Empirical knowledge is the establishment of scientific facts and their subjective processing. This is the initial moment of the cognition process, in which sensations and feelings play the most important role. Thanks to the senses, a human being can be objectively connected with the world around him. They provide direct primary knowledge about things, phenomena and objects, their functions and properties.
Epistemology of sensations
This section of science considers the empirical and theoretical levels of knowledge as a superstructure over the sensory. The latter include perception, sensation and representation. Empirical knowledge is based on sensations. This is a reflection of the properties of individual objects, things during their impact on the senses. This is elementary knowledge that does not have the structure of a cognitive phenomenon. The information capacity of the human senses is based on vision, touch, hearing, smell and taste. Sense organs as means of cognition are formed as a result of practical direct interaction between nature and man. It is through this practice that empirical knowledge is possible. The ideas and images that are created as a result of the acquisition of one or another sensation cannot be separated from the cognitive social actions and preferences of people.
Epistemology of perception
The empirical level of cognition is also built on perception, which is a sensory-structured, concrete image. It arises on the basis of a complex of previously received sensations: tactile, visual, and so on. Empirical knowledge starts from perception, which is thinking contemplation. As a result of the perception and sensation of the forms of external nature, an idea of it is created as an image of a cognitive type. Representation is an intermediate link between thinking and perception.
Comprehension
Empirical knowledge appears at the intersection of sensory perception and consciousness. Sensations leave a deep imprint on the mind. Processes and events, felt subconsciously, orient a person in the flow of life events, but he does not always specifically record them. It is impossible to comprehend all this and penetrate into the essence of things, to find out the causes of phenomena with the help of the senses alone. This can be achieved through mental (rational) cognition, combined with a process such as empirical cognition.
Experienced level
Experience is a higher level compared to the sensory. Empirical and theoretical knowledge (without which it will be impossible to apply the experience gained) make it possible to describe experience. They involve the creation of a source of knowledge in the form of scientific, rigorous documents. These can be schemes, acts, protocols, and so on. Empirical knowledge can be both direct and indirect (through the use of all kinds of instruments and devices).
Historical process
Modern empirical scientific knowledge has its source from observation of things, objects and natural phenomena. Our ancestors observed animals, plants, the sky, other people, and the work of the human body. It was the knowledge acquired in this way that formed the basis of astronomy, biology, medicine, physics and other sciences. In the process of development of civilization, the empirical and theoretical levels of knowledge were improved, and the possibilities of perception and observation with the help of tools and devices increased. Purposeful observation differs from contemplation by the selectivity of the process. Preliminary hypotheses and ideas target the researcher at specific research objects, which also determines the set of technical means that are necessary to obtain a reliable result.
Methodology
Methods of empirical knowledge are based on living contemplation, sensory perception and rationality. Collection and synthesis of facts is the main task of these processes. Methods of empirical knowledge include observation, measurement, analysis, induction, experiment, comparison, observation.
1. Observation is a passive, purposeful study of an object, which relies on the senses. During this process, the researcher receives general information about the object of knowledge and its properties.
2. An experiment is a purposeful active intervention in the current process being studied. It includes a change in the object and the conditions of its functioning, which are determined by the goals of the experiment. The features of the experiment are: an active attitude towards the subject of research, the possibility of its transformation, control over its behavior, verification of the result, reproducibility of the experiment in relation to the object and conditions being studied, the ability to discover additional properties of phenomena.
3. Comparison is an operation of cognition that reveals the differences or identity of different objects. This process makes sense in one class of homogeneous things and phenomena.
4. Description - a procedure consisting of recording the result of an experiment (experiment or observation) using accepted notation systems.
5. Measurement is a set of active actions that are performed using measuring and computing tools to find the numerical and quantitative values of the quantities being studied.
It must be emphasized that empirical and theoretical knowledge are always realized together, that is, research methods are supported by conceptual theories, hypotheses and ideas.
