Concepts and methods of modern natural science. Subject, goals of the task of natural science

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E. methods are based on the principle of the unity of empirical and theoretical aspects that are interrelated and interdependent. Their break or the predominant development of one at the expense of the other closes the way to the correct knowledge of nature: theory becomes pointless, experience becomes blind.

E. methods can be divided into groups: general, special, private.

General Methods concern all E., any subject of nature, any science. These are various forms of the dialectical method, which makes it possible to link together all aspects of the process of cognition, all its stages, for example, the method of ascent from the abstract to the concrete, etc.

Those systems of natural sciences whose structure corresponds to the actual historical process of their development (biology and chemistry) actually follow this method. The dialectical method in biology, geography, chemistry is a comparative method, with its help the universal connection of phenomena is revealed. Hence - comparative anatomy, embryology, physiology. It has long been successfully used in zoo-, phyto- and physical geography. In E., the dialectical method also acts as a historical one; in astronomy, all progressive cosmogonic hypotheses, both stellar and planetary, rely on it; in geology (as the basis of historical geology), in biology this method underlies Darwinism. Sometimes both methods are combined into a single comparative historical method, which is deeper and more meaningful than either of them taken separately. The same method in its application to the process of cognition of nature, especially to physics, is associated with the principle of correspondence and contributes to the construction of modern physical theory.

Special Methods are also used in E., but do not concern its subject as a whole, but only one of its aspects (phenomena, essence, quantitative side, structural connections) or a certain method of research: analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction. Observations, experiment and, as its particular case, measurement serve as special methods. Mathematical techniques and methods are extremely important as special methods of research and expression, quantitative and structural aspects and the relationship of objects and processes of nature, as well as the method of statistics and probability theory.

The role of mathematical methods in mathematics is steadily increasing as personal computers are used more and more widely. There is an accelerated computerization of modern E. Modern E. widely uses the methods of modeling natural processes and industrial experiment.

Private Methods- these are special methods operating within a separate branch of E., where they originated.

In the course of E.'s progress, methods can move from a lower category to a higher one: private - turn into special, special - into general.

The methods of physics used in other branches of science led to the creation of astrophysics, crystal physics, geophysics, chemical physics, physical chemistry, and biophysics. the spread of chemical methods led to the creation of crystal chemistry, geochemistry, biochemistry and biogeochemistry. Often a complex of interrelated particular methods is applied to the study of one subject, for example, molecular biology simultaneously uses the methods of physics, mathematics, chemistry, and cybernetics.

The most important role in the development of E. belongs to hypotheses, which are the form of development of E.

The process of scientific knowledge in its most general form is the solution of various kinds of problems that arise in the course of practical activities. The solution of the problems that arise in this case is achieved by using special techniques (methods) that allow one to move from what is already known to new knowledge. Such a system of techniques is usually called a method. The method is a set of techniques and operations of practical and theoretical knowledge of reality.

The unity of its empirical and theoretical aspects underlies the methods of natural science. They are interconnected and condition each other. Their break, or the predominant development of one at the expense of the other, closes the way to the correct knowledge of nature - theory becomes pointless, experience becomes blind.

The empirical side implies the need to collect facts and information (establishing facts, registering them, accumulating), as well as describing them (stating the facts and their primary systematization).

The theoretical side is associated with explanation, generalization, creation of new theories, hypotheses, discovery of new laws, prediction of new facts within the framework of these theories. With their help, a scientific picture of the world is developed and thus the ideological function of science is carried out.

Methods of natural science can be divided into groups:

a) general methods

Concerning all natural science, any subject of nature, any science. These are various forms of a method that makes it possible to link together all aspects of the process of cognition, all its stages, for example, the method of ascent from the abstract to the concrete, the unity of the logical and historical. These are, rather, general philosophical methods of cognition.

b) special methods

Special methods that concern not the subject of natural science as a whole, but only one of its aspects or a certain method of research: analysis, synthesis, induction, deduction;

Special methods also include observation, measurement, comparison, and experiment.

In natural science, special methods of science are of utmost importance, therefore, within the framework of our course, it is necessary to consider their essence in more detail.

Observation is a purposeful strict process of perception of objects of reality that should not be changed. Historically, the method of observation develops as an integral part of the labor operation, which includes establishing the conformity of the product of labor with its planned model.

