The purpose of the theoretical level of scientific knowledge is. Methods of the theoretical level of scientific knowledge

Actually theoretical methods scientific knowledge

General logical methods

"Scientific Hypothesis"

always comes out

beyond the facts

which served as the basis

to build it"

V.I.Vernadsky

The actual theoretical methods of scientific knowledge include axiomatic, hypothetical and formalization. There are also methods that are used both at the empirical and theoretical levels of scientific knowledge, these are: general logical methods (analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction, analogy), modeling, classification, abstraction, generalization, historical method.

1. Actually theoretical methods of scientific knowledge

Axiomatic Method - a method of research, which consists in the fact that some statements (axioms, postulates) are accepted without evidence and then, according to certain logical rules, the rest of the knowledge is derived from them.

Hypothetical method - a method of research using a scientific hypothesis, i.e. assumptions about the cause that causes a given effect, or about the existence of some phenomenon or object.

A variation of this method is hypothetical-deductive a method of research, the essence of which is to create a system of deductively interconnected hypotheses from which statements about empirical facts are derived.

Into the structure of the hypothetical deductive method includes:

1) putting forward a guess (assumption) about the causes and patterns of the studied phenomena and objects;

2) selection from a set of guesses of the most probable, plausible;

3) derivation from the selected assumption (premises) of the investigation (conclusion) using deduction;

4) experimental verification of the consequences derived from the hypothesis.

Formalization - displaying a phenomenon or object in the symbolic form of some artificial language (logic, mathematics, chemistry) and studying this phenomenon or object through operations with the corresponding signs. The use of an artificial formalized language in scientific research makes it possible to eliminate such shortcomings of a natural language as ambiguity, inaccuracy, and uncertainty. When formalizing, instead of reasoning about the objects of research, they operate with signs (formulas). Through operations with artificial language formulas, one can obtain new formulas, prove the truth of any proposition. Formalization is the basis for algorithmization and programming, without which the computerization of knowledge and the research process cannot do.

General logical methods

General logical methods are analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction and analogy.

Analysis - this is a dismemberment, decomposition of the object of study into its component parts. Varieties of analysis are classification and periodization. The method of analysis is used both in real and mental activity.

Synthesis - this is a combination of individual aspects, parts of the object of study into a single whole. The result of synthesis is a completely new formation, the properties of which are the result of their internal interconnection and interdependence.

Induction - the process of deriving a general position from the observation of a number of particular facts, i.e. knowledge from the particular to the general. In practice, incomplete induction is most often used, which involves a conclusion about all the objects of the set based on knowledge of only a part of the object. Incomplete induction based on experimental research and including theoretical justification is called scientific induction. The conclusions of such induction are often probabilistic. With a strict formulation of the experiment, logical sequence and rigor of conclusions, it is able to give a reliable conclusion.

Deduction - the process of analytical reasoning from the general to the particular or less general (knowledge from the general to the particular). It is closely related to generalization. If the initial general propositions are an established scientific truth, then the true conclusion will always be obtained by the method of deduction. Especially great importance the deductive method has in mathematical analysis. Mathematicians operate with mathematical abstractions and base their reasoning on general provisions. These general provisions apply to solving particular, specific problems.

In the history of science there have been attempts to absolutize the significance of the inductive method (F. Bacon) or the deductive method (R. Descartes) in science, to give them a universal meaning. But these methods cannot be used as separate, isolated from each other, each of them is used at a certain stage of the process of cognition.

Analogy - a probable, plausible conclusion about the similarity of two objects or phenomena in any feature, based on their established similarity in other features. An analogy with a simple phenomenon allows us to understand a more complex one. Analogy forms the basis of modeling.

Methods of theoretical and empirical levels of scientific knowledge

In addition to general logical methods, modeling, classification, abstraction, generalization, and the historical method are also used at the theoretical and empirical levels of scientific knowledge.

Modeling at the theoretical level of scientific knowledge is divided into: heuristic and sign. Mathematical modeling is the most important kind of sign modeling.

heuristic modeling is based on general ideas and considerations about real phenomena without the use of strictly fixed mathematical or other sign systems. Such an analysis is inherent in any research at its initial stage. Heuristic models are used in the study of complex systems for which it is difficult to build a mathematical model. In these cases, the researcher comes to the aid of intuition, accumulated experience, the ability to formulate certain steps of the algorithm for solving problems. In computational terms, complex algorithms are replaced by simplified ones without any evidence, based on subconscious decisions. Heuristic models are often referred to as event scenarios. They require a multi-stage approach: collection of missing information, multiple corrections of the results.

