What knowledge does not belong to the natural sciences. Physics can rightfully be considered the basis of all natural sciences.

System of natural science knowledge

natural science is one of the components of the system of modern scientific knowledge, which also includes complexes of technical and human sciences. Natural science is an evolving system of ordered information about the laws of motion of matter.

The objects of study of individual natural sciences, the totality of which as early as the beginning of the 20th century. bore the name of natural history, from the time of their inception to the present day they have been and remain: matter, life, man, the Earth, the Universe. Respectively modern natural science groups the major natural sciences as follows:

  • physics, chemistry, physical chemistry;
  • biology, botany, zoology;
  • anatomy, physiology, genetics (the doctrine of heredity);
  • geology, mineralogy, paleontology, meteorology, physical geography;
  • astronomy, cosmology, astrophysics, astrochemistry.

Of course, only the main natural ones are listed here, in fact modern natural science is a complex and branched complex, including hundreds of scientific disciplines. Physics alone unites a whole family of sciences (mechanics, thermodynamics, optics, electrodynamics, etc.). As the volume of scientific knowledge grew, certain sections of sciences acquired the status of scientific disciplines with their own conceptual apparatus, specific research methods, which often makes them difficult to access for specialists involved in other sections of the same, say, physics.

Such differentiation in the natural sciences (as, indeed, in science in general) is a natural and inevitable consequence of ever narrower specialization.

At the same time, counter processes also occur naturally in the development of science, in particular, natural science disciplines are formed and formed, as they often say, “at the junctions” of sciences: chemical physics, biochemistry, biophysics, biogeochemistry and many others. As a result, the boundaries that were once defined between individual scientific disciplines and their sections become very conditional, mobile and, one might say, transparent.

These processes, leading, on the one hand, to a further increase in the number of scientific disciplines, but, on the other hand, to their convergence and interpenetration, are one of the evidence of the integration of the natural sciences, which reflects the general trend in modern science.

It is here, perhaps, that it is appropriate to turn to such a scientific discipline, which, of course, has a special place as mathematics, which is a research tool and a universal language not only of the natural sciences, but also of many others - those in which quantitative patterns can be seen.

Depending on the methods underlying research, we can talk about the natural sciences:

  • descriptive (exploring factual data and relationships between them);
  • exact (building mathematical models for expressing established facts and relationships, i.e. patterns);
  • applied (using the systematics and models of descriptive and exact natural sciences for the development and transformation of nature).

Nevertheless, a common generic feature of all sciences that study nature and technology is conscious activity. professional workers science aimed at describing, explaining and predicting the behavior of the objects under study and the nature of the phenomena being studied. The humanities are distinguished by the fact that the explanation and prediction of phenomena (events) is based, as a rule, not on an explanation, but on an understanding of reality.

This is the fundamental difference between the sciences that have objects of study that allow systematic observation, multiple experimental verification and reproducible experiments, and sciences that study essentially unique, non-repeating situations, which, as a rule, do not allow exact repetition of an experiment, conducting an experiment more than once.

Modern culture seeks to overcome the differentiation of cognition into many independent areas and disciplines, primarily the split between the natural and human sciences, which clearly emerged at the end of the 19th century. After all, the world is one in all its infinite diversity, therefore, relatively independent areas of a single system of human knowledge are organically interconnected; difference here is transient, unity is absolute.

Nowadays, the integration of natural science knowledge has clearly been outlined, which manifests itself in many forms and becomes the most pronounced trend in its development. Increasingly, this trend is also manifested in the interaction of the natural sciences with the humanities. Evidence of this is the advancement of the principles of systemicity, self-organization and global evolutionism to the forefront of modern science, opening up the possibility of combining a wide variety of scientific knowledge into an integral and consistent system, united by common laws of evolution of objects of different nature.

There is every reason to believe that we are witnessing an ever-increasing convergence and mutual integration of the natural and human sciences. This is confirmed by the widespread use in humanitarian research not only of technical means and information technologies used in the natural and technical sciences, but also general scientific methods research developed in the process of development of natural science.

The subject of this course is the concepts related to the forms of existence and movement of living and inanimate matter, while the laws that determine the course of social phenomena are the subject of the humanities. However, it should be borne in mind that, no matter how different the natural and human sciences are, they have a generic unity, which is the logic of science. It is the submission to this logic that makes science a sphere human activity aimed at identifying and theoretical systematization of objective knowledge about reality.

The natural-scientific picture of the world is created and modified by scientists of different nationalities, among whom are convinced atheists and believers of various faiths and denominations. However, in its professional activity they all proceed from the fact that the world is material, that is, it exists objectively, regardless of the people who study it. Note, however, that the process of cognition itself can influence the studied objects of the material world and how a person imagines them, depending on the level of development of research tools. In addition, every scientist proceeds from the fact that the world is fundamentally cognizable.

The process of scientific knowledge is the search for truth. However, absolute truth in science is incomprehensible, and with each step along the path of knowledge, it moves further and deeper. Thus, at each stage of cognition, scientists establish relative truth, realizing that at the next stage, more accurate knowledge, more adequate to reality, will be achieved. And this is another evidence that the process of cognition is objective and inexhaustible.