Observation as a method presupposes the presence of a research program, formed on the basis of past beliefs, established facts, accepted concepts. Measurement and comparison are special cases of the observation method.

Experiment - a method of cognition, with the help of which the phenomena of reality are investigated under controlled and controlled conditions. It differs from observation by intervention in the object under study, that is, by activity in relation to it. When conducting an experiment, the researcher is not limited to passive observation of phenomena, but consciously interferes in the natural course of their course by directly influencing the process under study or changing the conditions under which this process takes place.

The development of natural science puts forward the problem of the rigor of observation and experiment. The fact is that they need special tools and devices, which have recently become so complex that they themselves begin to influence the object of observation and experiment, which, according to the conditions, should not be. This primarily applies to research in the field of microworld physics (quantum mechanics, quantum electrodynamics, etc.).

Analogy is a method of cognition in which there is a transfer of knowledge obtained during the consideration of any one object to another, less studied and currently being studied. The analogy method is based on the similarity of objects in a number of any signs, which allows you to get quite reliable knowledge about the subject being studied.

The use of the analogy method in scientific knowledge requires a certain amount of caution. Here it is extremely important to clearly identify the conditions under which it works most effectively. However, in those cases where it is possible to develop a system of clearly formulated rules for transferring knowledge from a model to a prototype, the results and conclusions by the analogy method become evidential.

Analysis is a method of scientific knowledge, which is based on the procedure of mental or real dismemberment of an object into its constituent parts. The dismemberment is aimed at the transition from the study of the whole to the study of its parts and is carried out by abstracting from the connection of the parts with each other.

Methods of science - a set of techniques and operations of practical and theoretical knowledge of reality.

Research methods optimize human activity, equip it with the most rational ways of organizing activities. A. P. Sadokhin, in addition to highlighting the levels of knowledge in the classification of scientific methods, takes into account the criterion of applicability of the method and identifies general, special and particular methods of scientific knowledge. The selected methods are often combined and combined in the research process.

For example, physical and chemical methods are used in astronomy, biology, and ecology. Often, researchers apply a set of interrelated particular methods to the study of one subject. For example, ecology simultaneously uses the methods of physics, mathematics, chemistry, and biology. Particular methods of cognition are associated with special methods. Special methods examine certain features of the object under study. They can manifest themselves at the empirical and theoretical levels of cognition and be universal.

Among the special empirical methods of cognition, observation, measurement and experiment are distinguished.

Observation presupposes the existence of a certain research plan, an assumption subject to analysis and verification. Observations are used where direct experiment cannot be done (in volcanology, cosmology). The results of the observation are recorded in a description that indicates those features and properties of the object under study that are the subject of study. The description should be as complete, accurate and objective as possible. It is the descriptions of the results of observation that constitute the empirical basis of science; on their basis, empirical generalizations, systematization and classification are created.

Measurement is the determination of quantitative values (characteristics) of the studied sides or properties of an object using special technical devices. The units of measurement with which the obtained data are compared play an important role in the study.

Synthesis is a method of scientific knowledge, which is based on the procedure for combining various elements of an object into a single whole, a system, without which it is impossible to truly scientific knowledge of this subject. Synthesis acts not as a method of constructing the whole, but as a method of representing the whole in the form of a unity of knowledge obtained through analysis. In synthesis, not just a union occurs, but a generalization of the analytically distinguished and studied features of an object. The provisions obtained as a result of the synthesis are included in the theory of the object, which, being enriched and refined, determines the paths of a new scientific search.

Induction is a method of scientific knowledge, which is the formulation of a logical conclusion by summarizing the data of observation and experiment.
Deduction is a method of scientific knowledge, which consists in the transition from certain general premises to particular results-consequences.
The solution of any scientific problem includes the advancement of various conjectures, assumptions, and most often more or less substantiated hypotheses, with the help of which the researcher tries to explain facts that do not fit into the old theories. Hypotheses arise in uncertain situations, the explanation of which becomes relevant for science. In addition, at the level of empirical knowledge (as well as at the level of their explanation) there are often conflicting judgments. To solve these problems, hypotheses are required.

