INTRODUCTION TO THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE
It seems logical, before undertaking A HISTORY OF SCIENCES, to define what is meant by science. The word itself comes from the Latin scientia whose root is scire, which means “to know”. Science has been defined as any body of knowledge having a determined and recognized object, and its own method; field of knowledge, in this sense. There is therefore not one science, but several sciences, each characterized by a set of more or less differentiated practices, from mathematics to sociology via accounting!
1. Submit their ideas and results for independent verification and reproduction by other scientists, which requires the full and open exchange of data, processes, and materials.
2. Abandon or modify accepted conclusions when confronted with more complete or reliable experimental evidence.
For about two centuries, progress in science and technology has influenced and favored each other. It is therefore impossible to completely separate science and technology, because the state of one depends on the progress of the other. The[l1] methods of acquiring practical knowledge are nowadays close to the methods used in the acquisition of knowledge about nature. All of these methods can without too much error be qualified as “scientific method” and the practical knowledge resulting from the application of these methods is, with good reason, qualified as “scientific”. This marriage of science and techniques is called Technology.
It is practically impossible to say when the first forms of scientific activity appeared, if by this is meant a practical knowledge of nature based on experience. Prehistoric men engaged in non-instinctual activities, such as making rudimentary tools, lighting fires and, later, farming; these activities required the transmission, through education, of knowledge acquired through observation and experience.