What is the natural sciences?

    All sciences studying the world more or less related to the natural sciences. Like for example geography, which studies the structure of mountain ranges. Or biology, which studies unicellular and multicellular animals and plant worlds. Or chemistry, which studies various compounds and compounds.

    The natural sciences are:

    2. Biology.

    3. Geography.

    4. Astronomy.

    Sciences related to natural, are included in the system of human knowledge, which is called natural science. In Russian, the word eststvo means nature, that which is, exists, the material world. Respectively, the natural sciences are those sciences that study the material world. This, of course, is physics, chemistry, astronomy, geology, mathematics, biology, geography, and so on.

    The natural sciences do not include sciences that study, for example, society or spiritual world human: sociology, psychology, theology, and so on.

    Natural sciences are sciences that children begin to learn as early as kindergarten, These include:

    1. Chemistry
    2. Biology
    3. Physics
    4. Geography
    5. Astronomy

    The subject of study of all these sciences are natural natural phenomena.

    The natural sciences are those sciences that we begin to study in school. And this is biology and geography, these subjects study natural phenomena, this also includes astronomy and chemistry, those sciences that help in studying the laws of the world.

    The natural sciences are those subjects that study the world around us. There are actually a large number of them. But you can choose how the main sciences are biology, geography, astronomy, physics, chemistry.

    The natural sciences include sciences that study the whole world around us, all the nature around us and man, who is part of this nature. Natural sciences include the sciences within which new natural laws and phenomena are discovered and studied. The entire list of natural sciences, in my opinion, can be divided into several groups. 1. biology uniting botany and zoology, one of the sections of which is human anatomy and physiology. 2. Earth sciences. About its structure, climate and development in time. This group, in my opinion, includes paleontology, meteorology, geology, mineralogy, and what other sciences are there. And, perhaps, Kenshido is right, also geography. Of course, the science of the Universe 3. Astronomy, astrophysics. I almost forgot the most main science 4, although, rather, it should be put in the first place. Physics. Chemistry very well echoes or is on friendly terms with physics, many processes in which are explained by physical laws. So in group 4, I think, physics, chemistry, physical chemistry and chemical physics should be combined.

    Most likely, I missed some science. Today, when many sciences are born at the intersection of two or even three different sciences, one can simply not be aware of new ones. Some kind of chemical-physical biology. Well, it's just a joke.

    The natural sciences study the world around man. There are a large number of them, but of course, several basic natural sciences can be distinguished, for example: biology, chemistry, geodesy, geography, astronomy, natural science.

    Natural sciences are those sciences that study our material essence, our world - geography, biology, chemistry, astronomy, natural history, mathematics, physics, zoology, history and other sciences without which the knowledge of our life will not be voluminous.

    Biology (natural science in primary school), chemistry, geography, astronomy (although it is not currently available in school curriculum), history and even physics are referred to them.

    The natural sciences are the totality of all the sciences about nature and its phenomena.

    The natural sciences are the sciences that study the world around man, natural phenomena. The natural sciences are Chemistry, biology, astronomy, geography, mathematics, psychology, astrophysics.

Science is one of the most important areas of human activity in present stage development of world civilization. Today there are hundreds of different disciplines: technical, social, humanitarian, natural sciences. What are they studying? How did natural science develop in the historical aspect?

Natural science is...

What is natural science? When did it originate and what directions does it consist of?

Natural science is a discipline that studies natural phenomena and phenomena that are external to the subject of research (man). The term "natural science" in Russian comes from the word "nature", which is a synonym for the word "nature".

The foundation of natural science can be considered mathematics, as well as philosophy. By and large, all modern natural sciences came out of them. At first, naturalists tried to answer all questions concerning nature and its various manifestations. Then, as the subject of research became more complex, natural science began to break up into separate disciplines, which over time became more and more isolated.

In the context of modern times, natural science is a complex of scientific disciplines about nature, taken in their close relationship.

The history of the formation of natural sciences

The development of the natural sciences took place gradually. However, human interest in natural phenomena manifested itself in antiquity.

Naturphilosophy (in fact, science) actively developed in Ancient Greece. Ancient thinkers, with the help of primitive methods of research and, at times, intuition, were able to make a number of scientific discoveries and important assumptions. Even then, natural philosophers were sure that the Earth revolves around the Sun, they could explain solar and lunar eclipses, and quite accurately measured the parameters of our planet.

In the Middle Ages, the development of natural science slowed down noticeably and was heavily dependent on the church. Many scientists at that time were persecuted for the so-called heterodoxy. All scientific research and research, in fact, came down to the interpretation and substantiation of the scriptures. Nevertheless, in the era of the Middle Ages, logic and theory developed significantly. It is also worth noting that at this time the center of natural philosophy (the direct study of natural phenomena) geographically shifted towards the Arab-Muslim region.

In Europe, the rapid development of natural science begins (resumes) only in the 17th-18th centuries. This is a time of large-scale accumulation of factual knowledge and empirical material (results of "field" observations and experiments). The natural sciences of the 18th century are also based in their research on the results of numerous geographical expeditions, voyages, and studies of newly discovered lands. In the 19th century, logic again came to the fore and theoretical thinking. At this time, scientists are actively processing all the collected facts, putting forward various theories, formulating patterns.