A hypothesis is any assumption, conjecture, or prediction put forward to eliminate a situation of uncertainty in scientific research. Therefore, a hypothesis is not reliable knowledge, but probable knowledge, the truth or falsity of which has not yet been established.
Any hypothesis must necessarily be substantiated either by the achieved knowledge of the given science or by new facts (uncertain knowledge is not used to substantiate the hypothesis). It should have the property of explaining all the facts that relate to a given field of knowledge, systematizing them, as well as facts outside this field, predicting the emergence of new facts (for example, the quantum hypothesis of M. Planck, put forward at the beginning of the 20th century, led to the creation of a quantum mechanics, quantum electrodynamics, and other theories). In this case, the hypothesis should not contradict the already existing facts. The hypothesis must be either confirmed or refuted.

c) private methods are methods that operate either only within a separate branch of natural science, or outside the branch of natural science where they originated. This is the method of ringing birds used in zoology. And the methods of physics used in other branches of natural science led to the creation of astrophysics, geophysics, crystal physics, etc. Often, a complex of interrelated particular methods is applied to the study of one subject. For example, molecular biology simultaneously uses the methods of physics, mathematics, chemistry, and cybernetics.

Modeling is a method of scientific knowledge based on the study of real objects through the study of models of these objects, i.e. by studying substitute objects of natural or artificial origin that are more accessible for research and (or) intervention and have the properties of real objects.

The properties of any model should not, and indeed cannot, exactly and completely correspond to absolutely all the properties of the corresponding real object in any situations. In mathematical models, any additional parameter can lead to a significant complication of the solution of the corresponding system of equations, to the need to apply additional assumptions, discard small terms, etc., in numerical simulation, the processing time of the problem by the computer increases disproportionately, and the calculation error increases.

The variety of methods of scientific knowledge creates difficulties in their application and understanding of their role. These problems are solved by a special area of knowledge - methodology. The main task of the methodology is to study the origin, essence, effectiveness, development of methods of cognition.

See also...
Philosophy Cheat Sheets for PhD Minimum Part 1
Philosophy and natural science: concepts of relationships (metaphysical, transcendental, anti-metaphysical, dialectical).
Nature as an object of philosophizing. Features of the knowledge of nature.
Natural science: its subject, essence, structure. The place of natural science in the system of sciences
Scientific picture of the world and its historical forms. Natural science picture of nature
The problem of objectivity of knowledge in modern natural sciences
Modern science and changing the formation of the worldview attitudes of technogenic civilization
Interaction of natural sciences with each other. Inanimate sciences and wildlife sciences
Convergence of natural-science and social-humanitarian knowledge in non-classical science
Natural science methods and their classification.
Mathematics and natural science. Possibilities of application of mathematics and computer modeling
Evolution of the concepts of space and time in the history of natural science
Philosophy and physics. Heuristic possibilities of natural philosophy
The problem of the discreteness of matter
Ideas of determinism and indeterminism in natural science
The principle of complementarity and its philosophical interpretations. Dialectics and quantum mechanics
Anthropic principle. The Universe as an "ecological niche" of humanity.
The problem of the origin of the universe. models of the universe.
The problem of the search for extraterrestrial civilizations as an interdisciplinary direction of scientific research. Concepts of noocosmology (I. Shklovsky, F. Drake, K. Sagan).
. Philosophical problems of chemistry. Correlation between physics and chemistry.
. The Problem of the Laws of Biology
Evolutionary theory: its development and philosophical interpretations.
Philosophy of ecology: preconditions for formation.
Stages of development of the scientific theory of the biosphere.
Interaction between man and nature: ways of its harmonization.
Philosophy of medicine and medicine as a science. Philosophical categories and concepts of medicine
The problem of the origin and essence of life in modern science and philosophy
The concept of information. Information-theoretical approach in modern science.
Artificial intelligence and the problem of consciousness in modern science and philosophy
Cybernetics and general systems theory, their connection with natural science.
The role of the ideas of nonlinear dynamics and synergetics in the development of modern science.
The role of modern natural science in overcoming global crises.
Post-non-classical natural science and the search for a new type of rationality. Historically developing, human-sized objects, complex systems as objects of research in post-non-classical natural science
Ethical problems of modern natural science. The crisis of the ideal of value-neutral scientific research
Natural sciences, technical sciences and technology
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Natural science methods and their classification.

