The main features of science, characteristic features

Any society, from the family and ending with humanity as a whole, has a public consciousness. Forms of it are experience, morality, religion and so on. But, undoubtedly, one of the most important forms is science. It is she who forms new knowledge in society.

What is science

Science is nothing more than a complex spiritual education based on a number of basic aspects. The concept, signs of science and its aspects determine the whole essence of scientific knowledge. Proceeding from the main aspects, science is considered as:

1. Knowledge system. In other words, as a process for obtaining new knowledge. This aspect involves learning through epistemology - the doctrine of the knowledge of science. The basis is the subject and object of knowledge. Scientific knowledge has a result in the form of objective knowledge of the world. It is objective because it does not depend on the state of the subject.
2. A special kind of worldview. In fact, it is a product caused by the spirituality of human life, embodying creative development. From this point of view, science is considered to be one of such important products created by man as religion, art, law, philosophy, etc. When science develops, other fields of culture are undergoing changes along with it. This pattern also acts in the opposite direction.
3. Social Institute. In this case, we are talking about social life, in which science is perceived as a network of various institutions interconnected. Examples of such institutions are universities, libraries, academies and others. They are engaged in solving tasks of a certain level and perform functions appropriate to their position. Thus, science is a clearly structured organization whose goal is to meet the needs of society.

Distinctive features of science

In order to determine the distinctive features of science, it is necessary first of all to understand the essence of such a concept as the criteria of scientific character. Basically, they are considered in the theory of knowledge. Their study is primarily based on the desire to determine the epistemological side of scientific knowledge, endowed with a unique specificity in comparison with other products of cognition. Even ancient scientists thought about finding the essential features of science through the relationship of knowledge with such forms as opinions, guesses, assumptions, etc. In the process of development, scientists derived general signs of science that helped to understand the term more deeply. Studies have identified seven main.

• The first sign of science is the integrity and systematic nature of scientific knowledge, which is an undeniable difference from ordinary consciousness.
• The second is openness, or, in other words, the incompleteness of scientific knowledge, that is, its clarity and complementarity in the process of the emergence of new facts.
• The third - includes the desire to explain the situation, using facts and a logically consistent way.
• Criticism in relation to knowledge is the fourth sign of science.
• The fifth is the ability to reproduce scientific knowledge under appropriate conditions in absolutely any place and regardless of time.
• The sixth and seventh signs of science - the lack of dependence of scientific knowledge on the personal characteristics of the scientist and the availability of his language, equipment, method, respectively.

General classification of all sciences

Answering the question on what grounds the sciences are classified, BM Kedrov derived a general definition. In his opinion, all sciences can be divided into four classes. The first class is the philosophical sciences, which include dialectics and logic. To the second he related mathematical sciences, including mathematics and mathematical logic. The third is the most extensive, as it includes at once technical and natural sciences, in the list of which:

• Mechanics;
• astronomy;
• astrophysics;
• Physics (chemical and physical);
• chemistry;
• geochemistry;
• geography;
• geology;
• biochemistry;
• physiology;
• biology;
• anthropology.

And the final class in Kedrov is the social sciences, which are divided into three subcategories:

1. History, ethnography, archeology.
2. Political economy, art history, jurisprudence and art history.
3. Linguistics, pedagogical sciences and psychology.

Signs of modern science are classified for a variety of reasons. The most common is the subject and method of cognition, on the basis of which sciences of nature (natural science), society (social science) and thinking (logic) are distinguished. Technical sciences are distinguished in a separate category. Of course, each of the groups of sciences can be further subdivided into subgroups.

The classification of sciences in different historical periods

For the first time, Aristotle turned to the question of the division of sciences into classes even in times of antiquity. He singled out three large groups: practical, theoretical and creative. The Roman encyclopedist Mark Voror defined the classification as a list of generalizing sciences: dialectics, grammar, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, astrology, architecture and medicine. The classification of Muslim Arab scholars was the simplest and most understandable. They distinguished two classes of sciences - Arabic and foreign. The first include oratorical art and poetics, to the second - mathematics, medicine and astronomy. In the Middle Ages, scientists also sought to advance their own version of the division. Hugo Saint-Victoria, in his vision, singled out four independent groups of sciences:

1. Theoretical physics and mathematics.
2. Practical.
3. Mechanical - hunting, agriculture, medicine, navigation, theater.
4. Logical - grammar and rhetoric.

In turn, R. Bacon introduced a classification based on cognitive abilities. The first group includes history, describing facts, the second - theoretical sciences, the third - art, poetry and literature in the broadest understanding. Rogan Bacon believed that the classification of science is necessary in four areas. Separately, there should be logic, grammar, ethics, metaphysics, into independent units - to stand out mathematics, as well as natural philosophy. Mathematics, in his opinion, is the most important science of nature.

Classification of animal sciences

Speaking about the characteristics of animal science, one important feature stands out: belonging to a particular species. The classifier divides animals into vertebrates and invertebrates. Vertebrates are taught five basic sciences: ornithology (birds), theriology (mammals), batrahology (amphibians), herpetology (reptiles), ichthyology (fish). There are cases when the science that studies primates is singled out separately, but in most cases it is included in teriology, because primates are mammals by their nature. Invertebrates can also be divided according to the characteristics of animal science. The simplest organisms are studying protozoology, arthropods are arthropodology, all about molluscs is known for malacology, and entomology can tell about all the features of insect life. But there is a science that unites all these directions - zoology, which studies all animals.

