The types of science that are distinguished at present are four: factual sciences, social sciences, natural sciences and formal sciences. The word science (from the Latin "scientia", which means knowledge) refers to the system of rational knowledge that man has obtained through reason and experience in a systematic, methodical and verifiable way..
Science has replaced myth as a way of seeking the explanation of the phenomena of nature and social phenomena. Thanks to it, the deductive laws and principles that derive from reasoning and observation are known as human activities that were always present, but without a systematic and verifiable form.
It is the result of an activity based on the application of the scientific method to an object or situation. To do this, follow the steps of formulation, hypothesis, testing and return to theory.
In this way, science is understood as the rational, systematic, verifiable and reliable knowledge that has given a turn to history and human thought..
The application of reasoned knowledge and the scientific method led to the acquisition of new paradigms that predicted in a concrete and quantitative way the present and future actions.
These can be formulated through reasoning and structured through general rules or laws that account for the behavior of phenomena..
Throughout history, different ways of typifying and classifying science have been proposed. One of the first attempts was made by Auguste Comte. However, today they are classified on a broader and more general scale.
Also known as empirical sciences, they are those that aim to understand a fact or phenomenon. These sciences create mental or artificial representations of the facts of reality. In this way it makes use of logic.
The students of science and the scientific method are based on natural facts of an observable nature and from there, they elaborate knowledge.
Some authors suggest that factual sciences fall into two groups. The first is social science; sociology, economics and political science. The second is the natural sciences: biology, physics, chemistry ...
However, these fields are usually separated from the factual sciences as they are considered as autonomous types.
The social sciences affirm that human behavior is not adjusted to scientific laws, as if it occurs with natural phenomena.
The social sciences are usually limited to deducing probabilities derived from research and quantitative analysis of the frequency with which social events occur..
Social scientists argue that natural phenomena have little influence on human behavior. Par excellence the fields of study of the social sciences are usually: sociology, psychology, political science and history, among others..
The social sciences delve into societal variables such as freedom, oppression, rules, political system, and beliefs. In this way, they analyze the types of organization and probabilities of future events..
One of the most significant tasks of the social sciences consists of self-reflection and criticism of scientific activity. Which contributes to its development, since it questions it and imposes ethical limits that could undermine human integrity.
These use the hypothetical deductive method. The natural sciences are nourished by rational reflection and the observation of reality. Unlike the social sciences, in these sciences events are determined by laws.
The applicable rules or laws of the natural sciences obey the principle of cause and effect. What they allow to be totally predictable.
The application of the hypothetico-deductive method is elementary, since it starts from observation to formulate a hypothesis, then deduces its consequences and, finally, checks with experience.
Within the natural sciences are chemistry, veterinary medicine and physics, among others. The natural sciences have universal validity, therefore they are often used to predict and anticipate the phenomena that occur in nature..
They are the sciences that start from the ideas formulated by the minds of humans. They employ the axiomatic-inductive method par excellence, which refers to the fact that their axioms or statements do not demonstrate or can contrast reality.
Its validity is situated in the field of the abstract, unlike the natural sciences that are situated in the field of the concrete. These sciences appeal for their validation to the rational analysis of knowledge.
They are also called self-sufficient sciences, by virtue of the fact that they can reach the truth from their own content and testing methods. Within the formal sciences, there are mathematics and logic.
Formal sciences are based on the study of analytical ideas and formulas that are validated by rational analysis.
Auguste Comte is considered one of the fathers of positivism and sociology, which in fact he called "Social physics". Comte made a classification that was later improved by Antoine Augustin in 1852 and by Pierre Naville in 1920.
For Comte, the sciences had entered a "positive" state and this required a hierarchical and generalized classification. In this way he ordered the sciences in:
At the time of classification, sociology was not seen as a scientific discipline, however, Comte justifies it by stating the following:
“We now have a celestial physics, a terrestrial physics already mechanical or chemical, a plant physics and an animal physics; we still need one more and the last one, social physics, to complete the system of our knowledge of nature "
Although Comte's classification model was valid for a long time, today the model used is the one previously exposed.
Yet No Comments