Technical equipment
Empirical knowledge in science actively uses technical retrofitting in the process of studying phenomena and things. It can be:
Measuring devices and instruments: scales, rulers, speedometers, radiometers, ammeters and voltmeters, wattmeters and so on, helping the researcher to find out the parameters and characteristics of objects;
Instruments that can help in observing things and objects that are virtually invisible to the naked eye (telescopes, microscopes, etc.);
Devices that allow you to analyze the functions and structure of the processes and phenomena under study: oscilloscopes, electrocardiographs, chromatographs, chronometers, etc.
The importance of the experiment
Empirical knowledge and its results today directly depend on experimental data. If they are not obtained or are not possible at this stage, then the theory is considered “naked” - impractical and unconfirmed. Conducting an experiment correctly is a responsible task of building a theory. Only through this process can hypotheses be tested and hypothesized connections established. An experiment differs qualitatively from observation in three conditions:
1. During an experiment, phenomena occur under conditions previously created by the researcher. During observation, we only register a phenomenon in its natural environment.
2. The researcher freely interferes with events and phenomena within the framework of the rules of the experiment. The observer does not have the right and cannot regulate the object of research and its conditions.
3. During the experiment, the researcher has the right to exclude or include various parameters. The observer only records possible new parameters in natural conditions.
Types of experiments
The empirical level of knowledge is based on different types of experiments:
Physical - study of the diversity of natural phenomena;
Psychological - study of the life activity of the subject of research and accompanying circumstances;
Mental - carried out exclusively in the imagination;
Critical - data must be checked according to various criteria;
Computer mathematical modeling.
Scientific knowledge has two levels: empirical and theoretical.
EMPIRICAL LEVEL OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE – This direct sensory exploration actually existing and accessible to experience objects.
Empirically are being implemented following research processes:
1.Formation of an empirical research base:
– accumulation of information about the objects and phenomena under study;
– determination of the scope of scientific facts in the accumulated information;
– introduction of physical quantities, their measurement and systematization of scientific facts in the form of tables, diagrams, graphs, etc.;
2.Classification and theoretical generalization information about the obtained scientific facts:
– introduction of concepts and designations;
– identification of patterns in the connections and relationships of objects of knowledge;
– identifying common characteristics of objects of cognition and reducing them to general classes based on these characteristics;
– primary formulation of the initial theoretical principles.
Thus, empirical level scientific knowledge contains two components:
1.Sensory experience.
2.Primary theoretical understanding sensory experience .
The basis of the content of empirical scientific knowledge received in sensory experience, are scientific facts. If any fact, as such, is a reliable, single, independent event or phenomenon, then a scientific fact is a fact that is firmly established, reliably confirmed and correctly described by methods accepted in science.
Revealed and recorded by methods accepted in science, a scientific fact has a coercive force for the system of scientific knowledge, that is, it subordinates the logic of the reliability of the research.
Thus, at the empirical level of scientific knowledge, an empirical research base is formed, whose reliability is formed by the coercive force of scientific facts.
Empirical level scientific knowledge uses following methods:
1. Observation. Scientific observation is a system of measures for sensory collection of information about the properties of the object of knowledge under study. The main methodological condition for correct scientific observation is the independence of the results of observation from the conditions and process of observation. The fulfillment of this condition ensures both the objectivity of observation and the implementation of its main function - the collection of empirical data in their natural state.
Observations according to the method of conducting are divided into:
– direct(information is obtained directly by the senses);
– indirect(human senses are replaced by technical means).
2. Measurement. Scientific observation is always accompanied by measurement. Measurement is a comparison of any physical quantity of an object of knowledge with a standard unit of this quantity. Measurement is a sign of scientific activity, since any research becomes scientific only when measurements occur in it.
Depending on the nature of the behavior of certain properties of an object over time, measurements are divided into:
– static, in which time-constant quantities are determined (external dimensions of bodies, weight, hardness, constant pressure, specific heat, density, etc.);
– dynamic, in which time-varying quantities are found (oscillation amplitudes, pressure differences, temperature changes, changes in quantity, saturation, speed, growth rates, etc.).
