Define the concepts of science. What sciences are called exact. Russian science: history of origin

Science is one of the spheres of human activity, the function of which is the production and systematization of knowledge about nature, society and consciousness. N. includes activities for the production of knowledge. The term "N." It is also used to designate certain areas of scientific knowledge—physics, chemistry, biology, and so on. The prerequisites for the emergence of science are the social division of labor, the separation of mental labor from physical labor, and the transformation of cognitive activity into a specific occupation of an initially small but constantly growing group of people. Separate elements of scientific knowledge appeared in ancient China, India, Egypt, Babylon. However, the emergence of N. is attributed to the VI century. BC e., when the first theoretical systems appeared in ancient Greece, opposing religious and mythological ideas. Science became a special social institution in the 17th century, when the first scientific societies and academies arose in Europe and the first scientific journals began to appear. At the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. a new way of organizing N. arises - large scientific institutes and laboratories with a powerful technical base. If until the end of the XIX century. N. played a supporting role in relation to production, then in the 20th century. N.'s development begins to outpace the development of technology and production, and a single system of "N.-technique-production" is taking shape, in which N. plays a leading role. At present, science permeates all spheres of public life: scientific knowledge and methods are necessary in material production, in the economy, in politics, in the sphere of administration, and in the education system. N. has a revolutionary influence on all aspects of social life, being the driving force behind the scientific and technological revolution. The scientific disciplines that in their totality form the science of science as a whole are divided into three groups: natural science, social science, and technical science. There are no sharp boundaries between these groups. Many disciplines occupy an intermediate position between these groups or arise at their intersection. In addition, in recent decades, interdisciplinary and complex studies have received significant development, bringing together representatives of very distant disciplines and using the methods of different N. All this makes the problem of N.'s classification very complex. However, the above division of natural sciences is nevertheless useful in many respects, because it expresses an important difference between them in terms of the subject of study: natural natural phenomena and processes are studied, social natural phenomena study society and man, and technical natural phenomena. explore the features of artificial, man-made devices. According to their attitude to practice, N. and scientific research are usually divided into fundamental and applied. The main goals of fundamental sciences are knowledge of the essence of phenomena, the discovery of laws that govern the course of observed processes, and the discovery of deep structures that underlie empirical facts. In methodological research, fundamental science is usually understood as fundamental science. However, in recent decades, applied research has occupied an increasing place in science, the immediate purpose of which is to apply the results of fundamental science to solving technical, industrial, and social problems. It is clear that the development of fundamental sciences must outstrip the growth of applied research, preparing the necessary theoretical foundation for the latter. Attempts to develop a precise definition of science, scientific knowledge, scientific method, a definition that would allow separating science from other forms of social consciousness and activities - from art, philosophy, religion - were unsuccessful. And this is quite natural, because in the process of historical development the boundaries between science and non-science are constantly changing: what yesterday was non-science, today acquires the status of science; what we consider N. today may be discarded as pseudoscience tomorrow. However, some features of N., which distinguish it from other forms of social consciousness, can still be indicated. For example, N. differs from art in that it gives a reflection of reality not in images, but in abstractions, in concepts, strives for their logical systematization, gives a generalized description of phenomena, etc. Unlike philosophy, N. strives to discover new facts, to verify, confirm or refute his theories and laws, uses observation, measurement, experiment as methods of knowledge, etc. In relation to religion, N. differs in that he tries not to take a single position on faith and periodically returns to critical analysis of their foundations. Nevertheless, N., art and philosophy are united by a creative attitude to reality and its reflection, elements of scientific knowledge penetrate into art and philosophy, and in the same way, elements of art and philosophy are an indispensable component of scientific creativity. Various aspects of science have been studied by a number of special disciplines: the history of science, the logic of science, the sociology of science, the psychology of scientific creativity, and so on. a special area began to form, striving to combine all these disciplines into a comprehensive study of N. - science.

Definitions, meanings of the word in other dictionaries:

Philosophical Dictionary

A special response of man to the challenge of history, to the complication of the social world. It is aimed at obtaining subject knowledge, knowledge of things, processes as such, includes criticism of its own foundations and achievements, i.e. subject modality prevails in N.. N....

Philosophical Dictionary

One of the spheres of human activity, the function of which is the production and systematization of knowledge about nature, society and consciousness. N. includes activities for the production of knowledge. The term "N." is also used to refer to certain areas of scientific knowledge ...

Philosophical Dictionary

Philosophical Dictionary

A special type of cognitive activity aimed at developing objective, systematically organized and substantiated knowledge about the world. Interacts with other types of cognitive activity: everyday, artistic, religious, mythological, philosophical. comprehension of the world. How...

Philosophical Dictionary

A special type of cognitive activity aimed at developing objective, systematically organized and substantiated knowledge about the world. Interacts with other types of cognitive activity: everyday, artistic, religious, mythological, philosophical comprehension...

The emergence of science is closely connected with the natural process of the division of social labor, the growth of people's intellect, their desire to know the unknown, everything that exists, forms the basis of their existence. At the same time, science is one of the forms of social consciousness, it gives an objective picture of the world, a system of knowledge about the laws of development of nature and society.

Science is often defined as a field of research aimed at producing new knowledge. However, any production occurs when there is a need for it. What is the historical origin of science?

