[1] The word “protoscience” is a hybrid Greek-Latin compound of the roots proto- + scientia, meaning a first or primeval rational knowledge.
[2][3] In 1910, Jones described economics: Thomas Kuhn later provided a more precise description, protoscience as a field that generates testable conclusions, faces “incessant criticism and continually strive for a fresh start,” but currently, like art and philosophy, appears to have failed to progress in a way similar to the progress seen in the established sciences.
[5] He applies protoscience to the fields of natural philosophy, medicine and the crafts in the past that ultimately became established sciences.
He argued, however, that within the active cultural style of a thought collective, knowledge claims or facts were constrained by passive elements arising from the observations and experience of the natural world.
He also notes some features of the culture of modern natural sciences that recognize provisionality and evolution of knowledge along the value of pursuit of passive resistances.
[14] The cognitive field consists of a community of individuals within a society with a domain of inquiry, a philosophical worldview, logical/mathematical tools, specific background knowledge from neighboring fields, a set of problems investigated, accumulated knowledge from the community, aims and methods.
Mario Bunge defined a protoscience as a research field that approximately satisfies a similar set of the 12 science conditions.
[22] Popper states that the Copernican system was "inspired by a Neo-Platonic worship of the light of the Sun who had to occupy the center because of his nobility", leading to "testable components" that ultimately became "fruitful and important.
"[22] Some scholars use the term "primitive protoscience" to describe ancient myths that help explain natural phenomena at a time prior to the development of the scientific method.
[31] The process for reporting adverse medical events is a protoscience because it relies on uncorroborated data and unsystematic methods.