Understanding the history of Science and the evolution of scientific thoughts, methods, and practices is essential in our continuing quest to understand more life and everything else.

The history of things is always necessary if we hope to understand and embrace it. And science is more than just a field of study but also the basis of our knowledge, praxis, and how we view the world; it’s important to understand its origin or evolution. The ideas of Scott Kleiner on the history of Science offer a historical, conceptual, and methodological analysis of selected iconic shifts (revolutions) in scientific belief and practice. Taking inspiration from his book Taking the History of Science Really Seriously, we came up with ten reasons why studying the history of science is important.

History of Science is the history of the world. We will learn how people in the past think. We learn about ancient civilizations and past societies by studying the history of scientific beliefs and evolution. We get a view of what life was like back then and how people lived.

It allows us to understand the birth of ideas. The scientific truths and postulates that we now embrace today are products of centuries of hypothesis, experiments, discovery, and application. By studying the history of Science, we will come to understand how ideas, inventions, and governing philosophies came to be.

We’ll understand how great scientists think. Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Ptolemy, Galileo, and Newton, are just some of the greatest scientific minds we will encounter when we study the history of science. We will learn their journey and glimpse how they think and view the world.

We can separate science from non-science. Through a historical timeline, we can separate science from non-science, from what is a hypothesis to proven truth. The history of Science enables us to identify what works and what is yet to be tested, and we can apply it in our daily lives.

It changes how we view life and the world. Once we take the history of Science seriously, we begin to view the world in a different light. We start to appreciate the progress of things, the processes involved in the stuff that we enjoy, and how science governs every aspect of our lives, even culture, and how we behave and react to stimuli.

Understand the evolution of the natural world. We think of events and dates and famous people when we talk of history. When we study the history of Science, we will learn the natural history world, how species evolve, how various natural events shape countries, etc. The history of Science creates a unique historical timeline allowing us to understand our planet and all living things better.

We will learn about the scientific revolutions. The history of Science allows us to learn how humanity’s most significant milestones came to be. Scientific revolutions shaped our modern world, from Newton’s invention of Calculus, Anton Leeuwenhoek’s discovery of cell theory, to Einstein’s theory of relativity.

It’ll give us tools for understanding the future. Without studying the history of Science, we cannot possibly organize scientific truths that will help us discover more truths that will propel us into the future. Medical science, applied physics, and other essential fields cannot make progress without studying its history.

History of Science is as amazing as science itself. Studying the evolution of scientific principles in various fields is like traveling back in time and understanding more about modern science, technology, and the things around us. The farther we travel back, the deeper our understanding will be. How cool is that? 

We’ll appreciate science in our everyday lives. Ever wonder what’s the technology behind Bluetooth or vaccine, or the Internet that we so love and can’t do without? By studying the history of Science, we will encounter the origins of the science and technology behind the things that make our lives convenient today.