Classification of sciences by subject of study

According to the subject of research, all sciences are divided into natural, humanitarian and technical.

Natural Sciences study the phenomena, processes and objects of the material world. This world is sometimes called the outside world. These sciences include physics, chemistry, geology, biology and other similar sciences. The natural sciences also study man as a material, biological being. One of the authors of the concept of natural sciences as a single system of knowledge was the German biologist Ernst Haeckel (1834-1919). In his book World Riddles (1899), he pointed to a group of problems (riddles) that are the subject of study, in essence, of all natural sciences as a single system of natural scientific knowledge, natural science. "Haeckel" can be formulated as follows: how did the universe come into being? what types of physical interactions operate in the world and do they have a single physical nature? What does everything in the world ultimately consist of? what is the difference between the living and the non-living and what is the place of man in the infinitely changing Universe and a number of other questions of a fundamental nature. Based on the above concept of E. Haeckel on the role of natural sciences in the knowledge of the world, we can give the following definition of natural science.

Natural science is a system of natural scientific knowledge created by the natural sciences in the process of studying the fundamental laws of development of nature and the universe as a whole.

Natural science is the most important section of modern science. The unity and integrity of natural science is given by the natural scientific method underlying all natural sciences.

Humanitarian sciences- these are the sciences that study the laws of development of society and man as a social, spiritual being. These include history, law, economics and other similar sciences. Unlike, for example, biology, where a person is considered as a biological species, in the humanities we are talking about a person as a creative, spiritual being. Technical science- this is the knowledge that a person needs to create the so-called "second nature", the world of buildings, structures, communications, artificial energy sources, etc. The technical sciences include astronautics, electronics, energy and a number of other similar sciences. In the technical sciences, the relationship between natural science and the humanities is more pronounced. Systems created on the basis of knowledge of technical sciences take into account knowledge from the field of humanities and natural sciences. In all the sciences mentioned above, there is specialization and integration. Specialization characterizes a deep study of individual aspects, properties of the object under study, phenomenon, process. For example, an ecologist may devote his entire life to the study of the causes of the "bloom" of a reservoir. Integration characterizes the process of combining specialized knowledge from various scientific disciplines. Today, there is a general process of integration of natural sciences, humanities and technical sciences in solving a number of topical problems, among which global problems of the development of the world community are of particular importance. Along with the integration of scientific knowledge, the process of formation of scientific disciplines at the junction of individual sciences is developing. For example, in the twentieth century such sciences as geochemistry (geological and chemical evolution of the Earth), biochemistry (chemical interactions in living organisms) and others arose. The processes of integration and specialization eloquently emphasize the unity of science, the interconnection of its sections. The division of all sciences on the subject of study into natural, humanitarian and technical faces a certain difficulty: what sciences do mathematics, logic, psychology, philosophy, cybernetics, general systems theory, and some others belong to? This question is not trivial. This is especially true for mathematics. Mathematics, as noted by one of the founders of quantum mechanics, the English physicist P. Dirac (1902-1984), is a tool specially adapted to deal with abstract concepts of any kind, and in this area there is no limit to its power. The famous German philosopher I. Kant (1724-1804) made the following statement: there is as much science in science as there is mathematics in it. The peculiarity of modern science is manifested in the wide application of logical and mathematical methods in it. There are ongoing discussions about the so-called interdisciplinary and general methodological sciences. The former can present their knowledge about the laws of the objects under study in many other sciences, but as additional information. The latter develop general methods of scientific knowledge, they are called general methodological sciences. The question of interdisciplinary and general methodological sciences is debatable, open, and philosophical.

Theoretical and empirical sciences

According to the methods used in the sciences, it is customary to divide the sciences into theoretical and empirical.

Word "theory" borrowed from the ancient Greek language and means "the conceivable consideration of things." Theoretical Sciences create various models of real-life phenomena, processes and research objects. They make extensive use of abstract concepts, mathematical calculations, and ideal objects. This makes it possible to identify essential connections, laws and regularities of the studied phenomena, processes and objects. For example, in order to understand the patterns of thermal radiation, classical thermodynamics used the concept of a completely black body, which completely absorbs the light radiation incident on it. The principle of making postulates plays an important role in the development of theoretical sciences.