According to the method of obtaining the results, measurements are divided into:
– straight(direct measurement of a quantity by a measuring device);
– indirect(by mathematical calculation of a quantity from its known relationships with any quantity obtained by direct measurements).
The purpose of measurement is to express the properties of an object in quantitative characteristics, translate them into linguistic form and make them the basis of a mathematical, graphic or logical description.
3. Description. The measurement results are used to scientifically describe the object of knowledge. A scientific description is a reliable and accurate picture of the object of knowledge, displayed by means of natural or artificial language .
The purpose of the description is to translate sensory information into a form convenient for rational processing: into concepts, into signs, into diagrams, into drawings, into graphs, into numbers, etc.
4. Experiment. An experiment is a research influence on an object of cognition to identify new parameters of its known properties or to identify its new, previously unknown properties. An experiment differs from an observation in that the experimenter, unlike the observer, intervenes in the natural state of the object of knowledge, actively influences both the object itself and the processes in which this object participates.
According to the nature of the goals set, experiments are divided into:
– research, which are aimed at discovering new, unknown properties in an object;
– test, which serve to test or confirm certain theoretical constructs.
According to the methods of conducting and tasks for obtaining results, experiments are divided into:
– quality, which are exploratory in nature, set the task of identifying the very presence or absence of certain theoretically hypothesized phenomena, and are not aimed at obtaining quantitative data;
– quantitative, which are aimed at obtaining accurate quantitative data about the object of knowledge or the processes in which it participates.
After the completion of empirical knowledge, the theoretical level of scientific knowledge begins.
THEORETICAL LEVEL OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE is processing of empirical data by thinking with the help of abstract work of thought.
Thus, the theoretical level of scientific knowledge is characterized by the predominance of the rational moment - concepts, inferences, ideas, theories, laws, categories, principles, premises, conclusions, conclusions, etc.
The predominance of the rational moment in theoretical knowledge is achieved by abstraction– distraction of consciousness from sensually perceived specific objects and transition to abstract ideas.
Abstract representations are divided into:
1. Abstractions of identification– grouping of many objects of knowledge into separate types, genera, classes, orders, etc. according to the principle of the identity of any of their most essential characteristics (minerals, mammals, asteraceae, chordates, oxides, proteins, explosives, liquids, amorphous, subatomic, etc.).
Identification abstractions make it possible to discover the most general and essential forms of interactions and connections between objects of knowledge, and then move from them to particular manifestations, modifications and options, revealing the fullness of the processes occurring between objects of the material world.
Abstracting from the unimportant properties of objects, the abstraction of identification allows us to translate specific empirical data into an idealized and simplified system of abstract objects for the purposes of cognition, capable of participating in complex operations of thinking.
2. Isolating Abstractions. Unlike abstractions of identification, these abstractions distinguish into separate groups not objects of cognition, but some of their common properties or characteristics (hardness, electrical conductivity, solubility, impact strength, melting point, boiling point, freezing point, hygroscopicity, etc.).
Isolating abstractions also make it possible to idealize empirical experience for the purposes of knowledge and express it in concepts capable of participating in complex operations of thinking.
Thus, the transition to abstractions allows theoretical knowledge to provide thinking with generalized abstract material for obtaining scientific knowledge about the entire variety of real processes and objects of the material world, which would be impossible to do by limiting ourselves only to empirical knowledge, without abstracting from specifically each of these innumerable objects or processes .
As a result of abstraction, the following becomes possible: METHODS OF THEORETICAL KNOWLEDGE:
1. Idealization. Idealization is mental creation of objects and phenomena unrealizable in reality to simplify the process of research and construction of scientific theories.
For example: the concepts of point or material point, which are used to designate objects that do not have dimensions; introduction of various conventional concepts, such as: ideally flat surface, ideal gas, absolutely black body, absolutely rigid body, absolute density, inertial frame of reference, etc. to illustrate scientific ideas; the orbit of an electron in an atom, the pure formula of a chemical substance without impurities and other concepts that are impossible in reality, created to explain or formulate scientific theories.
