10/19/2017 Formal science - Wikipedia

Formal science
Formal sciences are formal language disciplines concerned with formal systems, such as logic, mathematics,
statistics, theoretical computer science, information theory, game theory, systems theory, decision theory, and
theoretical linguistics. Whereas the natural sciences and social sciences seek to characterize physical systems and
social systems respectively using empirical methods, the formal sciences are language tools concerned with
characterizing abstract structures described by sign systems. The formal sciences aid the natural sciences by providing
information about the structures the latter use to describe the world, and what inferences may be made about them.

Contents
1 History
2 Differences from other forms of science
3 See also
4 References
5 Further reading
6 External links

History
Formal sciences began before the formulation of the scientific method, with the most ancient mathematical texts
dating back to 1800 BC (Babylonian mathematics), 1600 BC (Egyptian mathematics) and 1000 BC (Indian
mathematics). From then on different cultures such as the Indian, Greek and Islamic mathematicians made major
contributions to mathematics, while the Chinese and Japanese, independently of more distant cultures, developed
their own mathematical tradition.

Besides mathematics, logic is another example of one of oldest subjects in the field of the formal sciences. As an
explicit analysis of the methods of reasoning, logic received sustained development originally in three places: India
from the 6th century BC, China in the 5th century BC, and Greece between the 4th century BC and the 1st century BC.
The formally sophisticated treatment of modern logic descends from the Greek tradition, being informed from the
transmission of Aristotelian logic, which was then further developed by Islamic logicians. The Indian tradition also
continued into the early modern period. The native Chinese tradition did not survive beyond antiquity, though Indian
logic was later adopted in medieval China.

As a number of other disciplines of formal science rely heavily on mathematics, they did not exist until mathematics
had developed into a relatively advanced level. Pierre de Fermat and Blaise Pascal (1654), and Christiaan Huygens
(1657) started the earliest study of probability theory. In the early 1800s, Gauss and Laplace developed the
mathematical theory of statistics, which also explained the use of statistics in insurance and governmental accounting.
Mathematical statistics was recognized as a mathematical discipline in the early 20th century.

In the mid-20th century, mathematics was broadened and enriched by the rise of new mathematical sciences and
engineering disciplines such as operations research and systems engineering. These sciences benefited from basic
research in electrical engineering and then by the development of electrical computing, which also stimulated
information theory, numerical analysis (scientific computing), and theoretical computer science. Theoretical computer
science also benefits from the discipline of mathematical logic, which included the theory of computation.

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Differences from other forms of science

One reason why mathematics enjoys special esteem, above all other sciences, is that its laws are absolutely
certain and indisputable, while those of other sciences are to some extent debatable and in constant danger
of being overthrown by newly discovered facts.

— Albert Einstein[1]

As opposed to empirical sciences (natural and social), the formal sciences do not involve empirical procedures. They
also do not presuppose knowledge of contingent facts, or describe the real world. In this sense, formal sciences are
both logically and methodologically a priori, for their content and validity are independent of any empirical
procedures.

Although formal sciences are conceptual systems, lacking empirical content, this does not mean that they have no
relation to the real world. But this relation is such that their formal statements hold in all possible conceivable worlds
(see valid formula) – whereas, statements based on empirical theories, such as, say, general relativity or evolutionary
biology, do not hold in all possible worlds, and may eventually turn out not to hold in this world as well. That is why
formal sciences are applicable in all domains and useful in all empirical sciences.

Because of their non-empirical nature, formal sciences are construed by outlining a set of axioms and definitions from
which other statements (theorems) are deduced. In other words, theories in formal sciences contain no synthetic
statements; all their statements are analytic.[2][3]

See also
Rationalism Formal language
Abstract structure Formal method
Abstraction in mathematics Formal system
Abstraction in computer science Mathematical model
Formal grammar

References
1. Albert Einstein (1923). "Geometry and Experience". Sidelights on relativity. Courier Dover Publications. p. 27.
Reprinted by Dover (2010), ISBN 978-0-486-24511-9.
2. Carnap, Rudolf (1938). "Logical Foundations of the Unity of Science". International Encyclopaedia of Unified
Science. I. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
3. Bill, Thompson (2007), "2.4 Formal Science and Applied Mathematics", The Nature of Statistical Evidence,
Lecture Notes in Statistics, 189 (1st ed.), Springer, p. 15

Further reading
Mario Bunge (1985). Philosophy of Science and Technology. Springer.
Mario Bunge (1998). Philosophy of Science. Rev. ed. of: Scientific research. Berlin, New York: Springer-Verlag,
1967.
C. West Churchman (1940). Elements of Logic and Formal Science, J.B. Lippincott Co., New York.
James Franklin (1994). The formal sciences discover the philosophers' stone (http://www.maths.unsw.edu.au/~ji
m/philosophersstone.pdf). In: Studies in History and Philosophy of Science. Vol. 25, No. 4, pp. 513–533, 1994
Stephen Leacock (1906). Elements of Political Science. Houghton, Mifflin Co, 417 pp.

Karl R. Popper (2002) [1959]. The Logic of Scientific Discovery. New York, NY: Routledge Classics. ISBN 0-415-
27844-9. OCLC 59377149 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/59377149).

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Bernt P. Stigum (1990). Toward a Formal Science of Economics. MIT Press

Marcus Tomalin (2006), Linguistics and the Formal Sciences. Cambridge University Press
William L. Twining (1997). Law in Context: Enlarging a Discipline. 365 pp.

External links
Interdisciplinary conferences — Foundations of the Formal Sciences (http://www.math.uni-bonn.de/people/fotfs/)

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