Thales, Eratosthenes, Pythagoras, Claudius Ptolemy, Archimedes, Galileo Galilei, Rene Descartes, Blaise Pascal, Nikola Tesla, Mikhail Lomonosov and many other famous scientists should be referred to the most outstanding naturalists in the history of world science.

The problem of classification of natural science

The basic natural sciences include: mathematics (which is also often called the "queen of sciences"), chemistry, physics, biology. The problem of classification of natural science has existed for a long time and worries the minds of more than a dozen scientists and theorists.

This dilemma was best handled by Friedrich Engels, a German philosopher and scientist who is better known as a close friend of Karl Marx and co-author of his most famous work called Capital. He was able to distinguish two main principles (approaches) of the typology of scientific disciplines: this is an objective approach, as well as the principle of development.

The most detailed was offered by the Soviet methodologist Bonifatiy Kedrov. It has not lost its relevance even today.

List of natural sciences

The whole complex of scientific disciplines is usually divided into three large groups:

  • humanities (or social) sciences;
  • technical;
  • natural.

Nature is studied by the latter. Full list natural sciences is presented below:

  • astronomy;
  • biology;
  • the medicine;
  • geology;
  • soil science;
  • physics;
  • natural history;
  • chemistry;
  • botany;
  • zoology;
  • psychology.

As for mathematics, scientists do not have a common opinion as to which group of scientific disciplines it should be attributed. Some consider it a natural science, others an exact one. Some methodologists include mathematics in a separate class of so-called formal (or abstract) sciences.

Chemistry

Chemistry is a vast area of ​​natural science, the main object of study of which is matter, its properties and structure. This science also considers objects at the atomic-molecular level. It also studies chemical bonds and reactions that occur when different structural particles of a substance interact.

For the first time, the theory that all natural bodies consist of smaller (not visible to humans) elements was put forward by ancient Greek philosopher Democritus. He suggested that every substance includes smaller particles, just as words are made up of different letters.

Modern chemistry is a complex science that includes several dozen disciplines. These are inorganic and organic chemistry, biochemistry, geochemistry, even cosmochemistry.

Physics

Physics is one of the oldest sciences on Earth. The laws discovered by it are the basis, the foundation for the entire system of disciplines of natural science.

The term "physics" was first used by Aristotle. In those distant times, it was practically identical philosophy. Physics began to turn into an independent science only in the 16th century.

Today, physics is understood as a science that studies matter, its structure and movement, as well as the general laws of nature. There are several main sections in its structure. These are classical mechanics, thermodynamics, the theory of relativity and some others.

Physiography

The demarcation between the natural and human sciences ran like a thick line through the "body" of the once unified geographical science, dividing its individual disciplines. Thus, physical geography (as opposed to economic and social) found itself in the bosom of natural science.

This science studies geographical envelope Earth as a whole, as well as individual natural components and systems that make up its composition. Modern physical geography consists of a number of them:

  • landscape science;
  • geomorphology;
  • climatology;
  • hydrology;
  • oceanology;
  • soil science and others.

Natural and Human Sciences: Unity and Differences

Humanities, natural sciences - are they as far apart as it might seem?

Of course, these disciplines differ in the object of research. The natural sciences study nature, the humanities focus their attention on man and society. The humanities cannot compete with the natural disciplines in accuracy, they are not able to mathematically prove their theories and confirm hypotheses.

On the other hand, these sciences are closely related, intertwined with each other. Especially in the 21st century. So, mathematics has long been introduced into literature and music, physics and chemistry - into art, psychology - into social geography and economics, and so on. In addition, it has long been obvious that many important discoveries are made just at the junction of several scientific disciplines, which, at first glance, have absolutely nothing in common.

Finally...

Natural science is a branch of science that studies natural phenomena, processes and phenomena. There are a huge number of such disciplines: physics, mathematics and biology, geography and astronomy.

The natural sciences, despite numerous differences in the subject and methods of research, are closely related to social and humanitarian disciplines. This connection is especially strong in the 21st century, when all the sciences converge and intertwine.

The natural sciences convey to mankind the totality of the available knowledge about natural processes and phenomena. The concept of "natural science" itself developed very actively in the 17th-19th centuries, when scientists specializing in it were called naturalists. The main difference between this group and the humanities or social sciences lies in the field of study, since the latter are based on human society, and not on natural processes.

Instruction

The basic sciences related to the concept of "natural" are physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy, geography and geology, which over time could change and combine, interacting with each other. It is in this way that such disciplines as geophysics, soil science, autophysics, climatology, biochemistry, meteorology, physical chemistry and chemical physics arose.

Physics and its classical theory was formed during the lifetime of Isaac Newton, and then developed through the work of Faraday, Ohm and Maxwell. In the 20th century, there was a revolution in this science, which showed the imperfection of the traditional theory. Not the last role in this was played by Albert Einstein, who preceded the real physical "boom" during the Second World War. In the 40s of the last century, a powerful stimulus for the development of this science was the creation atomic bomb.