At the core iconic modeling is the study of phenomena with the help of sign formations of various nature: diagrams, graphs, drawings, formulas, graphs, mathematical equations, logical relationships, written in symbols of natural or artificial languages. The most important form of sign modeling is mathematical, which is usually understood as a system of equations describing the course of the process under study.

Mathematical model is a mathematical abstraction that characterizes a biological, physical, chemical, or some other process. Mathematical models with different physical nature are based on the identity of the mathematical description of the processes occurring in them and in the original.

Math modeling– a method for studying complex processes based on a broad physical analogy, when the model and its original are described by identical equations. A characteristic feature and advantage of this method is the ability to apply it to individual sections of a complex system, as well as to quantitatively study phenomena that are difficult to study on physical models.

Mathematical modeling assumes the presence of a complete picture of knowledge about the physical nature of the phenomenon under study. This picture is refined on the basis of specially designed experiments to a degree that makes it possible to capture the most important characteristic properties of the phenomena. Mathematical modeling is inextricably linked with the use of a special mathematical apparatus for solving problems. Exist analytical ways of solving to obtain the patterns under study in an explicit form, numerical– to obtain quantitative results when setting specific values initial data, quality– to find individual properties of the solution. Mathematical modeling can be conditionally divided into three stages:

1. algorithm

   program.

Classification - the distribution of certain objects by classes (departments, categories) depending on their common features, fixing regular connections between classes of objects in a single system of a particular branch of knowledge. The formation of each science is associated with the creation of classifications of the studied objects, phenomena.

Classification is the process of organizing information. In the process of studying new objects, in relation to each such object, a conclusion is made: does it belong to the already established classification groups. In some cases, this reveals the need to restructure the classification system. There is a special classification theory - taxonomy. It considers the principles of classification and systematization of complexly organized areas of reality, which usually have a hierarchical structure. One of the first classifications in biology was the classification of flora and fauna.

abstraction - mental abstraction from some properties and relations of the subject under study and the selection of properties and relations of interest to the researcher. Usually, when abstracting, the secondary properties and relationships of the object under study are separated from the essential properties and relationships. There are two types of abstraction:

identification abstraction- the result of highlighting the common properties and relations of the objects under study, establishing the identical in them, abstracting from the differences between them, combining objects into a special class;

isolating abstraction- the result of highlighting some properties and relationships that are considered as independent subjects of study.

In theory, two more types of abstraction are distinguished: potential feasibility and actual infinity.

Generalization - the establishment of general properties and relations of objects and phenomena, the definition of a general concept, which reflects the essential, basic features of objects or phenomena of a given class. At the same time, generalization can be expressed in the selection of insignificant, but any signs of an object or phenomenon. This method of scientific research is based on philosophical categories general, special and singular.

historical method consists in revealing historical facts and, on this basis, in such a mental reconstruction of the historical process, in which the logic of its movement is revealed. The logical method is, in fact, the logical reproduction of the history of the object under study. Wherein history is freed from everything accidental, unimportant, i.e. it is the same historical method, but freed from its historical form.

24. Methods of the theoretical level of scientific knowledge.

Theoretical level scientific knowledge is characterized by the predominance of the rational moment - concepts, theories, laws and other forms of thinking and "mental operations". Living contemplation, sensory cognition is not eliminated here, but becomes a subordinate (but very important) aspect of the cognitive process. Theoretical knowledge reflects phenomena and processes from the point of view of their universal internal connections and patterns, comprehended by rational processing of empirical knowledge data.

A characteristic feature of theoretical knowledge is its focus on itself, intrascientific reflection, i.e., the study of the process of cognition itself, its forms, techniques, methods, conceptual apparatus, etc. On the basis of a theoretical explanation and learned laws, prediction, scientific prediction of the future is carried out.

1. Formalization - displaying meaningful knowledge in a sign-symbolic form (formalized language). When formalizing, reasoning about objects is transferred to the plane of operating with signs (formulas), which is associated with the construction of artificial languages ​​(the language of mathematics, logic, chemistry, etc.).

It is the use of special symbols that makes it possible to eliminate the ambiguity of words in ordinary, natural language. In formalized reasoning, each symbol is strictly unambiguous.