Idealizations are appropriate:
– when it is necessary to simplify the object or phenomenon under study to build a theory;
– when it is necessary to exclude from consideration those properties and connections of an object that do not affect the essence of the planned results of the study;
– when the real complexity of the research object exceeds the existing scientific capabilities of its analysis;
– when the real complexity of research objects makes their scientific description impossible or difficult;
Thus, in theoretical knowledge there is always a replacement of a real phenomenon or object of reality with its simplified model.
That is, the method of idealization in scientific knowledge is inextricably linked with the method of modeling.
2. Modeling. Theoretical modeling is replacement of a real object with its analogue, performed by means of language or mentally.
The main condition for modeling is that the created model of the object of knowledge, due to its high degree of correspondence to reality, allows:
– conduct research of the object that is not feasible in real conditions;
– conduct research on objects that are in principle inaccessible in real experience;
– conduct research on an object that is not directly accessible at the moment;
– reduce the cost of research, reduce its time, simplify its technology, etc.;
– optimize the process of constructing a real object by testing the process of constructing a prototype model.
Thus, theoretical modeling performs two functions in theoretical knowledge: it examines the modeled object and develops a program of action for its material embodiment (construction).
3. Thought experiment. A thought experiment is mental conduction over the object of knowledge that is not realizable in reality research procedures.
Used as a theoretical testing ground for planned real research activities, or for the study of phenomena or situations in which real experimentation is generally impossible (for example, quantum physics, the theory of relativity, social, military or economic models of development, etc.).
4. Formalization. Formalization is logical organization of content scientific knowledge means artificial language special symbols (signs, formulas).
Formalization allows:
– bring the theoretical content of the study to the level of general scientific symbols (signs, formulas);
– transfer the theoretical reasoning of the study to the plane of operating with symbols (signs, formulas);
– create a generalized sign-symbol model of the logical structure of the phenomena and processes under study;
– to carry out a formal study of the object of knowledge, that is, to carry out research by operating with signs (formulas) without directly addressing the object of knowledge.
5. Analysis and synthesis. Analysis is the mental decomposition of a whole into its component parts, pursuing the following goals:
– study of the structure of the object of knowledge;
- breaking down a complex whole into simple parts;
– separation of the essential from the non-essential as part of the whole;
– classification of objects, processes or phenomena;
– highlighting the stages of a process, etc.
The main purpose of analysis is the study of parts as elements of the whole.
The parts, known and understood in a new way, are put together into a whole using synthesis - a method of reasoning that constructs new knowledge about the whole from the combination of its parts.
Thus, analysis and synthesis are inseparably linked mental operations as part of the process of cognition.
6. Induction and deduction.
Induction is a process of cognition in which knowledge of individual facts in the aggregate leads to knowledge of the general.
Deduction is a cognitive process in which each subsequent statement logically follows from the previous one.
The above methods of scientific knowledge make it possible to reveal the deepest and most significant connections, patterns and characteristics of objects of knowledge, on the basis of which they arise FORMS OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE – ways of collectively presenting research results.
The main forms of scientific knowledge are:
1. Problem - a theoretical or practical scientific question that requires a solution. A correctly formulated problem partially contains a solution, since it is formulated based on the actual possibility of its solution.
2. A hypothesis is a proposed way to possibly solve a problem. A hypothesis can act not only in the form of scientific assumptions, but also in the form of a detailed concept or theory.
3. A theory is a holistic system of concepts that describes and explains any area of reality.
Scientific theory is the highest form of scientific knowledge, which in its development goes through the stage of posing a problem and putting forward a hypothesis, which is refuted or confirmed by the use of methods of scientific knowledge.
There are two levels of scientific knowledge: empirical and theoretical. Some general scientific methods are used only at the empirical level (observation, experiment, measurement), others - only at the theoretical level (idealization, formalization), and some (for example, modeling) - at both the empirical and theoretical levels.
The empirical level of scientific knowledge is characterized by the direct study of really existing, sensory objects. At this level, the process of accumulating information about the objects and phenomena under study is carried out by making observations, performing various measurements, and setting up experiments. Here, the primary systematization of the obtained factual data is also carried out in the form of tables, diagrams, graphs, etc. In addition, at this level of scientific knowledge - as a consequence of the generalization of scientific facts - it is possible to formulate some empirical laws.
