THE 15 MOST IMPORTANT CHARACTERISTICS OF SCIENCE - SCIENCE - 2025

Some of the characteristics of science are objective analysis, the possibility of verifying experiments, specialization, practical utility, systematicity, verifiability, legality, among others.

The word "science" comes from the Latin "scientia", which means knowledge. Science is called the set of knowledge that is obtained thanks to the observation, reasoning and methodological experimentation of facts. These practices generate questions that later construct hypotheses that, if proven or not, become principles, laws and schemes to generalize results.

Science is the result of man's curiosity to know more about his environment. He exercises his curiosity to be able to be an observer, collector and identifier of the reality that surrounds him, describing their characteristics, giving them names and discovering their interactions.

The exercise of curiosity produces knowledge and, therefore, rational reasoning and arguments. Science is not infallible or static. On the contrary, it is liable to be in permanent review of the facts, the discovery of new facts and new conditions that can modify the results.

A striking example of the dynamism of science is that, if it were not, we would continue to assume even today that the earth is flat and that it is the center of the universe.

Mario Bunge, Argentine physicist, mathematician, philosopher and humanist, defined science by dividing it into two large areas: formal sciences and factual sciences, the latter being those that use observation and experimentation in their methodology and serve to verify hypotheses that, according to the author, are usually provisional.

Main features of science

According to this conception, a series of characteristics can then be attributed to science, which we will list below.

1- It is factual (it is based on facts)

Start from the facts and always come back to the facts. The scientist must respect them and distort them as little as possible with his intervention, without forgetting that the facts themselves are changing and that they can undergo modifications that must be contemplated by the researcher.

2- It transcends the facts

It goes beyond the facts as such, since thanks to its analysis, it can accept them but also discard them and use new ones that explain the object of study in greater detail.

Scientific fact does not arise from mere observation; The decision of the researcher also intervenes to select the facts that he considers important, discard those that are not and propose hypotheses and theories that shed light on the investigated topic.

3- It is analytical

Scientific research addresses problems one by one and tries to fragment them, dividing them into small parts that facilitate the particular study of each one separately.

As he manages to explain each segment, he interconnects them and also gradually explains and recomposes the whole. Science studies partial problems to achieve general results.

4- It is specialized

With the passage of time and the expansion of knowledge, scientific research covers more and more specific aspects that can be studied.

This has resulted in the interdisciplinarity of research, where numerous areas of study complement each other and contribute their knowledge.

Regardless of the disciplines involved in the research, and although their degrees of development or complexity differ, or they handle different techniques, the scientific method will be rigorously applied to all of them to achieve the objectives pursued.

5- It is clear and precise

Science is based on rigorous studies that do not admit assumptions, opinions or understandings.

In scientific research, the registration of data or phenomena must be carried out accurately and the statements must be clear, as well as their results, without ever forgetting that they can always be fallible.

But it should not leave room for doubts, ambiguities or misinterpretations. That is one of the main qualities of science, its clarity, its unambiguous objective.

6- It is communicable

It is a fact that the intention and reason for being of science is to communicate its principles and discoveries in order to achieve advances and changes in its field of study.

The objective of an investigation is to be able to communicate and share its findings, although it is usually done in a specialized language that can only be understood by those who are trained to do so.

7- It is verifiable

This characteristic is what differentiates scientific study from philosophical thought or from any other type of study.

All research (understood as observation, experimentation, etc.) that yields a result for the first time, must be carried out many more times to corroborate its results.

Only then can the facts be taken as scientific truths, which will eventually become theories, principles and laws.

This is what is known as objective knowledge, which analyzes and verifies the facts through observation and experimentation.

8- It is methodical

All research that seeks to obtain serious and verifiable results, requires the elaboration and exhaustive monitoring of a planned and rigorous scientific methodology.

This method includes the prior planning of each step to be taken to achieve the result stated in the previous hypothesis.