Formalization, therefore, is a generalization of the forms of processes that differ in content, the abstraction of these forms from their content. It clarifies the content by identifying its form and can be carried out with varying degrees of completeness. But, as the Austrian logician and mathematician Godel showed, in a theory there always remains an unrevealed, non-formalizable remainder. The ever deeper formalization of the content of knowledge will never reach absolute completeness. This means that formalization is internally limited in its capabilities. It is proved that there is no general method that allows any reasoning to be replaced by a calculation. Gödel's theorems gave a fairly rigorous substantiation of the fundamental impossibility of complete formalization of scientific reasoning and scientific knowledge in general.

2. Axiomatic method - construction method scientific theory, in which it is based on some initial provisions - axioms (postulates), from which all other statements of this theory are derived from them in a purely logical way, ü through proof.

3. Hypothetical-deductive method - method of scientific knowledge, the essence of which is to create a system of deductively interconnected hypotheses, from which statements about empirical facts are ultimately derived. The conclusion obtained on the basis of this method will inevitably have a probabilistic character.

The general structure of the hypothetical-deductive method:

a) familiarization with factual material that requires a theoretical explanation and an attempt to do so with the help of already existing theories and laws. If not, then:

b) putting forward guesses (hypotheses, assumptions) about the causes and patterns of these phenomena using a variety of logical techniques;

c) an assessment of the solidity and seriousness of the assumptions and the selection of the most probable from the set of them;

d) deduction from the hypothesis (usually by deductive means) of consequences with specification of its content;

e) experimental verification of the consequences derived from the hypothesis. Here the hypothesis either receives experimental confirmation or is refuted. However, the confirmation of individual consequences does not guarantee its truth (or falsity) as a whole. The hypothesis that is best based on the test results goes into theory.

4. Climbing from the abstract to the concrete - method of theoretical research and presentation, consisting in the movement of scientific thought from the original abstraction through successive stages of deepening and expanding knowledge to the result - a holistic reproduction of the theory of the subject under study. As its prerequisite, this method includes the ascent from the sensory-concrete to the abstract, to the allocation in thinking of individual aspects of the subject and their "fixing" in the appropriate abstract definitions. The movement of cognition from the sensory-concrete to the abstract is precisely the movement from the individual to the general; such logical methods as analysis and induction prevail here. The ascent from the abstract to the mental-concrete is the process of moving from individual general abstractions to their unity, the concrete-universal; the methods of synthesis and deduction dominate here.

The essence of theoretical knowledge is not only the description and explanation of the variety of facts and patterns identified in the process of empirical research in a particular subject area, based on a small number of laws and principles, it is also expressed in the desire of scientists to reveal the harmony of the universe.

Theories can be stated in the most different ways. Not infrequently we encounter the tendency of scientists to build theories axiomatically, which imitates the pattern of organization of knowledge created in geometry by Euclid. However, most often theories are stated genetically, gradually introducing into the subject and revealing it sequentially from the simplest to more and more complex aspects.

Regardless of the accepted form of presentation of the theory, its content, of course, is determined by the basic principles that underlie it.

Theories do not appear as direct generalizations of empirical facts.

As A. Einstein wrote, "no logical path leads from observations to the basic principles of the theory." They arise in the complex interaction of theoretical thinking and empirical knowledge reality, as a result of the resolution of internal, purely theoretical problems, the interaction of science and culture in general.

Religious, artistic, and also scientific. The first three forms are considered as extra-scientific, and although scientific knowledge has grown out of the everyday, ordinary, it differs significantly from all extra-scientific forms. has its own structure, in which two levels are distinguished: empirical and theoretical. Throughout the 17th-18th centuries, science was predominantly at the empirical stage, and it was only in the 19th century that they began to talk about the theoretical. Methods of theoretical knowledge, which were understood as methods of a comprehensive study of reality in its essential laws and relationships, began to gradually build on empirical ones. But even despite this, the studies were in close interaction, thus suggesting an integral structure of scientific knowledge. In this regard, even general scientific methods of theoretical cognition appeared, which were equally characteristic of the empirical method of cognition. At the same time, some methods of empirical knowledge were also used by the theoretical stage.

Basic scientific methods of the theoretical level of knowledge

Abstraction is a method that boils down to abstraction from any properties of an object during cognition in order to study in more depth one side of it. Abstraction in the final result should develop abstract concepts that characterize objects from different angles.

Analogy is a mental conclusion about the similarity of objects, which is expressed in a certain relation, based on their similarity in slightly different respects.

Modeling is a method based on the principle of similarity. Its essence is that not the object itself is subjected to research, but its analogue (substitute, model), after which the data obtained are transferred according to certain rules to the object itself.

Idealization is the mental construction (construction) of theories about objects, concepts that do not actually exist in reality and cannot be embodied in it, but those for which in reality there is an analogue or close prototype.