The origin of science is connected with the demands of the material practical life of people, the constant accumulation and separation of knowledge about various aspects of reality. One of the founders of the science of science, J. Bernal, noting that "it is essentially impossible to define science," outlines the ways in which one can come closer to understanding what science is (Fig. 2.3).

Rice. 2.3. Definition of the concept of "science" by J. Bernal

Now development is impossible without a scientific approach. The role of engineering labor is growing. The time has come when the efficiency of production is determined not by the amount of labor expended, but by the general level of scientific solution of specific production problems, the introduction of scientific achievements into practice.

In the studies of science by the famous Western philosopher E. Agazzi on the results of its influence on society and nature, it is indicated that science should be considered as follows (Fig. 2.4).

Rice. 2.4. Definition of the concept of "science" according to E. Agazzi

Definition

In a broad sense, science is a harmonious, logically consistent, historically developed system of human activity with the aim of obtaining new knowledge about the world, about the objective processes that exist in nature and society. Science operates with a system of concepts and categories that reflect theoretical positions and express essential connections between them and the laws of reality. From the ascertainment and precise description of individual facts, science must go to explaining their essence, determining their place in the general system, and revealing the laws contained in the basis of these facts.

In addition to the above, there are numerous definitions of the concept of "science", outlined by various scientists. The most interesting and meaningful are such definitions (Tables 2.2 and 2.3).

Table 2.2

Variants of the definition of the term "science"

Table 2.3

Definitions of the concept of "science" in dictionaries

Science as a specific type of activity aimed at obtaining new theoretical and applied knowledge about the patterns of development of nature, society and thinking and is characterized by the following main features:

The presence of systematized knowledge (ideas, theories, concepts, laws, principles, hypotheses, basic concepts, facts);

The presence of a scientific problem, object and subject of research;

The practical significance of the studied.

Being very multifaceted, science touches various spheres of social life in various ways. The main task of science is to identify the objective laws of reality, and its main goal is true knowledge (Fig. 2.5).

It follows that science must answer the question: What? How much? Why? Which? How? To the question: "How to do it?" corresponds to the methodology. To the question: "What to do?" corresponds to practice. The answers to these questions evoke the immediate goals of science - descriptions, explanations and predictions of the processes and phenomena of objective reality that are the subject of its study, on the basis of the laws that it discovers, that is, in a broad sense - the theoretical reproduction of reality.

Rice. 2.5. task of science

The criteria of scientific character, by which science differs from other forms of cognition, are (Fig. 2.6):

Rice. 2.6. scientific criteria

The object of reflection in science is nature and social life. In connection with this subject and method of cognition, all specific sciences are divided into the following types (Fig. 2.7).

Rice. 2.7. The division of sciences into types according to the subject and method of knowledge

Social Sciences(economic, philological, philosophical, logical, psychological. Historical, pedagogical, etc.) They study various aspects of social life, the laws of functioning and development of a social organism. their subject of study is the study of socio-economic, political and ideological patterns of development of social relations.

Natural Sciences(physics, chemistry, biology, geography, astrology, etc.) They study the regular properties and relationships (laws) of animate and inanimate nature; the subject of their study with different types of matter and forms of their movement, their relationship and patterns.

Technical science(radio engineering, mechanical engineering, aircraft building), are engaged in the study of not only the productive forces in a certain area of ​​the economy, but also industrial relations; the subject of study is the study of specific technical characteristics and their relationships.

In relation to practice, these types of science are distinguished (Fig. 2.8).

Rice. 2.8. The division of sciences into types in relation to practice

Basic sciences do not have a direct practical orientation and are not directly focused on obtaining practical benefits.

Applied Science are aimed at the direct practical use of scientific results.

Scientific and practical developments - this is a creative activity that is carried out on a systematic basis in order to increase the volume of scientific knowledge, including about man, nature and society, as well as the search for new areas of application of this knowledge.

The basis of the development of science, as well as other social phenomena, is material production, a natural change in the mode of production. 60

Mathematics and mechanics, biology and physics, and all technical sciences have grown, developed and flourished thanks to the development of productive forces, the growth of production needs, just like the social sciences - on the basis of changing conditions of social life and the inevitable tasks of transforming social relations into human ones.

Each scientific discovery, responding to the emerging demands of life, is simultaneously based on previously accumulated knowledge in a particular area. Science is a coherent system of laws and conclusions, has its own internal logic of development, special consistency and capriciousness. Individual thinkers, relying on all the achievements of science, can sometimes make such discoveries for the implementation of which the production and technical conditions are not yet ripe.

Science develops in close interaction with all other aspects and phenomena of society. Its development is influenced by political and legal relations in society.

In the methodology of science, the following functions of science are distinguished: description, explanation, prediction, understanding, knowledge, design, organization, education, knowledge, which are the subject of its study on the basis of the laws it discovers (Fig. 2.9).

Rice. 2.9. functions of science

There are different opinions of scientists regarding the functions of science.

With all the empiricism characteristic of I. Kant, he was not inclined to reduce science to a collection of single facts. He considered predictions to be the main function of science.

I. Kant wrote: "True positive thinking lies mainly in the ability to know in order to foresee, to study what is, and from here to conclude what should happen according to the general position of the immutability of natural laws."

E. Mach considered the description to be the only function of science: "Does the description give everything that a scientific researcher may require? I think so!" Mach essentially reduced explanation and prediction to description. Theories, from his point of view, are like compressed empiricism.

