The exact sciences include mathematics, from beginning to end invented by man and based on completely abstract concepts. What is number 1? It does not exist in nature. There are objects to which this concept refers, for example, one brick or one chair. What is common between a brick and a chair, where is the number 1 in them? Numbers were invented by man to facilitate the knowledge of the objective part of reality and do not exist anywhere except in his mind. In other words, numbers do not exist in the material world of the objective part of reality. A very common misconception is that mathematics is objective for the material world, that it somehow exists in this very material world. This is not true. Numbers do not exist in nature, they are not a property material bodies. Numbers (and all mathematics in general) serve as a tool invented by man for understanding the material world. objective reality. Mathematics is an example of intersubjectivity, but, nevertheless, has the subjective nature of its existence.

Mathematics is a very powerful tool. There are dozens of directions in it, each of which is simply invaluable for the knowledge of Reality. Take, for example, the theory of probability. Let's flip a coin, what will come up, heads or tails? No one knows, including mathematics, since this is a random equally probable event. But let's flip a coin a million times, and then a mathematician can say that with a high probability (almost certainly) there will be heads from 300,000 to 600,000. Of course, this is not an exact value, but the fact that an event that previously seemed absolutely random acquires a completely calculated result is noteworthy. And if you throw an infinite number of times, then exactly half will be heads and half tails. The result is predictable. So how do predictability and randomness fit together? And this is what the theory of probability allows us to know. And before talking about God, about predestination, about fate, about other things of this kind, you must first study the theory of probability and see if this is not fate, but ordinary complex mathematics.

The natural sciences are engaged in the fact that they are trying to know the material world, using the mathematical apparatus for this. And they do it just fine, for example, I type this text on a very powerful computer, which simply could not exist without science. However, everything is not as simple as it seems at first glance. If mathematics described the entire material world as well as it turns out by simply counting the fingers on the hands, then there would simply be no need for the natural sciences. The use of a mathematical tool is associated with great difficulties in correlating the results of calculations and scientific experiments. For this, various coefficients are introduced, numerical and probabilistic methods are used. There is a large section of applied mathematics. So, by itself, mathematics cannot accurately describe the real material world, even quantitatively, only within the limits of errors, often not even mathematically deducible. And about the description of the essence of objects and phenomena, there can be no question.

All of us, getting to school, then to the university, do not think about the fact that ordinary person only a small part of the foundations of various sciences is given. In fact, there are many of these sciences. To understand what sciences are, you must first find out how they are classified and into what groups they are divided.

Types of Sciences

We will try to present you the most common map of sciences. All existing systems of knowledge on a particular topic are divided into only three groups. This is:

• Natural
• Humanities
• Formal sciences

Each group contains a huge layer of subsections, which, in turn, is stratified into even narrower specializations. We will name only the basic ones, since it will be rather laborious to list what sciences exist.

Natural Sciences

To natural sciences include: physics, geography, chemistry, biology and everything that can somehow influence a person. Their paradox lies in the fact that it is almost impossible to find in this group of sciences at least one that would accurately and completely characterize this entire series. For example, geography gravitates and even overlaps with economics and sociology. Remember that geography includes sections on the economic prosperity of states, its connection with the availability of useful resources and minerals.

What sciences study man? Of the natural sciences, this is biology, more precisely, its subsection. Most of the human sciences fall into the next group - the humanities.

In general, the general core of the natural sciences is the description of real, existing phenomena, fragments or elements of reality, but by no means their evaluation.

Humanitarian sciences

It is also a wide layer of sciences. These include the social sciences and typically the humanities.

The social sciences include economics, sociology, political science, and others. These sciences describe actions, events, and they also evaluate them. However, they do not have a clear black and white picture of perception. Their assessment is rather comparative than absolute.

What are the humanities? This is history, psychology, linguistics. The entire range of sciences is full of absolute, but dynamically developing categories. For example, they clearly define time parameters (what was, what is, or what will be), and strive to give an absolute assessment of the facts and categories being studied.

There is also a subsection humanities, which is quite a bit, but stands alone. These are the sciences that form perception and give assessment. These include art history, ethics, and the like.

Formal sciences

Everything is very clear here. The formal sciences include logic, mathematics, statistics, computer science. This category of sciences has clear terms, the only accepted standards and concepts.

These categories of sciences are understandable, but not all researchers agree with such a classification. For example, it is possible to subdivide this entire body of knowledge according to criteria that assess the proximity of science to man. Which sciences study society, and which are abstract things? Different options are possible here, fortunately, there is where to roam, given the fact that there are more than 20 thousand sciences that a person studies.

Exact sciencescalled areas Sciences , which study quantitatively exact patterns and strict hypothesis testing methods based on reproducible experiments and strict logical reasoning. The exact sciences are mathematics, computer science, physics, chemistry , as well as some sections biology, psychology and social science. Usually the exact sciences are opposedhumanities.

