Foresight - what is it in science and in life?

2024 Author: Miguel Ramacey | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 06:11

Most people associate foresight with intuition, the gift of a "third eye", the ability to correctly assess a life situation and predict its development. However, this is far from the only meaning of the word. It is used not only in everyday speech. The word "foresight" has its own meaning in the scientific community.

What is it in science? Definition

In the scientific community, foresight is a method of cognition, definition, description of objects, processes or phenomena related to futurological ones. In other words, this way of studying implies the knowledge of what has not yet happened, no matter what area the objects, processes or phenomena under consideration belong to.

That is, in the scientific community, the word "foresight" has a different meaning - "forecast". It studies what is not directly observed in objective reality at a particular time, but with a high degree of probability can happen in the future.

An example of the practical application of the method of scientific foresight

As an exampleUsing this technique to study any processes, objects or phenomena, one can predict weather conditions. In fact, every time a person looks at data about what weather is expected, he is using the results of the work of scientists according to the "foresight" method. This is the simplest example, which is not difficult to encounter in everyday life.

Meteorologists use the statistics of past years, observations of the current state of things in nature and ongoing trends. Comparing them, scientists predict the development of natural phenomena and draw conclusions about what kind of weather people should expect in a particular place at a certain period of time.

When did this scientific method originate?

The concept of foresight has developed from the everyday meaning of this expression. In other words, it is rooted in prophecy, divination and other options for predicting the future.

As a scientific method, foresight began to take shape in the 15th century, and was finally established by the 17th century. This method of cognition was the construction of a logical chain of inferences from objective causes and possible consequences.

What is scientific foresight based on? What does it look like?

In the scientific community, foresight is also a way to look into the future. The only difference from the everyday understanding of this word is that scientists do not guess the development of events or the results of any processes.

Forecasting, or foresight, is based on accurate data regarding the subjectstudies that allow you to determine the patterns of a phenomenon or process. That is, foresight is a scientific method that includes:

• accumulation of statistical data;
• identifying patterns and building causal chains;
• forecasting.

In other words, scientific foresight implies the possession of complete and reliable objective information about an object, process or phenomenon, including data on:

• shape;
• nascence;
• development;
• features of functioning or manifestation.

The method of foresight itself is divided into two varieties:

• probabilistic-statistical;
• deterministic.

Probabilistic-statistical prediction is used in cases where, in the process of research, scientists encounter the following nuances:

• significant time gaps;
• lack of complete initial data on an object, phenomenon or process;
• lack of information, lack of description;
• large volume or complex multi-stage structure.

In other situations, the method of deterministic foresight is applied. For example, it was this method in chemistry that predicted the probability of the existence of elements before their discovery, based on the characteristics identified by the periodic law.

Typically, deterministic foresight techniques are used in the following scientific fields:

• chemistry;
• mechanics;
• physics;
• meteorology;
• astronomy.

Probabilistic-statistical foresight is used in sociology, psychology, management, politics, economics and other similar areas, which are characterized by lack of data stability, a significant number of variable factors.

What other meaning does this word have?

Of course, not only as a scientific term is used the word "foresight". Its significance is much deeper than that of the named scientific methods. However, the semantic understanding of this word in everyday speech does not in the least contradict its meaning as a scientific term. In both cases, it is about predicting something.

Since ancient times, the word "foresight" was used in everyday speech in the meaning of "clairvoyance". That is, they resorted to it in conversations, describing someone's gift for predicting the future - both distant and close. People who are able to look beyond the foggy veil of the future, they said: “They have the gift of foresight.”

As a rule, this word was used in everyday life in relation to predictions of the development of any events related to short time periods and to specific, everyday situations. This means that they were not given vague prophecies that could relate to anything and needed additional decoding.