The process of development of science includes the interaction of opposing processes - integration and differentiation. Integration is an association of knowledge. Differentiation of sciences is the allocation of new disciplines.
At each stage of development, one or another process prevails. Differentiation of sciences was more characteristic for the stage of formation, the emergence of knowledge. Today, the integration process prevails.
The differentiation of sciences, being the transformation of some of the "beginnings" of knowledge into independent, isolated disciplines, began already at the turn of the 16th and 17th centuries. In that era, philosophy, which was previously unified knowledge, began to be divided into two directions. Thus, philosophy and science proper were formed . Moreover, the latter was a holistic system of knowledge, a social institution and spiritual education. Along with this, the differentiation of sciences occurred in philosophy. Thus, dialectics, ethics, ontology and other directions were formed. Scientific knowledge was divided into separate sciences, which, in turn, were divided into disciplines. Within this system, “Newtonian” classical mechanics, closely interconnected with mathematics from the very beginning of its existence, occupied a priority place.
In the subsequent period, the differentiation of sciences continued to intensify. This process was caused by the needs of production and the internal needs of the formation of social knowledge. As a result, borderline sciences began to actively develop.
After biologists, having delved into the study of living things, realized that chemical processes are of great importance in cellular transformation, an in-depth study of these processes began. This is how biochemistry came about. The need to study physical processes in organisms provoked the development of biophysics. Similarly, chemical physics, physical chemistry, geochemistry, and other directions were formed. Disciplines arose at the border of the three sciences. So, for example, biogeochemistry was formed.
The selection of new disciplines is a natural consequence of the intensive complication and increase in knowledge. In this case, the separation and specialization of labor, the differentiation of training inevitably arise. It should be noted that the division of scientific work has both positive and negative features. A positive point is the possibility of a deeper study of the phenomena. In addition, the productivity of scientists is increasing. A negative feature is the narrowing of the horizons of scientists.
Together with the process of identifying new disciplines, mutual penetration and the unification of directions took place. As a result of integration, some boundaries of knowledge have been erased; many methods have been combined. As noted above, the unification process is more characteristic of modern science, in the framework of which various general scientific branches are actively developing. These include, in particular, synergetics, cybernetics and others.
The development of science, therefore, is a dialectical process. In it, the isolation of some disciplines is accompanied by the integration of others, there is an interpenetration of various directions, the interaction of various ideas and methods of cognition of the world.
The unification of sciences today is becoming more widespread. This is mainly due to the need to solve various problems of a global nature, provoked by practical needs. For example, a rather complicated task of space exploration made it necessary to combine the efforts of scientists of various specialties. To solve pressing environmental problems, close interaction between the humanities and natural sciences is necessary, and the synthesis of the methods and ideas they develop is important.