In this planning, the researcher uses techniques that he is constantly refining and could even intentionally resort to random elements and factors to observe whether or not changes in the results occur.

But even these resources of chance must be previously thought out. The seriousness in the application of the methodology is what guarantees the veracity of the results.

9- It is explanatory

Try to explain the facts in terms of laws and principles; that is, by means of proven and irrefutable premises.

Every scientist asks himself questions to answer: what happens? How does it happen? Why does it happen that way? It also tries to find out whether or not it may or may not happen otherwise and why such modifications may (or may not) happen.

The answer to these questions is what allows scientific knowledge to be generalized, diffused and adopted as truth.

10- It is predictive

Science not only studies events of the present, but thanks to them it can imagine or deduce how they were in the past and can also predict how they will be in the future, after analyzing behavior and events over time.

This feature of science is particularly visible and very useful, for example, in astronomy, where aspects such as weather (rains, snowfall, droughts), eclipses, solar movements, phenomena can be predicted more or less correctly. natural, etc., linking current observation with the study of historical patterns.

Prediction is always subject to being adjusted and refined, thereby improving theoretical knowledge as well.

11- It's open

No prior limitations are established. No field of study is off limits to science and it draws on any resource or knowledge that can help advance research.

Science cannot be conceived in watertight compartments or as monolithic truths; on the contrary, a good scientist mistrusts, refutes, errs and constantly learns.

12- It's useful

Precisely because of the rigor and objectivity of its methods, science is useful and reliable for other scholars and for the final achievement of truths and results applicable in everyday life.

Such is the case of technology which, according to Bunge, is nothing more than applied science.

13- It is systematic

Scientific knowledge is not a cluster of isolated and disconnected ideas or studies, but an interconnected system that follows rigorous patterns of analysis and experimentation protocols that cannot be ignored, altered or modified in any of its stages.

14- It is general

Science seeks, through its analysis and experimentation, to take the results and generalize them to larger cases, groups or areas of study.

The result of a study carried out in a certain way and under certain conditions can be extrapolated to other areas, provided that it has the same or similar conditions as the original case. This is what allows universally applicable general laws to be produced.

15- It's legal

Scientific knowledge has as one of its functions the search for laws and the application of them. These laws are under constant observation and improvement.

Other characteristics of science

Beyond Mario Bunge's classification, it can be said that science has other applicable characteristics.

Is concrete

For example, it could be said that it is concrete, because it studies specific problems and does not beat around the bush; on the contrary, it focuses more and more on its object of study. Ambiguity has no place in the scientific method.

Is empirical

This means that it is based on experimentation, on the verification of the theory in order to accept as true the theoretical statements initially raised.

Is objective

Science is free of prejudices, values ​​or desires and has simple objectivity, since it accepts the facts as they are, and not as you wish them to be.

It is ethically neutral

His only interest is knowledge and the values ​​of the scientist cannot enter the scene when investigating.

Is reliable

Scientific knowledge is based on the repetition of circumstances, that is, they are reproducible at any time and place. Chance has no potential in science.

Finally, there are many other characteristics of scientific knowledge: it is controllable, abstract, logically consistent, testable, critical, grounded, and provisional. Many other authors also agree with a good part of Mario Bunge's classification.

Themes of interest

Scientific method.

Branches of science.

Topics to present in class.

References

1. Mario Bunge (1996). The science. His method and his philosophy. XX Century Editions.
2. Ricardo Guibourg (1986). Introduction to scientific knowledge. Eudeba Editions.
3. Esther Díaz (1992). Towards a critical view of science. Biblos Editions. Pages 117-118
4. Mariano Davis. The science, characteristics and classifications. Recovered from monografias.com
5. Science according to Bunge: from formal sciences to factual sciences. Clues to solve the science puzzle. Recovered from espejueloscientificos.weebly.com
6. Gervais Mbarga and Jean-Marc Fleury. What is science? Science journalism online course. Lesson 5. Recovered from wfsj.org.