SCI'CLI, a t. of Sicily, in the province of Syracuse, on the small river Seicli, 21 m. w.s.w. from Soto. The woolen manufacture is carried on. Scicli is supposed to be the ancient Cuminen(e. Pop. 10,029.
SCIrNCES, the name for such portions of human knowledge as have been more or less generalized, systematized. and verified. Generality as opposed to mere particulars, system as opposed to randehn arrangement, and verification as opposed to looseness of assent IA ion, cone urin that superior kind o-1* knowledge dignified by the title in qnestion.. Geography, chemistry. and political economy are now sciences. The first has heel' so for many ages, although greatly advanced in recent times; the two last, scarcely more than a century. Chemical facts and maxims of political economy had been known from a much earlier date, but they did not in either case amount to• science; the generalities were few or bad, System and certainty were both In the different hranches of natural history—mineralogy. botany, zoology—there had been a large store of accumu lated facts before any one h•anch could be called a science. The quality of the knowl edge is of more consequence than the quantity.
The term phife.sopky (q.v.) is to a certain extent, but not altogether, coincident with science. being applied to the early efforts and strainings after the explanation of the universe, that preceded exact science in any department. Both names denote the pur suit of knowledge as knowledge, or for intellectual satisfaction, in contrast to the search that is limited to immediate practice or utility.
The sciences have been variously classified, and the principles of their classification have been a subject of discussion. We shall here describe the mode of classifying them in accordance with present usage. and with the principles most generally agreed upon.
It is convenient to prepare the way by distinguishing between theoretical sciences, which are the sciences properly so called, and practical sciences. A theoretical science embraces a distinct department of nature, and is so arranged as to give, in the most com pact form, the entire body of ascertained (scientific) knowledge in that department: such are mathematics. chemistry, physiology, zoology. A practical science is the appli cation of scientifically obtained facts and laws in one or more departments to sonic p•ac tical end, which end rules the selection and arrangement of the whole; as, for example, navigation, engineering, mining, medicine. Navigation selects front the theoretical sciences—mathematics, astronomy, optics, meteorology, etc.—whatever is available for
guiding a ship on the seas, and converts the knowledge into rules or prescriptions for that pin-pose. 'rite arts that can thus draw upon the exact sciences are by so much the more certain in their operation; they are the scientific arts.
... Another distinction must be made before laying clown the systematic order of the theoretical sciences. A certain number of these sciences have for their subject-mallet each a separate department of natural forces or powers; thus, biology deals with the department of organized beings, psychology with mind. Others deal with the application of powers elsewhere recognized to some region of concrete facts or pliepoin. eye. Thus, geology does not discuss any natural powers not found in other sciences, but seeks to apply the laws of physics, chemistry, and biology to account for the Appearances of the earth's crust. The sciences that embrace peculiar natural powers are called abstract, general, or fundamental sciences; those that apply the powers treated of under these to regions of concrete phenomena are called concrete, derived, or applied sciences.
The abstract or theoretical sciences as most commonly recognized, are these mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology (vegetable and animal physiology); psychology (mind), sociology (society). The concrete sciences are the natural history group—mete orology, mineralogy, botany, zoology, geology, also geography, and we might, with some explanations, add astronomy. The abstract or fundamental sciences have a defi nite sequence, determining the proper order for the learner, and also the order of their arriving at perfection. We proceed from the simple to the complex, from the independ ent to the dependent. Thus, MATHEMATICS relates to quantity, the most pervading, simple, fundamental, and independent attribute of the universe. The consideration of this attribute has therefore a natural priority; its laws underlie all other laws. As mathematics is at present understood, it has an abstract department, which treats of qnantity in its most general form, or as applied to nothing in particular—including arithmetic, algebra, and the calculus—and a concrete or applied department—viz., geometry, or quantity in space or extension. It has been suggested that general mechan ics, or the estimation of quantity in force, should be considered a second concrete department. But usually mechanics ranks with the next fundamental science iu order, cal led physics.