Science is the main form of human knowledge. Scientific knowledge is different from ordinary:

the desire for maximum objectivity in the description of the studied objects and phenomena;

special (scientific) language used to describe them;

specific ways of substantiating the truth of the acquired knowledge;

the desire to acquire knowledge that satisfies not only the immediate needs of society, but also important for future generations.

There are two levels of scientific knowledge: empirical and theoretical. The main task of the empirical level is the description of objects and phenomena, and the main form is a scientific fact.

At the theoretical level, the phenomena under study are explained.

The main methods used in the process of empirical knowledge are the methods of observation, empirical description and experiment.

Observation is the study of individual objects and phenomena. Observation is based on sensation, perception, representation. The result of the observation is an empirical description.

A special place among the methods of scientific knowledge is occupied by experiment. An experiment is a method of studying phenomena, which is carried out under strictly defined conditions. A special type of experiment is a mental experiment, in which the given conditions are imaginary, but necessarily corresponding to the law of science and the rules of logic.

Other methods include the hypothesis method, as well as the formulation of a scientific theory. The essence of the hypothesis method is the advancement and justification of assumptions. The purpose of testing a hypothesis is to formulate laws that explain the phenomenon of the surrounding world.

On the basis of testing hypotheses, scientific theories are built. A scientific theory is a logically consistent description of the phenomena of the surrounding world.

scientific knowledge

The desire of man for knowledge has led to the emergence of various kinds knowledge. Certain knowledge about the world and man is given by myth, art, and religion. We learn a lot already at the level of our ordinary common sense. But there is a special, significantly different from the rest, type cognitive activity- the science.

Science is a systematized knowledge of reality, based on the observation and study of facts and seeking to establish the laws of the studied things and phenomena.

For example, biology studies the phenomena of life, investigates the distribution and development of biological species, establishes the laws of heredity, etc.

The purpose of science is to obtain true knowledge about the world. The highest form of scientific knowledge is scientific theory.

There are many theories that have changed people's ideas about the world. This is, for example, the theory of Copernicus, the theory gravity Newton, Darwin's theory of evolution, Einstein's theory of relativity. Such theories form a scientific picture of the world, which plays an important role in the worldview of people.

But to build theories, scientists rely on experience, experiment. Special Development strict experimental science received in modern times, starting from the 17th century. Modern civilization largely relies on the achievements and practical applications of science.

Forms and methods of modern scientific knowledge

Scientific cognition differs from other forms of cognition in that scientists use numerous and well-developed methods in cognition. Scientists also carefully check the results of knowledge in practice, in the experiment.

Let's consider some basic methods of scientific knowledge in more detail. There are empirical and theoretical methods of science.

The most important empirical methods are observation, measurement and experiment.

Observation in science differs from simple contemplation of things and phenomena. Scientists always set a specific goal and task for observation. They strive for impartiality and objectivity of observation, accurately record its results. In some sciences, complex instruments (microscopes, telescopes, etc.) have been developed that make it possible to observe phenomena that are inaccessible to the naked eye.

Measurement is a method by which the quantitative characteristics of the objects under study are established. Accurate measurement plays a large role in physics, chemistry and other natural sciences, however, in modern social sciences, primarily in economics and sociology, measurements of various economic indicators and social facts.

An experiment is an “artificial” situation specially designed by a scientist in which certain phenomena are observed and measured. Very complex equipment is often used in a scientific experiment.

Empirical methods, firstly, make it possible to establish facts, and secondly, to test the truth of hypotheses and theories by correlating them with the results of observations and the facts established in the experiment.

Take, for example, the science of society. Empirical research methods play an important role in modern sociology. Sociology must be based on concrete data about social facts and processes. Scientists obtain these data using various empirical methods - observations, opinion polls, the study of public opinion, statistical data, experiments on the interaction of people in social groups and so on. In this way, sociology collects numerous facts that form the basis of theoretical hypotheses and conclusions.

Scientists don't stop at observation and fact-finding. They seek to find laws that link numerous facts. To establish these laws, theoretical methods are applied. These are methods of analysis and generalization of empirical facts, methods of putting forward hypotheses, methods of rational reasoning, which allow deriving some knowledge from others.

The most famous classical theoretical methods are induction and deduction.

