Comparing the epistemologies of scientific disciplines in two distinct domains: modern physics versus social sciences. I: The epistemology and knowledge characteristics of the physical sciences

TLDR

The paper contrasts classical physics with modern particle physics and discusses how hard sciences engage in an epistemological debate with soft sciences, highlighting divergent trends in complexity–simplicity and precision–imprecision formalizations as their epistemologies evolve. Part I aims to describe the epistemology and knowledge characteristics of a typical physical science, such as physics. The authors survey how major contemporary physics discoveries have influenced the development of hard science domains. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Abstract

Abstract Part I describes the epistemology and characteristics of knowledge of a typical physical science such as physics. Classical physics is contrasted with modern particle physics. The impact of the main scientific discoveries of contemporary physics on the development of ‘hard’ sciences domains is surveyed. The ‘hard’ sciences are engaged in an epistemological debate with the ‘soft’ sciences which reveals divergent trends concerning how the complexity–simplicity and the precision–imprecision characteristics of their respective problem domains are formalized. The outlines of this debate between ‘hard’ sciences, covered in Part I, and ‘soft’ sciences, the subject of Part II, become apparent when outlining how their respective epistemologies are evolving. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.