For example, A. Einstein adopted in the theory of relativity the postulate of the independence of the speed of light from the movement of the source of its radiation. This postulate does not explain why the speed of light is constant, but represents the initial position (postulate) of this theory. empirical sciences. The word "empirical" is derived from the name and surname of the ancient Roman physician, philosopher Sextus Empiricus (3rd century AD). He argued that only the data of experience should underlie the development of scientific knowledge. From here empirical means experienced. At present, this concept includes both the concept of an experiment and traditional methods of observation: description and systematization of facts obtained without using the methods of conducting an experiment. The word "experiment" is borrowed from the Latin language and literally means trial and experience. Strictly speaking, the experiment "asks questions" to nature, i.e., special conditions are created that make it possible to reveal the action of the object under these conditions. There is a close relationship between theoretical and empirical sciences: theoretical sciences use the data of empirical sciences, empirical sciences check the consequences arising from theoretical sciences. There is nothing more effective than a good theory in scientific research, and the development of a theory is impossible without an original, creatively designed experiment. At present, the term "empirical and theoretical" sciences has been replaced by more adequate terms "theoretical research" and "experimental research". The introduction of these terms emphasizes the close relationship between theory and practice in modern science.

Fundamental and applied sciences

Taking into account the result of the contribution of individual sciences to the development of scientific knowledge, all sciences are divided into fundamental and applied sciences. The former strongly influence our way of thinking, the second - on our Lifestyle.

Fundamental Sciences explore the deepest elements, structures, laws of the universe. In the 19th century it was customary to call such sciences "purely scientific research", emphasizing their focus solely on understanding the world, changing our way of thinking. It was about such sciences as physics, chemistry and other natural sciences. Some 19th century scholars argued that "physics is salt, and everything else is zero." Today, such a belief is a delusion: it cannot be argued that the natural sciences are fundamental, while the humanities and technical sciences are indirect, depending on the level of development of the former. Therefore, it is advisable to replace the term "fundamental sciences" with the term "fundamental scientific research", which develops in all sciences.

Applied Sciences, or applied scientific research, set as their goal the use of knowledge from the field of fundamental research to solve specific problems in the practical life of people, i.e. they influence our way of life. For example, applied mathematics develops mathematical methods for solving problems in the design, construction of specific technical objects. It should be emphasized that the modern classification of sciences also takes into account the objective function of a particular science. With this in mind, one speaks of exploratory scientific research to solve a particular problem and problem. Exploratory scientific research provides a link between fundamental and applied research in solving a specific task and problem. The concept of fundamentality includes the following features: the depth of research, the scope of application of research results in other sciences, and the functions of these results in the development of scientific knowledge in general.

One of the first classifications of natural sciences is the classification developed by a French scientist (1775-1836). The German chemist F. Kekule (1829-1896) also developed a classification of the natural sciences, which was discussed in the 19th century. In his classification, the main, basic science was mechanics, that is, the science of the simplest of the types of movement - mechanical.

FINDINGS

1. E. Haeckel considered all natural sciences as the fundamental basis of scientific knowledge, emphasizing that without natural science the development of all other sciences would be limited and untenable. This approach emphasizes the important role of natural science. However, the humanities and technical sciences have a significant impact on the development of natural sciences.

2. Science is an integral system of natural science, humanitarian, technical, interdisciplinary and general methodological knowledge.

3. The level of fundamentality of science is determined by the depth and scope of its knowledge, which are necessary for the development of the entire system of scientific knowledge as a whole.

4. In jurisprudence, the theory of state and law belongs to the fundamental sciences, its concepts and principles are fundamental for jurisprudence in general.

5. The natural scientific method is the basis for the unity of all scientific knowledge.

QUESTIONS FOR SELF-TEST AND SEMINARS

1. The subject of research in the natural sciences.

2. What do the humanities study?

3. What are the technical sciences researching?

4. Fundamental and applied sciences.

5. Relationship between theoretical and empirical sciences in the development of scientific knowledge.

MAIN HISTORICAL STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT OF NATURAL SCIENCE

Basic concepts: classical, non-classical and post-non-classical science, natural-scientific picture of the world, the development of science before the era of modern times, the development of science in Russia

Classical, non-classical and post-non-classical science

Researchers studying science in general distinguish three forms of the historical development of science: classical, non-classical, and post-non-classical science.