The inductive method is a method of deriving patterns based on the generalization of many individual facts. For example, a sociologist, on the basis of a generalization of empirical facts, can discover some stable, recurring forms social behavior of people. These will be the primary social patterns. The inductive method is a movement from the particular to the general, from facts to law.

The deductive method is a movement from the general to the particular. If we have some general law, then we can deduce more specific consequences from it. Deduction, for example, is widely used in mathematics in proving theorems from general axioms.

It is important to emphasize that the methods of science are interconnected. Without the establishment of empirical facts, it is impossible to build a theory; without theories, scientists would have only a huge number of unrelated facts. Therefore, in scientific knowledge, various theoretical and empirical methods are used in their inseparable connection.

The embryonic forms of scientific knowledge arose in the depths and on the basis of everyday knowledge, and then spun off from it. As science develops and becomes one of the most important factors in the development of civilization, its way of thinking has an increasingly active impact on everyday consciousness. This influence develops the elements of objective reflection of the world contained in everyday spontaneous-empirical knowledge.

However, there are significant differences between the ability of spontaneous-empirical cognition to generate substantive and objective knowledge about the world and the objectivity and objectivity of scientific knowledge.

First of all, science deals with a special set of objects of reality that cannot be reduced to objects of ordinary experience.

The features of the objects of science make the means that are used in everyday knowledge insufficient for their development. Although science uses natural language, it cannot describe and study its objects only on its basis. Firstly, ordinary language is adapted to describe and foresee the objects woven into the actual practice of man (science goes beyond its scope); secondly, the concepts of ordinary language are fuzzy and ambiguous, their exact meaning is most often found only in the context of linguistic communication controlled by everyday experience. Science, on the other hand, cannot rely on such control, since it mainly deals with objects that are not mastered in everyday practical activity. To describe the phenomena under study, it seeks to fix its concepts and definitions as clearly as possible.

The development by science of a special language suitable for describing objects that are unusual from the point of view of common sense is a necessary condition for scientific research. The language of science is constantly evolving as it penetrates into ever new areas of the objective world. Moreover, it has the opposite effect on everyday, natural language. For example, the words "electricity", "cloning" were once specific scientific terms, and then firmly entered the everyday language.

Along with an artificial, specialized language, scientific research needs a special system of special tools that, by directly influencing the object under study, make it possible to identify its possible states under conditions controlled by the subject. Hence the need for special scientific equipment (measuring instruments, instrumental installations), which allow science to experimentally study new types of objects.

Scientific apparatus and the language of science are, first of all, the product of already acquired knowledge. But just as in practice the products of labor are transformed into means of labor, so too scientific research its products - scientific knowledge expressed in language or objectified in devices - become a means of further research, obtaining new knowledge.

The features of the objects of scientific research can also explain the main features of scientific knowledge as a product of scientific activity. Their reliability can no longer be justified only by their application in production and everyday experience. Science forms specific ways of substantiating the truth of knowledge: experimental control over the knowledge obtained, the derivation of some knowledge from others, the truth of which has already been proven. Derivability procedures provide not only the transfer of truth from one piece of knowledge to another, but also make them interconnected, organized into a system. The systemic nature and validity of scientific knowledge is another essential feature that distinguishes it from the products of everyday cognitive activity of people.

In the history of science, two stages of its development can be distinguished: the emerging science (pre-science) and science in the proper sense of the word. At the stage of pre-science, cognition mainly reflects those things and ways of changing them that a person repeatedly encounters in production and everyday experience. These things, properties and relationships were fixed in the form of ideal objects, with which thinking operated as with specific objects replacing the objects of the real world. Combining the original ideal objects with the corresponding operations of their transformation, early science built in this way models of those changes in objects that could be carried out in practice. An example of such models is knowledge about the operations of addition and subtraction of integers. This knowledge is an ideal scheme of practical transformations carried out on subject sets.

However, with the development of knowledge and practice, along with the above, a new way of constructing knowledge is being formed. It consists in constructing schemes of subject relations by transferring already created ideal objects from other areas of knowledge and combining them into new system without direct reference to practice. In this way, hypothetical schemes of subject relations of reality are created, which are then directly or indirectly substantiated by practice.

At first, this method of research was established in mathematics. Thus, having discovered for itself the class of negative numbers, mathematics extends to them all those operations that were adopted for positive numbers, and in this way creates new knowledge that characterizes previously unexplored structures of the objective world. In the future, a new extension of the class of numbers occurs: the application of root extraction operations to negative numbers forms a new abstraction - the “imaginary number”. And all those operations that were applied to natural numbers again extend to this class of ideal objects.