Science is characterized by cognitive and practical activities. In the first case, one can speak of science as an information system that systematizes previously accumulated knowledge, which serves as the basis for further knowledge of objective reality, and in the second case, it is about a system for implementing the identified patterns in practice.

Summarizing, we can say that the concept of science must be considered from two main positions (Fig. 2.10).

Rice. 2.10. Interpretation of science from two main positions

In the first case, science is considered as a system of already accumulated knowledge, as a form of social consciousness that meets the criteria of objectivity, adequacy and truth; in the second - as a certain type of social division of labor, as a scientific activity associated with a whole system of relations between scientists and external contractors. At the same time, science is understood as a special way of activity aimed at actually verified and logically ordered knowledge of objects and processes of the surrounding reality.

the sphere of human activity, the function of which is the development and theoretical systematization of objective knowledge about reality; one of the forms of social consciousness; includes both the activity of obtaining new knowledge and its result - the sum of knowledge underlying the scientific picture of the world. The immediate goals are the description, explanation and prediction of the processes and phenomena of reality that make up the subject of its study, on the basis of the laws it discovers. The system of sciences is conditionally divided into natural, social, humanitarian and technical sciences.

Great Definition

Incomplete definition ↓

THE SCIENCE

specialized activity to create a system of knowledge about nature, society and man, which makes it possible to adequately describe, explain natural or social processes and predict their development.

Scientific discourse is characterized by a claim to intersubjective significance (objectivity), consistency, logical evidence, the use of a specialized artificial language, and theoreticality. The accumulation of knowledge in ancient societies, despite the achievements of the Egyptian, Mesopotamian and other civilizations in the field of astronomy, mathematics, medicine, did not yet have a scientific character in the strict sense, since it did not go beyond pure experience and was only a collection of practical recommendations.

Science in the proper sense arose around the 6th century. BC e. among the ancient Greeks, who switched from a mythological consideration of the world to comprehending it in concepts. The experimental study of the world is supplemented by scientific methodology: the rules of logic are established, the concept of a hypothesis is introduced, etc.

In the Middle Ages, interest in experiential knowledge weakened, and the pursuit of science was mainly reduced to the development of formal logical methods (scholasticism) and the interpretation of authoritative texts, including the works of the largest ancient scientists (Aristotle, Euclid, Ptolemy, Pliny the Elder, Hippocrates and etc.), which made it possible to convey the foundations of ancient science to modern times.

It is in the New Age that a turn to rationalistic research free from dogmatism takes place, the formation of the humanities begins, and new experimental knowledge is rapidly accumulating, undermining the old picture of the world.

The most important innovation of modern European science is experimentation. If Archimedes, inventing water screws and convex mirrors, considered the main goal to deceive nature, then in modern times it became important to make it work for oneself, having previously studied it. Knowing a thing is knowing how to use it. The emergence of modern experimental natural science is associated with the name of Galileo (1564-1642), the first to systematically use the experiment as the main method of research.

The theoretical substantiation of the new scientific methodology belongs to F. Bacon (1561–1626), who substantiated in the New Organon the transition from the traditional deductive approach (from a general, speculative, assumption or authoritative judgment to a particular, i.e., to a fact) to an inductive approach (from the private, empirical, fact - to the general, i.e., to the pattern).

European science reached its highest limit of rationalization in the 17th century. It is to this time that it is customary to attribute the so-called. scientific revolution that gave impetus to the birth of modern science. The concept of scientific revolution was introduced by the French philosopher A. Coyret, who showed that modern science is not the successor to the medieval doctrine, it arose in the struggle against it.

The recognition of universal laws governing the entire universe was the starting point of classical science. The very concept of “laws of nature” was introduced by R. Descartes (1596–1650), proceeding from the deism that dominated the minds of contemporary scientists.

The turning point in the history of classical science was April 28, 1686, when I. Newton (1642-1727) presented his "Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy" to the Royal Society of London. The idea of ​​gravity as the basic law governing the world order topped the list of topics for discussion in high-society salons for many years. The majority of thinkers based theoretical constructions on it, it was ridiculed by the French enlighteners, but it really became the property of mankind only at the beginning of the 19th century. At that time, the most rationalistic philosophical systems appeared, a fundamental reorganization of universities began, armchair scientists became teachers. The synthesis of knowledge began to be presented in textbooks, and finally, the Newtonian system became the basis of teaching.

As a social institution, science began to take shape in the 17th–18th centuries. - it was then that the first scientific societies, academies and scientific journals arose in Europe. The idea of ​​science as an all-encompassing enterprise was born in 1662, when F. Bacon presented to the Royal Society of London the project of "restoring the sciences" - the creation of a natural history based on a complete collection of observations, experiments, and practical research. To implement this plan, it was only necessary to organize the scientific community according to the principle of a colossal factory. Scientists turned into employees of the world laboratory.

M. Heidegger (1889–1976) emphasizes the production nature of modern European science: “Production is primarily understood as the phenomenon that science, whether natural or humanitarian, is today revered as a real science only when it becomes capable of instituting itself. However, research is not production because research work is carried out in institutes, but, on the contrary, institutes are necessary because science itself, as research, has the character of production.

The acquisition of the nature of production by science determined its new meaning: now it was called upon to bring practical benefits. For the first time, theoretical knowledge found its application in wide practice, surprisingly, quite late: at the beginning of the 19th century.