Classical science refers to science before the beginning of the 20th century, referring to the scientific ideals, tasks of science and understanding of the scientific method that were characteristic of science until the beginning of the last century. This is, first of all, the belief of many scientists of that time in the rational structure of the surrounding world and in the possibility of an accurate cause-and-effect description of events in the material world. Classical science investigated the two physical forces that dominate nature: the force of gravity and the electromagnetic force. Mechanical, physical and electromagnetic pictures of the world, as well as the concept of energy based on classical thermodynamics, are typical generalizations of classical science. Non-classical science is the science of the first half of the last century. The theory of relativity and quantum mechanics are the basic theories of non-classical science. During this period, a probabilistic interpretation of physical laws is being developed: it is absolutely impossible to predict the trajectory of particles in the quantum systems of the microworld with absolute accuracy. Post-non-classical science(fr. post- after) - science of the late twentieth century. and the beginning of the XXI century. During this period, much attention is paid to the study of complex, developing systems of animate and inanimate nature based on nonlinear models. Classical science dealt with objects whose behavior could be predicted at any desired time. New objects appear in non-classical science (objects of the microcosm), the forecast of behavior of which is given on the basis of probabilistic methods. Classical science also used statistical, probabilistic methods, but it explained the impossibility of predicting, for example, the motion of a particle in Brownian motion. a large number of interacting particles, the behavior of each of which obeys the laws of classical mechanics.

In non-classical science, the probabilistic nature of the forecast is explained by the probabilistic nature of the objects of study themselves (the corpuscular-wave nature of the objects of the microworld).

Post-nonclassical science deals with objects whose behavior becomes impossible to predict from a certain moment, i.e., at this moment a random factor acts. Such objects are discovered by physics, chemistry, astronomy and biology.

Nobel Laureate in Chemistry I. Prigogine (1917-2003) rightly noted that Western science developed not only as an intellectual game or a response to the demands of practice, but also as a passionate search for truth. This difficult search found its expression in the attempts of scientists of different centuries to create a natural-scientific picture of the world.

The concept of a natural-scientific picture of the world

At the heart of the modern scientific picture of the world lies the position on the reality of the subject of science. “For a scientist,” wrote (1863-1945), “obviously, since he works and thinks like a scientist, there is no doubt about the reality of the subject of scientific research and cannot be.” The scientific picture of the world is a kind of photographic portrait of what actually exists in the objective world. In other words, the scientific picture of the world is an image of the world, which is created on the basis of natural scientific knowledge about its structure and laws. The most important principle of creating a natural-scientific picture of the world is the principle of explaining the laws of nature from the study of nature itself, without resorting to unobservable causes and facts.

Below is a summary of the scientific ideas and teachings, the development of which led to the creation of the natural scientific method and modern natural science.

ancient science

Strictly speaking, the development of the scientific method is connected not only with the culture and civilization of Ancient Greece. In the ancient civilizations of Babylon, Egypt, China and India, the development of mathematics, astronomy, medicine and philosophy took place. In 301 BC. e. the troops of Alexander the Great entered Babylon, representatives of Greek learning (scientists, doctors, etc.) always participated in his conquest campaigns. By this time, the Babylonian priests had sufficiently developed knowledge in the field of astronomy, mathematics and medicine. From this knowledge, the Greeks borrowed the division of the day into 24 hours (2 hours for each constellation of the zodiac), the division of the circle into 360 degrees, the description of the constellations and a number of other knowledge. Let us briefly present the achievements of ancient science from the point of view of the development of natural science.

Astronomy. In the III century. BC e. Eratosthenes of Cyrenai calculated the size of the Earth, and quite accurately. He also created the first map of the known part of the Earth in a degree grid. In the III century. BC e. Aristarchus from Samos proposed a hypothesis about the rotation of the Earth and other planets known to him around the Sun. He substantiated this hypothesis by observations and calculations. Archimedes, the author of unusually deep works on mathematics, an engineer, built in the 2nd century. BC e. planetarium powered by water. In the 1st century BC e. the astronomer Posidonius calculated the distance from the Earth to the Sun, the distance he obtained is approximately 5/8 of the actual one. The astronomer Hipparchus (190-125 BC) created a mathematical system of circles to explain the apparent movement of the planets. He also created the first catalog of stars, included 870 bright stars in it and described the appearance of a “new star” in a system of previously observed stars, and thus opened up an important question for discussion in astronomy: are there any changes in the supralunar world or not. It was only in 1572 that the Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) again turned to this problem.

The system of circles created by Hipparchus was developed by K. Ptolemy (100-170 AD), the author geocentric system of the world. Ptolemy added descriptions of another 170 stars to Hipparchus' catalog. The system of the universe of K. Ptolemy developed the ideas of Aristotelian cosmology and geometry of Euclid (III century BC). In it, the center of the world was the Earth, around which the then known planets and the Sun revolved in a complex system of circular orbits. Comparison of the location of the stars according to the catalogs of Hipparchus and Ptolemy - Tycho Brahe allowed astronomers in the XVIII century. to refute the postulate of Aristotle's cosmology: "The constancy of the sky is the law of nature." There is also evidence of significant achievements of ancient civilization in medicine. In particular, Hippocrates (410-370 BC) was distinguished by the breadth of coverage of medical issues. His school achieved the greatest success in the field of surgery and in the treatment of open wounds.

