What is the Meaning of: Auxiliary Sciences | Concept and Definition of: Auxiliary Sciences
An auxiliary science is that which serves as a support for another science so that it can achieve its purposes and objectives. These are the scientific disciplines that can complement a science in particular cases.
Although the term may refer to various sciences, the notion of ancillary sciences is closely linked to the history. Having said that, sometimes, the reference to auxiliary sciences refers explicitly to auxiliary sciences of history.
Archaeology, law and etymology are some auxiliary sciences that provide documentation or sources of analysis to historians. Most of the time, it's autonomous sciences that have their own methodologies, which makes the idea of not quite exact auxiliary science, reason why it has become virtually obsolete.
These auxiliary disciplines help historian to be able analyze/exploiting the documents or the remains and, thus, to know its historical origin, extract data and generate new information. The collaboration of experts (for example, an archaeologist) is crucial in many situations.
Many auxiliary sciences developed from the study of issues that vary over time (like the timeline), while others occurred following the comparison between realities or the different factors (such as the history of art or the history of the law).
It is noted that all the historical documents relating to a question is known under the name of historiography. That said, the historiography is the epistemology of history.