The 3 main types of science (and their fields of research)
Science is the intellectual and practical activity carried out through the systematic study of the elements of the world. This includes both the level of structural organization and individual behavior, and applies to the physical, natural or social environment.
Therefore, being a very broad activity, science can offer explanations on different areas. To facilitate the distinction between one and the other, science is often divided into several types. In this article we will see what types of science exist and how each one is described.
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What is science?
Science can also be understood as a body of knowledge about a particular subject. In fact, there are different bodies of knowledge that can be considered a specific type of science. The distinction between one and the other can be given by their object of study, or they can be distinguished by the research methods that each one uses.
Since when does science exist? Although his general background can be traced from classical philosophy and more ancestral practices ; The epoch that is recognized as the founder of science as we know it now is modernity.
Science is consolidated from the "scientific revolutions" that, through the paradigm of universal reason, they laid the foundations for the creation of a method that would allow us to systematically know and explain world phenomena.
And not only to know and explain them, but to hypothesize and offer solutions to certain problems. In fact, these revolutions, together with important changes at a socioeconomic level, mark the end of the medieval era and the beginning of modernity in Western societies.
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3 main types of science
Considering that science can encompass very broad bodies of knowledge, the latter are usually divided according to the specific knowledge they generate. In this sense tend to recognize three major types of science : formal sciences, natural sciences and social sciences.
All of them are considered as fundamental sciences, inasmuch as they have allowed to generate other types of scientific knowledge more delimited , for example, medicine, psychology, engineering, among others. Next we will see each one of them as well as some subtypes or specific disciplines that conform them.
1. Formal sciences
The formal sciences are a set of logical and abstract systems that can be applied to different objects of study. That is, they can work both for the analysis of natural physical phenomena as human or social . The formal sciences are composed of sign systems. In turn, these systems originate a series of abstract structures by means of which patterns of organization are generated and different phenomena are explained. The latter is what differentiates them from the natural and social sciences.
Among the disciplines that are considered formal sciences are logic, mathematics, statistics and computer systems , among other.
2. Natural sciences
Such knows its name indicates, the object of study of the natural sciences is nature and the phenomena that occur in it. It is responsible for describing, explaining, understanding and / or predicting them. These phenomena, in turn, they can go from biology to the most complex elements of the universe .
In fact, the natural sciences tend to be subdivided into two large groups: the physical sciences and the biological sciences. The former include disciplines such as chemistry, physics, astronomy and geology; while the latter include the different forms of life that exist on our planet. The latter can be humans, animals, plants and microorganisms. Hence, it includes disciplines such as botany, zoology or veterinary, anatomy, ecology, genetics or neuroscience , among other.
Unlike the formal sciences, both natural sciences and social sciences are fundamentally empirical. That is, the knowledge they produce is based on observable phenomena, with which their existence can be verified by other observers.
3. Social sciences
The social sciences are the set of disciplines that are responsible for studying human beings in behavioral and social terms. That is to say, its object of study can be both the individual and society . These are disciplines that were considered part of science long after the previous ones; approximately in the 19th century after they transferred the scientific method to the studies of the individual and the social.
However, given that in some cases it was very difficult to complete this transfer, the social sciences have constantly problematized the methods of approaching their object of study. In general there are two great ways, which are not always considered exclusive: the quantitative methodology and the qualitative methodology.
Examples of disciplines that make up the social sciences are sociology, economics, psychology, archeology, communication, history, geography, linguistics, political science, among others.
Bibliographic references:
- Cleland, C. (2001). Historical science, experimental science, and the scientific method. Geology, 29 (11): 987-990.
- Cohen, M. (1934). An introduction to logic and scientific method. Oxford, England: Harcourt, Brace.