The theoretical level of scientific research is carried out at the rational (logical) stage of cognition. At this level, the deepest, most significant aspects, connections, and patterns inherent in the objects and phenomena being studied are revealed. The theoretical level is a higher level in scientific knowledge. The results of theoretical knowledge are hypotheses, theories, laws.
The relationship between empirics and theory
- Qualitative difference between empirical and theoretical knowledge in science
- The relationship between them, including an explanation of the mechanism of this relationship.
If the source of the content of empirical knowledge is information about objective reality, obtained through observation and experimentation with it, then the basis of the content of theoretical knowledge is information about ideal objects, which are products of the constructive activity of thinking.
Theoretical knowledge is a complex structure consisting of statements of varying degrees of generality.
- The most general level is axioms, theoretical laws. For example, for classical mechanics these are Newton’s three laws (inertia; the relationship of force, mass and acceleration; equality of action and reaction forces).
- The second, less general level of scientific theory is the particular theoretical laws that describe the structure, properties and behavior of ideal objects constructed from initial ideal objects. For classical mechanics, these are, for example, the laws of motion of an ideal pendulum.
- The third, least general level of developed scientific theory consists of private, individual theoretical statements about the properties and relationships of some ideal objects.
Empirical and theoretical types of knowledge differ not only in means, but also in methods of research activity.
At the empirical level, real experiment and real observation are used as the main methods. An important role is also played by methods of empirical description, focused on the objective characteristics of the phenomena being studied, as cleared as possible from subjective layers.
As for theoretical research, special methods are used here: idealization (method of constructing an idealized object); thought experiment with idealized objects; special methods of theory construction (ascending from the abstract to the concrete); methods of logical and historical research, etc.
All these features of tools and methods are related to the specifics of the subject of empirical and theoretical research. At each of these levels, a researcher can deal with the same objective reality, but he studies it in different subject sections, in different aspects, and therefore its vision, its representation in knowledge will be given differently.
By studying phenomena and connections between them, empirical knowledge is able to detect the operation of an objective law. But it records this action, as a rule, in the form of empirical dependencies, which should be distinguished from a theoretical law as special knowledge obtained as a result of the theoretical study of objects.
Empirical dependence is the result of inductive communication of experience and represents probabilistic true knowledge. A theoretical law is always reliable knowledge. Obtaining such knowledge requires special research procedures.
It should be emphasized that an increase in the number of experiments in itself does not make the empirical dependence a reliable fact, because induction always deals with unfinished, incomplete experience. No matter how many experiments we carry out and generalize them, simple inductive generalization of experimental results does not lead to theoretical knowledge. Theory is not built by inductive generalization of experience.
So, the empirical and theoretical levels of knowledge differ in the subject, means and methods of research. In reality, these two layers of cognition always interact.
There are two levels of scientific knowledge: empirical and theoretical.
“This difference is based on the dissimilarity, firstly, of the methods (methods) of the cognitive activity itself, and secondly, of the nature of the scientific results achieved”.
Some general scientific methods are used only at the empirical level (observation, experiment, measurement), others - only at the theoretical level (idealization, formalization), and some (for example, modeling) - at both the empirical and theoretical levels.
Empirical level of scientific knowledge characterized by direct exploration of real-life, sensory-perceptible objects. The special role of empirics in science lies in the fact that only at this level of research we deal with the direct interaction of a person with the natural or social objects being studied. Living contemplation (sensory cognition) predominates here; the rational element and its forms (judgments, concepts, etc.) are present here, but have a subordinate meaning. Therefore, the object under study is reflected primarily from its external connections and manifestations, accessible to living contemplation and expressing internal relationships. At this level, the process of accumulating information about the objects and phenomena under study is carried out by conducting observations, performing various measurements, and delivering experiments. Here, the primary systematization of the obtained factual data is also carried out in the form of tables, diagrams, graphs, etc. In addition, already at the second level of scientific knowledge - as a consequence of the generalization of scientific facts - it is possible to formulate some empirical patterns.