Semiotics as one of the most important sciences

Any disease is easiest to cure at the initial stage. In order to identify it in a timely manner, it is necessary to carefully monitor the emerging symptoms. Semiotics, as a science about the signs and manifestations of the disease, is deeply involved in this issue. It refers to practical medicine, which, using methods of medical research, examines the symptoms of diseases. The science of the signs of the disease is divided into general and particular. The general includes a descriptive characteristic and a complete classification of all the symptoms, as well as the methods and mechanisms of their appearance by the forces of regularities in the growth of pathologies. An example of such symptoms is inflammation, dystrophy, degeneration and others. General semiotics also has its symptomatic varieties of diagnostic significance:

• Pathological;
• Compensatory (reflect organic and functional changes in substrates);
• Pathognomonic;
• are common.

By the time of onset of symptoms are divided into early and late. In turn, private semiotics is engaged in describing the signs and symptoms of certain types of diseases. Any medical discipline begins a clinical study with a study of semiotics of a particular species. There is also semiotics based on hereditary pathologies. Within the framework of this scientific direction, hereditary diseases, their symptoms and pathologies are investigated.

On guard of order

Legal science called the system of knowledge about the state and law, the laws of their origin, development and work. The features of legal science are divided into three categories. In accordance with the first, this science is called a public applied nature. As part of this feature, she must study the needs of society, legal practice and education, as well as provide employees of this field with relevant information for the issuance of new laws.

In the second it is regarded as relating to the exact sciences. This is due to the fact that the legal science relies on specific knowledge, which is expressed in exact ratios. There is an opinion that most of all jurisprudence is similar to medicine, as they both combine both theoretical and applied components. Just like a doctor, a lawyer faces issues related to health and life. The work of a lawyer includes conducting preventive works to "cure" vices in the life of society and the spiritual world of each person. This manifests the humanistic attributes of science (in this case, jurisprudence and medicine), which originated in ancient times.

The third principle of the existence of legal science is its ability to embody the virtues of the thought sciences. This statement is based on the fact that jurisprudence is engaged in research on the reflection of objective reality in legal aspects arising in the process of the formation and implementation of new laws in practice. That is why criminology, as one of the disciplines of legal science, is aimed at understanding the specific features of human thinking and applying specially acquired knowledge in the process of investigation.

Who studies the past

Everyone knows that without knowing the past, it is impossible to build a future. Everyone is obliged to learn what his city, country and the whole world lived at different times. Telling the information about the past is borne by a well-known to all science history. It is she who studies the sources that have survived from previous periods of human life, on the basis of which the sequence of events is established. In fact, the main features of science and its historical method consist in following the norms and rules for working with primary sources, as well as with other evidence found in the process of research work and the formulation of conclusions that allow us to write a correct historical work. These methods were first used in practice by Thucydides. It was work in accordance with historical methods that made it possible to isolate historical periods: primitive, ancient world, Middle Ages, new and then modern times. There are dozens of historical disciplines, the functioning of which allows not only to recognize the past, but also to structure it and communicate it to people. The main ones are:

• Archeology - the science of searching and studying the material sources of the past;
• Genealogy - the science of related interrelations of people;
• Chronology - the science of the temporal sequence of historical events.

In the footsteps of Jules Verne

Popularization of science is called nothing but the dissemination among a wide range of people of scientific knowledge in an accessible format for understanding. The main task of popular scientists is the processing of specialized data from a scientific language into the language of a listener who is not related to science. They must also, from dry scientific knowledge, create an interesting narrative that will awaken the desire to immerse themselves in its study.

One of the main methods of popularizing science is science fiction. A huge role in the development of this direction was played by many beloved Jules Verne. It is important to understand that the more you invest in the popularization of science, the more likely it is for young people to enter this field. Scientists do their best to preserve their works and achievements and to introduce a younger generation to them. But there are also persons in history who believe that scientific knowledge should be accessible only to people standing at the helm, since they, unlike the whole mass, know exactly how to use them. Tycho Brahe shared this opinion. Ludwig Fadeev, an academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, believes that it is of course necessary to popularize scientific knowledge (for example, every taxpayer should understand what taxation exists for). But there are moments that can not be completely reworked, and therefore information about quarks, strings, Yang-Mills fields reaches people with a small amount of deception.

The sciences of the XXI century

The emergence of new scientific fields, first of all, is connected with the desire of each science to become more specialized. In this connection, a number of new directions of scientific knowledge appeared in our century:

1. Neuroparasitology is a science that studies macroparasites living primarily in the bodies of the cat family, but also capable of inhabiting such warm-blooded people as humans.
2. Quantum biology - a direction in biology, in which living beings are considered from the side of quantum theory.
3. Exometeorology is the science of studying the processes of nature that take place on the territory of other planets with the help of powerful telescopes.
4. Nutrigenomics is the study of the most complex mutual processes between food products and the expression of the genome.
5. Cliodynamics is a scientific discipline that combines a complex structure of interaction between historical macrosociology, economic history, mathematical modeling of long-term socium processes, systematization and analysis of historical data.
6. Synthetic biology is the science of designing and building new biologically active systems.
7. Computational sociology is a science aimed at studying phenomena and trends in society using computer technologies for processing information.
8. Recombinant memetics is a nascent scientific discipline that studies the principle of the transfer of ideas from one person to another, the ways of their adjustment and integration with other memes.