An important role in the development of natural science was played by the doctrine of structure of matter and cosmological ideas of ancient thinkers.

Anaxagoras(500-428 BC) argued that all bodies in the world consist of infinitely divisible small and innumerably many elements (seeds of things, homeomers). From these seeds, by their random movement, chaos was formed. Along with the seeds of things, as Anaxagoras argued, there is a "world mind", as the finest and lightest substance, incompatible with the "seeds of the world." The world mind creates order in the world out of chaos: it unites homogeneous elements, and separates heterogeneous ones from each other. The sun, according to Anaxagoras, is a red-hot metal block or stone many times larger than the city of the Peloponnese.

Leucippus(V century BC) and his student Democritus(V century BC), as well as their followers already in a later period - Epicurus (370-270 BC) and Titus Lucretius Kara (I in. n. e.) - created the doctrine of atoms. Everything in the world consists of atoms and emptiness. Atoms are eternal, they are indivisible and indestructible. There are an infinite number of atoms, the shapes of atoms are also infinite, some of them are round, others are hooked, etc., ad infinitum. All bodies (solid, liquid, gaseous), as well as what is called the soul, are composed of atoms. The variety of properties and qualities in the world of things phenomena is determined by the variety of atoms, their number and the type of their compounds. The human soul is the finest atoms. Atoms cannot be created or destroyed. Atoms are in perpetual motion. The reasons that cause the movement of atoms are inherent in the very nature of atoms: they are characterized by heaviness, "shaking" or, speaking in modern language, pulsation, trembling. Atoms are the only and true reality, reality. The void in which the eternal movement of atoms takes place is only a background, devoid of structure, an infinite space. Emptiness is a necessary and sufficient condition for the perpetual motion of atoms, from the interaction of which everything is formed both on Earth and in the entire Universe. Everything in the world is causally determined by virtue of necessity, the order that originally exists in it. The "vortex" motion of atoms is the cause of everything that exists not only on the planet Earth, but also in the Universe as a whole. There are an infinite number of worlds. Since atoms are eternal, no one created them, and therefore there is no beginning of the world. Thus, the Universe is a movement from atoms to atoms. There are no goals in the world (for example, such a goal as the emergence of man). In the knowledge of the world, it is reasonable to ask why something happened, for what reason, and it is completely unreasonable to ask for what purpose it happened. Time is the unfolding of events from atoms to atoms. “People,” Democritus argued, “invented an image of chance in order to use it as a pretext to cover up their own folly.”

Plato (IV century BC) - ancient philosopher, teacher of Aristotle. Among the natural-science ideas of Plato's philosophy, a special place is occupied by the concept of mathematics and the role of mathematics in the knowledge of nature, the world, the universe. According to Plato, sciences based on observation or sensory knowledge, such as physics, cannot lead to adequate, true knowledge of the world. Of mathematics, Plato considered the basic arithmetic, since the idea of ​​a number does not need its justification in other ideas. This idea that the world is written in the language of mathematics is deeply connected with Plato's teachings about the ideas or essences of things in the surrounding world. This teaching contains a deep thought about the existence of connections and relations that have a universal character in the world. Plato concluded that astronomy is closer to mathematics than physics, since astronomy observes and expresses in quantitative mathematical formulas the harmony of the world created by the demiurge, or god, the best and most perfect, integral, resembling a huge organism. The doctrine of the essence of things and the concept of mathematics of Plato's philosophy had a huge impact on many thinkers of subsequent generations, for example, on the work of I. Kepler (1570-1630): “Creating us in our own image,” he wrote, “God wanted us to be able to perceive and share his own thoughts with him... Our knowledge (of numbers and magnitudes) is of the same kind as God's, but at least insofar as we can understand at least something during this mortal life. I. Kepler tried to combine terrestrial mechanics with celestial, assuming the presence in the world of dynamic and mathematical laws governing this perfect world created by God. In this sense, I. Kepler was a follower of Plato. He tried to combine mathematics (geometry) with astronomy (the observations of T. Brahe and the observations of his contemporary G. Galileo). From mathematical calculations and observational data of astronomers, Kepler had the idea that the world is not an organism, like Plato, but a well-oiled mechanism, a celestial machine. He discovered three mysterious laws, according to which the planets do not move in circles, but on ellipses around the sun. Kepler's laws:

1. All planets move in elliptical orbits with the sun at the center.

2. A straight line connecting the Sun and any planet describes the same area in equal time intervals.

3. The cubes of the average distances of the planets from the Sun are related as the squares of their periods of revolution: R 13/R 23 - T 12/T 22,

where R 1, R 2 - the distance of the planets to the Sun, T 1, T 2 - the period of revolution of the planets around the sun. Kepler were established on the basis of observations and contradicted Aristotelian astronomy, which was generally recognized during the Middle Ages and had its supporters in the 17th century. I. Kepler considered his laws to be illusory, since he was convinced that God determined the motion of the planets in circular orbits in the form of a mathematical circle.