Chemistry was a continuation of earlier alchemy and began with Robert Boyle's famous work The Skeptical Chemist, published in 1661. Later, within the framework of this science, the so-called critical thinking, which developed during the time of Cullen and Black, began to actively develop. Well, one cannot ignore the definition of atomic masses and the outstanding invention of Dmitry Mendeleev in 1869 (the periodic law of the universe).

Biology began in 1847 when a doctor in Hungary suggested that his patients wash their hands to prevent the spread of germs. Later, Louis Pasteur developed this direction, linking the processes of decay and fermentation, as well as inventing pasteurization.

Geography, constantly spurred on by the search for new lands, went hand in hand with cartography, which developed especially rapidly in the 17th and 18th centuries, when, as a result of the search for southern mainland planet, Australia was discovered, and James Cook made three world travel. In Russia, this science developed under Catherine I and Lomonosov, who founded the Geographical Department of the Academy of Sciences.

Last but not least, science was initiated by Leonardo da Vinci and Girolamo Fracastoro, who suggested that the history of the planet is much longer than the biblical account. Then, already in the 17-18 centuries, a general theory of the Earth was formed, which gave rise to the scientific works of Robert Hooke, John Ray, Joanne Woodward and other geologists.

note

It is a mistake to classify mathematics as one of the natural sciences, which, together with logic, belongs to another group - formal and differs in the form of methodology. For the same reasons, informatics does not belong to natural sciences, but another science - natural informatics - on the contrary, does.


Attention, only TODAY!

All interesting

The natural sciences originated in natural philosophy, which was a speculative discipline concerned with the interpretation of natural phenomena. Gradually, within the framework of the philosophy of nature, an experimental direction developed, based on tested ...

Modern natural science was formed not at once. The selection of a number of interrelated sciences about nature was preceded by the accumulation of knowledge and facts about the reality surrounding man. Today, the natural sciences still occupy one of the...

Each of the sciences classified as natural has different histories of origin and development, therefore, in order to clarify this issue, the history of natural science as a discipline, in general, is usually studied. But the main principle of the relationship of certain ...

Man has been surrounded by nature throughout his history. If at first people treated natural objects solely from the point of view of their practical applicability, then later interest resulted in the formation of the so-called natural sciences, in ...

Physics occupies a special place in the system of natural sciences. Its subject matter is considered to be the simplest and most general patterns processes and phenomena occurring in objective reality. At the center of consideration of physics are questions of the structure of matter, ...

The 19th century laid an excellent foundation for the next century, the 20th, when science took a decisive step forward. The discoveries made in the field of physics, chemistry and biology had a huge impact on the further course of technological progress. ChemistryThe main discovery in…

There are humanities and natural sciences. The first are engaged human consciousness and related phenomena, while the natural sciences study nature in all its manifestations. This division is conditional, since a person is a part of nature, however ...

There is a classification of sciences, depending on what is the subject of their study and what are the methods. The exact sciences are closely related to technology and contribute to technological progress, they are often opposed to the humanities. What are the exact...

As independent science psychology was formed around the middle of the 19th century. The doctrine of mental processes and phenomena began to develop actively only with the advent of knowledge about the structure of the human brain. Becoming an experimental science...

Geography is a system of social and natural sciences that studies natural and industrial territorial complexes and components. Such a combination of disciplines within one science is a close relationship between the commonality scientific task and…

Classification of sciences by subject of study

According to the subject of research, all sciences are divided into natural, humanitarian and technical.

Natural Sciences study the phenomena, processes and objects of the material world. This world is sometimes called the outside world. These sciences include physics, chemistry, geology, biology and other similar sciences. The natural sciences also study man as a material, biological being. One of the authors of the concept of natural sciences as a single system of knowledge was the German biologist Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919). In his book World Riddles (1899), he pointed to a group of problems (riddles) that are the subject of study, in essence, of all natural sciences as a single system of natural scientific knowledge, natural science. “The riddles of E. Haeckel” can be formulated as follows: how did the Universe come into being? what types of physical interactions operate in the world and do they have a single physical nature? What does everything in the world ultimately consist of? what is the difference between the living and the non-living and what is the place of man in the infinitely changing Universe and a number of other questions of a fundamental nature. Based on the above concept of E. Haeckel on the role of natural sciences in the knowledge of the world, we can give the following definition of natural science.

Natural science is a system of natural scientific knowledge created by the natural sciences in the process of studying the fundamental laws of the development of nature and the universe as a whole.

Natural science is the most important section of modern science. The unity and integrity of natural science is given by the natural scientific method underlying all natural sciences.

