In the history of science until the 19th century, natural and humanitarian directions were not distinguished, and until that time scientists gave preference to natural science, that is, the study of things that exist objectively. In the 19th century, the division of sciences began in universities: the humanities, responsible for the study of cultural, social, spiritual, moral and other types of human activity, were separated into a separate area. And everything else falls under the concept of natural science, the name of which comes from the Latin “essence.”
The history of natural sciences began about three thousand years ago, but separate disciplines did not exist then - philosophers dealt with all areas of knowledge. Only at the time of the development of navigation did the division of sciences begin: astronomy also appeared, these areas were necessary during travel. As technology developed, and became separate sections.
The principle of philosophical naturalism is applied to the study of natural sciences: this means that the laws of nature must be studied without confusing them with human laws and excluding the action of human will. Natural science has two main goals: the first is to explore and systematize data about the world, and the second is to use the acquired knowledge for practical purposes to conquer nature.
Types of natural sciences
There are basic ones that have existed as independent areas for quite a long time. These are physics, chemistry, geography, astronomy, geology. But often the areas of their research intersect, forming new sciences at the junctions - biochemistry, geophysics, geochemistry, astrophysics and others.
Physics is one of the most important natural sciences; its modern development began with Newton's classical theory of gravity. Faraday, Maxwell and Ohm continued the development of this science, and by the 20th century in the field of physics, when it became known that Newtonian mechanics was limited and imperfect.
Chemistry began to develop on the basis of alchemy, its modern history begins in 1661, when Boyle’s “The Skeptical Chemist” was published. Biology did not emerge until the 19th century, when the distinction between living and nonliving matter was finally established. Geography was formed during the search for new lands and the development of navigation, and geology became a separate area thanks to Leonardo da Vinci.
Science is a field of human activity that is aimed at the theoretical systematization of knowledge about reality that is objective in nature.
Science and scientific knowledge
The basis of any science is the collection of facts, their processing, systematization, as well as critical analysis, which allows us to build a cause-and-effect relationship.
Hypotheses and theories, which are confirmed by facts or experiments, are formulated in the form of laws of society or laws of nature.
Scientific knowledge is a system of knowledge about the laws of society, nature, and thinking. It is scientific knowledge that reflects the laws of the development of the world and constitutes its scientific picture.
Scientific knowledge arises as a result of understanding human activity and the surrounding reality. Scientific knowledge has different types of validity.
System of Sciences
In terms of its subject matter, science is not homogeneous; it forms many separate systems of sciences. During the period of antiquity, all scientific knowledge was united by philosophy - that is, there was a single scientific system.
Over time, mathematics, medicine and astrology separated from philosophy. During the Renaissance, separate systems of sciences became chemistry And physics.
At the end of the 19th century, sociology, psychology and biology acquired the status of independent scientific knowledge. Conventionally, all sciences, according to their subject of study, can be divided into three large systems:
Social sciences (sociology, history, religious studies, social studies);
Technical sciences (agronomy, mechanics, construction and architecture);
Natural sciences (biology, chemistry, physics)
Natural Sciences
Natural sciences are a system of sciences that study the influence of external natural phenomena on human life. The basis of natural sciences is the relationship between the laws of nature and the laws that man has derived in the course of his activities.
The basis of all natural sciences is natural science - a science that directly studies natural phenomena. The most significant contributions to the development of natural sciences were made by such great scientists as Isaac Newton, Blaise Pascal and Mikhail Lomonosov.
Social Sciences
Social sciences are a system of sciences, the main subject of study of which is the study of the patterns of functioning of society, as well as its main components. Problems of society have interested humanity since ancient times.
It was then that questions began to be raised for the first time about what the role of the individual is in public life, what the state should be like, and what is needed in order to create a society of general prosperity.
The founders of modern social sciences are Rousseau, Locke and Hobbes. It was they who first formulated the philosophical basis for the development of society.
