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Understanding the Evolution of Science

Science is defined as an enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge through testable explanations and predictions about the world. Originally, science referred more broadly to any body of reliable knowledge that could be logically explained. Over time, the scope of science narrowed to focus on the study of natural phenomena and laws governing the physical universe through empirical observation and experimentation. This led to the emergence of distinct fields of science studying domains like physics, chemistry, biology and geology.

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Sarvesh Kumar
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85 views1 page

Understanding the Evolution of Science

Science is defined as an enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge through testable explanations and predictions about the world. Originally, science referred more broadly to any body of reliable knowledge that could be logically explained. Over time, the scope of science narrowed to focus on the study of natural phenomena and laws governing the physical universe through empirical observation and experimentation. This led to the emergence of distinct fields of science studying domains like physics, chemistry, biology and geology.

Uploaded by

Sarvesh Kumar
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© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Science 

(from the Latin scientia, meaning "knowledge") is an enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the

form of testable explanations andpredictions about the world.[1][2][3][4] An older meaning still in use today is that

of Aristotle, for whom scientific knowledge was a body of reliable knowledge that can be logically

and rationally explained (see "History and etymology" section  below).[5]

Since classical antiquity science as a type of knowledge was closely linked to philosophy. In early modern times the

two words, "science" and "philosophy", were sometimes used interchangeably in the English language. By the 17th

century, "natural philosophy" (which is today called "natural science") could be considered separately from

"philosophy" in general.[6] However, "science" continued to be used in a broad sense denoting reliable knowledge

about a topic, in the same way it is still used in modern terms such as library science or political science.

Science is "[i]n modern use, often treated as synonymous with ‘natural and physical science’, and thus restricted to

those branches of study that relate to the phenomena of the material universe and their laws, sometimes with implied

exclusion of pure mathematics. This is now the dominant sense in ordinary use.[7]" This narrower sense of "science"

developed as a part of science became a distinct enterprise of defining "laws of nature", based on early examples

such asKepler's laws, Galileo's laws, and Newton's laws of motion. In this period it became more common to refer to

natural philosophy as "natural science". Over the course of the 19th century, the word "science" became increasingly

associated with the disciplined study of the natural world including physics, chemistry,geology and biology. This

sometimes left the study of human thought and society in a linguistic limbo, which was resolved by classifying these

areas of academic study as social science. Similarly, several other major areas of disciplined study and knowledge

exist today under the general rubric of "science", such as formal science and applied science.[8]

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