Humanitarian sciences- these are the sciences that study the laws of development of society and man as a social, spiritual being. These include history, law, economics and other similar sciences. Unlike, for example, biology, where a person is considered as a biological species, in the humanities we are talking about a person as a creative, spiritual being. Technical science- this is the knowledge that a person needs to create the so-called "second nature", the world of buildings, structures, communications, artificial energy sources, etc. The technical sciences include astronautics, electronics, energy and a number of other similar sciences. In the technical sciences, the relationship between natural science and the humanities is more pronounced. Systems created on the basis of knowledge of technical sciences take into account knowledge from the field of humanities and natural sciences. In all the sciences mentioned above, there is specialization and integration. Specialization characterizes a deep study of individual aspects, properties of the object under study, phenomenon, process. For example, an ecologist may devote his entire life to the study of the causes of the "bloom" of a reservoir. Integration characterizes the process of combining specialized knowledge from various scientific disciplines. Today, there is a general process of integration of natural sciences, humanities and technical sciences in solving a number of problems. actual problems, among which special meaning have global problems development of the world community. Along with the integration of scientific knowledge, the process of formation of scientific disciplines at the junction of individual sciences is developing. For example, in the twentieth century such sciences as geochemistry (geological and chemical evolution of the Earth), biochemistry (chemical interactions in living organisms) and others arose. The processes of integration and specialization eloquently emphasize the unity of science, the interconnection of its sections. The division of all sciences on the subject of study into natural, humanitarian and technical faces a certain difficulty: what sciences do mathematics, logic, psychology, philosophy, cybernetics, general systems theory, and some others belong to? This question is not trivial. This is especially true for mathematics. Mathematics, as noted by one of the founders of quantum mechanics, the English physicist P. Dirac (1902-1984), is a tool specially adapted to deal with abstract concepts of any kind, and in this area there is no limit to its power. famous German philosopher I. Kant (1724-1804) owns the following statement: there is as much science in science as there is mathematics in it. The peculiarity of modern science is manifested in the wide application of logical and mathematical methods in it. There are ongoing discussions about the so-called interdisciplinary and general methodological sciences. The former can present their knowledge about laws of the objects under study in many other sciences, but how Additional information. The second are developing common methods scientific knowledge, they are called general methodological sciences. The question of interdisciplinary and general methodological sciences is debatable, open, and philosophical.

Theoretical and empirical sciences

According to the methods used in the sciences, it is customary to divide the sciences into theoretical and empirical.

Word "theory" borrowed from the ancient Greek language and means "thinkable consideration of things." Theoretical Sciences create various models of real-life phenomena, processes and research objects. They make extensive use of abstract concepts, mathematical calculations, and ideal objects. This makes it possible to identify essential connections, laws and regularities of the studied phenomena, processes and objects. For example, in order to understand the patterns of thermal radiation, classical thermodynamics used the concept of a completely black body, which completely absorbs the light radiation incident on it. The principle of making postulates plays an important role in the development of theoretical sciences.

For example, A. Einstein adopted in the theory of relativity the postulate of the independence of the speed of light from the movement of the source of its radiation. This postulate does not explain why the speed of light is constant, but represents the initial position (postulate) of this theory. empirical sciences. The word "empirical" is derived from the name and surname of the ancient Roman physician, philosopher Sextus Empiricus (3rd century AD). He argued that only the data of experience should underlie the development of scientific knowledge. From here empirical means experienced. At present, this concept includes both the concept of an experiment and traditional methods of observation: description and systematization of facts obtained without using the methods of conducting an experiment. The word "experiment" is borrowed from the Latin language and literally means trial and experience. Strictly speaking, the experiment "asks questions" to nature, i.e., special conditions are created that make it possible to reveal the action of the object under these conditions. There is a close relationship between theoretical and empirical sciences: theoretical sciences use the data of the empirical sciences, the empirical sciences test the consequences that follow from the theoretical sciences. There is nothing more effective than a good theory in scientific research, and the development of a theory is impossible without original, creatively designed experiment. At present, the term "empirical and theoretical" sciences has been replaced by more adequate terms "theoretical research" and " experimental studies". The introduction of these terms emphasizes the close relationship between theory and practice in modern science.

Fundamental and applied sciences

Taking into account the result of the contribution of individual sciences to the development of scientific knowledge, all sciences are divided into fundamental and applied sciences. The former strongly influence our way of thinking, the second - on our Lifestyle.

Fundamental Sciences explore the deepest elements, structures, laws of the universe. In the 19th century it was customary to call such sciences "purely scientific research", emphasizing their focus solely on understanding the world, changing our way of thinking. It was about such sciences as physics, chemistry and other natural sciences. Some scientists XIX in. argued that "physics is salt, and everything else is zero." Today, such a belief is a delusion: it cannot be argued that the natural sciences are fundamental, while the humanities and technical sciences are indirect, depending on the level of development of the former. Therefore, it is advisable to replace the term "fundamental sciences" with the term "fundamental scientific research", which are developing in all sciences.

Applied Sciences, or applied scientific research, set as their goal the use of knowledge from the field of fundamental research to solve specific problems practical life people, i.e. they influence our way of life. For example, applied mathematics develops mathematical methods for solving problems in the design, construction of specific technical objects. It should be emphasized that in modern classification sciences, the objective function of a particular science is also taken into account. With this in mind, one speaks of exploratory scientific research to solve a particular problem and problem. Exploratory scientific research provides a link between fundamental and applied research in solving a specific task and problem. The concept of fundamentality includes the following features: the depth of research, the scope of application of research results in other sciences, and the functions of these results in the development of scientific knowledge in general.

One of the first classifications of natural sciences is the classification developed by a French scientist (1775-1836). The German chemist F. Kekule (1829-1896) also developed a classification of the natural sciences, which was discussed in the 19th century. In his classification, the main, basic science was mechanics, that is, the science of the simplest of the types of movement - mechanical.

