Editing Protoscience (section)

{{Short description|Research field with some scientific qualities}}
In the [[philosophy of science]], '''protoscience''' is a research field that has the characteristics of an undeveloped [[science]] that may ultimately develop into an established science.  Philosophers use protoscience to understand the history of science and distinguish protoscience from science and [[pseudoscience]].{{sfn|Tuomela|1987}}  The word "protoscience" is a [[Neoclassical compound|hybrid Greek-Latin compound]] of the roots ''[[wikt:proto-#Prefix|proto-]]'' + ''[[wikt:scientia#Latin|scientia]]'', meaning a first or primeval rational knowledge.

Common examples of protoscience include [[alchemy]], [[Alfred Wegener|Wegener's]] original theory of [[continental drift]], and [[political economy]] (the predecessor to the modern economic sciences).