1. Ways of Knowing
Three Groups of Sciences
- natural sciences
• physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy,…
- humanities
• history, history of art, linguistics, literary studies, philosophy, religious studies,…
- social sciences
• sociology, political science, economics, psychology, anthropology,…
Natural Sciences
- ancient intellectual endeavours
• astronomy arose in Babylonia, 1200 BCE
• modern natural sciences developed partly from Chinese, Indian, and Islamic
sources in the Middle Ages and Renaissance
- “Scienti c Revolution”
• Europe, 1550-1700
- physical universe is uniform and simple
- natural sciences focus on universals and regularities
• e.g. phenomenon of free fall
• less interest in concrete historical particulars, such as the fall of this stone
- standard techniques of theorising:
• mathematisation, abstraction, idealisation
• yield knowledge in concise, powerful forms
- example - laws of nature
• mathematical equations among physical quantities
• Isaac Newton’s law of gravitation, 1687: F = Gm1m2/r2
1
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, - laws as paradigms of knowledge
• taken to represent the highest grade of scienti c knowledge
• even by many outside the natural sciences
Humanities
- in ancient and medieval education, the liberal arts were “ways of doing”
• grammar, rhetoric, logic
- gradually, they developed into subjects of study
• Renaissance humanism, 15th century
- present-day humanities disciplines:
• history, history of art, studies of language and literature, philosophy, religious
studies,…
- world studied by the humanities
• focuses on historical human actors
- historical actors are creative
• they originate acts, texts, artworks
• creation follows no rules - unpredictable and inexplicable (e.g. cubist art)
- important methodological consequences…
- historical particularity
• every event and context is unique
• we identify periods (e.g., the Renaissance), but then zoom in past these
categories
- mistrust of generalisation and idealisation
• highest form of knowledge is intimate knowledge of particulars
• little or no use for scienti c laws
- main output - interpretations
• of acts, texts, artworks
• often embedded in theoretical frameworks
2
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Three Groups of Sciences
- natural sciences
• physics, chemistry, biology, astronomy,…
- humanities
• history, history of art, linguistics, literary studies, philosophy, religious studies,…
- social sciences
• sociology, political science, economics, psychology, anthropology,…
Natural Sciences
- ancient intellectual endeavours
• astronomy arose in Babylonia, 1200 BCE
• modern natural sciences developed partly from Chinese, Indian, and Islamic
sources in the Middle Ages and Renaissance
- “Scienti c Revolution”
• Europe, 1550-1700
- physical universe is uniform and simple
- natural sciences focus on universals and regularities
• e.g. phenomenon of free fall
• less interest in concrete historical particulars, such as the fall of this stone
- standard techniques of theorising:
• mathematisation, abstraction, idealisation
• yield knowledge in concise, powerful forms
- example - laws of nature
• mathematical equations among physical quantities
• Isaac Newton’s law of gravitation, 1687: F = Gm1m2/r2
1
fi
, - laws as paradigms of knowledge
• taken to represent the highest grade of scienti c knowledge
• even by many outside the natural sciences
Humanities
- in ancient and medieval education, the liberal arts were “ways of doing”
• grammar, rhetoric, logic
- gradually, they developed into subjects of study
• Renaissance humanism, 15th century
- present-day humanities disciplines:
• history, history of art, studies of language and literature, philosophy, religious
studies,…
- world studied by the humanities
• focuses on historical human actors
- historical actors are creative
• they originate acts, texts, artworks
• creation follows no rules - unpredictable and inexplicable (e.g. cubist art)
- important methodological consequences…
- historical particularity
• every event and context is unique
• we identify periods (e.g., the Renaissance), but then zoom in past these
categories
- mistrust of generalisation and idealisation
• highest form of knowledge is intimate knowledge of particulars
• little or no use for scienti c laws
- main output - interpretations
• of acts, texts, artworks
• often embedded in theoretical frameworks
2
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