Research methods
In modern science, there are two main research methods: theoretical and empirical. The empirical research method is the accumulation of facts, observation of a phenomenon and the search for a logical connection between fact and phenomenon.
Natural science
In the broadest and most correct sense, the name E. should be understood as the science of the structure of the universe and the laws that govern it. E.'s aspiration and goal is to mechanically explain the structure of the cosmos in all its details, within the limits of the knowable, using techniques and methods characteristic of the exact sciences, that is, through observation, experience and mathematical calculation. Thus, everything transcendental does not enter into the domain of E., for his philosophy revolves within a mechanical, therefore strictly defined and delimited circle. From this point of view, all branches of E. represent 2 main departments or 2 main groups, namely:
I. General natural science explores those properties of bodies that are assigned to them all indifferently, and therefore can be called common. This includes mechanics, physics and chemistry, which are sufficiently described in further relevant articles. Calculus (mathematics) and experience are the main techniques in these branches of knowledge.
II. Private natural science explores the forms, structure and movement characteristic exclusively of those diverse and countless bodies that we call natural, in order to explain the phenomena they represent with the help of the laws and conclusions of general E. Calculations can be applied here, but relatively only in rare cases, although achieving a possible accuracy here also consists in the desire to reduce everything to calculation and to solving problems in a synthetic way. The latter has already been achieved by one of the branches of private science, namely astronomy in its department called celestial mechanics, while physical astronomy can be developed mainly with the help of observation and experience (spectral analysis), as is typical for all branches of private E. Thus, the following sciences belong here: astronomy (see), mineralogy in the broad sense of this expression, i.e. with the inclusion of geology (see), botany and zoology. Three sciences were finally named and are still called in most cases natural history, this outdated expression should be eliminated or applied only to their purely descriptive part, which, in turn, received more rational names, depending on what is actually being described: minerals, plants or animals. Each of the branches of private science is divided into several departments that have acquired independent significance due to their vastness, and most importantly due to the fact that the subjects being studied must be considered from different points of view, which, moreover, require unique techniques and methods. Each of the branches of private economics has a side morphological And dynamic. The task of morphology is the knowledge of the forms and structure of all natural bodies, the task of dynamics is the knowledge of those movements that, through their activity, caused the formation of these bodies and support their existence. Morphology, through precise descriptions and classifications, obtains conclusions that are considered laws, or rather morphological rules. These rules can be more or less general, that is, for example, they apply to plants and animals or only to one of the kingdoms of nature. There are no general rules regarding all three kingdoms, and therefore botany and zoology constitute one general branch of ecology, called biology. Mineralogy, therefore, constitutes a more isolated doctrine. Morphological laws or rules become more and more specific as we delve deeper into the study of the structure and shape of bodies. Thus, the presence of a bony skeleton is a law that applies only to vertebrates, the presence of seeds is a rule only regarding seed plants, etc. The dynamics of particular E. consists of geology in an inorganic environment and from physiology- in biology. These industries rely primarily on experience, and to some extent even on calculations. Thus, private natural sciences can be presented in the following classification:
| Morphology(sciences are predominantly observational) | Dynamics(sciences are predominantly experimental or, like celestial mechanics, mathematical) | |
| Astronomy | Physical | Celestial Mechanics |
| Mineralogy | Mineralogy proper with crystallography | Geology |
| Botany | Organography (morphology and systematics of living and obsolete plants, paleontology), plant geography | Physiology of plants and animals |
| Zoology | The same applies to animals, although the expression organography is not used by zoologists |
| Physical geography or physics of the globe | |
| Meteorology | Can also be classified as physics, since they are mainly the application of this science to phenomena occurring in the earth’s atmosphere |
| Climatology | |
| Orography | |
| Hydrography | |
| This also includes the factual side of the geography of animals and plants | |
The degree of development, as well as the properties of the subjects of study of the listed sciences, were the reason that, as already said, the methods they use are very different. As a result, each of them is divided into many separate specialties, often representing significant integrity and independence. So, in physics - optics, acoustics, etc. are studied independently, although the movements that constitute the essence of these phenomena are performed according to homogeneous laws. Among the special sciences, the oldest of them, namely celestial mechanics, which until recently constituted almost all of astronomy, is reduced almost exclusively to mathematics, while the physical part of this science calls upon chemical (spectral) analysis to its aid. The rest of the special sciences are growing with such rapidity and have achieved such an extraordinary expansion that their fragmentation into specialties is intensifying with every almost decade. So, in
Modern science, being part of culture, is also not homogeneous. It is primarily divided into humanitarian and natural science branches, accordingly, the subject of their research lies in the field of social consciousness or social existence. Our discipline will examine the basic concepts developed by modern natural sciences.