Aristotle(IV century BC) - philosopher, founder of logic and a number of sciences, such as biology and control theory. The device of the world, or cosmology, of Aristotle is as follows: the world, the Universe, has the shape of a ball with a finite radius. The surface of the ball is a sphere, so the universe consists of nested spheres. The center of the world is the Earth. The world is divided into sublunar and supralunar. The sublunar world is the Earth and the sphere on which the Moon is attached. The whole world consists of five elements: water, earth, air, fire and ether (radiant). Everything that is in the supralunar world consists of ether: stars, luminaries, the space between the spheres and the supralunar spheres themselves. Ether cannot be perceived by the senses. In the knowledge of everything that is in the sublunar world, which does not consist of ether, our feelings, observations, corrected by the mind, do not deceive us and provide adequate information about the sublunar world.

Aristotle believed that the world was created for a specific purpose. Therefore, in him everything in the Universe has its intended purpose or place: fire, air tend upwards, earth, water - to the center of the world, to the Earth. There is no emptiness in the world, i.e. everything is occupied by ether. In addition to the five elements that Aristotle is talking about, there is something else "indefinite", which he calls the "first matter", but in his cosmology the "first matter" does not play a significant role. In his cosmology, the supralunar world is eternal and unchanging. The laws of the supralunar world differ from the laws of the sublunar world. The spheres of the supralunar world move uniformly in circles around the Earth, making a complete revolution in one day. On the last sphere is the "prime mover". Being motionless, it gives movement to the whole world. The sublunar world has its own laws. Changes, appearances, disintegration, etc. dominate here. The sun and stars are composed of ether. It has no effect on celestial bodies in the supralunar world. Observations indicating that something is flickering, moving, etc. in the firmament of heaven, according to Aristotle's cosmology, are the result of the influence of the Earth's atmosphere on our senses.

In understanding the nature of movement, Aristotle distinguished four types of movement: a) increase (and decrease); b) transformation or qualitative change; c) creation and destruction; d) movement as movement in space. Objects in relation to movement, according to Aristotle, can be: a) motionless; b) self-propelled; c) moving not spontaneously, but through the action of other bodies. Analyzing the types of movement, Aristotle proves that they are based on the type of movement, which he called movement in space. Movement in space can be circular, rectilinear and mixed (circular + rectilinear). Since there is no emptiness in the world of Aristotle, the movement must be continuous, that is, from one point in space to another. It follows from this that rectilinear motion is discontinuous, so, having reached the boundary of the world, a ray of light, propagating along a straight line, must interrupt its motion, i.e., change its direction. Aristotle considered the circular motion to be the most perfect and eternal, uniform, it is this that is characteristic of the motion of the celestial spheres.

The world, according to the philosophy of Aristotle, is the cosmos, where man is given the main place. In matters of the relationship between living and non-living, Aristotle was a supporter, one might say, of organic evolution. Aristotle's theory or hypothesis of the origin of life assumes "spontaneous generation from particles of matter" that have in themselves some kind of "active principle", entelechy (Greek. entelecheia- completion), which, under certain conditions, can create an organism. The doctrine of organic evolution was also developed by the philosopher Empedocles (5th century BC).

The achievements of the ancient Greeks in the field of mathematics were significant. For example, the mathematician Euclid (III century BC) created geometry as the first mathematical theory of space. Only at the beginning of the XIX century. a new non-Euclidean Geometry, whose methods were used to create the theory of relativity, the basis of non-classical science.

The teachings of ancient Greek thinkers about matter, matter, atoms contained a deep natural-scientific idea about the universal nature of the laws of nature: atoms are the same in different parts of the world, therefore, atoms in the world obey the same laws.

Questions for the seminar

Various classifications of natural sciences (Ampère, Kekule)

ancient astronomy

ancient medicine

The structure of the world.

Mathematics

Mankind has always sought to explain complex phenomena, to reduce their diversity to some kind of certainty, a system. Science is no exception, which seeks to explain not only the external and internal world that surrounds a person, but also classify itself according to some criteria.