Analysis is a method of dividing one whole into parts in order to know each part separately.

Synthesis is a procedure opposite to analysis, which consists in combining individual elements into one system for the purpose of further knowledge.

Induction is a method in which the final conclusion is drawn from knowledge obtained to a lesser degree of generality. Simply put, induction is the movement from the particular to the general.

Deduction is the opposite method of induction, which has a theoretical focus.

Formalization is a method of displaying meaningful knowledge in the form of signs and symbols. The basis of formalization is the distinction between artificial and natural languages.

All these methods of theoretical cognition, to one degree or another, can also be inherent in empirical cognition. Historical and theoretical knowledge - is also no exception. The historical method is a reproduction in detail of the history of an object. It is especially widely used in historical sciences, where the specificity of events is of great importance. The logical method also reproduces history, but only in the main, main and essential, without paying attention to those events and facts that are caused by random circumstances.

These are not all methods of theoretical knowledge. Generally speaking, in scientific knowledge, all methods can manifest themselves simultaneously, being in close interaction with each other. The specific use of individual methods is determined by the level of scientific knowledge, as well as the characteristics of the object, process.

As mentioned above, the theoretical level of science is qualitatively different from the empirical one. First of all, there is no direct the interaction of the researcher with the objects of the real world. The objects of theoretical knowledge are abstraction. Theoretical knowledge explores the symbolic or familiar

voe field of scientific thinking. A significant difference between the objects of theoretical knowledge is their idealized character. These are the results marginal kind of abstractization (distraction) from the properties of real objects. The resulting products may be those that do not exist and, in principle, cannot exist in reality. In nature, there are no ideal gases, material points, absolutely solid bodies. A “material point” is a body that has mass, but lacks extension. An “absolutely rigid body” never, under any circumstances, changes its shape. Despite the fact that such bodies do not exist, and the corresponding concepts demonstrate a “fly away” rather than a “fly away” from reality, science successfully operates with them, formulating laws, building high-level theories.

The fact is that these idealized objects are not completely subjective fantasy. Under certain circumstances, they can be interpreted in terms of real objects. One of the reasons for this is the adequate execution of the abstraction procedure. This includes the highly professional use of scientific language, which accurately expresses the correlation of general, specific and singular terms. An important condition for the functional fruitfulness of idealized objects is their relationships, connections, consistency. In the process of systematization, idealized objects form certain concrete logical images, reproducing reality in main features, in the main development trends. At a given level of thinking, it can form arbitrarily voluminous systems of knowledge, up to scientific picture peace.

To the theoretical methods scientific knowledge should be attributed abstraction and its types idealization, induction, deduction formalization, axiomatic method, hypothetical-deductive method etc.

abstraction(lat. abstrahere - to distract) - the selection of essential features, sides, properties, connections of an object from insignificant, random. In the process of abstraction, a mental image is created in which the totality of the essential aspects of a phenomenon or process is reproduced. Abstract image has perfect content and a certain symbolic form. It doesn't match with specific phenomena and does not oppose them. Their relationship can be expressed through the categories of abstract and concrete, essence and phenomenon, content and form. With the help of a grid of these categories, it is possible to philosophically determine the differences between the sensory image (the image of perception) and the rational (logical image), scientific and artistic

natural, empirical (abstract image, for example, view animals) and theoretical (image concrete universality - theory of relativity or scientific picture of the world). The theoretical concrete is already an image created by reflection on the abstract. It is a form of our thoughts, in which the essential connections of reality, its laws and development trends are expressed.

The result of abstraction is abstraction. “Methods for the formation of abstraction (for example, a general concept) and methods of abstraction, abstraction, can be very different. It all depends on what real objects one has to deal with and what specific goal is set for abstraction. If it is required to form a general concept of a certain class of objects, then in this case the abstraction of identification is usually used, when one mentally abstracts from dissimilar, differing features of objects of this class, at the same time select common features, inherent in all objects, and such common features that distinguish this class from all other classes. This method of abstraction is called, therefore, the abstraction of identification, because in the course of abstraction, the identity of objects of this class is established according to common features. Sometimes this kind of abstraction is called generalized abstraction.” 47

There are many abstractions, different both in form and in content. Abstraction can act in the form of a sensual image, concept, judgment, category. IN modern science the abstraction of many concepts deepens. They act as abstractions from abstractions of a higher order. New concepts, logical models appear: “formal neutron”, “formal neural network”, “black box” - in cybernetic modeling; “vacuum bag”, “string” model, explaining the impossibility of knocking out a free quark from a hadron. A quark attribute - “color” was introduced (hence one of the major physical achievements of the second half of the 20th century - chromodynamics). Thus, the “string model”, which is a pair of quarks (they are called sea quarks), which have tension that keeps them in the “bowels” of hadrons, was created by scientists at Moscow State University and used recently to describe the properties of such a complex natural phenomenon as extensive air showers in cosmic rays.