Theoretical level of scientific knowledge characterized by the predominance of the rational moment - concepts, theories, laws and other forms and “mental operations”. The lack of direct practical interaction with objects determines the peculiarity that an object at a given level of scientific knowledge can only be studied indirectly, in a thought experiment, but not in a real one. However, living contemplation is not eliminated here, but becomes a subordinate (but very important) aspect of the cognitive process.
At this level, the most profound essential aspects, connections, patterns inherent in the objects and phenomena being studied are revealed by processing the data of empirical knowledge. This processing is carried out using systems of “higher order” abstractions - such as concepts, inferences, laws, categories, principles, etc. However, at the theoretical level we will not find a fixation or abbreviated summary of empirical data; theoretical thinking cannot be reduced to the summation of empirically given material. It turns out that theory does not grow out of empirics, but as if next to it, or rather, above it and in connection with it.”
The theoretical level is a higher level in scientific knowledge. “The theoretical level of knowledge is aimed at the formation of theoretical laws that meet the requirements of possibility and necessity, i.e. operate everywhere and always.” The results of theoretical knowledge are hypotheses, theories, laws.
While distinguishing these two different levels in scientific research, one should not, however, separate them from each other and oppose them. After all, the empirical and theoretical levels of knowledge are interconnected. The empirical level acts as the basis, the foundation of the theoretical. Hypotheses and theories are formed in the process of theoretical understanding of scientific facts and statistical data obtained at the empirical level. In addition, theoretical thinking inevitably relies on sensory-visual images (including diagrams, graphs, etc.), with which the empirical level of research deals.
In turn, the empirical level of scientific knowledge cannot exist without achievements at the theoretical level. Empirical research is usually based on a certain theoretical construct, which determines the direction of this research, determines and justifies the methods used.
According to K. Popper, the belief that we can begin scientific research with “pure observations” without having “something resembling a theory” is absurd. Therefore, some conceptual perspective is absolutely necessary. Naive attempts to do without it can, in his opinion, only lead to self-deception and the uncritical use of some unconscious point of view.
The empirical and theoretical levels of knowledge are interconnected, the boundary between them is conditional and fluid. Empirical research, revealing new data through observations and experiments, stimulates theoretical knowledge (which generalizes and explains them), and poses new, more complex tasks. On the other hand, theoretical knowledge, developing and concretizing its own new content on the basis of empirics, opens up new, broader horizons for empirical knowledge, orients and directs it in the search for new facts, contributes to the improvement of its methods and means, etc.
The third group of methods of scientific knowledge includes methods used only within the framework of research into a specific science or a specific phenomenon. Such methods are called private scientific methods. Each special science (biology, chemistry, geology, etc.) has its own specific research methods.
At the same time, private scientific methods, as a rule, contain certain general scientific methods of cognition in various combinations. Particular scientific methods may include observations, measurements, inductive or deductive inferences, etc. The nature of their combination and use depends on the research conditions and the nature of the objects being studied. Thus, specific scientific methods are not divorced from general scientific ones. They are closely related to them and include the specific application of general scientific cognitive techniques for studying a specific area of the objective world. At the same time, particular scientific methods are also connected with the universal, dialectical method, which seems to be refracted through them.
There are two levels of knowledge: empirical and theoretical.
The empirical (from the gr. Emreria - experience) level of knowledge is knowledge obtained directly from experience with some rational processing of the properties and relations of the object being known. It is always the basis, the basis for the theoretical level of knowledge.
The theoretical level is knowledge obtained through abstract thinking.
A person begins the process of cognition of an object with its external description, fixes its individual properties and aspects. Then he goes deep into the content of the object, reveals the laws to which it is subject, proceeds to explain the properties of the object, combines knowledge about individual aspects of the object into a single, holistic system, and the resulting deep, versatile, specific knowledge about the object is a theory that has a certain internal logical structure.