The first to serve big business was chemistry, a science capable of analyzing the properties of commercially important ores and metals, oil, natural gas, and dyes. Germany and the USA were at the forefront of the development of applied science. Industry began to develop in these countries later than, for example, in Great Britain, and therefore they did not have conservative traditions that separated science from technology. It was then that science took the form of a conveyor for the production of socially useful products, and scientific discovery gave way to invention.

With the development of a new science, a need arose for a deeper division of it into special ones. By the middle of the XIX century. a disciplinary organization of science is formed, a system of disciplines with complex connections between them arises. The rationalization of the field of science leads to its bureaucratization by the destruction of individual creativity and the development of research groups, state scientific policy. Science is turning into a special type of scientific knowledge production, which includes diverse types of associations of scientists, including large research teams, targeted funding, their social support, a complex division of labor, and targeted training of personnel. “Only the West,” writes M. Weber (1864–1920), “is aware of rational and systematic, that is, professional, scientific activity, specialist scientists in that specific modern sense, which implies their dominance in a given cultural position, first of all , as specialist officials, the backbone of the modern Western state and the modern Western economy."

By the beginning of the XX century. a difficult situation has developed in fundamental science: most of the sciences have been shaken by a crisis of foundations. According to E. Husserl (1859-1938), the cause of the crisis was the collapse of faith in reason. The new natural science broke away from its eternal basis - philosophy and became its gravedigger, turning into a research technique that mathematized the world and eliminated the qualitative certainty of phenomena. Science now performs only one pragmatic function, and this function cannot replace a person's need to comprehend the world, which was satisfied by the science of past eras, which has not lost its connection with philosophy. Husserl is convinced that only a return to metaphysics and the application of a holistic method of consideration in all areas of science can overcome its "crisis".

The crisis of science manifested itself most clearly in physics, which concentrated classical methodology in its purest form. According to many scientists, the crisis of the foundations of physics, which seemed to have been successfully resolved already in the first third of the 20th century, continues - despite the conquest of space, the splitting of the atomic nucleus, and other no less impressive successes of scientists. The fact is that the main goal of fundamental science - the unification of particular physical theories on a consistent conceptual basis and the construction of a unified picture of the world - has not been achieved.

The foundations of modern physics were laid in the first third of the 20th century. - in connection with overcoming the crisis of the foundations of science due to the influence of the irrational cultural and methodological background that prevailed at that time. As A. Poincare (1854–1912) noted, the quantum doctrine was accepted despite its incompatibility with the principle of causality and the axioms of mathematical physics. The paradoxical nature of a theory becomes almost a criterion of its truth.

In the works of many philosophers of science (T. Kuhn, G. Bachelard, P. Feyerabend), the unconventionality of the methods of the new physics was retrospectively substantiated epistemologically - by developing the concept of "new scientific rationality". It was about the fact that in the conditions of the formation of non-classical rationality, the line between the rational and the irrational is blurred. "Democracy" in science, which rejects the "totalitarianism" of a single picture of the world and a single exhaustive meta-narrative for describing reality, implies a certain anarchy in methodology. Modern science proclaims itself to be internally pluralistic and is no longer going to impose a single model of understanding reality. According to P. Feyerabend, the creator of anarchist epistemology, the principle “everything is permitted” can serve as the only universal principle of cognition, and scientists have the right to invent any methods and theories.

Scientific and technical power is one of the most important components of the national power of the state. The United States leads the way, spending more on research and development (R&D) than any other country. If R&D in the USA is financed by 40-45% at the expense of taxpayers, then in Japan this figure does not exceed 20%: in this country, they believe that the concentration of scientific potential in companies shortens the path from the appearance of an idea to its implementation in a product.

Until the early 1990s. The USSR was at least not inferior to the United States in terms of the number of scientists and designers. The Soviet scientific system, focused on the needs of super-industrialization and the military-industrial complex, was one of the most important factors that ensured the country's status as a superpower. The orders that she received from the state (atomic project, space program) had not only national, but also world-historical significance.

Great was the respect of society for people of science. And science lived up to public expectations. The world's first nuclear power plants and a nuclear-powered ship were built. New scientific centers appeared - Dubna, Akademgorodok. Soviet physicists began to receive Nobel Prizes (1958, 1962, 1964). Soviet rockets conquered space.

Yet the greatness of Soviet science was one-sided. Thus, the humanitarian sector was rather poorly represented in it, which turned out to be one of the reasons for the defeat of the USSR in the Cold War. When the USSR collapsed, domestic science lost its main, and most importantly, systemic customer. This led to the deepest crisis of the scientific structure. State-funded industrial research centers and academic institutions were on the verge of collapse. In 1996, R&D spending in the United States amounted to $184.7 billion, while in Russia, even according to clearly inflated official figures, it was only $5.3 billion.

In the post-Soviet space, only Russia, despite financial difficulties, managed to maintain a powerful scientific and technical potential. In a number of fundamental studies, results of world significance have been obtained. In the field of informatics and computer technology, a multiprocessor computing system has been created with a peak performance of a trillion operations per second. A breakthrough has been made in the field of thermonuclear fusion, astrophysics and mechanics. Russian academician Zh. Alferov received the Nobel Prize in physics in 2000.

However, the authority of modern Russian science is still far from the former Soviet one. In the citation rating compiled at the end of 2005, Russia occupies only 18th place, behind not only the USA, England, Germany, Japan, but even China and Israel.