Scientific abstractions ultimately reflect reality, and their criterion is practice. So, F. Engels wrote: “Marx reduces the general content that lies in things and relations to his most generalized mentality.

lazy expression. Its abstraction, therefore, only reflects in the form of thought the content that is already contained in 9 things. 48

The most frequently used abstractions (isolating or analytical, abstraction of identification, abstraction of potential feasibility) perform the functions of a method of theoretical knowledge. Isolating abstraction - is a kind of abstraction in which the properties denoted by a specific name (for example, heat capacity, immobility) are abstracted from other objects and properties with which given name inextricably linked. As a result of isolating abstraction, abstract general concepts, representing units of the scientific language, with the help of which analytical and other operations of thinking are carried out.

Identification abstraction - its kind, where there is a distraction from differences in objects and their properties and focuses on similarity. As a result, there is a possibility whole line objects to represent as one and the same object. This kind of abstraction produces are common concepts that form the basis generalizations objects and their properties.

Abstractions that are often used in logic and mathematics are of interest - abstraction of actual infinity And abstraction of potential infinity. The first is a distraction from the incompleteness of processes formation of any constructive set. It is believed that the object completed, because it exists and all the basic parameters are set for it. For example, the given object is the set of real numbers between 0 and 1. This set is actually infinite, despite the fact that it has a “beginning” and an “end”. The meaning of infinity here lies in the fact that the end of the recalculation is not set, and the relevance is expressed in the fact that all numbers are given simultaneously. The abstraction of potential infinity is a logical-mathematical method that proceeds from the assumption of the potential feasibility of constructive processes. Examples of its application are the assumptions that one can be added to any natural number, that, no matter how large these numbers are, they can be added. The need to use this method is realized in computational mathematics, computer science, cybernetics.

Idealization has already been discussed above in connection with the peculiarities of the object of theoretical knowledge. This is the ultimate type of abstraction, abstraction, as a result of which concepts are formed, the content of which does not include the essential features of the displayed objects. An analogue of these concepts in real world

may not exist at all. However, such concepts play an important methodological and prognostic role in science. They are widely used in methods formalization. Formalization is the process of constructing abstract mathematical models that reveal the essence of the phenomena of reality. It involves the use of special symbols. Instead of a real object - symbols, signs. It is necessary to know the alphabet, the rules for obtaining formulas, the rules of “inference”. WITH mid-nineteenth century, mathematical logic began to be used here.

Axiomatic Method is the construction of theories on the basis of axioms. An axiom, as you know, is a self-evident truth that does not require proof. Its functional significance in scientific knowledge is expressed in the fact that it acts as a starting, initial position underlying the evidence of other provisions (theorems) of a scientific theory, within which it is accepted without proof. The beginning of the axiomatic method is associated with Euclid. Based on the axiom, a logical conclusion is made, the truth is transferred from the axiom to the consequences. Euclid's "beginnings" are meaningful axiomatics. Here the “rules” have not yet been fixed, since they are also obvious. Then there was a transition to formal axiomatics, and then to formalized mathematics. Axioms are considered as primary concepts. And the means is mathematical logic. The axiomatic system is built as a special formalized language, calculus. Great success has spawned the idea of development scientific knowledge through purely formal means. However, in the 30s of the XX century. K. Gödel proved the limitations of developed formal systems. There are limits to the applicability of the axiomatic method.

Hypothetical-deductive method is used in the creation of a system of deductively interconnected hypotheses from which statements about empirical facts are derived. “Hypothesis, translated from Greek - basis, assumption, - 1) a reasonable (incompletely) assumption about the causes of the phenomenon, about unobservable connections between phenomena, etc., 2) the process of cognition, which consists in making an assumption, its justification (incomplete ) and proof or refutation”. 49 An assumption may be made on the basis analogy or incomplete induction. However, in this way, as a rule, it is difficult to make any justification, so such an assumption cannot yet be called a scientific hypothesis. In order for an assumption to be considered a hypothesis, it is necessary, on the basis of this idea, explain existing facts, make a forecast, explain new facts.

