Lecture 2. Methods natural sciences

Lecture 1. Natural science and humanitarian culture

Culture is a system of means of human activity through which the activity of an individual, groups, and humanity is programmed, implemented, and stimulated in their interaction with nature and among themselves.

These means are created by people, are constantly being improved and consist of three content types of cultures - material, social and spiritual.

Material culture is the totality of material and energy means of human existence and society.

Social culture- a system of rules of behavior for people various types communication and specialized areas of social activity.

Spiritual culture is component cultural achievements of mankind

The relationship between natural science and humanitarian cultures is as follows:

· they have a single basis, expressed in the needs and interests of man, and humanity in creation optimal conditions for self-preservation and improvement;

· carry out mutual exchange of achieved results (this is expressed, for example, in the ethics of natural science, rationalization of humanitarian culture, etc.);

· mutually coordinate in the historical and cultural process;

· are independent parts unified system knowledge of science;

· have fundamental value for humans, because they express the unity of nature and society.

Lecture 2. Methods of natural sciences

Natural science uses both general scientific methods of cognition (analysis, synthesis, generalization, abstraction, induction, deduction, analogy, logical method, historical method, analogy, modeling, classification), and specific scientific methods inherent in specific sciences (spectroscopy, method of labeled atoms , crystallography, etc.). Scientific methods, according to the relationship between the empirical and theoretical, are divided into methods of empirical (experimental) research: observation, experiment, measurement, description, comparison, theoretical methods (idealization, formalization, axiomatization, hypothetico-deductive method), as well as mixed methods.

Analysis- mental or real decomposition of an object into its constituent parts.

Synthesis- combining the elements learned as a result of analysis into a single whole.

Generalization- the process of mental transition from the individual to the general, from the less general to the more general, for example: the transition from the judgment “this metal conducts electricity” to the judgment “all metals conduct electricity”, from the judgment: “the mechanical form of energy turns into thermal” to the judgment “every form of energy turns into heat.”

Abstraction (idealization)- mental introduction of certain changes to the object under study in accordance with the objectives of the study. As a result of idealization, some properties and attributes of objects that are not essential for this study can be excluded from consideration.

Induction- elimination process general position from the observation of a number of particular individual facts, i.e. knowledge from the particular to the general. In practice, incomplete induction is most often used, which involves making a conclusion about all objects of a set based on knowledge of only a part of the objects. Incomplete induction, based on experimental research and including theoretical justification, is called scientific induction. The conclusions of such induction are often probabilistic in nature.

Deduction- the process of analytical reasoning from the general to the particular or less general. It is closely related to generalization.

Analogy- a probable, plausible conclusion about the similarity of two objects or phenomena in some characteristic, based on their established similarity in other characteristics.

Modeling- reproduction of the properties of an object of cognition on a specially designed analogue of it - a model. Models can be real (material) and ideal (abstract).

Historical method involves reproducing the history of the object being studied in all its versatility, taking into account all the details and accidents.

Boolean method - this is, in essence, a logical reproduction of the history of the object being studied. At the same time, this story is freed from everything accidental and unimportant.

Classification is the process of organizing information. In the process of studying new objects, a conclusion is made in relation to each such object: whether it belongs to already established classification groups. In some cases, this reveals the need to rebuild the classification system. There is a special theory of classification - taxonomy . It examines the principles of classification and systematization of complexly organized areas of reality.

Natural sciences deal with matter, energy, their relationships and transformations, and objectively measurable phenomena.

In ancient times, philosophers studied this science. Later, the basis of this doctrine was developed by natural scientists of the past such as Pascal, Newton, Lomonosov, Pirogov. They developed natural science.

Natural sciences differ from the humanities in the presence of an experiment, which consists of active interaction with the object being studied.

Humanities study human activity in the field of spiritual, mental, cultural and social. There is an argument that humanitarian sciences study the student himself, in contrast to natural ones.

Basic natural knowledge

Basic natural knowledge includes:

Physical Sciences:

• physics,
• engineering,
• about materials,
• chemistry;

• biology,
• medicine;

• geography,
• ecology,
• climatology,
• soil science,
• anthropology.

There are two other types: formal, social and human sciences.

Chemistry, biology, geosciences, astronomy, physics are part of this knowledge. There are also cross-cutting disciplines such as biophysics, which takes into account different aspects of several subjects.

Until the 17th century, these disciplines were often referred to as "natural philosophy" due to the lack of experiments and procedures used today.

Chemistry

Much of what defines modern civilization comes from advances in knowledge and technology brought about by the natural sciences of chemistry. For example, modern production in sufficient quantities of food is impossible without the Haber-Bosch process, which was developed during the First World War. This chemical process allows the creation of ammonia fertilizer from atmospheric nitrogen, rather than relying on a biologically fixed source of nitrogen, e.g. cow dung, significantly increasing soil fertility and, as a consequence, the amount of food.