The decline of Russian science is largely due to the outflow of scientists abroad in search of better conditions for life and work: in 1992, the average salary of scientists in Russia was just over $5. For the 1990s More than 250 thousand scientists left Russia, and in total more than 2.4 million people left science, that is, two-thirds of the payroll. As a result, the most valuable know-how was lost, including in the field of defense technologies and nuclear energy, entire areas of research were lost, the level of inventive activity and the average citation index of works of Soviet scientists in world literature decreased by 90%. If in the mid-1960s it was inferior to the American one by about 1.5 times, then in the early 1990s. this gap has grown in favor of the United States by 14 times. If in terms of the number of researchers Russia is still in first place in the world, then in terms of competitiveness it is only in 70th.

According to experts of the Council of Europe Commission on Education, the financial losses of our country from the emigration of scientists reach 1 billion dollars a year. The “value” of just one MIPT graduate is estimated on the world market at about $1 million, and every fifth of them leaves.

There is a rapid aging of Russian science. In many institutes of the Russian Academy of Sciences, the average age of scientists exceeds 60 years, while even in the era of space exploration, this figure was 38 years. The shortfall of researchers in Russian research institutes is more than 175 thousand, or more than 20%.

The first steps towards restoring the potential of domestic science began to be made only in the early 2000s, when there were serious advances in the field of financing fundamental science, raising the salaries of scientists, etc.

On April 26, 2007, in his annual message to the Federal Assembly, V. Putin set the task for Russian science to make a breakthrough in the field of the most advanced technologies, primarily nanotechnologies, which would allow Russia to regain its lost leadership in science.

Great Definition

Incomplete definition ↓

The current understanding of the term "science" correlates it with morality, ideology, law, religion, art, and so on, as one of the components of the spiritual culture of mankind.

What is science?

Science is a certain system of ordered knowledge about society, nature, man, it is also a unique type of production of a spiritual order, which is aimed at the full provision of knowledge, its improvement and storage.

In addition to the above, science is a complex within which the said production takes place.

To be precise in the definition of science, it arose as a cultural phenomenon in the seventeenth century and gave a chance to test the veracity of open knowledge empirically. Science is firmly connected with society. It cannot receive an impetus for the emergence or development outside of society. But today's society cannot fully function without it, because the main types of science are aimed at meeting the needs in all aspects of human existence, and also serve as a powerful factor in the development of society. Based on knowledge of the laws of work and development of objects in its field of consideration, science builds a forecast for the further existence of these objects in order to master the surrounding reality in practice.

Scientific knowledge. Paradigm

Scientific knowledge is governed by specific norms and ideals of scientific activity, which include certain approaches, attitudes, principles developed by scientists at certain stages of the development of scientific reality. They change over time, as, for example, there was a transition from the understanding of physics by Isaac Newton to the views of Albert Einstein. The set of norms and ideals of scientific knowledge that prevail at a particular stage of development is called the "style of scientific thinking."

US historian of science T. Kuhn has worked on analyzing the nature with which scientific knowledge has evolved. He specified the periods during which science has a gradual development, the facts are accumulated through many proven theories within the boundaries of previously emerging theories. This is a certain state of science, the development of which is based on the norms, attitudes and rules established in the scientific community, Kuhn determined as a paradigm.

While different types of sciences receive new rounds of development within a particular paradigm, there is an accumulation of facts that go beyond the boundaries of existing theories. There comes a time when it is necessary to change the basis of scientific knowledge, methodological guidelines, principles to explain the newly acquired facts. Thus, there is a change in the scientific paradigm that Kuhn calls the scientific revolution.

Scientific picture of the world

The mentioned process inevitably leads to changes in the scientific picture of the world, that is, a complex system of principles and concepts regarding the laws and general characteristics of the surrounding world. There is a general scientific picture of the world, which includes ideas about all aspects of reality, about nature, society and directly knowledge, and a natural-scientific picture of the world. It depends on the subject of knowledge to which it refers. Thus, such a picture of the world can be physical, chemical, astronomical, biological, and so on. In the center of the general scientific picture of the world is the picture of the world of the leading (at the current stage of development of science) field of scientific knowledge.

Any picture of the world is based on specific fundamental theories. With the development of knowledge and practice, they replace one another. For example, the natural science and physical model was based in the seventeenth century on classical mechanics and was called, respectively, classical, then in the twentieth century - on electrodynamics, relativity theory and quantum mechanics and was called the non-classical picture of the world. Today it is based on synergetics and is considered post-non-classical. Scientific pictures of the world serve as a heuristic basis for building fundamental theories. They are intertwined with the worldview, this is one of the most important resources for its formation.

The classification of sciences is controversial in the scientific community. This is an important and complex issue. The system is so ramified that all the diverse and numerous studies that can be distinguished by subject, object, degree of fundamentality, method, scope, and so on, cannot be classified on one basis. In general, the following groups can be listed: technical, natural, social or public and humanitarian.

Natural sciences:

about space in general, its structure and development processes: cosmology, astronomy, astrophysics, cosmogony, cosmochemistry and others;

about the earth, that is, geophysics, geochemistry, geology and others;

about the systems and processes of physics, biology, chemistry, the forms according to which the movement of matter occurs;

about a person in his biological aspect, the origin and development of the organism, for example, this is anatomy.

Technical sciences as a basis have natural sciences. The subject of their study are various aspects and branches of technology development. These are radio engineering, heat engineering, electrical engineering and others.