A hypothesis as an instrument of scientific knowledge must satisfy a number of regulatory requirements. The idea put forward should not contradict the fundamental principles of science. Nevertheless, in a certain sense, such contradictions (if they are resolved) can give rise not just to a new theory, but to a whole scientific direction. For example, the idea of ​​intuitionistic mathematics, which is based on the concept of potential infinity, was and is in conflict with the axiomatic method that mathematics has been using since ancient times. But this applies more to fundamental ideas, the proof of which is an extremely difficult task. And both the formation of a hypothesis and its verification sometimes take a long time. historical time. Such ideas that require a qualitative restructuring of any major theory or physical (cosmic) picture of the world include the “idea of ​​relativity” (wandering in the minds of scientists for three hundred years: G. Galileo, E. Mach, A. Poincaré, A. Einstein ), “wave theory of light” (X. Huygens, Louis de Broglie), “the idea of ​​gene divisibility” (N. P. Dubinin), etc.

When in question about the development of science in an evolutionary mode, the requirement consistency hypothesis is the norm.

An important requirement for the proposed assumption, which can later be considered as a scientific hypothesis, is its verifiability. Distinguish practical verifiability and fundamental. In the first case, it is possible to practically test the assumption and accept it as a hypothesis. For example, the idea of ​​"gene divisibility" was unrecognized for ten years. But it turned out to be quite verifiable during the life of a scientist. In the second case, the possibility of verification exists in principle. It could happen at any time, maybe in the distant future. As mentioned above, conjectures of fundamental importance sometimes cannot be verified for centuries and even millennia. For example, the idea of ​​heliocentrism was expressed by the well-known astronomer of antiquity Eratosthenes (II century BC). After 18 centuries, this idea in N. Copernicus acquired the status of a hypothesis. And then in " heavenly laws” by I. Kepler and with the help of the telescopes of G. Galileo and I. Newton, it became a scientific fact. If an idea cannot in principle be proven or disproven, it cannot be interpreted as a scientific hypothesis.

put forward new idea should cover as many facts as possible. Otherwise, it makes no sense. The wider the area of ​​application, the greater the possible significance of the conjectural idea. This regulation is called the principle of simplicity. It consists in the absence of facts (in the field of application

ideas) that she could not explain. Based on this principle, it is possible to compare hypothetical ideas and choose the simplest one among them.

Satisfaction of the listed regulatory requirements corresponds to the recognition of a new idea as a scientific hypothesis. The recognized hypothetical ideas are of a different nature. They, like all scientific knowledge, can be represented by goals and levels. Eat factual hypotheses, the purpose of which is, on the basis of the accepted assumption, to foresee, discover any new objects, phenomena, processes. Here, the classic example is often cited with the discovery of the planet Neptune based on the assumption of the cause of the gravitational perturbation that changes the trajectory of the planet Uranus. The hypothesis is thus proven.

Another kind of hypothesis differs in purpose build a theory suggesting certain patterns. Such a hypothesis is called theoretical. Constructed deductively, a hypothetical theory can be considered proven if it can be used to explain many heterogeneous facts, including the prediction and discovery of new facts and phenomena. This makes the hypothesis stable and reliable. It can function proven (not fully) enough long time until a new, more efficient theoretical system appears.

A theory built using the hypothetico-deductive method may not need to be tested for some time. But there are situations when the core of the design must be revised. As a rule, there are several competing theories that have different foundations and research patterns. The one that describes the most facts and shows the ability to predict wins.

Thus, we have analyzed the general scientific and “level” methods of cognition, which allow modern science to develop very intensively. The evolution of science has its own logic. The nature of the development of scientific knowledge at different levels has its own characteristics.

Empirical knowledge is characterized by a cumulative character. A negative result is included in the general information box and contributes to the development of science. The theoretical level has a spasmodic character, and each new theory represents a qualitative transformation of the knowledge system. The most common now is the so-called paradigm concept of scientific knowledge, put forward and developed by T. Kuhn. It has already been mentioned above. Paradigm - the main research

body installation based on a number of principles and component sample research, including methods, technology, instrumental and material security, is a structural unit of scientific knowledge. This unit is a higher level of generalization than a separate theory. An even higher structural formation is the scientific picture of the world, which combines the most significant scientific ideas of the era. It includes as a basis a number of fundamental principles (basic provisions) expressing the unity of the diverse world.

It makes sense to talk about three historically specific pictures of the world: the essential pre-scientific, mechanistic and evolutionary, in which science is seen as a complex, open system.

