The 4 Main Types Of Science (and Their Research Fields)
Science is the intellectual and practical activity carried out through the systematic study of the elements of the world. This includes both the level of structural organization and individual behavior, and applies to the physical, natural or social environment.
Thus, since it is a very broad activity, science can offer explanations in different areas. To facilitate the distinction between one and the other, science is usually divided into several types. In this article we will see what types of science exist and how each one is described.
Science can also be understood as a body of knowledge about a particular topic. In fact, there are different bodies of knowledge that can be considered a specific type of science. The distinction between one and the other may be given by their object of study, or they may be distinguished by the research methods that each one uses.
Since when has science existed? Although his general background can be traced back to classical philosophy and the most ancient practices ; The era that is recognized as the founder of science as we know it now is modernity.
Science is consolidated from the “scientific revolutions” that, through the paradigm of universal reason, laid the foundations for the creation of a method that would allow us to systematically know and explain world phenomena.
And not only know and explain them, but also propose hypotheses and offer solutions to specific problems. In fact, it is these revolutions, along with important changes at the socioeconomic level, that mark the end of the medieval era and the beginning of modernity in Western societies.
The 4 main types of science (and their differences)
Considering that science can encompass very broad bodies of knowledge, the latter are usually divided according to the specific knowledge they generate. In this sense Three main types of science are usually recognized: formal sciences, natural sciences and social sciences.
All of them are considered fundamental sciences, as they have allowed the generation of other types of more limited scientific knowledge, for example, medicine, psychology, engineering, among others. Below we will see each of the types of science, as well as some specific subtypes or disciplines that make them up.
1. Formal sciences
Formal sciences are a set of logical and abstract systems that can be applied to different objects of study. The formal sciences are made up of sign systems In turn, these systems give rise to a series of abstract structures through which organizational patterns are generated and different phenomena are explained once the presuppositions from which they start have been accepted. The latter is what differentiates them from the natural and social sciences.
Among the disciplines that are considered formal sciences are logic, mathematics, statistics and computer systems among other.
On the other hand, formal sciences can serve as a basis for the rest of the sciences that we will see (and function for the analysis of natural physical as well as human or social phenomena), but they do not need empirical data to exist, given that their scope begins and ends in logical and numerical relationships.
2. Factual sciences
This type of science presents opposite characteristics to the previous category, since in this case the scientific activity focuses on the study of natural and social phenomena that exist beyond ideas. That is, models are created that represent objective phenomena that can be located in space-time and measured.
If in the formal sciences we work starting from abstract thinking, in the factual sciences It starts from the observation of a phenomenon belonging to the realm of the empirical and not of rationality.
On the other hand, some researchers and philosophers divide this type of science into two other branches that we will see below: social sciences and natural sciences. But we must not lose sight of the fact that this division is to a certain extent artificial, since All human and social activity is carried out through the laws of nature
Finally, it should be noted that many times the following two categories are simply talked about, without considering that they are included in a concept called factual sciences.
3. Natural sciences
As its name indicates, the object of study of natural sciences is nature and the phenomena that occur in it. It is responsible for describing, explaining, understanding and/or predicting them. These phenomena, in turn, They can range from biology to the most complex elements of the universe
In fact, the natural sciences are usually subdivided into two large groups: the physical sciences and the biological sciences. The former include disciplines such as chemistry, physics, astronomy and geology; while the latter include the different forms of life that exist on our planet. The latter can be human beings, animals, plants and microorganisms. Hence it includes disciplines such as botany, zoology or veterinary medicine, anatomy, ecology, genetics or neuroscience among other.
Unlike the formal sciences, both the natural sciences and the social sciences are fundamentally empirical. That is, the knowledge they produce is based on observable phenomena, therefore, its existence can be verified by other observers.
Social sciences are the set of disciplines that are responsible for studying human beings in behavioral and social terms. That is to say, Its object of study can be both the individual and society These are disciplines that were considered part of science some time after the previous ones; approximately in the 19th century after they transferred the scientific method to studies of the individual and the social.
However, given that in some cases it was very difficult to complete this transfer, the social sciences have constantly problematized the methods of approaching their object of study. In general there are two main ways, which are not always considered exclusive: quantitative methodology and qualitative methodology.
Examples of disciplines that make up the social sciences are sociology, economics, psychology, archaeology, communication, history, geography, linguistics, political science, among others.
