- What are the natural sciences?
- Object of study of natural sciences
- Classification and branches of natural sciences
- Importance of natural sciences
We explain what natural sciences are and how they are classified. Also, what is its importance and object of study.
What are the natural sciences?
The natural sciences (also natural Sciences, physical-natural sciences or experimental sciences) are those disciplines students who are interested in understanding the laws that govern nature, and who do so in accordance with the scientific method and the experimental method.
This means that they try to study the nature objectively, relying on logical reasoning (borrowing tools from formal sciences), the repetition in controlled environments of naturally observed phenomena (experimentation), and contemplating to a lesser extent the subjective issues of the human being.
In the latter, they are distinguished from the humanities and social Sciences, since the latter focus their attention on the culture and in human society respectively.On the other hand, the natural sciences are part of the basic sciences, that is, those that try to decipher the fundamental laws of the known universe, and should not be confused with the applied sciences, nor with the terrestrial sciences.
The antecedent of the natural sciences can be traced back to the forms of philosophy and naturalism of antiquity, although the ancient Greeks and Romans, for example, based their observation of nature in formal reasoning and not in measurement and experimentation. We will have to wait until Scientific revolution of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to give rise to a concept of science as we understand it today, from the invention of the scientific method.
Object of study of natural sciences
As we have said before, the natural sciences focus their interest on nature, that is, on the laws that govern the world and the phenomena that are observable in it. In general terms, it deals with the phenomena that occur regardless of whether or not the human being is there to observe it or take part in it, that is, the world around us, whether in macroscopic or microscopic dimensions.
Classification and branches of natural sciences
There are six natural sciences, classified according to the field of nature with which they deal, despite the fact that between them there are numerous contact zones that give rise, in turn, to a number of scientific disciplines.
Thus, we can talk about:
- Physical sciences. They deal with the fundamental laws of the universe perceptible. In this group are:
- Astronomy. Study the celestial stars and the interactions between them.
- Physical. Study the fundamental forces of the universe (Energy, space, weather, etc.) and the laws that follow from them.
- geology. Study the Earth, our planet, as well as its formation and transformation processes.
- Chemistry. Study the composition, structure and reactions of the matter.
- Biological Sciences. They deal with the fundamental laws of life as we know it. In this group are:
- biology. The study of living creatures, its internal processes, its behavior, its origin and evolution, as well as its interactions.
- Paleontology. Study the distribution and evolution of the life on earth before the appearance of the human species.
Importance of natural sciences
The natural sciences respond to the human being's need to understand the world that surrounds him (even the one within him), in order to later adapt to it or adapt it to suit his needs.
Without the development of these sciences, human history would have been much more laborious, since the technologyThis great transforming factor is fed directly by the application of the principles, theories and foundations that the natural sciences discover, develop and postulate.