Science is the methodical study of nature including testable explanations and predictions. An older and closely related current meaning emerged from
Aristotle and later
Alhazen, whereby "science" referred to the body of reliable knowledge that is logically and rationally explained (see "
History and etymology" section below).
Since classical antiquity, science as a type of knowledge was closely linked to philosophy
. In the West during the early modern period, the words "science" and "philosophy" were sometimes used interchangeably. Not until the
17th century did natural philosophy emerge as a separate branch of philosophy, which is today called "natural science". "Science" continued to denote reliable knowledge about a topic; it remains in use in modern terms such as library science or political science.
Today, the ever-evolving term "science" refers to the pursuit of knowledge, not the knowledge itself. It is often synonymous with "natural and physical science" and often restricted to those branches of study relating to the phenomena of the material universe and their laws. Although the term implies exclusion of pure mathematics, many university faculties include
Mathematics Departments within their
Faculty of Science. The dominant sense in ordinary use has a narrower use for the term "science." It developed as a part of science becoming a distinct enterprise of defining the "laws of nature"; early examples include
Kepler's laws,
Galileo's laws, and
Newton's laws of motion. In this period it became more common to refer to natural philosophy as "natural science." Over the course of the
19th century, the word "science" became increasingly associated with the disciplined study of the natural world, including physics, chemistry, geology and biology. This sometimes left the study of human thought and society in a linguistic limbo, which was resolved by classifying these areas of academic study as social science. For example, psychology evolved from philosophy, and has grown into an area of study.
- published: 14 Mar 2016
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