Science is the sphere of human professional activity, like any other - industrial, pedagogical, etc. Its only difference is that the main goal that it pursues is to obtain scientific knowledge. This is its specificity.
History of the development of science
Ancient Greece is considered the European homeland of science. Residents of this particular country were the first to realize that the world surrounding a person is not at all what people who study him only through sensory cognition consider. In Greece, for the first time, the transition of the sensory to the abstract was completed, from knowing the facts of the world around us to studying its laws.
Science in the Middle Ages turned out to be dependent on theology, so its development slowed significantly. However, over time, as a result of the discoveries Galileo, Copernicus and Bruno received, she began to exert an increasing influence on society. In Europe, in the 17th century, the process of its formation as a public institution took place: academies and scientific societies were established, and scientific journals were published.
New forms of its organization arose at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries: scientific institutes and laboratories, research centers. At about the same time, science began to exert a great influence on the development of production. She became his special kind - spiritual production.
Today in the field of science, the following 3 aspects can be distinguished:
- science as a result (obtaining scientific knowledge);
- as a process ( scientific activity itself ) ;
- as a social institution (a set of scientific institutions, a community of scientists).
Science as an institution of society
Design and technological institutes (as well as hundreds of various research), libraries, reserves and museums are included in the system of institutions of science. A significant part of its potential is concentrated in universities. In addition, doctors and candidates of science are working more and more in general schools, gymnasiums, lyceums, which means that these educational institutions will also be more actively involved in scientific work.
Frames
Any human activity implies that someone carries it out. Science is a social institution, the functioning of which is possible only with qualified personnel. Their preparation is carried out through graduate school, as well as applying for a Ph.D. degree, which is awarded to people with higher education who have passed special exams, as well as published the results of their research and defended a public candidate dissertation. Doctors of sciences are highly qualified personnel who are trained through a competition or, through doctoral studies, are nominated from among the candidates of sciences.
Science as a result
We turn to the consideration of the following aspect. As a result, science is a system of reliable knowledge about a person, nature and society. It should be emphasized in this definition two essential features. First, science is an interconnected body of knowledge acquired by mankind today on all known issues. It meets the requirements of consistency and completeness. Secondly, the essence of science is the acquisition of reliable knowledge, which should be distinguished from everyday, everyday, inherent in every person.
Properties of science as a result
- The cumulative nature of scientific knowledge. Its volume doubles for every 10 years.
- Differentiation of science. The accumulation of scientific knowledge inevitably leads to fragmentation and differentiation. Its new branches are emerging, for example: gender psychology, social psychology, etc.
- Science in relation to practice has the following functions as a knowledge system:
- descriptive (accumulation and collection of facts, data);
- explanatory - an explanation of processes and phenomena, their internal mechanisms;
- normative or prescriptive - its achievements become, for example, binding standards for implementation at school, in the workplace, etc .;
- generalizing - the formulation of laws and laws that incorporate and systematize many disparate facts and phenomena;
- predictive - this knowledge allows us to predict in advance certain phenomena and processes that were previously unknown.
Scientific activity (science as a process)
If a practitioner in his activity pursues the achievement of high results, then the tasks of science imply that the researcher should strive to obtain new scientific knowledge. This includes an explanation of why the result in one way or another turns out to be bad or good, as well as a prediction of when it will be one way or another. In addition, if the practitioner takes into account comprehensively and simultaneously all aspects of the activity, then the researcher, as a rule, is interested in the deep study of only one side. For example, from the point of view of mechanics, a person is a body that has a certain mass, has a certain moment of inertia, etc. For chemists, it is a very complicated reactor, where millions of different chemical reactions take place simultaneously. Psychologists are interested in the processes of memory, perception, etc. That is, each science explores various processes and phenomena with respect to a certain point of view. Therefore, by the way, the results obtained can only be interpreted as relative truths. Absolute truth in science is unattainable, this is the goal of metaphysics.
The role of science in modern society
In our time of scientific and technological progress, the inhabitants of the planet are especially clearly aware of the importance and place of science in their lives. Today, increasing attention in society is paid to the implementation of scientific research in various fields. People strive to obtain new data about the world, to create new technologies that improve the process of production of material goods.
Descartes Method
Science today is the main form of knowledge of the world by man. The basis is a complex creative process of the subject-practical and mental activity of a scientist. Descartes formulated the general rules of this process as follows:
- nothing can be taken for true until it appears distinct and clear;
- difficult questions should be divided by the number of parts needed to resolve them;
- it is required to begin research with the most convenient for learning and simple things and move gradually to more complex ones;
- the scientist’s duty is to pay attention to everything and dwell on the details: he must be completely sure that he has not missed anything.
The ethical side of science
Of particular urgency in modern science are issues that relate to the relationship of the scientist with society, as well as the social responsibility of the researcher. It is about how in the future the achievements made by scientists will be applied, whether the acquired knowledge will turn against the person.
Discoveries in genetic engineering, medicine, and biology made it possible to purposefully influence the heredity of organisms up to the fact that today it is possible to create organisms with some predetermined properties. It is time to abandon the principle of freedom of scientific research, which has not been limited to anything previously. The creation of weapons of mass destruction cannot be allowed. The definition of science today, therefore, should include the ethical side, since it cannot remain neutral in this regard.