Wissenschaft

German language term; any study that involves systematic research

Wissenschaft ( "knowledgeship") is a German language term that embraces scholarship, research, study, higher education, and academia. Wissenschaft translates exactly into many other languages, e. g. vetenskap in Swedish or nauka in Polish, but there is no exact translation in modern English. The common translation to science can be misleading, depending on the context, because Wissenschaft equally includes humanities (Geisteswissenschaft), and sciences and humanities are mutually exclusive categories in modern English. Wissenschaft includes humanities like history, anthropology, or arts (study of literature, visual arts, or music) at the same level as sciences like chemistry or psychology. Wissenschaft incorporates scientific and non scientific inquiry, learning, knowledge, scholarship, and does not necessarily imply empirical research.

Before Immanuel Kant published his Critique of Judgment in 1790, "schöne Wissenschaft" was highly regarded. "Schöne Wissenschaft" included poetry, rhetoric, and other subjects that were meant to promote an understanding of truth, beauty, and goodness. In modern English, the word science refers to systematically acquired, objective knowledge that is about a particular subject (the workings of the natural world, including the people in it) and produced through a particular methodology (the scientific method), in a progressive, iterative process that builds on previous knowledge. Wissenschaft, by contrast, encompasses both humanities and sciences, and both knowledge of objects as well as truths, such as what it means to be good. Some contemporary scientists and philosophers interpret Wissenschaft as meaning any true knowledge or successful method, including philosophical, mathematical, and logical knowledge and methods.