The described method of constructing knowledge is affirmed not only in mathematics. Following it, it extends to the sphere of natural sciences. In natural science, it is known as a method of putting forward hypothetical models of reality (hypotheses) with their subsequent substantiation by experience.

Thanks to the method of hypotheses, scientific knowledge, as it were, is freed from a rigid connection with current practice and begins to predict ways of changing objects that, in principle, could be mastered in the future. From this moment the stage of pre-science ends and science in the proper sense of the word begins. In it, along with empirical laws (which prescience also knew), a special type of knowledge is formed - theory.

Another significant difference between scientific research and ordinary knowledge is the difference in the methods of cognitive activity. Objects to which it is directed ordinary knowledge are formed in daily practice. The methods by which each such object is singled out and fixed as an object of cognition, as a rule, are not recognized by the subject as a specific method of cognition. The situation is different in scientific research. Here, the very discovery of the object, the properties of which are subject to further study, is a very laborious task.

For example, in order to detect short-lived particles - resonances, modern physics performs experiments on the scattering of particle beams and then applies complex calculations. Ordinary particles leave traces - tracks - in photographic emulsions or in a cloud chamber, but resonances do not leave such tracks. They live very a short time(10 (to -22 degrees) - 10 (to -24 degrees) s) and during this period of time the distance smaller sizes atom. Because of this, resonance cannot cause ionization of photoemulsion molecules (or gas in a cloud chamber) and leave an observed trace. However, when the resonance decays, the resulting particles are capable of leaving traces of the indicated type. In the photograph, they look like a set of rays-dashes emanating from one center. By the nature of these rays, using mathematical calculations, the physicist determines the presence of resonance. Thus, in order to deal with the same type of resonances, the researcher needs to know the conditions under which the corresponding object appears. He must clearly define the method by which a particle can be detected in an experiment. Outside the method, he will not at all single out the object under study from the numerous connections and relations of natural objects.

To fix an object, a scientist must know the methods of such fixation. Therefore, in science, the study of objects, the identification of their properties and relationships is always accompanied by an awareness of the methods by which objects are studied. Objects are always given to a person in the system of certain techniques and methods of his activity. But these techniques in science are no longer obvious, they are not repeatedly repeated techniques in everyday practice. And the further science moves away from the usual things of everyday experience, delving into the study of "unusual" objects, the more clearly and distinctly the need for awareness of the methods by which science singles out and studies these objects becomes apparent. Along with knowledge about objects, science forms knowledge about the methods of scientific activity. The need for the development and systematization of knowledge of the second type leads at the highest stages of the development of science to the formation of methodology as a special branch of scientific research, recognized to direct scientific research.

Finally, doing science requires special training of the cognizing subject, during which he masters the historically established means of scientific research, learns the techniques and methods of operating with these means. The inclusion of the subject in scientific activity implies, along with the mastery of special means and methods, the assimilation of a certain system. value orientations and targets specific to science. As one of the main principles of scientific activity, the scientist is guided by the search for truth, perceiving the latter as the highest value of science. This attitude is embodied in a number of ideals and norms of scientific knowledge, expressing its specificity: in certain standards for the organization of knowledge (for example, the requirements for the logical consistency of a theory and its experimental confirmation), in the search for an explanation of phenomena based on laws and principles that reflect the essential connections of the objects under study. , etc. An equally important role in scientific research is played by the attitude towards the constant growth of knowledge, the acquisition of new knowledge. This attitude is also expressed in the system of regulatory requirements for scientific creativity(for example, prohibitions on plagiarism, the admissibility of a critical review of the foundations of scientific research as conditions for the development of ever new types of objects, etc.).

The presence of science-specific norms and goals of cognitive activity, as well as specific means and methods that ensure the comprehension of ever new objects, requires the purposeful formation of specialist scientists. This need leads to the emergence of a "university component of science" - special organizations and institutions that provide training for scientific personnel. Thus, when characterizing the nature of scientific knowledge, one can single out a system of distinguishing features of science, among which the main ones are: a) objectivity and objectivity of scientific knowledge; b) science goes beyond the scope of ordinary experience and its study of objects relatively independently of today's possibilities for their practical development (scientific knowledge always refers to a wide class of practical situations of the present and future, which is never predetermined). All other necessary features that distinguish science from other forms of cognitive activity are derived from and determined by these main characteristics.