FINDINGS

1. E. Haeckel considered all natural sciences as the fundamental basis of scientific knowledge, emphasizing that without natural science the development of all other sciences would be limited and untenable. This approach emphasizes the important role of natural science. However, the humanities and technical sciences have a significant impact on the development of natural sciences.

2. Science is an integral system of natural science, humanitarian, technical, interdisciplinary and general methodological knowledge.

3. The level of fundamentality of science is determined by the depth and scope of its knowledge, which are necessary for the development of the entire system of scientific knowledge as a whole.

4. In jurisprudence, the theory of state and law belongs to the fundamental sciences, its concepts and principles are fundamental for jurisprudence in general.

5. The natural scientific method is the basis for the unity of all scientific knowledge.

QUESTIONS FOR SELF-TEST AND SEMINARS

1. The subject of research in the natural sciences.

2. What do the humanities study?

3. What are the technical sciences researching?

4. Fundamental and applied sciences.

5. Relationship between theoretical and empirical sciences in the development of scientific knowledge.

MAIN HISTORICAL STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL SCIENCE

Basic concepts: classical, non-classical and post-non-classical science, natural-scientific picture of the world, the development of science before the era of modern times, the development of science in Russia

Classical, non-classical and post-non-classical science

Researchers studying science in general distinguish three forms historical development sciences: classical, non-classical and post-non-classical science.

Classical science is called science before the beginning of the twentieth century, referring to the scientific ideals, tasks of science and understanding scientific method characteristic of science until the beginning of the last century. This is, first of all, the belief of many scientists of that time in the rational structure of the surrounding world and in the possibility of an accurate cause-and-effect description of events in material world. Classical science explored two dominant in nature physical forces: gravitational force and electromagnetic force. Mechanical, physical and electromagnetic pictures of the world, as well as the concept of energy based on classical thermodynamics, are typical generalizations of classical science. Non-classical science is the science of the first half of the last century. The theory of relativity and quantum mechanics are the basic theories of non-classical science. During this period, a probabilistic interpretation of physical laws is being developed: it is absolutely impossible to predict the trajectory of particles in the quantum systems of the microworld with absolute accuracy. Post-non-classical science(fr. post- after) - science of the late twentieth century. and early XXI in. During this period, given great attention the study of complex, developing systems of animate and inanimate nature based on nonlinear models. Classical science dealt with objects whose behavior could be predicted at any desired time. New objects appear in non-classical science (objects of the microcosm), the forecast of behavior of which is given on the basis of probabilistic methods. Classical science also used statistical, probabilistic methods, but it explained the impossibility of predicting, for example, the motion of a particle in brownian motion large quantity interacting particles the behavior of each of which obeys the laws of classical mechanics.

In non-classical science, the probabilistic nature of the forecast is explained by the probabilistic nature of the objects of study themselves (the corpuscular-wave nature of the objects of the microworld).

Post-nonclassical science deals with objects whose behavior becomes impossible to predict from a certain moment, i.e., at this moment a random factor acts. Such objects are discovered by physics, chemistry, astronomy and biology.

Nobel Laureate in Chemistry I. Prigogine (1917-2003) rightly noted that Western science developed not only as an intellectual game or a response to the demands of practice, but also as a passionate search for truth. This difficult search found its expression in the attempts of scientists of different centuries to create a natural-scientific picture of the world.

concept natural science picture peace

At the heart of the modern scientific picture of the world lies the position on the reality of the subject of science. “For a scientist,” wrote (1863-1945), “obviously, since he works and thinks like a scientist, there is no doubt about the reality of the subject of scientific research and cannot be.” The scientific picture of the world is a kind of photographic portrait of what actually exists in the objective world. In other words, the scientific picture of the world is an image of the world, which is created on the basis of natural scientific knowledge about its structure and laws. The most important principle of creating a natural-scientific picture of the world is the principle of explaining the laws of nature from the study of nature itself, without resorting to unobservable causes and facts.

Below is a summary of the scientific ideas and teachings, the development of which led to the creation of the natural scientific method and modern natural science.

ancient science

Strictly speaking, the development of the scientific method is connected not only with the culture and civilization of Ancient Greece. In the ancient civilizations of Babylon, Egypt, China and India, the development of mathematics, astronomy, medicine and philosophy took place. In 301 BC. e. the troops of Alexander the Great entered Babylon, representatives of Greek scholarship (scientists, doctors, etc.) always participated in his conquest campaigns. By this time, the Babylonian priests had sufficiently developed knowledge in the field of astronomy, mathematics and medicine. From this knowledge, the Greeks borrowed the division of the day into 24 hours (2 hours for each constellation of the zodiac), the division of the circle into 360 degrees, the description of the constellations and a number of other knowledge. Let us briefly present the achievements of ancient science from the point of view of the development of natural science.