With the advent of the need for knowledge, there was a need to analyze and evaluate various methods - i.e. in methodology.

Specific scientific methods reflect the research tactics, while general scientific methods reflect the strategy.

The method of cognition is a way of organizing means, methods of theoretical and practical activities.

The method is the main theoretical tool for obtaining and streamlining scientific knowledge.

Types of natural science methods:

- general (concerning any science) - the unity of the logical and historical, the ascent from the abstract to the concrete;

- special (concern only one side of the object under study) - analysis, synthesis, comparison, induction, deduction, etc.;

- private, which operate only in a certain area of knowledge.

Natural science methods:

observation - the initial source of information, a purposeful process of perceiving objects or phenomena, is used where it is impossible to set up a direct experiment, for example, in cosmology (special cases of observation - comparison and measurement);

analysis - based on the mental or real division of an object into parts, when from an integral description of an object they pass to its structure, composition, features and properties;

synthesis - based on the combination of various elements of the subject into a single whole and the generalization of the selected and studied features of the object;

induction - consists in formulating a logical conclusion based on generalizations of experimental data and observations; logical reasoning goes from the particular to the general, providing a better understanding and transition to a more general level of consideration of the problem;

deduction - a method of cognition, consisting in the transition from some general provisions to particular results;

hypothesis - an assumption put forward to resolve an uncertain situation, it is designed to explain or systematize some facts related to a given field of knowledge or outside it, but at the same time not contradict existing ones. The hypothesis must be confirmed or refuted;

comparison method - used in the quantitative comparison of the studied properties, parameters of objects or phenomena;

experiment - experimental determination of the parameters of the objects or objects under study;

modeling - creating a model of an object or object of interest to the researcher and conducting an experiment on it, observing and then superimposing the results obtained on the object under study.

General methods of cognition relate to any discipline and make it possible to connect all stages of the cognition process. These methods are used in any field of research and allow you to identify relationships and features of the objects under study. In the history of science, researchers refer to such methods as metaphysical and dialectical methods. Private methods of scientific knowledge are methods that are used only in a particular branch of science. Various methods of natural science (physics, chemistry, biology, ecology, etc.) are particular in relation to the general dialectical method of cognition. Sometimes private methods can be used outside the branches of natural science in which they originated. For example, physical and chemical methods are used in astronomy, biology, and ecology. Often, researchers apply a set of interrelated particular methods to the study of one subject. For example, ecology simultaneously uses the methods of physics, mathematics, chemistry, and biology. Particular methods of cognition are associated with special methods. Special methods examine certain features of the object under study. They can manifest themselves at the empirical and theoretical levels of cognition and be universal.

Observation is a purposeful process of perception of objects of reality, a sensual reflection of objects and phenomena, during which a person receives primary information about the world around him. Therefore, the study most often begins with observation, and only then the researchers move on to other methods. Observations are not associated with any theory, but the purpose of the observation is always associated with some problem situation. Observation presupposes the existence of a certain research plan, an assumption subject to analysis and verification. Observations are used where direct experiment cannot be done (in volcanology, cosmology). The results of the observation are recorded in a description that indicates those features and properties of the object under study that are the subject of study. The description should be as complete, accurate and objective as possible. It is the descriptions of the results of observation that constitute the empirical basis of science; on their basis, empirical generalizations, systematization and classification are created.

An experiment is a more complex method of empirical knowledge compared to observation. It is a purposeful and strictly controlled influence of a researcher on an object or phenomenon of interest in order to study its various aspects, connections and relationships. In the course of an experimental study, a scientist intervenes in the natural course of processes, transforms the object of study. The specificity of the experiment is also that it allows you to see the object or process in its purest form. This is due to the maximum exclusion of the influence of extraneous factors.

Abstraction is a mental distraction from all the properties, connections and relationships of the object under study, which are considered insignificant. These are the models of a point, a straight line, a circle, a plane. The result of the abstraction process is called abstraction. Real objects in some tasks can be replaced by these abstractions (the Earth can be considered a material point when moving around the Sun, but not when moving along its surface).

