The factual or empirical sciences are those whose main objective is to understand the facts through experience. This means that these sciences are responsible for creating an artificial or mental representation of events as close as possible to how they are in nature or in reality..
To achieve this goal, factual science relies on logic; this allows them to ensure that the facts are not going to contradict each other during the mental representation. They also require experimentation, since this allows them to check if there is a similarity between artificial representation and nature or reality..
That is to say, the empirical sciences deal with the experienceable and verifiable reality. As its name suggests, "factual" comes from the Latin term factum, which can be translated as "facts". On the other hand, the term "empirical" comes from the Greek empiric, which translates as "experience".
This is the fundamental difference between the factual sciences and the formal sciences, since the latter have as their object of study the systems themselves, such as philosophy or mathematics, which are disciplines interested in mental and abstract objects that do not count. with a representation in reality.
Consequently, the empirical or factual sciences resort to experimentation to approach the universal laws that govern reality. However, the results are usually transitory: a new discovery may put the previous precepts into question and, therefore, vary the way in which the results obtained are interpreted..
The factual sciences have their origins during the first period of the Modern Age, that is, between the 15th and 17th centuries. Previously, some of the knowledge studied by empirical sciences already existed; However, it was from this historical moment that these sciences were conceptualized and cataloged.
For example, in the East it was already studied from empiricism, while in the West it was studied from the philosophical knowledge proposed by Aristotle. During modernity, philosophers such as Francis Bacon, Tomas Hobbe and David Hume were in charge of distinguishing and cataloging these sciences based on their essays on empiricism.
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As its name indicates, one of the characteristics of factual sciences is that they start from the facts and culminate with them. The first thing the scientist must do is establish the facts; Once these have been specifically indicated, it is time to carry out the pertinent analysis.
Generally, the empirically inclined scientist breaks down the facts in order to describe their characteristics; this must be done from an impersonal curiosity.
Sometimes scientists can develop new facts and analyze them, since scientific research is not limited only to what is observed with the naked eye, but can go far beyond the first appearances.
Therefore, scientists can produce new things; if the current theory maintains its authenticity, the scientist can put this fact aside to start a new investigation with another.
During the investigation, scientists will try to discern the problem in order to obtain detailed information.
They will achieve this from the explanation of the elements that make up the fact they are investigating. As they progress through the analysis, they will be closer to achieving the overall results..
Scientific research is specialized as a consequence of having followed an analytical approach.
In addition, the research will present some dualisms such as experience-reason, and a division of factual science between empirical and rational will emerge..
Although the research has some difficulties, the result must be clear and the definitions must be precise and exact; this is one of the main characteristics of this type of science.
As established in previous paragraphs, the main objective of factual sciences consists in the study of objective facts; that is, of the events that happen in nature.
For example, the discipline of botany is responsible for studying the changes and transformations that occur in the plant kingdom; consequently, both plants and trees and vegetation are in the tangent reality of man.
It is important to note that, according to their objectives, the factual sciences can be divided into two large groups: natural sciences and social sciences..
The empirical natural sciences are those that are interested in understanding the dynamics of operation within natural reality, both of inanimate matter and of living beings.
This means that the natural sciences seek to obtain universal answers about the composition of nature and life. Example of natural science is biology.
On the other hand, the empirical social sciences are interested in a scientific perspective of human phenomena. Examples of this are the constitution of the human mentality, the history of ancient civilizations or economic rules..
This discipline is in charge of studying matter and its formation, in addition to the reactions that occur between substances..
Biology is the factual science whose objective is the study of life and of all living beings known to man..
Physics is the discipline that studies the forces that operate in the universe, and that in turn interact with energy and matter.
The economic sciences are responsible for studying the administration of all resources within societies. Likewise, they study the flow and formation of wealth.
Political science is the discipline that is dedicated to studying the community management system and government management within different human societies, taking into account their different times and their mechanisms of change and domination..
It is the scientific discipline that studies the functioning, formation and dynamics of the human mind. In addition, it can be established that psychology has different perspectives, and each of these has its own methodologies and theories.
To carry out its research, psychology uses introspection through participant observation.
Likewise, the method used by this discipline implies that the observed human beings, despite being different, are not completely different, since they all comply with laws about relationships and reactions to certain stimuli..
It is the science that is responsible for studying human societies taking into account their historical and social contexts, which are understood as identifiable systems.
In sociology, different interdisciplinary research techniques are used, with the aim of approaching society from different theoretical perspectives. In the same way, due to the heterogeneous attitude of sociology, in this there have been various currents that in some cases may be opposed to each other.
Sexology is a discipline whose object of study is human sexual relations, not only from a biological and anatomical point of view, but also from a social and cultural perspective..
Some scholars consider that history should be part of humanistic studies. However, many academics believe that history is a social science that is responsible for studying the dynamics of change within humanity, starting from the invention of writing to encompassing the present day..
The legal sciences aim to study the functioning of justice. This means that they analyze the ways and mechanisms in which human communities judge themselves, as well as the way in which they constitute their legal and ethical codes..
It is a factual science that is dedicated to the study of the structure and composition of the Earth, as well as its evolutionary processes throughout geological temporality..
Geology is made up of a series of geosciences that are dedicated to the revision of tectonic plates, and to astrogeology or planetary geology.
Anthropology is understood as the science that studies man from an integral point of view.
For this, it uses a combination of knowledge and tools from other social and natural sciences, with the aim of covering both the biological evolution of the human being as well as their cultural and linguistic expressions and their way of life. All these elements characterize the complexity of our species.
It is a natural science whose objective of study is to understand the interpretation of recorded fossils.
This work is carried out from fundamentals and methods that are closely linked to geology and biology. Consequently, it can be established that they are sister disciplines.
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