English-Chinese/Formal sciences are language tools

Whereas the natural sciences and social sciences seek to characterize physical systems and social systems, respectively, using empirical methods, the formal sciences are language tools concerned with characterizing abstract structures described by sign systems.

尽管自然科学和社会科学分别使用经验方法来寻求物理系统和社会系统的特征，但形式科学是与标志系统描述的抽象结构特征有关的语言工具.