The Evolution of Science: From Formal Logic to the Digital Revolution
Types of Science
Formal Sciences
Logic and mathematics refer to objects not observable by the senses and offer no information about the world. They are universal and necessary. They find consistency in the very coherence of the reason that builds them. Their statements are called “a priori” because they are built for any reason prior to the experience. These sciences proceed by deduction.
Empirical Sciences
Physics, biology, etc., start from the observation of facts and provide information about the world. They are not universal or necessary, but are generalizations of experience. Their statements are called “post” because they are formed from the experience. The truth is the correspondence of what is stated with reality, and its method is the hypothetico-deductive.
Social Sciences
History, psychology, etc., are a particular group within the empirical sciences. Their object of study is human behavior and its intent. Often, the observer is also the observed object. These sciences are less focused on neutrality and objectivity, and more on generalization and prediction capabilities. They seek understanding rather than explanation and use the method of hermeneutics.
The Limits of Science
Science is a limited form of knowledge, first by its own methodology. Karl Popper has stressed the tentative nature of knowledge. According to him, a hypothesis is only considered valid until it is proven false.
Principle of Falsifiability
A statement is scientific if it can be falsified by experience.
Reduction to the Facts
There is no possibility of knowing that which you do not have experience (Hume). A new theory is not only a result of new tests. It is also a revolution or paradigm shift, which involves changes in the field of the scientific community.
Popper, Kuhn, and other philosophers have insisted that science is a historical construction. Feyerabend suggests a methodological anarchism: anything goes, there is no absolute method to reach scientific truth. Scientific research must be free and responsible. The ethic of responsibility emphasizes the commitment to truth, the priority of social programs, and environmental requirements.
Hypothetical-Deductive Method
This is an inductive procedure, a generalization of experience. It is hypothetical because it begins by formulating hypotheses about events. It is deductive because it needs to check through the inference of simple statements that can be tested.
A Dynamic Thinking
The concept of matter has undergone a radical change in the last century in relation to the previous story. It is moving from a static to a dynamic and definite to indefinite. Matter cannot be understood only as a counterpoint to the senses, as a mere extension of the body or bodies. It has an energetic nature. The dual nature of matter leads to another important feature: indeterminacy. The nature of matter is not determined.
The Theory of Relativity
Albert Einstein, from the discovery of the photoelectric effect, concluded that light behaves as both a wave and a particle, and its speed is constant. According to the special theory of relativity, there is no absolute motion, and no fixed reference point, as required by Newtonian physics. There is no separate space and time, but a space-time continuum. The general theory of relativity explains the accelerated motion of bodies and gravity as a curvature of spacetime.
Quantum Theory
This theory aims to explain the structure of matter at the atomic and subatomic level. In 1900, Max Planck showed that matter absorbs or emits energy in units called quanta. Bohr, Dirac, Heisenberg, and Schroedinger concluded that matter consists of small particles called atoms, almost invisible. These particles have a dual nature: sometimes they behave as mass points and other times as waves.
Uncertainty Principle
(Heisenberg): You cannot measure both the velocity and position of a particle.
The Big Bang and the New Image of the Universe
The unification theory (quantum theory and relativity) is the most accepted theory, superstring (1980). The universe consists of some abstract entities like strings, infinitely small, that are vibrating and gyrating under great stress.
In 1948, George Gamow proposed that the moment of the universe was a huge explosion at a point of infinite energy and intangible. It also created space-time and the first particles and nuclei of hydrogen and helium.
The Digital Revolution
Currently, it is not possible to conduct research without the help of complex computer systems. In this cyberspace, television, telephony, and the internet play a mediating role between physical reality and the human mind. In many cases, physical reality is being replaced by virtual reality. This setting is a kind of “universal mind” as if it were another infinite space.
The Biological Revolution
This is the result of three major contributions: the theory of evolution and two arising from the field of biochemistry and genetics.
In 1953, Stanley Miller’s laboratory succeeded in synthesizing the first elements of life, and thus life was emerging on the subject. The connection between chemistry and life was linked. He linked the origin of the universe with life. From the *big bang*, oscillatory processes of energy and matter crystallized into tiny particles that began a journey of self-organization and complexity that constitute the prehistory of life.
The genetic code and the subsequent deciphering of their sequences and genes have been a decisive step in the domain and in the explanation of biological diversity.