Idealization is the operation of mentally highlighting one important property or relationship for a given theory, mentally constructing an object endowed with this property (relationship). As a result, the ideal object has only this property (relation). Science highlights in reality general patterns that are significant and repeat in various subjects, so we have to go to distractions from real objects. This is how such concepts as “atom”, “set”, “absolutely black body”, “ideal gas”, “continuous medium” are formed. The ideal objects obtained in this way do not actually exist, since in nature there cannot be objects and phenomena that have only one property or quality. When applying the theory, it is necessary to again compare the obtained and used ideal and abstract models with reality. Therefore, the choice of abstractions in accordance with their adequacy of the given theory and their subsequent exclusion are important.

Among the special universal research methods, analysis, synthesis, comparison, classification, analogy, modeling are distinguished.

Analysis is one of the initial stages of research, when one moves from an integral description of an object to its structure, composition, features and properties. Analysis is a method of scientific knowledge, which is based on the procedure of mental or real division of an object into its constituent parts and their separate study. It is impossible to know the essence of an object, only by highlighting in it the elements of which it consists. When the particulars of the object under study are studied by analysis, it is supplemented by synthesis.

Synthesis is a method of scientific knowledge, which is based on the combination of elements identified by analysis. Synthesis does not act as a method of constructing the whole, but as a method of representing the whole in the form of the only knowledge obtained through analysis. It shows the place and role of each element in the system, their relationship with other components. Analysis fixes mainly the specific that distinguishes the parts from each other, synthesis - generalizes the analytically identified and studied features of the object. Analysis and synthesis originate in the practical activity of man. A person has learned to mentally analyze and synthesize only on the basis of practical division, gradually comprehending what happens to an object when performing practical actions with it. Analysis and synthesis are components of the analytical-synthetic method of cognition.

Comparison is a method of scientific knowledge that allows you to establish the similarity and difference between the objects under study. Comparison underlies many natural science measurements that are an integral part of any experiment. Comparing objects with each other, a person gets the opportunity to correctly cognize them and thereby correctly navigate in the world around him, purposefully influence it. Comparison matters when objects that are really homogeneous and similar in essence are compared. The comparison method highlights the differences between the objects under study and forms the basis of any measurements, that is, the basis of experimental studies.

Classification is a method of scientific knowledge that combines into one class objects that are as similar as possible to each other in essential features. Classification makes it possible to reduce the accumulated diverse material to a relatively small number of classes, types, and forms and to reveal the initial units of analysis, to discover stable features and relationships. As a rule, classifications are expressed in the form of texts in natural languages, diagrams and tables.

Analogy is a method of cognition in which there is a transfer of knowledge obtained by considering an object to another, less studied, but similar to the first one in some essential properties. The analogy method is based on the similarity of objects in a number of any signs, and the similarity is established as a result of comparing objects with each other. Thus, the analogy method is based on the comparison method.

The analogy method is closely related to the modeling method, which is the study of any objects using models with the further transfer of the obtained data to the original. This method is based on the essential similarity of the original object and its model. In modern research, various types of modeling are used: subject, mental, symbolic, computer.

2. Structural levels of matter organization and the structure of natural science

The most important properties of matter are structural and systematic. Matter is structured in a certain way at all scale-time levels: from elementary particles to the Universe as a whole. Consistency means the ordering of a set of interconnected elements that have integrity in relation to other objects or external conditions. Thus, the system is characterized by internal connections stronger than connections with the environment.

This implies the need not only to systematize, classify various objects of nature, but also to study the connections between them, or interactions. The most interesting from a fundamental point of view are the so-called fundamental interactions that underlie the whole variety of visible and known to science forces of action of one body on another. Each of them has its own physical field. Their number is small (currently three: gravitational, electroweak and strong), and there is hope that as a result of the creation of a general theory (superunification) they can be reduced to one Universal Force of Nature. This global problem has been on the agenda since the time of A. Einstein, whose genius was not enough to solve it, although he spent about 30 of the last years of his life on this. Hopes for such a possibility are connected with the fact that there is already one universal approach to the description of all types of fundamental interactions, namely, the quantum field one. Schematically, any interaction of two particles (bodies) in vacuum (i.e., without any transmitting media) can be described as the exchange of these particles by quanta of the corresponding field emitted by one of them and absorbed by the other. In this case, the field quanta, propagating at a finite speed (in vacuum at the speed of light), transfer energy and momentum, which is felt by the particles absorbing them as the action of a force. In connection with the finite speed of propagation of field quanta in space, the concept of "short-range interaction" was established. This means that any action, any information is transmitted from one body to another not instantly, but sequentially from point to point with a finite speed. The opposite point of view that prevailed before - "long-range action" - intuitively, a priori assuming that information about the position of any particle and its position spreads throughout the Universe instantly, did not stand the test of experience and is now only of historical value.

