We explain what formal sciences are and what is their object of study. Differences with the factual ones. Examples of formal science.
What are the formal sciences?
The formal sciences or ideal sciences are those Sciences whose object of study is not the world and the nature, nor the physical or chemical laws that govern it, but formal systems, that is, systems of relationships that are, in principle, empty of their own content, but that can be applied to the analysis of any segment of the reality.
Formal sciences do not study real objects, but shapes: abstractions, relationships, ideal objects created in the mind of the human being. It could be said that they are not so interested in the what, but in the how: the forms and not the contents.
These types of sciences are analytical or non-empirical, that is, they do not validate their theories and knowledge by means of the experimentation or observation of the real world, but by studying the rules of thought that are proper to the system, such as propositions, axioms, definitions and inferences. His method, therefore, is normally the deductive one.
They are distinguished from factual science, whose objective is the understanding of the real and tangible world through scientific method, and that includes the natural Sciences and the social Sciences.
Examples of formal science
Some of the best known formal sciences are:
- Math. The study of the logical-formal systems of calculation and representation available to humans and their applications to practical life.
- Logic. The study of the methods of thought, that is to say, of the propositions and the deduction mechanisms that emerge from them.
- Computer's science. Known as computing or programming, deals with the logical-computational systems that allow the automation of the information.
- Arithmetic. The science of calculus and numbers, which are mental abstractions.
- Statistics. It deals with the study of odds and the proportions.
- Geometry. Study geometric shapes, that is, the mental or graphic representations that we can make of the real world in our minds.