Social or social types of sciences have a branched internal system. The subject of study of social sciences is society. Among them are sociology, political science, economics, jurisprudence and others. The types of economic sciences, in particular, have their own hierarchy, like many of the sciences in this category.

The humanities study the spiritual world of the individual, his place in the surrounding world and society, among people. These are psychology, pedagogy, conflictology and others.

Related positions

Some individual sciences can form links between categories, come into contact with different groups. These are medicine, ergonomics, engineering psychology, ecology and others. It is worth noting that a particularly small line is formed by the types of social sciences and the humanities. Such boundary sciences include history, aesthetics, ethics, and so on.

In the system of sciences, a unique position is occupied by mathematics, philosophy, cybernetics, computer science, and the like. These types of sciences are of a general nature, therefore they are guided in all studies.

Science on the way of its development from a solitary occupation becomes a unique, in some way, an independent form of consciousness of society and an aspect of human activity. It is the product of a long process of development of human culture and civilization. This is a separate social organism with special types of interaction, separation and management of individual processes of scientific activity.

Functions of Science

The ever-increasing importance of science in today's scientific and technological world cannot be denied. Its functions explain its role:

epistemological, that is, science helps to know the world around us;

ideological, science also gives an explanation of reality;

transformative. The main types of science are the key to the development of society, it serves as the basis for the processes of current production and the discovery of new ways of doing something, advanced technologies, thus greatly increasing the potential of society.

Thus, it is difficult to unambiguously classify all types of science. But it can be divided into several groups that closely interact with each other.

Science concept

The object of research in science under the object of research means the main field of application of the forces of scientists. In one science (scientific direction), however, there may be several objects of research that constitute a logically connected essence and purpose of research in this science (scientific direction).

Any unknown phenomenon, previously unknown to science, or part of it, which this science intends to investigate, becomes such an object. The preliminary division of something unknown (unknown) into logically justified parts of the phenomenon is often used. This is used as a completely independent scientific method, if such a division is possible based on a priori visible signs of a given phenomenon.

The subject of the study is the result of theoretical abstraction, which allows scientists to highlight certain aspects, as well as the patterns of development and functioning of the object under study.

The purpose of the work of scientific activity and science is to obtain accurate comprehensive knowledge about the world and its constituent elements.

Research methods literature review, information collection

The scope of science comes from what topic a person is engaged in and in that area it finds application.

Introduction

Science is a special kind of human cognitive activity aimed at developing objective, systematically organized and substantiated knowledge about the surrounding world. The basis of this activity is the collection of facts, their systematization, critical analysis and, on this basis, the synthesis of new knowledge or generalizations that not only describe observed natural or social phenomena, but also make it possible to build causal relationships and predict.

Science is the main form of human knowledge. Science today is becoming an increasingly significant and essential component of the reality that surrounds us and in which we somehow have to navigate, live and act. The philosophical vision of the world presupposes quite definite ideas about what science is, how it works and how it develops, what it can and what it allows to hope for, and what is not available to it. In the philosophers of the past, we can find many valuable insights and clues useful for orientation in a world where the role of science is so important.

1. The concept of science

The content of science should be understood as its definition, including goals, the ideological basis (or, perhaps, more narrowly, the paradigm) of science, i.e. a complex of accepted ideas, views on what science is, what are its goals, methods of construction and development, etc. Apparently, it is necessary to include the problems of scientific ethics in the same circle of ideas - a system of accepted, but not legally binding rules governing the relationship of people in the field of scientific activity. Scientific ethics in critical, historical and philosophical works is usually given little attention, although it, due to the important place occupied by science in modern society, is an essential part of human relations. We will pay more attention to this issue, since in the development of modern science there are rather gross violations of ethical norms that affect the pace of its development. Any ideology is, in essence, the design of experimental data on the interaction of people with nature and among themselves. We are accustomed to treating the postulated and already tested rules or laws as the final truth, forgetting that the establishment of the truth is accompanied by numerous misconceptions. Testing ideological principles empirically is difficult for a number of reasons. Therefore, it has not yet been possible to come to an unambiguous solution to these issues, and this, in turn, affects the development of the sciences themselves.

Most of the issues related to the ideology of science are detailed in numerous and accessible philosophical works. We will focus only on specific problems that are important for the development of our topic. We only note that although the ideology of science has its roots in ancient natural science, the formulations adopted at the present time date back mainly to the Middle Ages, to the works of F. Bacon, R. Descartes and some others.

Science is a sphere of human activity, the function of which is the development and theoretical systematization of objective knowledge about reality; one of the forms of social consciousness; includes both the activity of obtaining new knowledge and its result - the sum of knowledge underlying the scientific picture of the world; designation of individual branches of scientific knowledge. The immediate goals are the description, explanation and prediction of the processes and phenomena of reality that constitute the subject of its study, on the basis of the laws it discovers. The system of sciences is conditionally divided into natural, social, humanitarian and technical sciences. Originating in the ancient world in connection with the needs of social practice, it began to take shape from the 16th ... 17th centuries. and in the course of historical development has become the most important social institution, which has a significant impact on all spheres of society and culture in general.