The most famous in the scientific community was the classification of sciences, given F. Engels in Dialectics of Nature. Based on the development of moving matter from the lowest to the highest, he singled out mechanics, physics, chemistry, biology, social sciences. On the same principle of subordination of the forms of motion of matter, the classification of the sciences of the domestic scientist is based. B.M. Kedrova. He distinguished six basic forms of motion of matter: subatomic-physical, chemical, molecular-physical, geological, biological and social.

Currently, depending on the sphere, subject and method of knowledge, sciences are distinguished:

1) about nature - natural;

2) about society - humanitarian and social;

3) about thinking and cognition - logic, epistemology, epistemology, etc.

In the classifier of areas and specialties of higher professional education, developed by scientific and methodological councils - departments of the UMO in the areas of education, the following are highlighted:

1) natural sciences and mathematics (mechanics, physics, chemistry, biology, soil science, geography, hydrometeorology, geology, ecology, etc.);

2) humanities and socio-economic sciences (culturology, theology, philology, philosophy, linguistics, journalism, book science, history, political science, psychology, social work, sociology, regional studies, management, economics, art, physical culture, commerce, agroeconomics, statistics , art, jurisprudence, etc.);

3) technical sciences (construction, printing, telecommunications, metallurgy, mining, electronics and microelectronics, geodesy, radio engineering, architecture, etc.);

4) agricultural sciences (agronomy, zootechnics, veterinary medicine, agroengineering, forestry, fisheries, etc.).

Let's pay attention to the fact that in this classifier technical and agricultural sciences are separated into separate groups, and mathematics is not classified as a natural science.

Some scientists do not consider philosophy a science (only science) or put it on a par with the natural, technical and social sciences. This is explained by the fact that they consider it as a worldview, knowledge about the world as a whole, a methodology of knowledge, or as the science of all sciences. Philosophy, in their opinion, is not aimed at collecting, analyzing and generalizing facts, discovering the laws of motion of reality, it only uses the achievements of specific sciences. Leaving aside the dispute about the relationship between philosophy and science, we note that philosophy is still a science that has its own subject and methods for studying the universal laws and characteristics of everything infinite in space and time of the objective material world.

The nomenclature of specialties of scientific workers, approved by the Ministry of Science and Technology of the Russian Federation on January 25, 2000, indicates the following branches of science: physical and mathematical, chemical, biological, geological and mineralogical, technical, agricultural, historical, economic, philosophical, philological, geographical, legal , pedagogical, medical, pharmaceutical, veterinary, art history, architecture, psychological, sociological, political, cultural and geosciences.

Each of the named groups of sciences can be subjected to further division.

There are other classifications of sciences. For example, depending on the connection with practice, sciences are divided into fundamental (theoretical), which clarify the basic laws of the objective and subjective world and are not directly focused on practice, and applied, which are aimed at solving technical, industrial, socio-technical problems.

The original classification of sciences proposed L.G. Jahaya. Dividing the sciences of nature, society and cognition into theoretical and applied ones, he singled out philosophy, the basic sciences and the particular sciences that spun off from them within this classification. For example, he classified history, political economy, jurisprudence, ethics, art history, and linguistics as the main theoretical sciences about society. These sciences have a more fractional division. For example, history is divided into ethnography, archeology, and world history. In addition, he gave a classification of the so-called "joint" sciences: intermediate sciences that arose on the border of two neighboring sciences (for example, mathematical logic, physical chemistry); crossed sciences, which were formed by combining the principles and methods of two sciences distant from each other (for example, geophysics, economic geography); complex sciences, which were formed by crossing a number of theoretical sciences (for example, oceanology, cybernetics, science of science).

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 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 ascertaining and accurately describing 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"