Ordinary knowledge is based on common sense, and scientific knowledge is the knowledge that requires substantiation and proof.

The difference between scientific knowledge and other types of knowledge:

The main task of NP is the discovery of objective laws

The rationality of all the knowledge contained in the NP

The unmediated goal and highest value of NP is an objective truth

Consistency of NP

NP is inherent in strict evidence, validity of conclusions

NP inherent inconsistency

Development of a specific initial language

Possibility of empirical verification

In the NP process, a device is used

The subject of scientific activity has empirical characteristics

Based on the knowledge of the laws of functioning and development of the objects under study, it is necessary to predict the future in order to master reality

He has a special material base

34. The subject of philosophy.

The subject of philosophy is the general patterns of development of nature, society, man, or the relationship between objective reality and the subjective world.

The subject of philosophy is the range of questions that it studies.

What exactly is the subject of philosophy depends on the era and the intellectual position of the thinker. The debate about what is the subject of philosophy continues. According to Windelbanda: "Only by understanding the history of the concept of philosophy, one can determine what in the future will be able to lay claim to it to a greater or lesser extent"

Different schools offered their own answers to the question about the subject of philosophy. One of the most significant options belongs to Immanuel Kant. IN Marxism-Leninism also offered its own wording " fundamental question of philosophy».

Marxism-Leninism was one of the critical issues two:

“What comes first: spirit or matter?” This question was considered one of the most important questions of philosophy, since it was argued that from the very beginning of the development of philosophy there was a division into idealism And materialism, that is, a judgment about the supremacy of the spiritual world over the material, and the material over the spiritual, respectively.

The question of the cognizability of the world, which was the main question in it epistemology.

One of the fundamental questions of philosophy is the question itself: "What is philosophy?" Every philosophical system has a core, main question, the disclosure of which constitutes its main content and essence.

Philosophy answers questions

“Who is a person and why did he come into this world?”

“What makes this or that action right or wrong?”

Philosophy attempts to answer questions for which there is as yet no way of getting an answer, such as "For what?" (e.g., “Why does a person exist?” At the same time, science tries to answer questions for which there are tools for obtaining an answer, such as “How?”, “In what way?”, “Why?”, “What?” (e.g., “How did man appear?”, “Why can’t man breathe nitrogen?”, “How did the Earth arise? “How is evolution directed?”, “What will happen to man (under specific conditions)?”).

Accordingly, the subject of philosophy, philosophical knowledge, was divided into main sections: ontology (the doctrine of being), epistemology (the doctrine of knowledge), anthropology (the doctrine of man), social philosophy (the doctrine of society), etc.

Philosophy (love of wisdom) is the science of the surrounding world as a whole and the place of man in it. It forms the general outlook of a person, and allows you to develop a holistic view of the world and the place of a person in it.

Philosophy develops a generalized system of views on the world, the place of man in it; it explores cognitive values, socio-political, moral and aesthetic attitude of man to the world.

The subject of philosophy is the universal properties and connections (relationships) of reality - nature, man, the relationship of objective reality and subjectivism of the world, material and ideal, being and thinking

The subject of philosophy is the world as a whole, its interconnections and interactions (nature + society + thinking).

At the heart of this lies the question of the relationship between consciousness and matter. Depending on his decision (which is primary), two directions arise: materialism (matter is primary) and idealism (consciousness is primary). ): objective- consciousness is primary, regardless of the person; subjective- the primary is the consciousness of the subject, the individual. The other side of the main question F is the question of the cognizability of the world. Those who believe that the world is fundamentally unknowable are agnostics.

If we consider that scientific knowledge is based on rationality, it is necessary to understand that non-scientific or extra-scientific knowledge is not fiction or fiction. Non-scientific knowledge, just like scientific knowledge, is produced in some intellectual communities in accordance with certain norms and standards. Non-scientific and scientific knowledge have their own means and sources of knowledge. As is known, many forms of non-scientific cognition are older than cognition, which is recognized as scientific. For example, alchemy is much older than chemistry, and astrology is older than astronomy.

