«History of Science» by IntroBooks

History of science, since time immemorial, has embraced clearly defined interdisciplinary methods and perspectives, and other fields of human endeavor are beginning to buy into the pace set by sciences. Understanding science has become a more complex issue of discussion due to the numerous fields of study it embodies. In times past, the idea of science was confined to limited areas, like natural sciences, sociology, theology, philosophy and history. However, other fields like literary & cultural studies, political science, ethnology, and anthropology were added to the long list towards the twilights of the twentieth century. Such additions have successfully transformed science into an object of rigorous and engaging scholarly investigation.

The additions mentioned earlier, contributing their quotas to the dictates of science, have blurred its erstwhile defined boundaries, cutting off the distinction between what can be termed as historical and what is not in the definition of the field of sciences as a human activity.

In time past, some schools of thought held firmly to their impressionistic and subjective points of view regarding history, emphasizing that science is incapable of being made an embodiment of personal vision branch of literature or that if a nation, church or class that history represents. Be that as it may, science cannot be declared as laying claim to eternal and universal objectivity; rather, it prefers to be assessed as a point of view of the past giving and means of meeting the demands of the present day and the future. This factor justifies history as an integral part of scientific study.

Many insist at the aberration birthed with the inclusion of history as a science field, claiming its inclination towards the arts is more viable than its science-relationship. They maintained that history and all other ‘aberrant’ inclusions are visualized as fields with their purposes and structures widely differing from the dictates of the science field.

Nevertheless, the leading logicians, decisions makers and opinion leaders of the day do not get weighed down by the validity, or lack of it, of any of the fields, merged with science and for logical reasons too. These opinion leaders have their minds set rather on other science fields, like the natural sciences, involving the likes of physics and mathematics, which very few of them fully understand. Consequently, other related added fields, like the various human studies fields, especially history, are completely neglected. Ironically, many of them have more familiarity with the neglected fields than the fields they presently embrace.
History is based on facts. It deals with identifying, discovering and inferring, which are all traceable characteristics to the field of natural sciences. Since the specialists counter one another on the purported identity or place of history in the field of science, it behooves the recognized science authorities to proffer lasting and viable clarification on the identity saga. Just the same, the undeniable truth records history as the only region of human knowledge and experience where progress has been undeniably achieved.