It is necessary to distinguish the concepts of “sensual” and “rational” from the concepts of “empirical” and “theoretical”. “Sensual” and “rational” characterize the dialectics of the process of reflection in general, while “empirical” and “theoretical” relate to the sphere of scientific knowledge only.
Empirical knowledge is formed in the process of interaction with the object of research, when we directly influence it, interact with it, process the results and draw a conclusion. But obtaining individual empirical facts and laws does not yet allow us to build a system of laws. In order to understand the essence, it is necessary to move to the theoretical level of scientific knowledge.
The empirical and theoretical levels of knowledge are always inextricably linked and mutually determine each other. Thus, empirical research, revealing new facts, new observational and experimental data, stimulates the development of the theoretical level and poses new problems and challenges. In turn, theoretical research, by considering and specifying the theoretical content of science, opens up new prospects for explaining and predicting facts and thereby orients and guides empirical knowledge. Empirical knowledge is mediated by theoretical knowledge - theoretical knowledge indicates exactly which phenomena and events should be the object of empirical research and under what conditions the experiment should be carried out. Theoretically, the limits within which the results at the empirical level are true and within which empirical knowledge can be used in practice are also found and indicated. This is precisely the heuristic function of the theoretical level of scientific knowledge.
The boundary between the empirical and theoretical levels is quite arbitrary; their independence from each other is relative. The empirical turns into the theoretical, and what was once theoretical, at another, higher stage of development, becomes empirically accessible. In any sphere of scientific knowledge, at all levels, there is a dialectical unity of the theoretical and empirical. The leading role in this unity of dependence on the subject, conditions and existing, obtained scientific results belongs to either the empirical or the theoretical. The basis for the unity of the empirical and theoretical levels of scientific knowledge is the unity of scientific theory and research practice.
Basic methods of scientific knowledge
Each level of scientific knowledge uses its own methods. Thus, at the empirical level, such basic methods as observation, experiment, description, measurement, and modeling are used. Theoretically - analysis, synthesis, abstraction, generalization, induction, deduction, idealization, historical and logical methods, and the like.
Observation is a systematic and purposeful perception of objects and phenomena, their properties and connections in natural conditions or in experimental conditions with the aim of understanding the object under study.
The main functions of surveillance are:
Recording and recording facts;
Preliminary classification of facts already recorded on the basis of certain principles formulated on the basis of existing theories;
Comparisons of recorded facts.
With the complication of scientific knowledge, the goal, plan, theoretical principles, and understanding of the results acquire more and more weight. As a result, the role of theoretical thinking in observation increases.
Observation is especially difficult in the social sciences, where its results largely depend on the ideological and methodological attitudes of the observer and his attitude towards the object.
The observation method is limited by the method, since with its help it is only possible to record certain properties and connections of an object, but it is impossible to reveal their essence, nature, and development trends. Comprehensive observation of the object is the basis for the experiment.
An experiment is a study of any phenomena by actively influencing them by creating new conditions that correspond to the goals of the study, or by changing the process in a certain direction.
Unlike simple observation, which does not involve active influence on an object, an experiment is an active intervention of a researcher into natural phenomena during the processes that are being studied. An experiment is a type of practice in which practical action is organically combined with theoretical work of thought.
The significance of the experiment lies not only in the fact that with its help science explains the phenomena of the material world, but also in the fact that science, relying on experience, directly masters certain phenomena being studied. Therefore, experiment serves as one of the main means of connecting science with production. After all, it allows you to verify the correctness of scientific conclusions and discoveries, new patterns. The experiment serves as a means of research and invention of new devices, machines, materials and processes in industrial production, a necessary stage in the practical testing of new scientific and technical discoveries.
Experiment is widely used not only in the natural sciences, but also in social practice, where it plays an important role in the knowledge and management of social processes.
The experiment has its own specific features compared to other methods:
The experiment makes it possible to study objects in the so-called pure form;
The experiment allows you to study the properties of objects under extreme conditions, which contributes to a deeper penetration into their essence;
An important advantage of an experiment is its repeatability, due to which this method acquires special significance and value in scientific knowledge.