Enatural sciences vary in degree of generality depending on the subject of their study. So, perhaps, mathematics has the greatest degree of generality today - the science of relationships. Everything to which the concepts can be applied: more, less, equal, not equal, belongs to the field of applicability of mathematics. Therefore, the use of mathematical methods has become an integral part of the methodology of most applied sciences.
Physics, the science of motion, has a huge degree of generality. Movement is a necessary attribute of matter. It permeates all aspects of social life and is reflected in the public consciousness. Therefore, the developments created by physics turn out to be useful far beyond the traditional scope of their application.
Take, for example, the economy of a capitalist society. The movement of capital and goods plays a significant role in it. A product created by a manufacturer moves to the consumer, while its monetary equivalent moves in the opposite direction.
Physics is well aware of such systems with high-quality transformation of motion and the presence of feedback between their elements. A typical example of such a system is, for example, an oscillating circuit consisting of a capacitor, an inductor and a resistance (resistor) connected in series. Such systems are well described by mathematical equations that have two types of solutions: oscillatory, if the feedback level is high, and relaxation, if sufficient attenuation is introduced into the feedback circuit. This attenuation is determined by the amount of energy dissipated in the feedback circuit.
Capitalism at the stage of primitive accumulation, described in detail by K. Marx in his famous work “Capital,” had a significant level of feedback, which should have led to oscillatory processes in the economy. Indeed, crises of overproduction were characteristic of such capitalism. Because of the possibility of crises, capitalism was declared “decaying.”
Analysis of crises, carried out mainly in the United States, has led economists to the conclusion that an element of dispersion should be introduced into the chain of commodity-money movement.
You can disperse the goods. Such attempts were made in the United States during the so-called Great Depression. Wheat was drowned in Hudson Bay, oranges were burned in locomotive furnaces. The destruction of material assets, of course, reduces the scope of fluctuations in commodity and cash flow. However, in general it is disadvantageous to society.
The scattering of money turned out to be more successful. It is expressed as a balance of payments deficit. Simply put, the entire society begins to live in debt. As a result of this dispersion, the crises of overproduction in the modern capitalist economy disappeared.
After the Arab oil countries, which were not covered by the mechanism of dissipation of the commodity-money supply, entered the arena, the capitalist world was in a fever again. However, diplomatic efforts and international economic sanctions made it possible to introduce the economies of these countries into the general scheme of payment deficits. After this, comparative stability returned to the capitalist world.
The next most general subject is chemistry - the science of the structure of matter and its transformation. It is served by physics and mathematics as auxiliary tools. Chemistry has a clearly defined and very broad field of application.
The scope of biology is even more limited, but of course no less important. This is the science of living things. Its understanding requires deep knowledge in the fields of mathematics, physics, and chemistry. To understand the depth of the problems facing biology, think in your spare time about how living things differ from non-living things.
Chemistry and biology are remarkable in that they have developed and developed the concept of classification. In addition to chemistry and biology, it is widely used in computational mathematics and is of undoubted interest for students of economics.