Informatics(cf. German Informatik, English Information technology, French Informatique, English computer science - computer science- in the USA, English. computing science - computational science - in the UK) - the science of how to obtain, accumulate, store, transform, transfer, protect and use information. It includes disciplines related to information processing in computers and networks: both abstract, such as the analysis of algorithms, and quite specific, such as the development of programming languages. The term informatics originated in France in the 1960s for the name of the field of automated information processing, as a fusion of the French words information and automatique. Research topics in computer science are the following questions: what can and cannot be implemented in programs and databases (computability theory and artificial intelligence), how to solve specific computational and information problems with maximum efficiency (computation complexity theory), in what form should and restore information of a specific kind (structures and databases), how programs and people should interact with each other (user interface and programming languages ​​and knowledge representation), etc. Computer science is young scientific discipline, which studies issues related to the search, collection, storage, transformation and use of information in various fields of human activity. Genetically informatics is associated with computer technology, computer systems and networks, since it is computers that make it possible to generate, store and automatically process information in such quantities that scientific approach to information processes becomes both necessary and possible. Until now, the interpretation of the term "computer science" (in the sense as it is used in modern scientific and methodical literature) is not yet established and generally accepted. Let us turn to the history of the issue, dating back to the time of the appearance of electronic computers. The concept of computer science is just as difficult for anyone general definition like, for example, the concept of mathematics. This is both science, and the field of applied research, and the field of interdisciplinary research, and academic discipline(at school and university). Despite the fact that computer science as a science appeared relatively recently (see below), its origin should be associated with the work of Leibniz on the construction of the first computer and the development of a universal (philosophical) calculus. Information resources - Various formalized knowledge (theories, ideas, inventions), data (including documents), technologies and means of their collection, processing, analysis, interpretation and application, as well as exchange between sources and consumers of information.

Information technology -

A set of scientific disciplines involved in the study, creation and application of methods, methods, actions, processes, tools, rules, skills used to obtain new information (information, knowledge), collect, process, analyze, interpret, extract and apply data, content and information to meet information needs National economy and society in the required volume and given quality.

The totality of these methods, methods, actions, etc.

Information process - A sequence of actions (operations) for the collection, transfer, processing, analysis, extraction and use of information (and / or its carriers) for various purposes in the course of the functioning and interaction of material objects.

Information Workflow - Component information technology as a practical tool for prescription activities, part of the production process, consisting of a sequence of agreed technological operations associated with the collection and processing<данных>as carriers of information, extracting from them the necessary information, news, knowledge, their accumulation, analysis, interpretation and application.

Mathematics(from other Greek μάθημα - study, science) - the science of structures, order and relationships, which has historically developed on the basis of operations of counting, measuring and describing the forms of real objects. Mathematical objects are created by idealizing the properties of real or other mathematical objects and writing these properties in a formal language. Mathematics does not belong to the natural sciences, but is widely used in them both for the precise formulation of their content and for obtaining new results. Mathematics is a fundamental science that provides (general) language tools other sciences; thus, it reveals their structural interrelation and contributes to the discovery of the most general laws of nature. The idealized properties of the objects under study are either formulated as axioms or listed in the definition of the corresponding mathematical objects. Then, according to strict rules of logical inference, other true properties (theorems) are deduced from these properties. This theory together forms mathematical model object under study. Thus, initially, proceeding from spatial and quantitative relations, mathematics obtains more abstract relations, the study of which is also the subject of modern mathematics. Traditionally, mathematics is divided into theoretical, which performs an in-depth analysis of intra-mathematical structures, and applied, which provides its models to other sciences and engineering disciplines, and some of them occupy a position bordering on mathematics. In particular, formal logic can be considered both as part of the philosophical sciences and as part of the mathematical sciences; mechanics - both physics and mathematics; Informatics, Computer techologies and algorithmics are both engineering and mathematical sciences etc. Many different definitions of mathematics have been proposed in the literature.

Brain and Soul [How Nervous Activity Shapes Our inner world] Frith Chris

Exact and inexact sciences

Exact and inexact sciences

In the system of scientific hierarchy, "exact" sciences occupy a high position, and "inexact" - low. The subjects studied by the exact sciences are like a cut diamond, which has a strictly defined shape, and all parameters can be measured with high accuracy. "Inexact" sciences study objects that look like an ice cream ball, the shape of which is far from being so definite, and the parameters can change from measurement to measurement. The exact sciences, such as physics and chemistry, study tangible objects that can be measured very accurately. For example, the speed of light (in a vacuum) is exactly 299,792,458 meters per second. A phosphorus atom weighs 31 times more than a hydrogen atom. These are very important numbers. Based atomic weight of various elements, one can compile a periodic table, which once made it possible to draw the first conclusions about the structure of matter at the subatomic level.

Once biology was not such an exact science as physics and chemistry. This state of affairs changed dramatically after scientists discovered that genes consist of strictly defined sequences of nucleotides in DNA molecules. For example, the sheep prion gene consists of 960 nucleotides and begins like this:

I must admit that in the face of such precision and rigor, psychology looks like a very imprecise science. The most famous number in psychology is 7, the number of things that can be held in working memory at the same time. But even this figure needs to be clarified. George Miller's 1956 paper on this discovery was titled "The Magic Number Seven - Plus or Minus Two." Therefore, the best measurement result obtained by psychologists can vary in one direction or another by almost 30%. The number of items we can hold in working memory varies from time to time and from person to person. In a state of fatigue or anxiety, I will remember fewer numbers. I speak English so I can remember more numbers than those who speak Welsh. "What did you expect?" says the professor in English. “The human soul cannot be straightened out like a butterfly in a shop window. Each of us is unique."

This remark is not entirely appropriate. Of course, each of us is unique. But we all have general properties psyche. Exactly these fundamental properties and looking for psychologists. Chemists had exactly the same problem with the substances they investigated before the discovery. chemical elements in the 18th century. Each substance is unique. Psychology, compared to the "exact" sciences, had little time to find what to measure and figure out how to measure. Psychology as a scientific discipline has only existed for a little over 100 years. I am sure that in time psychologists will find what to measure and develop devices that will help us make these measurements very accurate.