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Another name for this law is the law of negation of negation. He concretizes the basic principles of dialectics - the principle of universal connection and the principle of development. In it, development appears as a struggle against

Law of negation of negation
The double negation expressing this law is interpreted in different ways. True, no one objects that this is a process formula representing a "chain" of negations. However, this "chain" is rich in content, it

General concept of a person
Man in the system of philosophical worldviews. The topic “man” is so vast that the whole complex of scientific knowledge that “fell down” on its development cannot be recognized in any way.

Anthroposociogenesis
General idea of ​​occurrence Homo sapiens based on work activity. The expediency of labor is the main sign of a reasonable person. Basic Provisions

Natural and social in man
Anthroposociogenesis is a process in which biological and social laws acted. By the time the rise of Homo sapiens is ascertained, the ratio of these regularities

Biologizing and sociological approaches to man
Man as a biosocial being is a unity in which social qualities are leading and determining. The emergence of the social not only reveals the genesis connection of biological

Man as a unity of individual and social
The problem of the relationship between the biological and the social arose at the very beginning of anthroposociogenesis. The definition of human nature, the identification of the source, the basis of his human qualities depended on her decision.

Man as the unity of the ideal and the material
Thus, alienation is the rupture of the initially given connection between the individual and the social, as well as the awareness of this rupture. But in its original givenness, this connection is not at all conscious.

The evolution of ideas about consciousness
Consciousness is one of the basic concepts of philosophy, denoting the generic difference between a person and an animal. Concepts of consciousness have undergone a long evolution. In the early stages of the development of filo

The concept of consciousness
Like most philosophical categories, it is defined through correlation with other categories that have universality and point to opposite properties and connections of the objective world.

Structure of consciousness and forms of its manifestation
Informational and evaluative aspects of consciousness. Consciousness includes two sides: information-reflective and emotional-evaluative. Information-reflective side

Consciousness as self-consciousness
Self-consciousness, like consciousness, is the highest form of reflection of reality, which arose as a property of the brain on the basis of human social practice. The vast majority of researchers

Consciousness and the unconscious
The term "unconscious" is used to refer to the layer of the psyche that is not represented to consciousness. Perhaps the first of the philosophers who paid special attention to the phenomenon of the unconscious was G. Leibn

Self-awareness and reflection
"Reflection" is a frequently used term, in a broad sense, practically coinciding with the term "self-consciousness". The difference lies in the fact that the concept of self-consciousness is used to denote with

Features of the philosophy of knowledge
Successful study of individual aspects of the process of cognition and individual elements of knowledge is impossible without studying the patterns of development of cognition as a whole. In turn, the properties and regularities

The problem of the cognizability of the world
Gnoseology cannot claim to solve its problems without giving an answer to main question- about the fundamental cognizability of the world. Already in antiquity, as soon as epistemological questions arose (sophie

Subject and object of knowledge
The subject and object of knowledge are the main elements of the structure of the cognitive process. The subject is understood to be an individual or a community of individuals who have a certain level of knowledge and carry out

Sensory and logical knowledge
Historically, human cognition was preceded by the mental activity of animals, which was the simplest cognition in the broad sense of the word, as it is characterized by I.P. Pavlov:

Relative independence of logical cognition in relation to sensory reflection
In genetic terms, logical knowledge is a negation of sensory reflection. According to the just remark of Hegel: “...Thinking is essentially the negation of the immediately given

Relative independence of logical knowledge in relation to practice
Considering the relative independence of logical knowledge in relation to practice became possible only after the category of practice was introduced into epistemology. metaphysical matter

Practice is the determining factor of logical knowledge. The nature of concepts
The real basis of knowledge was shown and successively introduced into the theory of knowledge by K. Marx and F. Engels. They directly connected the development of consciousness with labor activity, while the leading role

Creativity, conscious and unconscious, intuition
Creativity is a characteristic of the cognitive process in terms of its non-standard conditions, means and productivity of solving emerging problems. The main sign of creativity is birth

Truth and its criteria
Definition. The problem of truth is the main one in the theory of knowledge and one of the main ones in human life in general, because if a person orients himself in life, not paying attention to

Logical and historical
Before presenting a brief outline of the history of science, let us define an approach in which this can be done. The history of science, like any history, has accumulated so much extremely important information in its “life” that

ancient science
Ancient science (from the 6th century BC) functions within the framework of natural philosophy. Along with general philosophical problems (the diversity and unity of the world, its foundations, the relationship between the ideal and the material),

