James H. (2013). "Computer reliability and public policy: Limits of knowledge of computer-based systems". Computers and Cognition: Why Minds are not Machines (1st ed.). Newcastle, United Kingdom: Kluwer Academic Publishers. pp. 271–308. ISBN 978-1-443-81946-6.
  28. Fischer, M.R.; Fabry, G (2014). "Thinking and acting scientifically: Indispensable basis of medical education". GMS Zeitschrift für Medizinische Ausbildung. 31 (2): Doc24. doi:10.3205/zma000916. PMC 4027809. PMID 24872859.
  29. Abraham, Reem Rachel (2004). "Clinically oriented physiology teaching: strategy for developing critical-thinking skills in undergraduate medical students". Advances in Physiology Education. 28 (3): 102–04. doi:10.1152/advan.00001.2004. PMID 15319191. S2CID 21610124. Archived from the original on January 22, 2020. Retrieved December 4, 2019.
  30. Sinclair, Marius (1993). "On the Differences between the Engineering and Scientific Methods". The International Journal of Engineering Education. Archived from the original on November 15, 2017. Retrieved September 7, 2018.
  31. "About Engineering Technology". Purdue School of Engineering & Technology. Archived from the original on May 22, 2019. Retrieved September 7, 2018.
  32. Bunge, M (1966). "Technology as applied science". In Rapp, F. (ed.). Contributions to a Philosophy of Technology. Theory and Decision Library (An International Series in the Philosophy and Methodology of the Social and Behavioral Sciences). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. pp. 19–39. doi:10.1007/978-94-010-2182-1_2. ISBN 978-94-010-2184-5. Archived from the original on March 31, 2021. Retrieved March 25, 2021.
  33. MacRitchie, Finlay (2011). "Introduction". Scientific Research as a Career (1st ed.). New York, New York: Routledge. pp. 1–6. ISBN 9781439869659.
  34. Marder, Michael P. (2011). "Curiosity and research". Research Methods for Science (1st ed.). New York, New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 1–17. ISBN 978-0521145848.
  35. de Ridder, Jeroen (2020). "How many scientists does it take to have knowledge?". In McCain, Kevin; Kampourakis, Kostas (eds.). What is Scientific Knowledge? An Introduction to Contemporary Epistemology of Science (1st ed.). New York, New York: Routledge. pp. 3–17. ISBN 9781138570160.
  36. Lindberg, David C. (2007). "Islamic science". The beginnings of Western science: the European Scientific tradition in philosophical, religious, and institutional context (Second ed.). Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press. pp. 163–192. ISBN 978-0-226-48205-7.
  37. Szycher, Michael (2016). "Establishing your dream team". Commercialization Secrets for Scientists and Engineers (1st ed.). New York, New York: Routledge. pp. 159–176. ISBN 978-1138407411.