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Understanding the Nature of Science

Science is a systematic process of building and organizing knowledge through testable explanations and predictions about the universe. It is typically divided into natural sciences, which study the material world, social sciences, which study people and societies, and formal sciences like mathematics. The foundations of the scientific method were first laid in the Middle Ages, and science was historically more closely linked to philosophy. Over the 17th and 18th centuries, scientists increasingly sought to formulate knowledge in terms of natural laws, and by the 19th century science had taken its modern form with defined disciplines and a focus on the scientific method of studying nature through empirical observation.

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7 views1 page

Understanding the Nature of Science

Science is a systematic process of building and organizing knowledge through testable explanations and predictions about the universe. It is typically divided into natural sciences, which study the material world, social sciences, which study people and societies, and formal sciences like mathematics. The foundations of the scientific method were first laid in the Middle Ages, and science was historically more closely linked to philosophy. Over the 17th and 18th centuries, scientists increasingly sought to formulate knowledge in terms of natural laws, and by the 19th century science had taken its modern form with defined disciplines and a focus on the scientific method of studying nature through empirical observation.

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Science[nb 1][2]:58[3] is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes

knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions


about the universe.[nb 2]
Contemporary science is typically subdivided into the natural
sciences, which study the material universe; the social sciences,
which study people and societies; and the formal sciences, such
as mathematics. The formal sciences are often excluded as they
do not depend on empirical observations.[4] Disciplines which use
science like engineering and medicine may also be considered to
be applied sciences.[5]
During the Middle Ages in the Middle East, foundations for the
scientific method were laid by Alhazen in his Book of Optics.[6][7][8]
From classical antiquity through the 19th century, science as a
type of knowledge was more closely linked to philosophy than it is
now and, in fact, in the Western world, the term "natural
philosophy" encompassed fields of study that are today associated
with science, such as astronomy, medicine, and physics.[9][nb 3] While
the classification of the material world by the ancient Indians and
Greeks into air, earth, fire and water was more philosophical,
medieval Middle Eastern scientists used practical, experimental
observation to classify materials.[10]
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. It was in the 19th century that scientific
disciplines such as biology, chemistry, and physics reached their
modern shapes. The same time period also included the origin of
the terms "scientist" and "scientific community," the founding of
scientific institutions, and increasing significance of the interactions
with society and other aspects of culture.[11][12]
[Link]

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