Scientist (scientists)	characteristic	source
Charles Richet	Science requires more and more sacrifices. She doesn't want to share with anyone. It demands that individuals devote their entire existence, their entire intellect, their entire work to it. ... To know when to persevere, when to stop, is a gift inherent in talent and even genius.
Arbiter Gay Petronius	Science is a treasure and a learned man will never be lost
Francis Bacon	Science is nothing but a reflection of reality. If science in itself did not bring any practical benefit, then even then it would not be possible to call it useless, if only it would make the mind elegant and put it in order.	Bacon Francis. Philosophy of Science. Reader [Electronic resource]. - Access mode: philsci.univ.kiev.ua/biblio/Bekon.htm.
Pierre Bourdieu	Science is made to be irresistible	Bourdieu Pierre. Les Conditions socials Internationale des idees / Pierre Bourdieu II Romanistische Zeitschriftfur Literaturgeschichte. - Heildelberg. - No. 14-1 / 2. - 1990.-p. 1-10.
John Desmond Bernal	Science is not the subject of pure thinking, but the subject of thinking, is constantly drawn into practice and constantly reinforced by practice. This is why science cannot be studied in isolation from technology	Kondrashov A. Anthology of success in aphorisms / A. Kondrashov. - M.: Lamartis, 2010. - 1280 p.
1mre Lakatos	If the goal of science is truth, science must seek consistency	Lakatos I. History of science and its rational reconstructions / I. Lakatos. - M.: 1978. - 235 p.
Bertrand Russell	Science is what we know, philosophy is what we do not know	Krysova Yu.A. Formation of liberal ideas in the philosophy of Bertrand Russell / Yu.A. Krysova II Comparative vision of the history of philosophy. - SPb., 2008. - S.119-125
Thomas Gwnry Huxley (Huxley)	The eternal tragedy of science: ugly facts kill beautiful hypotheses	Dushenko K. V. Big book of aphorisms / K. V. Dushenko. - Fifth ed., Rev. - M.: EKSMO-press, 2011. - 1056 p.
Louis Pasteur	Science should be the most exalted embodiment of the fatherland, for of all peoples, the first will always be the one who is ahead of others in the field of thought and mental activity.	Patrice Debre. Louis Pasteur / Debre Patrice. - JHU Press, 2000. - 600 p.
S. I. Vavilov	Science is a very special field of work that attracts with irresistible force. A scientist almost always completes his research activity by walking 3 life	Yushkevich A.P.. S.I. Vavilov as a researcher of I. Newton's creativity / A. P. Yushkevich II Proceedings of IIET. - T. 17. - M.: Publishing House of the Academy of Sciences of the USSR, 1957. - P. 66-89
A. M. Gorky	Science is the nervous system of our age	Dushenko K. V. Big book of aphorisms / K. V. Dushenko. - Fifth ed., Rev. - M.: EKSMO-press, 2011. - 1056 p.
J. Geant	Science in the modern sense means a project for the extraction of objective knowledge, developed by the mind. From the point of view of reason, this project means calling all things in the world to the judgment of the subject and investigating their existence so that they themselves give us the reason why they objectively are what they are.	Grant P. Philosophy, culture, technology / P. Grant II from the technological wave in the West. - M.: Science. - S. 156
V. S. Mariino, N. G. Mitsenko. A. A. Danilenko	Science is a dynamic system of reliable, most essential knowledge about the objective laws of the development of nature, society and thinking.	Fundamentals of scientific research: textbook. allowance. / V. S. Martsin, N. G. Mitsenko, A. A. Danilenko. - L.: Romus-Polygraph, 2002.-128 p.

Table 2.3

Definitions of the concept of "science" in dictionaries

definition	source
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 acquiring new knowledge and its result - the knowledge underlying the scientific picture of the world; definition of individual branches of scientific knowledge	Big encyclopedic dictionary [Electronic resource]. - Access mode: http: //onlinedics.ru/s1оvar/bes/n/nauka.html.
Science is one of the spheres of human activity, the function of which is the development and systematization of knowledge about nature, society and consciousness.	Dictionary of logic [Electronic resource]. - Access mode: onlinedics.ru/slovar/log/n/nauka.html.
Science is a system of knowledge about the patterns of development of nature, society and thinking	Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language by Ozhegov [Electronic resource]. - Access mode: onlinedics.ru/slovar/ojegov/n/nauka.html.
Science is a system of knowledge about the patterns of development of nature, society and thinking and about the ways of systematic impact on the world around	Explanatory dictionary of the Russian language Ushakov [Electronic resource]. - Access mode: onlinedics.ru/slovar/ushakov/n/nauka.html
Science is a sphere of activity, development and theoretical systematization of objective knowledge about reality, one of the forms of social consciousness, including the activity of acquiring knowledge, as well as its result - knowledge that underlies the scientific picture of the world	Historical Dictionary [Electronic resource]. - Access mode: slovarionline.ru/word/historical-dictionary/science. htm
Science is a sphere of human activity, the function of which is the development and theoretical systematization of objective knowledge about reality.	Political Dictionary [Electronic resource]. - Access mode: slovarionline. ru / word / political-dictionary / science.htm
Science is a system of knowledge about the laws of nature, society, and thinking. Sciences are distinguished: by the nature of the subject of study (natural, technical, humanitarian, social, etc.); by the method of data collection and the level of their generalization (empirical, theoretical, fundamental) by the research method (nomothetic, ideographic) by the degree of practical application (pure, applied)	Sociological Dictionary [Electronic resource]. - Access mode: slovarionline. ru / word / sociological-dictionary / science.htm
Science is a special kind of cognitive activity aimed at developing objective, systematically organized and justified knowledge about the world.	Philosophical Dictionary [Electronic resource]. - Access mode: slovarionline.ru/word/philosophical-dictionary/science.htm

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.

