This article is about the general term.

For other uses, see Science

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 Outline
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v
t
e

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

organizes knowledge in the form of
testable explanations and predictions about the universe.[b]
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, which
study logic and mathematics. The formal sciences are often excluded as
they do not depend on empirical observations.[3] Disciplines which use
science, like engineering and medicine, may also be considered to
be applied sciences.[4]
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
the Western world the term "natural philosophy" once encompassed
fields of study that are today associated with science, such
as astronomy, medicine, and physics.[5][c] However, during the Islamic
Golden Age foundations for the scientific method were laid by Ibn al-
Haytham in his Book of Optics.[6][7][8][9][10]While the classification of the
material world by the ancient Indians and Greeks into air, earth, fire and
water was more philosophical, medieval Middle Easterns used practical
and experimental observation to classify materials.[11]
In the 17th and 18th centuries, scientists increasingly sought to
formulate knowledge in terms of physical laws. 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 during this time that scientific disciplines such
as biology, chemistry, and physics reached their modern shapes. That
same time period also included the origin of the terms "scientist" and
"scientific community", the founding of scientific institutions, and the
increasing significance of their interactions with society and other
aspects of culture.[12][13]
 The scale of the universe mapped to the branches of science, with formal
sciences as the foundation.[14]: Vol.1, Chaps.1,2,&3.

Contents

1History

o 1.1Antiquity

o 1.2Medieval science

o 1.3Renaissance and early modern science

o 1.4Age of Enlightenment

o 1.519th century

o 1.620th century and beyond

o 1.7Scientific method

o 1.8Mathematics and formal sciences

2Scientific community

o 2.1Branches and fields

o 2.2Institutions
 o 2.3Literature

3Science and society

o 3.1Women in science

o 3.2Science policy

o 3.3Media perspectives

o 3.4Political usage

o 3.5Science and the public

4Philosophy of science

o 4.1Certainty and science

o 4.2Fringe science, pseudoscience, and junk science

5Scientific practice

o 5.1Basic and applied research

o 5.2Research in practice

o 5.3Practical impacts of scientific research

6See also

7Notes

8References

9Sources

10Further reading

11External links

o 11.1Publications
 o 11.2Resources

History
Main article: History of science
Science in a broad sense existed before the modern era and in many
historical civilizations.[d] Modern science is distinct in its approach and
successful in its results, so it now defines what science is in the strictest
sense of the term.[15]
Science in its original sense was a word for a type of knowledge rather
than a specialized word for the pursuit of such knowledge. In particular, it
was the type of knowledge which people can communicate to each other
and share. For example, knowledge about the working of natural things
was gathered long before recorded history and led to the development of
complex abstract thought. This is shown by the construction of complex
calendars, techniques for making poisonous plants edible, and buildings
such as the Pyramids. However, no consistent conscientious distinction
was made between knowledge of such things, which are true in every
community, and other types of communal knowledge, such as
mythologies and legal systems.
Antiquity
See also: Nature (philosophy)

Maize, known in some English-speaking countries as corn, is a large grain plant

domesticated by indigenous peoples in Mesoamerica in prehistoric times
Before the invention or discovery of the concept of "nature" (ancient
Greek phusis) by the Pre-Socratic philosophers, the same words tend to
be used to describe the natural "way" in which a plant grows,[16]and the
"way" in which, for example, one tribe worships a particular god. For this
reason, it is claimed these men were the first philosophers in the strict
sense, and also the first people to clearly distinguish "nature" and
"convention."[17]: p.209 Science was therefore distinguished as the
knowledge of nature and things which are true for every community, and
the name of the specialized pursuit of such knowledge
was philosophy the realm of the first philosopher-physicists. They
were mainly speculators or theorists, particularly interested
in astronomy. In contrast, trying to use knowledge of nature to imitate
nature (artifice or technology, Greek techn) was seen by classical
scientists as a more appropriate interest for lower class artisans.[18] A
clear-cut distinction between formal (eon) and empirical science (doxa)
was made by the pre-Socratic philosopher Parmenides (fl. late sixth or
early fifth century BCE). Although his work Peri Physeos (On Nature) is a
poem, it may be viewed as an epistemological essay on method in
natural science. Parmenides' may refer to a formal system or
calculus which can describe nature more precisely than natural
languages. "Physis" may be identical to .[19]

Aristotle, 384 BCE 322 BCE, one of the early figures in the development of
the scientific method[20]
A major turning point in the history of early philosophical science was the
controversial but successful attempt by Socrates to apply philosophy to
the study of human things, including human nature, the nature of political
communities, and human knowledge itself. He criticized the older type of
study of physics as too purely speculative and lacking in self-criticism.
He was particularly concerned that some of the early physicists treated
nature as if it could be assumed that it had no intelligent order,
explaining things merely in terms of motion and matter. The study of
human things had been the realm of mythology and tradition, however,
so Socrates was executed as a heretic.[21]: 30e Aristotle later created a less
controversial systematic programme of Socratic philosophy which
was teleological and human-centred. He rejected many of the
conclusions of earlier scientists. For example, in his physics, the sun
goes around the earth, and many things have it as part of their nature
that they are for humans. Each thing has a formal cause and final
cause and a role in the rational cosmic order. Motion and change is
described as the actualization of potentials already in things, according
to what types of things they are. While the Socratics insisted that
philosophy should be used to consider the practical question of the best
way to live for a human being (a study Aristotle divided
into ethics and political philosophy), they did not argue for any other
types of applied science.
Aristotle maintained the sharp distinction between science and the
practical knowledge of artisans, treating theoretical speculation as the
highest type of human activity, practical thinking about good living as
something less lofty, and the knowledge of artisans as something only
suitable for the lower classes. In contrast to modern science, Aristotle's
influential emphasis was upon the "theoretical" steps
of deducing universal rules from raw data and did not treat the gathering
of experience and raw data as part of science itself.[e]
Medieval science