Particles have a rest mass, while field quanta do not have it. The particles are localized in one or another region of space, and the fields are distributed in it. But at the same time, both of them simultaneously possess both the properties of waves and the properties of particles (the so-called "particle-wave dualism"). The possibility of transformations matter - field - matter in the world of elementary particles reflects the internal unity of matter.

The structure of natural science. The most important structural units of matter can be lined up according to their characteristic sizes. Here it is important to understand that we are talking only about orders of magnitude characterizing the extent of a typical representative in space and the duration of typical processes in it. Despite the general methodological unity of natural science (see the next module), when the characteristic dimensions and times change by a colossal number of orders of magnitude, it becomes necessary to develop specific techniques for research and analysis. On an enlarged and very conditional basis (in the sense of the position of the boundaries), nature can be divided into three "floors" (or "worlds"): micro-, macro- and mega-.

The first is the world of elementary particles, fundamental fields and systems containing a small number of such particles. These are the roots of natural science, and the most fundamental problems of the universe are concentrated in them. The macroworld is the level of objects and phenomena around us that is familiar to us. Even it seems huge and extremely diverse, although it is only a small part of nature. Finally, the megaworld is made up of objects comparable in size to the Universe, the dimensions of which have not yet been established even in order of magnitude. A more detailed and also very conditional division of these levels led to the emergence of the corresponding sciences in natural science: physics, chemistry, biology, etc. Each of them contains about a hundred even narrower specific disciplines (for example, mechanics, thermodynamics, organic chemistry, zoology, botany, plant physiology, etc.). There are also interdisciplinary branches of science, for example, synergetics (from the Greek word joint, acting in concert) is a theory of self-organization in open non-equilibrium systems, covering all levels of the structure of matter and considering nature as a complex self-organizing system.

The macrocosm is accessible to direct observation, the events in it are familiar to us, we contact and interact with it every moment of time. It has been studied by man for many millennia and knowledge about it has a direct practical utility. Nevertheless, there are many unsolved mysteries of nature in it, and the vast majority of modern scientists continue to work in this area of science.

Phenomena in micro and mega worlds practically do not manifest themselves at the everyday level, so many people are unaware of their existence. Others think that in a practical sense they have no meaning. In part, this point of view can be understood, because indeed, not only the influence, but also the very existence of elementary particles or, say, black holes in the depths of the Universe, cannot be established without sophisticated instruments. Even qualitative ideas about them cannot be derived from everyday experience, by analogy with known macroscopic events. Nevertheless, we ourselves, being macroscopic objects, consist 100% of a set of elementary particles organized and interconnected in a certain way, and are part of a gigantic Universe. So new knowledge about micro- and mega-worlds is important not only in the cognitive or ideological sense, but also leads to a deeper and clearer understanding of the essence of the processes occurring in the macro-world.

3. Methodology and methods of natural science

Methodology - this is a system of the most important principles and methods of organizing and implementing any type of activity, as well as the doctrine of this system. Each type of activity has its own methodology, which exists in an explicit or implicit form, formulated and fixed in any form or applied spontaneously and intuitively. Principles are the key provisions of the methodology, and methods are a set of specific techniques by which this or that type of activity is carried out (from the Greek "methodos" - the path to something).

The methodology of science in general and all scientific methods proceed from principle of causality . Its content has changed with the development of science, but the key position on which the scientific approach is based remains unchanged: everything that does not happen in nature is due to its own causes. The global task of science is to find out all significant cause-and-effect relationships in the surrounding world. They may be non-one-dimensional, complex, unknown, but this does not negate their existence. Nature does not leave any place for arbitrariness, for supernatural intervention of otherworldly forces.

It is very important to understand that the principle of causality is fundamental not only for the "exact" sciences, but also for history, sociology, jurisprudence, etc. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine, for example, an investigator investigating a criminal offense and allowing "miracles" in the form of evidence appearing or disappearing for no reason from a crime scene, a "supernatural" instinct for bringing money to a bank, or a sudden drop in the price of certain shares.

