9/28/2020 Formal science - Wikipedia

Formal science
Formal science is a branch of science studying formal language disciplines concerned with formal
systems, such as logic, mathematics, statistics, theoretical computer science, artificial intelligence,
information theory, game theory, systems theory, decision theory, and theoretical linguistics.[1] 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 symbolic systems. The formal sciences aid the natural
and social sciences by providing information about the structures the latter use to describe the world,
and what inferences may be made about them.

Contents
History
Branches
Differences from other forms of science
See also
References
Further reading
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 Greek, Arab and Persian
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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_science 1/4
9/28/2020 Formal science - Wikipedia

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.

Branches
Branches of formal science include computer science, mathematics, statistics, and systems science.

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[2]

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.

Therefore, straightly speaking, formal science is not a science. It is a formal logical system with its
content targeted at the real things, information and thoughts that we experienced. As Francis Bacon
pointed out in the 17th century, experimental verification of the propositions must be carried out
rigorously and cannot take logic itself as the way to draw conclusions in nature. Formal science is a
method that is helpful to science but cannot replace science.

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 – 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.[3][4]

See also
Rationalism
Abstract structure
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_science 2/4
9/28/2020 Formal science - Wikipedia

Abstraction in mathematics
Abstraction in computer science
Formal grammar
Formal language
Formal method
Formal system
Mathematical model
Mathematics Subject Classification

References
1. American Mathematical Society. "MSC2010 database" (https://mathscinet.ams.org/mathscinet/msc/
msc2010.html). mathscinet.ams.org. Retrieved 17 May 2019.
2. Albert Einstein (1923). "Geometry and Experience". Sidelights on relativity. Courier Dover
Publications. p. 27. Reprinted by Dover (2010), ISBN 978-0-486-24511-9.
3. Carnap, Rudolf (1938). "Logical Foundations of the Unity of Science". International Encyclopaedia of
Unified Science. I. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
4. 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.uns
w.edu.au/~jim/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).
Bernt P. Stigum (1990). Toward a Formal Science of Economics. MIT Press
Marcus Tomalin (2006), Linguistics and the Formal Sciences (https://books.google.com/books?id=Xb
jFag2qCygC&printsec=frontcover#v=onepage&q&f=false). Cambridge University Press
William L. Twining (1997). Law in Context: Enlarging a Discipline. 365 pp.

External links
Media related to Formal sciences at Wikimedia Commons
Interdisciplinary conferences — Foundations of the Formal Sciences (http://www.math.uni-bonn.de/p
eople/fotfs/)

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Formal_science&oldid=954558912"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_science 3/4
9/28/2020 Formal science - Wikipedia

This page was last edited on 3 May 2020, at 02:26 (UTC).

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. By using this site,
you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a
non-profit organization.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Formal_science 4/4