Science

Modern science is defined as the quest for and analysis of the natural and social worlds that is conducted in accordance with professionalized criteria of method and process and by credentialed professionals. Following its emergence in the sixteenth century as an investigative activity conducted by learned individuals under the sponsorship of court patrons throughout Europe, science came to be institutionalized in the nineteenth century as a professional activity that is the domain of credentialed experts whose work is guided by authoritative criteria of evaluation and review. Since the middle of the twentieth century, science has been redefined in terms of its social import: science is no longer aimed solely at the expansion of human knowledge per se, but rather science aims to contribute to public or social good, most commonly defined as development. With that, science is a core and global social institution, as well as the conceptual axis of modernity.