1.1 Structure and functions of science

Depending on the sphere of being, and, consequently, on the type of reality being studied, three areas of scientific knowledge are distinguished: natural science - knowledge about nature, social science, knowledge about various types and forms of social life, as well as knowledge about man as a thinking being. Naturally, these three spheres are not and should not be considered as three parts of a single whole, which are only side by side, adjacent to each other. The boundary between these spheres is relative. The whole body of scientific knowledge about nature is formed by natural science. Its structure is a direct reflection of the logic of nature. The total volume and structure of natural science knowledge is large and varied.

This includes knowledge about matter and its structure, about the movement and interaction of substances, about chemical elements and compounds, about living matter and life, about the Earth and Space. From these objects of natural science, fundamental natural science directions also originate.

The second fundamental direction of scientific knowledge is social science. Its subject is social phenomena and systems, structures, states, processes. Social sciences provide knowledge about individual varieties and the totality of social connections and relations. By its nature, scientific knowledge about society is numerous, but they can be grouped into three areas: sociological, the subject of which is society as a whole; economic - reflect the labor activity of people, property relations, social production, exchange, distribution and relations based on them in society; state-legal knowledge - have as their subject state-legal structures and relations in social systems, they are considered by all the sciences of the state and political sciences.

The third fundamental direction of scientific knowledge is scientific knowledge about a person and his thinking. Man is the object of study of a large number of diverse sciences, which consider him in various aspects. Along with the indicated main scientific directions, the knowledge of science about itself should be included in a separate group of knowledge. The emergence of this branch of knowledge refers to the 20s of our century and means that science in its development has risen to the level of understanding its role and significance in people's lives. Science of science today is considered an independent, rapidly developing scientific discipline.

In close connection with the structure of scientific knowledge is the problem of the functions of science. Several stand out:

1. descriptive - revealing the essential properties and relationships of reality;

2. systematizing - assignment of what is described by classes and sections;

3. explanatory - a systematic presentation of the essence of the object under study, the reasons for its occurrence and development;

4. industrial and practical - the possibility of applying the acquired knowledge in production, for the regulation of social life, in social management;

5. prognostic - prediction of new discoveries within the framework of existing theories, as well as recommendations for the future;

6. worldview - the introduction of the acquired knowledge into the existing picture of the world, the rationalization of a person's relationship to reality.

2. Definition of science

For many practical and theoretical purposes related to the management of scientific activity and scientific and technological progress, it seems insufficient to know only one intuitive idea of ​​science. Of course, the definition is secondary compared to the concept. Science, no matter how it is defined, includes the progress of concept generation, and by defining its concept, we become involved in this process.

Much of what concerns the relationship between science and society is connected with the place of science in a number of other types of human activity. At present, there is a tendency to give science too much importance in the development of society. To establish the truth in this matter, it is necessary, first of all, to find out what kind of activity should be called science.

In a general sense, science is the activity associated with the accumulation of knowledge about nature and society, as well as the body of knowledge itself, which makes it possible to predict the behavior of natural objects by modeling both themselves and their interaction with each other (in particular, mathematical). It is generally accepted that science in the modern sense of the word appeared in Ancient Greece, although it is known that huge reserves of knowledge were accumulated long before that in the Ancients, Egypt and China. From the point of view of practice, knowledge of examples is quite equivalent to knowledge of theorems written in abstract notation. Therefore, we conditionally accept the equivalence (in the practical sense) of these knowledge systems. In other words, for ease of comparison, we have equated the usefulness of Babylonian and Greek geometry. Apparently, if there is still a difference between them, then it is in it that the basis for the definition of science should be sought. It turns out that in the general case in Euclid's geometry it is not necessary to remember the theorems themselves, and even more so the solutions to practical problems: it is enough to know the definitions, axioms, construction rules and have practical skills in order to derive one or another theorem and solve the necessary problem if the need arises. based on this system of knowledge. Using the found theorem (or theorems), it is not difficult to solve many problems. In contrast, Babylonian "science" provides for the memorization of a set of examples needed for all occasions. The Babylonian way of accumulating knowledge is always associated with a large consumption of memory resources and, nevertheless, does not make it possible to quickly receive answers to newly emerging questions. The Greek method is associated with the systematization of knowledge and, due to this, is as economical as possible. Such examples, and their number can be multiplied - let us recall, for example, the activities of Linnaeus and Darwin in systematizing knowledge in biology and the related progress in this area - make it possible to define science as an activity in systematizing, ordering knowledge. Since the time of F. Bacon, the idea has been realized that science should not only passively observe and collect what is ready, but also actively seek and cultivate knowledge. To do this, according to Bacon, a person must ask nature questions and, through experiment, find out its answers. Another side of the activity of scientists is traditionally the transfer of knowledge to other people, i.e. teaching activity. So, science is the coding of knowledge, the construction of models of various objects and systems, the calculation (prediction) on this basis of the behavior of specific objects and systems.

2.1 Approaches in defining science

1. Terminological approach in the definition of science

Generalizing and important for all possible definitions of science is that we already somehow know what science is. We are talking about the explication of the knowledge we find in ourselves, moreover, the knowledge is quite objective or at least shared by us with a significant part of the scientific community. Science includes not only knowledge in the sense of action or activity, but also the positive results of this activity. In addition, some results that in the literal sense can hardly be called positive, for example, scientific errors, the use of science for inhumane purposes, falsifications, sometimes very sophisticated in many ways, still fall within the scope of science.

