The origin and development of gerontics together with its aim to understand the patterns for aging determine that gerontics is a cross disciplinary subject which embraces natural sciences, social sciences, philosophy and the humanities. 老年学的产生和发展过程以及老年学要认识人类个体和群体老龄化规律的目的,决定了老年学是一门包括自然科学、社会科学、哲学和人文科学在内的交叉学科(CDS)。