In addition to the listed fundamental natural sciences, there are also a large number of applied sciences. For example, geology and geography are the sciences about the Earth and its structure. Anatomy and physiology study the biological characteristics of humans. Today, the so-called frontier scientific disciplines are very popular. As they used to say: “Disciplines arising at the intersection of sciences.” These are biophysics, biochemistry, physical chemistry, mathematical physics, etc. A special role among them is played by modern ecology - a science designed to solve the global environmental problem created by humanity literally in recent decades.
At the end of the last century, Earth was a largely agricultural planet with a relatively small number of cities and a low level of industrial production. Agriculture was virtually waste-free. For example, go to a modern village (I don’t mean holiday villages). You usually won't find landfills there. Items included in peasant household use are recycled almost completely and without any residue.
A completely different picture is observed in cities. Humanity has come to the point at which it can be crushed by the waste of its own vital activity, primarily household garbage and waste from modern chemical and processing industries. The general tendency for so-called developed countries to push out hazardous industries to underdeveloped countries (including Russia) does not save the situation. A solution can only be found through the united efforts of all humanity.
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What are natural sciences? Methods of natural sciences
In the modern world, there are thousands of different sciences, educational disciplines, sections and other structural links. However, a special place among all is occupied by those that directly concern a person and everything that surrounds him. This is a system of natural sciences. Of course, all other disciplines are important too. But it is this group that has the most ancient origin, and therefore has special significance in people’s lives.
The answer to this question is simple. These are disciplines that study man, his health, as well as the entire environment: soil, atmosphere, Earth as a whole, space, nature, substances that make up all living and nonliving bodies, their transformations.
The study of natural sciences has been interesting to people since ancient times. How to get rid of a disease, what the body is made of from the inside, why the stars shine and what they are, as well as millions of similar questions - this is what has interested humanity since the very beginnings of its emergence. The disciplines in question provide answers to them.
Therefore, to the question of what natural sciences are, the answer is clear. These are disciplines that study nature and all living things.
There are several main groups that belong to the natural sciences:
- Chemical (analytical, organic, inorganic, quantum, physical colloid chemistry, chemistry of organoelement compounds).
- Biological (anatomy, physiology, botany, zoology, genetics).
- Physical (physics, physical chemistry, physical and mathematical sciences).
- Earth sciences (astronomy, astrophysics, cosmology, astrochemistry, space biology).
- Sciences about the earth's shells (hydrology, meteorology, mineralogy, paleontology, physical geography, geology).
Only the basic natural sciences are presented here. However, it should be understood that each of them has its own subsections, branches, side and subsidiary disciplines. And if you combine all of them into a single whole, you can get a whole natural complex of sciences, numbering in hundreds of units.
Moreover, it can be divided into three large groups of disciplines:
Interaction between disciplines
Of course, no discipline can exist in isolation from others. All of them are in close harmonious interaction with each other, forming a single complex. For example, knowledge of biology would be impossible without the use of technical means designed on the basis of physics.
At the same time, it is impossible to study transformations inside living beings without knowledge of chemistry, because each organism is a whole factory of reactions occurring at colossal speed.
The interconnection of the natural sciences has always been traced. Historically, the development of one of them entailed intensive growth and accumulation of knowledge in the other. As soon as new lands began to be developed, islands and land areas were discovered, zoology and botany immediately developed. After all, the new habitats were inhabited (albeit not all) by previously unknown representatives of the human race. Thus, geography and biology are closely linked together.
If we talk about astronomy and related disciplines, it is impossible not to note the fact that they developed thanks to scientific discoveries in the field of physics and chemistry. The design of the telescope largely determined the successes in this area.
There are a lot of similar examples that can be given. All of them illustrate the close relationship between all natural disciplines that make up one huge group. Below we will consider the methods of natural sciences.
Before dwelling on the research methods used by the sciences under consideration, it is necessary to identify the objects of their study. They are:
Each of these objects has its own characteristics, and to study them it is necessary to select one or another method. Among these, as a rule, the following are distinguished:
- Observation is one of the simplest, most effective and ancient ways to understand the world.