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 concrete 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-creation 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

1) Bezuglov I.G., Lebedinsky V.V., Bezuglov A.I. Fundamentals of scientific research: a textbook for graduate students and graduate students / Bezuglov I.G., Lebedinsky V.V., Bezuglov A.I. - M .: - Academic project, 2008. - 194 p.

2) Gerasimov I.G. Scientific research. - M.: Politizdat, 1972. - 279 p.

3) Krutov V.I., Grushko I.M., Popov V.V. Fundamentals of scientific research: Proc. for tech. universities, ed. Krutova, I.M., Popova V.V. - M .: Higher. school, 1989. - 400 p.

4) Shklyar M.F. Fundamentals of scientific research: Textbook / M.F. Shklyar. - 3rd ed. - M .: Publishing and Trade Corporation "Dashkov and K", 2010. - 244 p.

The concept of "science" has several basic meanings. Firstly, science is understood as the sphere of human activity aimed at developing and systematizing new knowledge about nature, society, thinking and knowledge of the surrounding world. In the second meaning, science acts as a result of this activity - a system of acquired scientific knowledge. Thirdly, science is understood as one of the forms of social consciousness, a social institution.

The immediate goal of science is the comprehension of objective truth, obtained as a result of knowledge about the objective and subjective world.

The tasks of science: collection, description, analysis, generalization and explanation of facts; discovery of the laws of motion of nature, society, thinking and knowledge; systematization of acquired knowledge; explanation of the essence of phenomena and processes; forecasting of events, phenomena and processes; establishing directions and forms of practical use of acquired knowledge.

An extensive system of numerous and diverse studies, distinguished by object, subject, method, degree of fundamentality, scope, etc., practically excludes a single classification of all sciences on one basis. In the most general form, sciences are divided into natural, technical, social and humanitarian.

To natural sciences include sciences:

about space, its structure, development (astronomy, cosmology, etc.);

Earth (geology, geophysics, etc.);

physical, chemical, biological systems and processes, forms of motion of matter (physics, etc.);

man as a biological species, its origin and evolution (anatomy, etc.).

Technical The sciences are substantively based on the natural sciences. They study various forms and directions of development of technology (radio engineering, electrical engineering, etc.).

social the sciences also have a number of directions and study society (economics, sociology, political science, jurisprudence, etc.).

Humanities sciences - sciences about the spiritual world of a person, about the attitude towards the world around him, society, his own kind (pedagogy, psychology, etc.).

2. Natural science and humanitarian culture.

Their difference is based on certain types of relationship between the object and the subject in the natural and social sciences and the humanities. In the first there is a clear separation of the object from the subject, sometimes brought to the absolute; while all the attention of the researcher is focused on the object. In the social and human sciences, such a separation is fundamentally impossible, since in them the subject and object are merged into one object. The problems of such relationships were studied by the English writer and scientist C. Snow.

The subject area of ​​science includes:

· system of knowledge about nature - natural science (natural sciences);

· a system of knowledge about the positively significant values ​​of being a person, social strata, the state, humanity (humanities).

The natural sciences are an integral part of the natural science culture, and the humanities, respectively, of the humanitarian culture.

natural science culture- is: the total historical volume of knowledge about nature and society; the volume of knowledge about specific types and spheres of being, which is updated and accessible in a reduced form and available for presentation; the content of accumulated and updated knowledge about nature and society assimilated by a person.

humanitarian culture- this is: the total historical volume of knowledge of philosophy, religious studies, jurisprudence, ethics, art history, pedagogy, literary criticism and other sciences; system-forming values ​​​​of humanitarian knowledge (humanism, ideals of beauty, perfection, freedom, kindness, etc.).

The specifics of natural science culture: knowledge about nature is distinguished by a high degree of objectivity and reliability (truth). In addition, it is deeply specialized knowledge.

Specificity of humanitarian culture: the system-forming values ​​of humanitarian knowledge are determined and activated on the basis of an individual's belonging to a certain social group. The problem of truth is solved taking into account the knowledge about the object and the assessment of the usefulness of this knowledge by the cognizing or consuming subject. At the same time, the possibility of interpretations that contradict the real properties of objects, saturation with certain ideals and projects of the future is not ruled out.

The relationship between natural science and humanitarian cultures is as follows: have a common cultural basis, are the fundamental elements of a single system of knowledge; represent the highest form of human knowledge; mutually coordinate in the historical and cultural process; stimulate the emergence of new interdisciplinary branches of knowledge at the intersection of the natural and human sciences.

Man is the main link in the connection of all sciences