Formal sciences are disciplines concerned with formal systems, such as logic, mathematics, statistics, theoretical computer science, information theory, game theory, systems theory, decision theory, and portions of linguistics.
Whereas natural sciences and other sciences like social sciences, behavioral sciences, and cognitive science seek soundness of scientific theory with respect to observations in order to successfully predict and perhaps accurately explain phenomena in the external world, the formal sciences are concerned with the internal properties of formal systems, especially definitions of terms and rules governing inferences.
Formal sciences sometimes aid constructing, assessing, and testing scientific theories and scientific models, however, by revealing inconsistencies or invalid forms of inference.
Read more about Formal Sciences: History, Differences From Other Forms of Science
Famous quotes containing the words formal and/or sciences:
“True variety is in that plenitude of real and unexpected elements, in the branch charged with blue flowers thrusting itself, against all expectations, from the springtime hedge which seems already too full, while the purely formal imitation of variety ... is but void and uniformity, that is, that which is most opposed to variety....”
—Marcel Proust (1871–1922)
“The prime lesson the social sciences can learn from the natural sciences is just this: that it is necessary to press on to find the positive conditions under which desired events take place, and that these can be just as scientifically investigated as can instances of negative correlation. This problem is beyond relativity.”
—Ruth Benedict (1887–1948)