Description is an indication of the characteristics of an object or phenomenon, both significant and non-essential. The description, as a rule, is applied to single, individual objects for a more complete acquaintance with them. Its goal is to provide the most complete information about the object.
Measurement is a certain system of fixing and recording the quantitative characteristics of the object under study using various measuring instruments and apparatus. With the help of measurement, the ratio of one quantitative characteristic of an object to another, homogeneous with it, taken as a unit of measurement, is determined. The main functions of the measurement method are, firstly, recording the quantitative characteristics of the object; secondly, classification and comparison of measurement results.
Modeling is the study of an object (original) by creating and studying its copy (model), which, in its properties to a certain extent, reproduces the properties of the object under study.
Modeling is used when direct study of objects is for some reason impossible, difficult or impractical. There are two main types of modeling: physical and mathematical. At the present stage of development of scientific knowledge, a particularly important role is given to computer modeling. A computer that operates according to a special program is capable of simulating very real processes: fluctuations in market prices, spacecraft orbits, demographic processes, and other quantitative parameters of the development of nature, society, and an individual.
Methods of the theoretical level of knowledge.
Analysis is the division of an object into its component parts (sides, characteristics, properties, relationships) with the aim of comprehensively studying them.
Synthesis is the combination of previously identified parts (sides, characteristics, properties, relationships) of an object into a single whole.
Analysis and synthesis are dialectically contradictory and interdependent methods of cognition. Cognition of an object in its specific integrity presupposes its preliminary division into components and consideration of each of them. This task is performed by analysis. It makes it possible to highlight the essential, that which forms the basis for the connection of all aspects of the object being studied. That is, dialectical analysis is a means of penetrating into the essence of things. But, playing an important role in cognition, analysis does not provide knowledge of the concrete, knowledge of the object as a unity of the diverse, the unity of various definitions. This task is performed by synthesis. So, analysis and synthesis are organically interconnected and mutually determine each other at every stage of the process of theoretical knowledge.
Abstraction is a method of abstracting from some properties and relationships of an object and at the same time focusing the main attention on those that are the direct subject of scientific research. Abstraction promotes the penetration of knowledge into the essence of phenomena, the movement of knowledge from phenomenon to essence. It is clear that abstraction dismembers, coarsens, and schematizes the integral moving reality. However, this is precisely what allows a more in-depth study of individual aspects of the subject “in its pure form.” And that means penetrating into their essence.
Generalization is a method of scientific knowledge that records the general characteristics and properties of a certain group of objects, makes the transition from the individual to the special and general, from the less general to the more general.
In the process of cognition, it is often necessary, based on existing knowledge, to draw conclusions that constitute new knowledge about the unknown. This is done using methods such as induction and deduction.
Induction is a method of scientific knowledge when, based on knowledge about the individual, a conclusion about the general is drawn. It is a method of reasoning that establishes the validity of a proposition or hypothesis. In real knowledge, induction always appears in unity with deduction and is organically connected with it.
Deduction is a method of cognition when, on the basis of a general principle, a new true knowledge about an individual is necessarily derived from some provisions as true. With the help of this method, the individual is cognized on the basis of knowledge of general laws.
Idealization is a method of logical modeling through which idealized objects are created. Idealization is aimed at the processes of conceivable construction of possible objects. The results of idealization are not arbitrary. In the extreme case, they correspond to individual real properties of objects or allow their interpretation based on data from the empirical level of scientific knowledge. Idealization is associated with a “thought experiment”, as a result of which, from a hypothetical minimum of some signs of the behavior of objects, the laws of their functioning are discovered or generalized. The limits of the effectiveness of idealization are determined by practice.
Historical and logical methods are organically connected. The historical method involves considering the objective process of development of an object, its real history with all its turns and features. This is a certain way of reproducing in thinking the historical process in its chronological sequence and specificity.
The logical method is a method by which one mentally reproduces a real historical process in its theoretical form, in a system of concepts.
The task of historical research is to reveal the specific conditions for the development of certain phenomena. The task of logical research is to reveal the role that individual elements of the system play as part of the development of the whole.