Scientific revolution of the 17th century. Problems of method, structure of scientific knowledge. Scientific picture of the world
occupies a special place in the history of science scientific revolution 17th century This revolution began with N. Copernicus (in 1543 his work “On the Revolution of the Heavenly Circles” was published, where new views were set forth

Dialectization of natural science
During the XVIII-XIX centuries. there is a need to understand the relationship between different physical properties and processes, as well as their evolution. So, M. V. Lomonosov, and then A. Lavoisier formulated about

Revolution and crisis in physics at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. Methodological interpretation
IN late XIX At the beginning of the 20th century, discoveries were made that gave rise to a real crisis in theoretical natural science and its methodology. The next scientific revolution has taken place. worldview

Scientific Affairs in the Mirror of Western Philosophy of Science
The discoveries and principles listed above, which are the features of the new scientific picture of the world, did not resolve, if not deepen, the ideological and methodological crisis of science and philosophy. Philosophical Kli

Philosophical Foundations of Epistemology
The philosophical foundations of scientific knowledge include, first of all, the basic universal principles that unite ontology, epistemology and methodology. This is the principle of objectivity, universal connection,

Methodology and methods. General concept
Brief historical sketch development of science and scientific knowledge allows us to conclude that science has always been focused on identifying the objective laws of reality with the aim

General logical methods of cognition
The main general logical methods of cognition include induction and deduction, analysis and synthesis. Induction (lat. inductio - guidance) is logical form thinking, cat

Nature in the natural sciences and the humanities
The concept of “nature” In the first part of the book, the word “nature” was used often, but not as a separate specific term, but replacing the concepts of “objective reality”, “matter”

Nature as an object of natural and human sciences
The philosophical approach to solving these problems is deeply historical. As history testifies, the phenomenon of natural nature as a specific object of knowledge and action, which differs from reality

The theoretical level is a higher level in scientific knowledge. “The theoretical level of knowledge is aimed at the formation of theoretical laws that meet the requirements of universality and necessity, i.e. work everywhere and all the time." The results of theoretical knowledge are hypotheses, theories, laws.

Theoretical knowledge reflects phenomena and processes from the point of view of their universal internal connections and patterns, comprehended by rational processing of empirical knowledge data.

Task: achievement of objective truth in all its concreteness and completeness of content.

Characteristic signs:

• the predominance of the rational moment - concepts, theories, laws, and other forms of thinking
• sensory cognition is a subordinate aspect
• focus on oneself (the study of the process of cognition itself, its forms, techniques, conceptual apparatus).

Methods: allow you to make a logical study of the collected facts, develop concepts and judgments, and draw conclusions.

• 1. Abstraction - abstraction from a number of properties and relations of less significant objects, while highlighting more significant ones, this is a simplification of reality.
• 2. Idealization - the process of creating purely mental objects, making changes to the object under study in accordance with the objectives of the study (ideal gas).
• 3. Formalization - displaying the results of thinking in precise terms or statements.
• 4. Axiomatization - based on axioms (Euclid's axioms).
• 5. Deduction - the movement of knowledge from the general to the particular, the ascent from the abstract to the concrete.
• 6. Hypothetical-deductive - derivation (deduction) of conclusions from hypotheses, the true values ​​of which are unknown. Knowledge is probabilistic. Includes the relationship between hypotheses and facts.
• 7. Analysis - the decomposition of the whole into its component parts.
• 8. Synthesis - combining the results of the analysis of elements into a system.
• 9. Mathematical modeling - real system is replaced by an abstract system (a mathematical model consisting of a set of mathematical objects) with the same relationships, the problem becomes purely mathematical.
• 10. Reflection - scientific - research activities, considered in a broad cultural and historical context, includes 2 levels - objective (activity is aimed at cognition of a specific set of phenomena) and reflexive (cognition refers to itself)

Structural components of theoretical knowledge: problem (a question requiring an answer), hypothesis (an assumption put forward on the basis of a number of facts and requiring verification), theory (the most complex and developed form of scientific knowledge, gives a holistic explanation of the phenomena of reality). Theory generation is the ultimate goal of research.

The quintessence of theory is law. It expresses the essential, deep connections of the object. The formulation of laws is one of the main tasks of science.

With all the differences, the empirical and theoretical levels of scientific knowledge are connected. Empirical research, revealing new data with the help of experiments and observations, stimulates theoretical knowledge (which generalizes and explains them, sets new, more complex tasks for them). On the other side, theoretical knowledge Developing and concretizing on the basis of empiricism a new content of its own, it opens up new broader horizons for empirical knowledge, orients and directs it in search of new facts, and contributes to the improvement of its methods and means.