what is science?

The aim of the paper is a general survey of the meanings of „science“ in regard to various methodological interpretations. There were many attemps to fix the contents of the very term „science“: it could be treated as a social institute, an aggregate of steady interactions, an output of human history or a factor of social life. Science can be understood as a particular kind of social affinity, a universe of competition for status and prestige. The central topic in the investigations of science is, however, studying science as a system of knowledge of a specific type, since the basis of every interpretation of the word „science“ is knowledge, cognition, sientific knowledge or truth.