History of Science - E-book - ePub

History of science, since time immemorial, has embraced clearlydefined interdisciplinary methods and perspectives, and otherfields of human endeavor are beginning to buy into the paceset by sciences. Understanding science has become a morecomplex issue of discussion due to the numerous fields ofstudy it embodies. In times past, the idea of science wasconfined to limited areas, like natural sciences, sociology, theology, philosophy and history.
However, other fields likeliterary & cultural studies, political science, ethnology, andanthropology were added to the long list towards the twilightsof the twentieth century. Such additions have successfullytransformed science into an object of rigorous and engagingscholarly investigation. The additions mentioned earlier, contributing their quotas to thedictates of science, have blurred its erstwhile defined boundaries, cutting off the distinction between what can be termed ashistorical and what is not in the definition of the field ofsciences as a human activity.
In time past, some schools of thought held firmly to theirimpressionistic and subjective points of view regarding history, emphasizing that science is incapable of being made anembodiment of personal vision branch of literature or that if anation, church or class that history represents. Be that as itmay, science cannot be declared as laying claim to eternal anduniversal objectivity; rather, it prefers to be assessed as a pointof view of the past giving and means of meeting the demandsof the present day and the future.
This factor justifies historyas an integral part of scientific study. Many insist at the aberration birthed with the inclusion ofhistory as a science field, claiming its inclination towards thearts is more viable than its science-relationship. They maintainedthat history and all other 'aberrant' inclusions are visualized asfields with their purposes and structures widely differing fromthe dictates of the science field.
Nevertheless, the leading logicians, decisions makers and opinionleaders of the day do not get weighed down by the validity, orlack of it, of any of the fields, merged with science and forlogical reasons too. These opinion leaders have their minds setrather on other science fields, like the natural sciences, involvingthe likes of physics and mathematics, which very few of themfully understand. Consequently, other related added fields, likethe various human studies fields, especially history, arecompletely neglected.
Ironically, many of them have morefamiliarity with the neglected fields than the fields they presentlyembrace. History is based on facts. It deals with identifying, discoveringand inferring, which are all traceable characteristics to the fieldof natural sciences. Since the specialists counter one another onthe purported identity or place of history in the field of science, it behooves the recognized science authorities to proffer lastingand viable clarification on the identity saga.
Just the same, theundeniable truth records history as the only region of humanknowledge and experience where progress has been undeniablyachieved.