History of science

(The Anticitera mechanism, an analog computer built in Antigua to predict astronomical positions and eclipses. Algunas de las ciencias de las primeras civilizaciones fueron la astronomy y las mathematics)

The history of science is the study of the evolution of scientific knowledge.

Science, as a body of knowledge, but also as a way of approaching and understanding the world, has been built up gradually over several millennia. It was in protohistoric times that intellectual speculations aimed at elucidating the mysteries of the universe began to develop. The history of science is a discipline that studies the progressive movement of transformation of these speculations and the accumulation of knowledge that accompanies it. For some authors, epistemology does it in a similar way.

The history of science is not the chronicle of a series of scientific discoveries. It is the story of the evolution of a thought, but also of institutions which, in their historical contexts, offer this thought the means to unfold, and of traditions which enrich it.

The history of science is not the history of technology either. The two are related, but cannot be identified together. When man learned to control fire, to knap flints or when he invented agriculture, he did not carry out a work of science. And the knowledge he has accumulated is not, in this case, scientific knowledge, but empirical know-how.

The history of science is directly useful for the construction of scientific knowledge. It has an epistemological and philosophical role.

The history of science is the study of the development of the sciences, including the natural sciences and the social sciences. Science is a body of empirical, theoretical and practical knowledge about the natural world. This knowledge is produced by scientists who focus on observing, explaining, and predicting real-world phenomena. On the other hand, the historiography of science studies the methods used by historians of science.

The term “scientist” is relatively new. It was popularized by British polymath William Whewell in the 19th century. Previously, scientists who studied nature called this science natural philosophy. While observations of natural sciences have been described since classical antiquity (Thales and Aristotle) ​​and the scientific method has been used since the Middle Ages (Ibn al-Haytham and Roger Bacon), the sciences began to develop in the modern era. Traditionally, historians of science have defined science broadly enough to include previous research.

(Includes texts translated and adapted from Wikipedia by Nicolae Sfetcu)