The famous French philosopher, physicist, mathematician and physiologist of the 17th century, R. Descartes, formulated the concept of method as follows: “By method, I mean precise and simple rules, strict adherence to which ... without wasting mental strength, but gradually and continuously increasing knowledge, contributes to the fact that the mind achieves true knowledge of everything that is available to it. In our time, the term "algorithm" rather corresponds to this understanding.

Usually there are several groups (levels) methods of knowledge , in particular, in almost all classifications there are:

 General scientific methods

 Private scientific methods

 Special methods

According to other criteria, they can be divided into empirical, theoretical and modeling methods .

In turn, all of them can be differentiated further. Thus, general scientific empirical methods include observation, experiment, measurement.

Observation is the simplest of them. At the initial stages of the development of any science, observations play an important role and form the empirical basis of science. It allows you to search, compare, classify objects, etc., however, as science develops, its value decreases. A more informative experiment is the purposeful impact on an object under strictly controlled conditions and the study of its behavior under these conditions.

The art of the experimenter, first of all, is precisely in creating such experimental conditions that allow you to “clear” the situation from the influence of a large number of side factors and leave one or two that you can consciously control and purposefully influence the object, studying its responses to these controlled influences. . At the same time, it is often not known in advance which factors are important and which are less important, whether all uncontrolled impacts are excluded and whether they create interference comparable or even greater than the object's response to a controlled impact. In the very formulation of the experiment, which limits the degree of freedom of the object and the set of factors acting on it, there is a great danger of “throwing the baby out of the bath with foam”.

Experiments can be qualitative or quantitative. The former can help in solving fundamental questions: does such an effect exist in nature? Does the rate of the process increase or decrease as pressure increases? Is this value really constant when conditions change over a wide range (for example, the charge of an electron, the speed of light in a vacuum, etc.)? etc. Quantitative experiments involving measurements are much more informative. Thus, the famous English physicist W. Thomson (Lord Kelvin), after whom the scale of absolute temperatures is named, wrote "every thing is known only as far as it can be measured." Measurement is the process of determining the quantitative characteristics of an object or process, expressed in previously accepted units of measurement of a given value (for example, in meters, seconds, grams, Volts, degrees, etc.).

Abstraction, thought experiment, induction, deduction, etc. can be distinguished among the general scientific theoretical methods. abstraction consists in the mental simplification of the object by ignoring a number of its insignificant (in the given formulation of the problem) features and endowing it with several (sometimes one, two) most significant ones, for example, a material point, a birch, an unstable state. In the first example, all geometric and physical characteristics of a real body (volume, shape, material and its physical properties) are ignored, except for the mass, which is mentally concentrated in the center of mass. In the second, despite the fact that there are no two absolutely identical birches in the world, we still clearly understand that we are talking about a type of tree with its own characteristic features of architecture, shape and structure of leaves, etc., in the third example it is meant some abstract system (without considering its structure and composition), which, under the influence of negligibly small random causes, can leave its initial state, characterized by a certain set of parameters, and spontaneously pass into another, with a different set of characteristics. Of course, in this consideration we lose a lot of details that characterize the real object, but in return we get a simple scheme that allows for broad generalizations. Indeed, we cannot set ourselves the task of studying every birch on Earth, although they all differ from each other in some way.

A material point in different tasks can mean a molecule, a car, the Moon, the Earth, the Sun, etc. Such an abstraction is convenient for describing mechanical motion, but it is completely unproductive when analyzing, say, the physical or chemical properties of a real solid body. Many extremely useful abstractions have survived centuries and millennia (atom, geometric point and straight line), although they were filled with different meanings in different eras. Others - (caloric, world ether) did not stand the test of time and experience.

Another method of theoretical analysis is thought experiment . It is carried out with idealized objects that reflect the most essential properties of real ones, and in a number of cases makes it possible, by means of logical deductions, to obtain some preliminary results that help to simplify and narrow the scope for further detailed studies. Many fundamental problems in natural science have been solved by this method. So, Galileo discovered the law of inertia, mentally lowering, and then completely excluding the friction forces during movement, and Maxwell clarified the essence of the most important law for understanding the nature - the second law of thermodynamics - by mentally placing a hypothetical “demon” on the path of flying molecules, sorting them by speed .