- Experimentation is the basis of chemical sciences and most biological and physical disciplines. Allows you to obtain the result and from it draw a conclusion about the theoretical basis.
- Comparison - this method is based on the use of historically accumulated knowledge on a particular issue and comparing it with the results obtained. Based on the analysis, a conclusion is drawn about the innovation, quality and other characteristics of the object.
- Analysis. This method may include mathematical modeling, systematics, generalization, and effectiveness. Most often it is the final result after a number of other studies.
- Measurement - used to assess the parameters of specific objects of living and inanimate nature.
There are also the latest, modern research methods that are used in physics, chemistry, medicine, biochemistry and genetic engineering, genetics and other important sciences. This:
Of course, this is not a complete list. There are many different devices for working in every field of scientific knowledge. An individual approach is required to everything, which means that your own set of methods is formed, equipment and equipment are selected.
Modern problems of natural science
The main problems of natural sciences at the present stage of development are the search for new information, the accumulation of a theoretical knowledge base in a more in-depth, rich format. Until the beginning of the 20th century, the main problem of the disciplines under consideration was opposition to the humanities.
However, today this obstacle is no longer relevant, since humanity has realized the importance of interdisciplinary integration in mastering knowledge about man, nature, space and other things.
Now the disciplines of the natural science cycle are faced with a different task: how to preserve nature and protect it from the influence of man himself and his economic activities? And the problems here are the most pressing:
- acid rain;
- Greenhouse effect;
- ozone layer destruction;
- extinction of plant and animal species;
- air pollution and others.
In most cases, in response to the question “What are natural sciences?” One word immediately comes to mind - biology. This is the opinion of most people not associated with science. And this is a completely correct opinion. After all, what, if not biology, directly and very closely connects nature and man?
All disciplines that make up this science are aimed at studying living systems, their interactions with each other and with the environment. Therefore, it is quite normal that biology is considered the founder of the natural sciences.
In addition, it is also one of the most ancient. After all, people’s interest in themselves, their bodies, the surrounding plants and animals arose along with man. Genetics, medicine, botany, zoology, and anatomy are closely related to this discipline. All these branches make up biology as a whole. They give us a complete picture of nature, of man, and of all living systems and organisms. 
These fundamental sciences in the development of knowledge about bodies, substances and natural phenomena are no less ancient than biology. They also developed along with the development of man, his formation in the social environment. The main objectives of these sciences are the study of all bodies of inanimate and living nature from the point of view of the processes occurring in them, their connection with the environment.
Thus, physics examines natural phenomena, mechanisms and causes of their occurrence. Chemistry is based on the knowledge of substances and their mutual transformations into each other.
This is what natural sciences are.
And finally, we list the disciplines that allow us to learn more about our home, whose name is Earth. These include:
There are about 35 different disciplines in total. Together they study our planet, its structure, properties and features, which is so necessary for human life and economic development.
Natural Sciences. What sciences are called natural?
Natural sciences are the sciences about nature, that is, about nature. Inanimate nature and its development are studied by astronomy, geology, physics, chemistry, meteorology, volcanology, seismology, oceanology, geophysics, astrophysics, geochemistry, and a number of others. Wildlife is studied by the biological sciences (paleontology studies extinct organisms, taxonomy studies species and their classification, arachnology studies spiders, ornithology studies birds, entomology studies insects).
The natural sciences include those that study nature and all its manifestations, that is, physics, biology, chemistry, geography, ecology, astronomy.
Opposite to the natural sciences will be the humanities, which study man, his activities, consciousness and manifestation in various fields. These include history, psychology and others.
Natural is a word that, by itself and by its presence, tells us that something should happen in nature. Well, science, of course, is the field of activity that, this whole thing, thoroughly and scrupulously studies and reveals general, but at the same time fundamental, patterns.