By appealing to specific techniques and methods, science allows us to produce knowledge.
Science is knowledge obtained through a set of specific techniques and methods . The word comes from the Latin scientia and, precisely, means knowledge. Since the origins of humanity, our species has eagerly pursued knowledge, trying to catalog and define it through clear and well-differentiable concepts. In Ancient Greece , scholars decided to establish a concept that would encompass diverse knowledge: science.
It is also necessary to clarify that knowledge is a set of information acquired through experience or introspection and that can be organized on a structure of objective facts accessible to different observers.
Types of science
Science can be divided into basic science and applied science (when scientific knowledge is applied to human needs). There are also other classifications of science, such as those proposed by the German epistemologist Rudolf Carnap , who divided them into formal sciences (they do not have concrete content, such as logic and mathematics ), natural sciences (their object of study is nature. Example : biology , chemistry , physics , geology , astronomy , meteorology , oceanography ) and social sciences (deal with aspects of culture and society, such as history , economics and psychology ).
Although each science has its characteristic research modality, scientific methods must meet several requirements, such as reproducibility (the ability to repeat an experiment anywhere and by anyone) and falsifiability (a theory must be able to be placed against evidence that supports manage to contradict it).
The steps of the scientific process are observation (a sample is taken), detailed description , induction (when the implicit general principle is extracted from the observed results), hypothesis (which explains the results and their cause-effect relationship). , controlled experimentation (to test the hypothesis), demonstration or refutation of the hypothesis and, finally, universal comparison (to contrast the hypothesis with reality).
The scientific method
The scientific method is the series of procedures that allow the production of new objective knowledge (that is, scientific), which acquires a specific form.
The expert first makes a prediction, which is tested through the scientific method and subjected to quantification. On the other hand, these predictions of science can be located within a structure thanks to the detection of universal rules , which allow us to describe how a system works. These same universal laws are what make it possible to know in advance how the system in question will act under certain circumstances.
Science has allowed DNA sequencing.
The case of the social sciences
In the social sciences , where pragmatic value lies in understanding our species, some demands of the scientific method cannot be applied. It should be noted that one of the fundamental objectives of the existence of social sciences is to achieve a greater understanding of the human being, as an individual and as a social being.
Therefore, to carry out an in-depth study of human behavior it was necessary to create different scientific spaces where we could work independently on each topic. In this way, psychology , anthropology , economics , political science and sociology emerged, among other specialties, which study behavior within a cultural context. It is about carrying out an impartial observation and gathering information that helps understand the matter and draw conclusions that are as objective as possible through data analysis .
Deductive method and qualitative method
An important difference that needs to be mentioned is the one that exists between the exact sciences and the human sciences: in the former, every time an event wants to be repeated to verify it, it can be done through the hypothetico-deductive method . However, in the human sciences it is impossible to repeat phenomena, because the elements that interfere are social and temporal and can never happen in an identical way.
This led the social sciences to develop an alternative method, which is the qualitative method , in which data is collected from one environment and compared with others taken in another circumstance or in another environment, to reach an accurate statistical conclusion. social and cultural of a town or group of individuals.
Integrated circuits are an advance in science in the technological field.
Malinowski and participant observation
If we focus on anthropology , one of the scientists who managed to establish a study method was Bronislaw Malinowski , who devised the method of participant observation , through which he managed to understand the way in which the primitive peoples of the islands lived. found in northern Australia . This method applied to a community of native settlers could be summarized in the following steps:
- Choose a native community.
- Gather as much information about it as possible.
- Document yourself deeply about it.
- Make hypotheses about the life of these settlers.
- Learn to communicate in your language.
- Organize the work in a theoretical-practical structure to carry out the research.
- Analyze everyday aspects and social events (relationships, economic activities, etc.) with equal care.
- Establish differences between what we have observed and the interpretation of it.
According to Melville Herskovits , to do an anthropological analysis it is necessary to observe as much as we can, participate in what the settlers allow us to do, and discuss our hypotheses and experiences with as many natives as we can. Thus we would be putting into practice Malinowski 's observation method.
In addition, there are other methods that can help understand the social facts and behavior of a people, such as the structural method and specific methodologies according to each branch of science.
Paradigms of science
It is interesting to mention that the set of techniques, practices and knowledge that make the definition of a science at a specific time is called a scientific paradigm . It can be said that the paradigm establishes which methods are considered legitimate for addressing the problems that a discipline intends to study.
The theories accepted by the scientific community , the way in which experiments should be carried out, and the appropriate way to interpret research results are part of the paradigm. It is important to keep in mind that scientific paradigms are associated with a specific era; Therefore, they change over time due to discoveries, technological advances, new trends or currents, etc.
We must not forget that science is the methodology that allows us to approach knowledge through carrying out a certain number of steps. The set of these steps is what is called the scientific method and, depending on the type of knowledge you want to achieve, it will be necessary to use one or another method, as appropriate. In this framework, the paradigm is the context or basis of scientific practices of a given period.
It is interesting to note, on the other hand, that there is a branch of philosophy dedicated to the study of scientific practices and knowledge: the philosophy of science . Among other issues, it reflects on the nature of paradigms, theories, hypotheses and other ideas; examines how these concepts relate to reality; and evaluates the various types of reasoning that are put into practice to obtain conclusions. Likewise, scientific ethics focuses on moral issues linked to the search, generation and application of scientific knowledge.
The dissemination of knowledge
The dissemination of knowledge is essential for the development of science and the evolution of humanity. Scientific progress does not occur through isolated discoveries, but rather each scientist makes a construction based on the contributions and experiences of other researchers . Meanwhile, knowledge becomes socially useful when it is applied and when people in general can make use of the knowledge.
Scientific publication is the most used medium to communicate discoveries. Through this type of text, data is presented and hypotheses are formulated so that the entire scientific community is in a position to analyze and evaluate them. Peer review is usually used to guarantee the validity of what is published: this procedure consists of a critical and independent assessment carried out by peers (equals) of the author who do not usually make up the editorial committee of the publication.
Scientific dissemination is also carried out through different events. A scientific conference , a congress or a dissertation are tools that allow new developments to be presented and knowledge to be transmitted.
Of course, when disseminating the language, the language must be adapted to the public. If a medical specialist who developed studies on epidemiology intends to alert the population about a certain public health problem, he will have to develop a message that people without scientific knowledge can understand.