ABSTRACT

Science is one of the cornerstones of modern society. Indeed, it is true to say that the development of science since the Renaissance has been crucial to the emergence of modern society. As determined by its object, science is partitioned into natural science, social science and human science. Briefly, the natural sciences seek to attain knowledge about both inanimate and animate nature. They encompass such subjects as astronomy, physics, chemistry, geology, meteorology, biology, botany and zoology. It is important in a democratic society that citizens are informed about what science is in a general sense, what distinguishes the particular sciences and marks them off from one another. Human beings and their thought, attitudes, values and views of life are the very things with which natural science does not occupy itself. A glance at the history of the humanities is enough for the affinities between the natural and the human sciences to be revealed.