Astronomy. In the III century. BC e. Eratosthenes of Cyrenai calculated the size of the Earth, and quite accurately. He also created the first map of the known part of the Earth in a degree grid. In the III century. BC e. Aristarchus from Samos proposed a hypothesis about the rotation of the Earth and other planets known to him around the Sun. He substantiated this hypothesis by observations and calculations. Archimedes, the author of unusually deep works on mathematics, an engineer, built in the 2nd century. BC e. planetarium powered by water. In the 1st century BC e. the astronomer Posidonius calculated the distance from the Earth to the Sun, the distance he obtained is approximately 5/8 of the actual one. The astronomer Hipparchus (190-125 BC) created a mathematical system of circles to explain the apparent movement of the planets. He also created the first catalog of stars, included 870 bright stars and described the appearance of a "new star" in a system of previously observed stars and thus opened up an important question for discussion in astronomy: whether there are any changes in the supralunar world or not. It was only in 1572 that the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) again turned to this problem.

The system of circles created by Hipparchus was developed by K. Ptolemy (100-170 AD), the author geocentric system of the world. Ptolemy added descriptions of another 170 stars to Hipparchus' catalog. The system of the universe of K. Ptolemy developed the ideas of Aristotelian cosmology and geometry of Euclid (III century BC). In it, the center of the world was the Earth, around which the then known planets and the Sun revolved in a complex system of circular orbits. Comparison of the location of the stars according to the catalogs of Hipparchus and Ptolemy - Tycho Brahe allowed astronomers in the XVIII century. to refute the postulate of Aristotle's cosmology: "The constancy of the sky is the law of nature." There is also evidence of significant achievements ancient civilization in medicine. In particular, Hippocrates (410-370 BC) was distinguished by the breadth of coverage of medical issues. His school achieved the greatest success in the field of surgery and in the treatment of open wounds.

An important role in the development of natural science was played by the doctrine of structure of matter and cosmological ideas of ancient thinkers.

Anaxagoras(500-428 BC) argued that all bodies in the world consist of infinitely divisible small and innumerably many elements (seeds of things, homeomers). From these seeds, by their random movement, chaos was formed. Along with the seeds of things, as Anaxagoras argued, there is a "world mind", as the finest and lightest substance, incompatible with the "seeds of the world." The world mind creates order in the world out of chaos: it unites homogeneous elements, and separates heterogeneous ones from each other. The sun, according to Anaxagoras, is a red-hot metal block or stone many times over. more city Peloponnese.

Leucippus(V century BC) and his student Democritus(V century BC), as well as their followers already in more late period- Epicurus (370-270 BC) and Titus Lucretius Kara (I in. n. e.) - created the doctrine of atoms. Everything in the world consists of atoms and emptiness. Atoms are eternal, they are indivisible and indestructible. There are an infinite number of atoms, the shapes of atoms are also infinite, some of them are round, others are hooked, etc., ad infinitum. All bodies (solid, liquid, gaseous), as well as what is called the soul, are composed of atoms. The variety of properties and qualities in the world of things phenomena is determined by the variety of atoms, their number and the type of their compounds. The human soul is the finest atoms. Atoms cannot be created or destroyed. Atoms are in perpetual motion. The reasons that cause the movement of atoms are inherent in the very nature of atoms: they are characterized by heaviness, "shaking" or, speaking on modern language, pulsing, trembling. Atoms are the only and true reality, reality. The void in which the eternal movement of atoms takes place is only a background, devoid of structure, an infinite space. Emptiness is a necessary and sufficient condition for the perpetual motion of atoms, from the interaction of which everything is formed both on Earth and in the entire Universe. Everything in the world is causally determined by virtue of necessity, the order that originally exists in it. The "vortex" motion of atoms is the cause of everything that exists not only on the planet Earth, but also in the Universe as a whole. There are an infinite number of worlds. Since atoms are eternal, no one created them, and therefore there is no beginning of the world. Thus, the Universe is a movement from atoms to atoms. There are no goals in the world (for example, such a goal as the emergence of man). In the knowledge of the world, it is reasonable to ask why something happened, for what reason, and it is completely unreasonable to ask for what purpose it happened. Time is the unfolding of events from atoms to atoms. “People,” Democritus argued, “invented an image of chance in order to use it as a pretext to cover up their own folly.”

Plato (IV century BC) - ancient philosopher, teacher of Aristotle. Among the natural science ideas of Plato's philosophy, a special place is occupied by the concept of mathematics and the role of mathematics in the knowledge of nature, the world, the universe. According to Plato, the sciences based on observation or sensory knowledge physics, for example, cannot lead to an adequate, true knowledge of the world. Of mathematics, Plato considered the basic arithmetic, since the idea of ​​a number does not need its justification in other ideas. This idea that the world is written in the language of mathematics is deeply connected with Plato's teachings about the ideas or essences of things in the surrounding world. This teaching contains a deep thought about the existence of connections and relations that have a universal character in the world. Plato concluded that astronomy is closer to mathematics than physics, since astronomy observes and quantifies mathematical formulas the harmony of the world created by the demiurge, or god, the best and most perfect, integral, resembling a huge organism. The doctrine of the essence of things and the concept of mathematics of Plato's philosophy had a huge impact on many thinkers of subsequent generations, for example, on the work of I. Kepler (1570-1630): “Creating us in our own image,” he wrote, “God wanted us to be able to perceive and share his own thoughts with him... Our knowledge (of numbers and magnitudes) is of the same kind as God's, but at least insofar as we can understand at least something during this mortal life. I. Kepler tried to combine earthly mechanics with heavenly, assuming the presence in the world of dynamic and mathematical laws that govern this perfect world created by God. In this sense, J. Kepler was a follower of Plato. He tried to combine mathematics (geometry) with astronomy (the observations of T. Brahe and the observations of his contemporary G. Galileo). From mathematical calculations and observational data of astronomers, Kepler had the idea that the world is not an organism, like Plato, but a well-oiled mechanism, a celestial machine. He discovered three mysterious laws, according to which the planets do not move in circles, but on ellipses around the sun. Kepler's laws:

1. All planets move in elliptical orbits with the sun at the center.

2. A straight line connecting the Sun and any planet describes the same area in equal time intervals.

3. The cubes of the average distances of the planets from the Sun are related as the squares of their periods of revolution: R 13/R 23 -T 12/T 22,

where R 1, R 2 - the distance of the planets to the Sun, T 1, T 2 - the period of revolution of the planets around the sun. I. Kepler's laws were established on the basis of observations and contradicted Aristotelian astronomy, which was universally recognized in the Middle Ages and had its supporters in the 17th century. I. Kepler considered his laws to be illusory, since he was convinced that God determined the motion of the planets in circular orbits in the form of a mathematical circle.

Aristotle(IV century BC) - philosopher, founder of logic and a number of sciences, such as biology and control theory. The device of the world, or cosmology, of Aristotle is as follows: the world, the Universe, has the shape of a ball with a finite radius. The surface of the ball is a sphere, so the universe consists of nested spheres. The center of the world is the Earth. The world is divided into sublunar and supralunar. The sublunar world is the Earth and the sphere on which the Moon is attached. The whole world consists of five elements: water, earth, air, fire and ether (radiant). Everything that is in the supralunar world consists of ether: stars, luminaries, the space between the spheres and the supralunar spheres themselves. Ether cannot be perceived by the senses. In cognition of everything that is in the sublunar world, which does not consist of ether, our feelings, observations, corrected by the mind, do not deceive us and provide adequate information about the sublunar world.

Aristotle believed that the world was created for a specific purpose. Therefore, in him everything in the Universe has its intended purpose or place: fire, air tend upwards, earth, water - to the center of the world, to the Earth. There is no emptiness in the world, i.e. everything is occupied by ether. In addition to the five elements that in question in Aristotle, there is still something “indefinite”, which he calls “first matter”, but in his cosmology “first matter” does not play a significant role. In his cosmology, the supralunar world is eternal and unchanging. The laws of the supralunar world differ from the laws of the sublunar world. The spheres of the supralunar world move uniformly in circles around the Earth, making a complete revolution in one day. On the last sphere is the "prime mover". Being motionless, it gives movement to the whole world. The sublunar world has its own laws. Changes, appearances, disintegration, etc. dominate here. The sun and stars are composed of ether. It has no effect on celestial bodies in the underworld. Observations indicating that something is flickering, moving, etc., in the firmament of heaven, according to Aristotle's cosmology, are a consequence of the influence of the Earth's atmosphere on our senses.

In understanding the nature of movement, Aristotle distinguished four types of movement: a) increase (and decrease); b) transformation or qualitative change; c) creation and destruction; d) movement as movement in space. Objects in relation to movement, according to Aristotle, can be: a) motionless; b) self-propelled; c) moving not spontaneously, but through the action of other bodies. Analyzing the types of movement, Aristotle proves that they are based on the type of movement, which he called movement in space. Movement in space can be circular, rectilinear and mixed (circular + rectilinear). Since there is no emptiness in the world of Aristotle, the movement must be continuous, that is, from one point in space to another. It follows from this that rectilinear motion is discontinuous, so, having reached the boundary of the world, a ray of light, propagating along a straight line, must interrupt its motion, i.e., change its direction. Aristotle considered the circular motion to be the most perfect and eternal, uniform, it is this that is characteristic of the motion of the celestial spheres.

The world, according to the philosophy of Aristotle, is the cosmos, where man is given the main place. In matters of the relationship between living and non-living, Aristotle was a supporter, one might say, of organic evolution. Aristotle's theory or hypothesis of the origin of life assumes "spontaneous generation from particles of matter" that have in themselves some kind of "active principle", entelechy (Greek. entelecheia- completion), which, under certain conditions, can create an organism. The doctrine of organic evolution was also developed by the philosopher Empedocles (5th century BC).

The achievements of the ancient Greeks in the field of mathematics were significant. For example, the mathematician Euclid (III century BC) created geometry as first mathematical theory space. Only in early XIX in. a new non-Euclidean Geometry, whose methods were used to create the theory of relativity, the basis of non-classical science.

The teachings of ancient Greek thinkers about matter, matter, atoms contained a deep natural-scientific idea about the universal nature of the laws of nature: atoms are the same in different parts of the world, therefore, atoms in the world obey the same laws.

Questions for the seminar

Various classifications of natural sciences (Ampère, Kekule)

ancient astronomy

ancient medicine

The structure of the world.

Mathematics

To share with friends:
Similar posts