Understanding Science and Epistemology

Science Concept and Main Features

Science is defined by various thinkers:

• Ander-Egg: "sound body of knowledge, certain or probable, obtained methodically, systematic and verifiable, and that refer to objects of the same nature"
• Bunge: "rational, systematic, accurate, verifiable and fallible"
• Ferrari: "is the set of rational attitudes and activities aimed at systematic knowledge with limited items, can be subjected to verification"

Science is characterized by:

• Its content: a trait that defines it is its conceptual or theoretical nature. Science, as a form of knowledge, provides concepts through scientific theories, using them to classify, explain, and analyze empirical phenomena.
• Its principles relate to events or facts of reality that can be accessed through observation. The aim of science is knowing, describing, and explaining reality.
• Its direct relation to the scientific method: the procedure or course of action to be followed to produce and validate knowledge.

Epistemology

Epistemology originated in ancient Greece and was intended to distinguish two domains: that of the Doxa (opinion) and the Episteme (true knowledge).

In the European philosophical tradition, epistemology is usually understood as synonymous with the philosophy of knowledge in general. In the English tradition, by contrast, it is generally understood as the philosophy of science.

This is because the central concern of Anglo-Saxon philosophy has been to demarcate science from other areas of knowledge. The questions raised (avoiding radical skepticism and extreme dogmatism) are: Are these the only alternatives? Is one forced to choose between absolute knowledge or the impossibility of arriving at any knowledge?

Classification of Sciences

Formal Sciences

The objective is the study of ideal entities, forms, and systems of symbols. Typical disciplines are logic and mathematics. The validity criterion is not given by empirical demonstration, but by the validity of the argument.

Example: To calculate the area of a triangle, the formula (bh) / 2 must be used.

Factual Sciences

Refer to empirical facts. These facts can relate to the physical world, constituting the natural sciences, or the world of social relations, thereby forming the social sciences. They are based on empirical verification, and the validity criterion refers to the adequacy of the theoretical model to empirical reality.

For example, in chemistry, to form an oxide, electrons are shared between a material and oxygen.