The modern concept of science and its functions

Throughout the world, the notion of science is understood to mean a certain form of human activity that has developed historically and is aimed at cognition, comprehension and transformation of objective reality. The result of scientific activity are facts carefully systematized in the process of targeted selection. Also, the notion of science and scientific activity implies the existence of generalized theories, logically verified hypotheses, laws (both fundamental and particular), as well as a variety of research methods. Summarizing, science can be called simultaneously a historically developed and constantly evolving system of knowledge and practical activity based on them.

The modern structure of science is a set of many branches - highly branched, but constituting a single whole. Scientific activity affects literally everything, beginning with the matter, from which the world and all living things are composed, and ending with the "crown of creation" - man. In general, the types of scientific activity can be divided into those that study the laws of nature, the mastering of all its resources and transformations for the benefit of man - natural and technical sciences, and those that study the social side of life, its various phenomena and laws of development are social sciences. The latter, among other things, affect the person himself, who is a member of the society, and also studies a number of philosophical disciplines, including the abstract laws of the development of man and nature, the society in which man exists, and the laws of his thinking.

Science in the modern world implies the use of many research methods: experiment - for natural sciences, statistics - for public. In addition, there are also general scientific means of action, such as analysis, deduction, induction, synthesis and various approaches (systemic or probabilistic). Each science as such consists of two levels: the first is called empirical - this is the mass of actual knowledge accumulated for the entire existence of humanity, representing the results of observations and the results of experiments. The second level is the theoretical sum of empirical data expressed in scientist's formulated theories, laws, and principles. In addition, the concept of science is inseparable from scientific assumptions based on facts, and hypotheses that still need verification.

Science and scientific activity in the modern world is very important, as it performs a lot of functions. First of all, it is important in public life - the main is the cognitive function, due to which there is accumulation and active use of knowledge, as well as their transformation into hypotheses and theories. In addition, the cognitive function of science is to describe and systematize previously acquired knowledge, which allows you to accumulate experience and transmit it in an accessible way to other generations. Another function that includes the concept of science is the filling of the human worldview with full-fledged objective knowledge directly related to nature and society, as a result of which the formation of an integral human personality takes place.

Educational function of scientific activity is designed to fill the necessary information educational process, in other words without it it would be impossible to form training as such, its methods, forms and technologies. And approximately in the middle of the 20th century the concept of science was supplemented with a practical function, thanks to which science finally ceased to be a pure theory and became a concrete productive force, implanted in most spheres of human life - education, medicine and even everyday life.