Scientific and non-scientific knowledge have sources. For example, the first is based on the results of experiments and sciences. Its form can be considered a theory. The laws of science result in certain hypotheses. The forms of the second are myths, folk wisdom, common sense and practical activities. In some cases, non-scientific knowledge can also be based on feeling, which leads to the so-called revelation or metaphysical insight. Faith can be an example of non-scientific knowledge. Unscientific knowledge can be carried out with the help of art, for example, when creating an artistic image.

Differences between scientific and non-scientific knowledge

First, the main difference between scientific knowledge and non-scientific knowledge is the objectivity of the former. A person who adheres to scientific views understands the fact that everything in the world develops regardless of certain desires. Authorities and private opinions cannot influence such a situation. Otherwise, the world could be in chaos and hardly exist at all.

Secondly, scientific knowledge, unlike non-scientific knowledge, is aimed at the result in the future. Scientific fruits, unlike non-scientific ones, cannot always give quick results. Before being discovered, many theories are subject to doubt and persecution by those who do not want to recognize the objectivity of phenomena. It may take a long time until scientific discovery in contrast to non-scientific will be recognized as valid. A striking example is the discoveries of Galileo Galileo or Copernicus regarding the motion of the Earth and the structure of the solar Galaxy.

Scientific and non-scientific knowledge are always in confrontation, which causes another difference. Scientific knowledge always goes through the following stages: observation and classification, experiment and explanation of natural phenomena. All this is not inherent in non-scientific knowledge.

Knowledge and its basic forms,

differences between scientific knowledge and everyday knowledge

The result of knowledge- this is knowledge, which is information about the object of knowledge. Information is a collection of information about the features and properties of the object under study. Cognition is a reflection, a reproduction of reality; therefore, such knowledge is true, which correctly, faithfully reflects, reproduces this reality. Thus, true– it is knowledge that corresponds to what is in reality. Such judgments as “snow is white”, “the atom has a complex structure”, “the Moon is a satellite of the Earth”, “the Volga flows into the Caspian Sea” are true. Knowledge can be true, not the object of knowledge.

Knowledge can be ordinary and scientific.

Ordinary knowledge is a set of information, opinions, rules of activity and behavior, edifications and includes signs, beliefs, beliefs. It is based on the everyday life experience of people, it develops spontaneously, most often by trial and error. It gives a person the information about the world around him that he needs and suffices in everyday life. It has a disordered and fragmented character, although sometimes strong and stable. Based on common sense and worldly logic, it does not differ in the depth and breadth of its view of things and ongoing processes. Ordinary knowledge is fixed in legends, traditions, customs, mores, etc. The scope of everyday knowledge is limited, but it rationally orients a person in the world in which he lives.

scientific knowledge- this is a systematized knowledge about the world around, obtained with the help of such methods of cognition that are not used in everyday life (experiment, idealization, systematic approach, etc.). scientific knowledge clothed in such forms of thinking as a principle, a scientific fact, a scientific problem, a hypothesis, a theory, which are absent in ordinary consciousness. Scientific knowledge captures the penetration into the essence of objects and processes, into the regular connections between them. Scientific knowledge uses a special language as a system of special concepts and terms that make it possible to adequately describe the studied objects, phenomena and processes of reality.

Differences between scientific knowledge and everyday knowledge:

1. Science does not study all phenomena in a row, but only those that are repeated, and therefore its main task is to look for the laws by which these phenomena exist. And the objects of scientific (theoretical) knowledge are not objects and phenomena of the real world in themselves, but their peculiar analogues - idealized objects;

2. N.C. systematized and structured (that is, arranged in a certain order, since the natural world is ordered and its knowledge is based on a causal relationship);

3. N.C. fragmented, that is, one the world studied in separate fragments;

4. N.C. logically coherent, reasoned, demonstrative, some knowledge is derived from others, the truth of which has already been proven;

5. N.C. claim to be universally binding and objective of the revealed truths, i.e. their independence from the cognizing subject, unconditional reproducibility;

6. N.C. are confirmed by experiments to ensure the truth (this is the principle of verification);

7. any knowledge is relative, that is, any scientific theory can be refuted, and if the theory is irrefutable, then it is outside of science (the principle of falsification);

8. N.C. to describe objects, a special language is used, which is constantly evolving as it penetrates into ever new areas of the objective world. Moreover, it has the opposite effect on everyday, natural language (for example, the terms “electricity”, “refrigerator” are scientific concepts that have entered everyday language). As well as the use of special scientific equipment (measuring instruments, instrument installations).

9. are successive or transmitted from one generation of people to another.