In 1844, Engels, in a work entitled >u>Outline of a Critique of Political Economy>/u>, expressed the idea that became one of the basic pivots in the study of science that originated in the second half of the 20th century: "Science progresses in proportion to the mass of knowledge it inherits from the preceding generation and, accordingly, under the most ordinary conditions, it also grows in geometric progression." (>u>1>/u>) Thirty years later, in >u>Dialectics of Nature>/u>, he returned to this idea and refined it as follows: "Since that time (alluding to the beginning of the liberation of natural science from the fetters of theology in the late 16th and early 17th centuries - L. G.), the development of the sciences has also made gigantic strides. If it is fitting to so express it, this development has been proportionate to the square of the distance (in time) from its point of departure." (>u>2>/u>)