It is necessary to differentiate science terminologically from several related and sometimes confused concepts. First of all, we fix the category of innovation activity, i.e. such activity, the purpose of which is the introduction of certain innovations (innovations) into the existing cultural complexes. Thanks to its innovative aspect, science is different from other activities related to knowledge and information. At the same time, science is not identical to research activity: the latter can be defined as innovative activity in the field of knowledge, and this does not include many aspects of science - organizational, personnel, etc., besides, “activity” is precisely activity, and not one or another of its specific results, while science includes the results obtained and obtained in the same, if not more, than the activity to obtain them.

Methods of proof and persuasion in the most diverse areas of human activity, such as science, politics, oratory, philosophy, have replaced the earlier "method" of arbitrary or purely traditional solution of relevant problems based on the hidden postulate of the uniformity of human actions, reflecting an even greater uniformity of natural and supernatural order.

From then until now, the terms "systematic" and "investigation of causes" remain key to any definition of science. The first of them can be considered more universal, since the complete absence of systematicity removes the very question of the existence of science (and even knowability, if the latter is understood, as is often done now, in a sense at least analogous to science).

2. Phenomenological aspect of the definition of science

Defining science, we are inside it, as inside something known to us, although not yet explicated. A subject who sees science not as something external, but "inside" himself, is in a situation that is different from the situation of terminological or speculative construction of science and from the situation of purely empirical contemplation of his object (science). Within the framework of science as a system of a higher (in comparison with any of its constituent disciplines) rank, the totality of disciplines studying science itself from one side or another forms a certain subsystem. By incorporating the principles of operations research, systems approach, and phenomenology into it, it was possible to largely overcome the reductionist dogma that "all knowledge ultimately comes down to a set of elementary statements." In particular, the value (moral, culturally significant) side is by no means alien to science. This tendency towards self-accretion of value must be taken into account in the definition of science, which, as has been said, is the predominant field of innovation. Phenomenologically, science grows out of relatively elementary value-colored manifestations, such as curiosity, the need to be aware, practical orientation in the world.

3. Valuable aspects of the definition of science

Since science as a whole and in all its system states is one of the products of the development of the value consciousness of mankind, the definitions of science should not ignore, as is sometimes done, its value aspect, or limit it to the mere value of knowledge. At the same time, if for the stage of ancient Eastern, partly also medieval science, in order to reflect the value plan, it is necessary and perhaps sufficient to include in the definition of science an orientation towards comprehending such a cosmic value as the universal Law in its hierarchical interpretation, then for the stages of ancient, Renaissance , as well as modern (classical and postclassical) science, the range of relevant values ​​is much wider and includes the principles of objective and impartial research, humanistic orientation and the imperative of obtaining and generalizing new knowledge about the properties, causal relationships and patterns of natural, social and logical-mathematical objects.

3. Basic principles for the development of science

The first of these is, apparently, the principle that determines the relationship of man to nature, largely dictating the ways and possibilities of studying it. By the 4th century BC. e. two main formulations of the first principle took shape: materialistic and idealistic.

Materialism postulates the existence of nature independent of man in the form of various moving forms of matter, and considers man as a product of the natural development of nature. This principle is usually formulated as follows: nature is primary, and consciousness is secondary.

Idealism believes that nature exists in the form of ideas accumulated by the brain about those forms of matter that a person feels. Depending on whether the existence of ideas is recognized as independent, or whether they are considered a product of the soul (mind), a distinction is made between objective and subjective idealism. One of the forms of objective idealism is religious ideology, which postulates the existence of the primary bearer of ideas — a deity.

Thus, the first principle in the idealist formulation has many variants, while the materialist formulation is essentially unique (maybe that is why idealists consider materialism a primitive ideology.).

From the height of the knowledge accumulated by mankind, modern materialists consider idealism as a delusion. Without denying this, we would like to emphasize the following important idea for our topic: the choice between materialism and idealism cannot be substantiated by logical means. It can only be shown by numerous experimental tests that materialism, as the basis for the knowledge of nature, provides a more complete and useful system of knowledge than idealism. This situation is not exceptional in the realm of ideas: all first principles of physics cannot be proven, but are practical conclusions.

Another support for idealism is the form in which our knowledge is embodied. The latter exist in the form of ideas and symbols that have absolutely nothing to do with natural objects, and yet allow us to properly communicate with nature. The temptation is great to give these symbols some independent meaning, which is so characteristic of abstract mathematics and theoretical physics of our time.

Thus, the choice of this or that formulation of the first principle cannot be predetermined; in other words, the freedom of conscience in this sense should be recognized for scientists. Only experience can convince of the correctness of one or another formulation.

Conclusion

The basis of the progress of human society is the development of various means of using the energy stored in nature to meet the practical needs of man. But as the history of technology shows, the appearance of these tools was extremely rarely associated with science. Most often they were born as inventions (often made by poorly educated people who had nothing to do with the subject of their invention; it is doubtful that one can call the scientists of those Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons who invented methods for starting fire, working stone, forging metal, melting metal, etc. .p. discoveries that made us what we are today). The improvement of inventions also took place by trial and error, and only very recently began to really use scientific calculations for this.

Speaking so far about science and scientific knowledge, we have considered them as an already existing object of study, which we have analyzed from a formal point of view. However, mankind in its history has accumulated knowledge of the most diverse nature, and scientific knowledge is only one of the types of this knowledge. Therefore, the question arises about the criteria for the scientific nature of knowledge, which accordingly allows us to classify them as scientific or any other.

Bibliography

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