Within these broad categories of chemistry there are countless fields of knowledge, many of which have important influence on daily life. Chemists improve many products, from the food we eat to the clothes we wear and the materials we use to build our homes. Chemistry helps protect our environment and is looking for new sources of energy.

Biology and medicine

Thanks to advances in biology, especially in the 20th century, doctors were able to use a variety of drugs to treat many diseases that were previously highly fatal. Through research in biology and medicine, 19th century disasters such as plague and smallpox have been significantly brought under control. Infant and maternal mortality rates have fallen sharply in industrialized countries. Biological geneticists have even understood the individual code within each person.

Geoscience

The science that studies the production and practical use knowledge about the earth has allowed humanity to extract huge quantities of minerals and oil from earth's crust, for engine operation modern civilization and industry. Paleontology, the knowledge of the earth, provides a window into the distant past, even further back than humans existed. Through discoveries in geology and similar information in the natural sciences, scientists are able to better understand the history of the planet and predict changes that may occur in the future.

Astronomy and physics

In many ways, physics is a science that underlies both the natural sciences and offers some of the most unexpected discoveries XX century. Among the most notable of these was the discovery that matter and energy are constant and simply change from one state to another.

Physics is a natural science based on experiments, measurements and mathematical analysis with the goal of finding quantitative physical laws for everything from the nanoworld to solar systems and galaxies of the macrocosm.

Through observational and experimental research, the physical laws and theories that explain the functioning of natural forces such as gravity, electromagnetism, or nuclear forces are explored.The discovery of new laws of natural science of physics contributes to the existing base of theoretical knowledge and can also be used for practical applications such as equipment development, electronic devices, nuclear reactors, etc.

Thanks to astronomy, scientists have discovered a huge amount of information about the Universe. In previous centuries it was believed that the entire universe was simply Milky Way. A series of debates and observations in the 20th century revealed that the universe is literally millions of times larger than previously thought.

Various types of sciences

Works of philosophers and naturalists of the past and subsequent scientific revolution helped create modern base knowledge.

Natural sciences are often called "hard science" due to their intensive use of objective data and quantitative methods that rely on numbers and mathematics. In contrast to this social knowledge, like psychology, sociology, and anthropology, rely more on qualitative assessments or alphanumeric data and tend to have fewer concrete conclusions. Formal types of knowledge, including mathematics and statistics, are highly quantitative in nature and do not usually involve study natural phenomena or experiments.

Today actual problems The development of the humanities and natural sciences has many parameters for solving the problems of human existence and society in the world, they gave.

Natural science

In the broadest and most correct sense, the name E. should be understood as the science of the structure of the universe and the laws that govern it. E.'s aspiration and goal is to mechanically explain the structure of the cosmos in all its details, within the limits of the knowable, using techniques and methods characteristic of exact sciences, i.e. through observation, experience and mathematical calculation. Thus, everything transcendental does not enter into the domain of E., for his philosophy revolves within a mechanical, therefore strictly defined and delimited circle. From this point of view, all branches of E. represent 2 main departments or 2 main groups, namely:

I. General natural science explores those properties of bodies that are assigned to them all indifferently, and therefore can be called common. This includes mechanics, physics and chemistry, which are sufficiently described in further relevant articles. Calculus (mathematics) and experience are the main techniques in these branches of knowledge.

II. Private natural science explores the forms, structure and movement characteristic exclusively of those diverse and countless bodies that we call natural, in order to explain the phenomena they represent with the help of the laws and conclusions of general E. Calculations can be applied here, but relatively only in rare cases, although achieving a possible accuracy here also consists in the desire to reduce everything to calculation and to solving problems in a synthetic way. The latter has already been achieved by one of the branches of private science, namely astronomy in its department called celestial mechanics, while physical astronomy can be developed mainly with the help of observation and experience (spectral analysis), as is typical for all branches of private E. Thus, the following sciences belong here: astronomy (see), mineralogy in the broad sense of this expression, i.e. . with the inclusion of geology (see), botany and zoology. Three sciences were finally named and are still called in most cases natural history, this outdated expression should be eliminated or applied only to their purely descriptive part, which, in turn, received more rational names, depending on what is actually being described: minerals, plants or animals. Each of the branches of private science is divided into several departments that have acquired independent significance due to their vastness, and most importantly due to the fact that the subjects being studied must be considered from different points of view, which, moreover, require unique techniques and methods. Each of the branches of private economics has a side morphological And dynamic. The task of morphology is the knowledge of the forms and structure of all natural bodies, the task of dynamics is the knowledge of those movements that, through their activity, caused the formation of these bodies and support their existence. Morphology, through precise descriptions and classifications, obtains conclusions that are considered laws, or rather morphological rules. These rules can be more or less general, that is, for example, they apply to plants and animals or only to one of the kingdoms of nature. General rules there is no relation to all three kingdoms, and therefore botany and zoology constitute one general industry E., called biology. Mineralogy, therefore, constitutes a more isolated doctrine. Morphological laws or rules become more and more specific as we delve deeper into the study of the structure and shape of bodies. Thus, the presence of a bony skeleton is a law that applies only to vertebrates, the presence of seeds is a rule only regarding seed plants, etc. The dynamics of private E. consists of geology in the environment inorganic nature and from physiology- in biology. These industries rely primarily on experience, and to some extent even on calculations. Thus, private natural sciences can be presented in the following classification:

The degree of development, as well as the properties of the subjects of study of the listed sciences, were the reason that, as already said, the methods they use are very different. As a result, each of them is divided into many separate specialties, often representing significant integrity and independence. So, in physics - optics, acoustics, etc. are studied independently, although the movements that constitute the essence of these phenomena are performed according to homogeneous laws. Among the special sciences, the oldest of them, namely celestial mechanics, which until recently constituted almost all of astronomy, is reduced almost exclusively to mathematics, while the physical part of this science calls upon chemical (spectral) analysis to its aid. The rest of the special sciences are growing with such rapidity and have achieved such an extraordinary expansion that their fragmentation into specialties is intensifying with every almost decade. So, in

sciences that study the properties of nature and natural formations. Use of terms natural, technical, fundamental, etc. to areas of human activity is quite conditional, since each of them has a fundamental component (studying problems on the border of our knowledge and ignorance), an applied component (studying the problems of applying acquired knowledge in practical activities), natural science component (studying problems that arise or exist independently of our desire). These terms are, so to speak, diatropic, i.e. describe only the core - most characteristic feature or component of an object.

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NATURAL SCIENCES

received citizenship rights from the 18th century. name for the totality of all sciences involved in the study of nature. The first researchers of nature (natural philosophers) included, each in their own way, all of nature in the circle of their mental activity. The progressive development of the natural sciences and their deepening into research led to the division, which has not yet ended, of the unified science of nature into its separate branches - depending on the subject of research or according to the principle of division of labor. The natural sciences owe their authority, on the one hand, to scientific accuracy and consistency, and on the other, to their practical significance as a means of conquering nature. The main spheres of natural sciences - matter, life, man, Earth, Universe - allow us to group them as follows: 1) physics, chemistry, physical chemistry; 2) biology, botany, zoology; 3) anatomy, physiology, the doctrine of origin and development, the doctrine of heredity; 4) geology, mineralogy, paleontology, meteorology, geography (physical); 5) astronomy together with astrophysics and astrochemistry. Mathematics, according to a number of natural philosophers, does not belong to the natural sciences, but is a decisive tool for their thinking. Moreover, among the natural sciences, depending on the method, there is the following difference: descriptive sciences are content with the study of factual data and their connections, which they generalize into rules and laws; exact natural sciences put facts and connections into mathematical form; however, this distinction is not made consistently. Pure science of nature is limited scientific research, applied science (medicine, agriculture and forestry, and technology in general) uses it to master and transform nature. Next to the sciences of nature stand the sciences of the spirit, and philosophy unites both of them into a single science; they act as private sciences; Wed Physical picture of the world.

In the history of science until the 19th century, natural and humanitarian areas, and until that time scientists gave preference to natural science, that is, the study of things that exist objectively. In the 19th century, the division of sciences began in universities: humanities, responsible for the study of cultural, social, spiritual, moral and other types of human activity, are distinguished in separate area. And everything else falls under the concept of natural science, the name of which comes from the Latin “essence.”

The history of natural sciences began about three thousand years ago, but separate disciplines did not exist then - philosophers dealt with all areas of knowledge. Only at the time of the development of navigation did the division of sciences begin: astronomy also appeared, these areas were necessary during travel. As technology developed, and became separate sections.

The principle of philosophical naturalism is applied to the study of natural sciences: this means that the laws of nature must be studied without confusing them with human laws and excluding the action of human will. Natural science has two main goals: the first is to explore and systematize data about the world, and the second is to use the acquired knowledge for practical purposes to conquer nature.

Types of natural sciences

There are basic ones that have existed as independent areas for quite a long time. These are physics, chemistry, geography, astronomy, geology. But often the areas of their research intersect, forming new sciences at the junctions - biochemistry, geophysics, geochemistry, astrophysics and others.

Physics is one of the most important natural sciences, its modern development started with classical theory Newton's gravity. Faraday, Maxwell and Ohm continued the development of this science, and by the 20th century in the field of physics, when it became known that Newtonian mechanics was limited and imperfect.

Chemistry began to develop on the basis of alchemy, its modern history begins in 1661, when Boyle's The Skeptical Chemist was published. Biology did not emerge until the 19th century, when the distinction between living and nonliving matter was finally established. Geography was formed during the search for new lands and the development of navigation, and geology became a separate area thanks to Leonardo da Vinci.