Induction (from the Latin inductio - guidance, motivation, excitation) is a method of cognition, which consists in obtaining, deriving general judgments, rules, laws on the basis of individual facts. Those. induction is the movement of thought from the particular to the general and more universal. Strictly speaking, most of the most general laws of nature are obtained by induction, since it is completely unrealistic to study thoroughly absolutely all objects of this type. Usually, the question is only how many special cases need to be considered and then taken into account in order to draw a convincing generalizing conclusion on this basis. Skeptics believe that it is impossible to reliably prove anything in this way, since neither a thousand, nor a million, nor a billion facts confirming a general conclusion guarantee that the thousand and first or million and first fact will not contradict it.

The method opposite in the direction of movement of thought - from the general to the particular - is called deduction (from the Latin deductio - derivation). Remember the famous deductive method of detective Sherlock Holmes. Those. deduction and induction are complementary methods for constructing logical inferences.

Approximately in the same ratio among themselves are the methods analysis and synthesis , used in both empirical and theoretical studies. Analysis is the mental or real division of an object into its component parts and the study of them separately. Remember an ordinary polyclinic - an institution for the diagnosis and treatment of human diseases and its structure, represented by the offices of an oculist, neuropathologist, cardiologist, urologist, etc. In view of the exceptional complexity of the human body, it is much easier to teach a doctor to recognize diseases of individual organs or systems, and not the whole organism as a whole. In some cases, this approach gives the desired result, in more complex cases it does not. Therefore, the methods of analysis are supplemented by the method of synthesis, i.e. bringing together all knowledge about particular facts into a single coherent whole.

Over the past few decades, methods have been intensively developed modeling , which are younger, but more developed brothers of the method analogies . The conclusion "by analogy" is carried out by transferring the results obtained at one object to another - "similar". The degree of this similarity is determined by various criteria, most systematically introduced in the so-called "Theory of Similarity".

Modeling is usually divided into mental, physical and numerical (computer). Mental modeling of a real object or process by means of ideal objects and connections is the most important method of science. Without a mental model, it is impossible to understand, interpret the results of an experiment, “design” a mathematical or computer model of a phenomenon, or set up a complex full-scale experiment. Known not only for his brilliant results in physics, but also for his witty remarks, Academician A. Migdal once said: “If mathematics is the art of avoiding calculations (“pure”, non-applied mathematics, as a rule, does not deal with calculations), then theoretical physics is the art of calculating without mathematics.” Of course, here the word "calculate" does not have a literal meaning - making careful, accurate calculations. It implies the art of predicting the result within the framework of a successful, adequate model in order of magnitude, or in the form of a ratio: if one value reaches a certain value, then the other will be equal to that, or the desired value must be greater than some critical value, or lie in a certain interval values. As a rule, in most tasks and real problems, a highly qualified scientist can come to such conclusions without conducting any experiments, but simply by building in his mind some qualitative model of the phenomenon. The art lies in making the model realistic and at the same time simple.

Physical (subject) modeling is carried out in cases where it is impossible or difficult (for technological or financial reasons) to conduct an experiment on the original object. For example, to determine the difficult-to-calculate aerodynamic drag of an aircraft, car, train, or hydrodynamic drag of a ship, a reduced-size model is usually built at the design stage and blown through it in special wind tunnels or hydraulic channels. In a sense, any natural experiment can be considered as a physical model of some more complex situation.

Mathematical modeling is the most important kind of symbolic modeling. (They also include a variety of graph and topological representations, symbolic records of the structure of molecules and chemical reactions, and much more). In essence, a mathematical model is a system of equations supplemented with initial and boundary conditions and other data taken from experience. In order for such modeling to be effective, it is necessary, firstly, to compose a mental model adequate to the phenomenon under study, reflecting all the essential aspects of the phenomenon, and secondly, to solve a purely mathematical problem, which often has a very high level of complexity.

Finally, in recent decades, computer simulation methods have become very popular. Usually, these are numerical methods, i.e. not giving a solution to the problem in a general form, as in mathematical modeling. This means that each specific numerical version of the same problem requires a new calculation.

Private and special methods are of interest to representatives of specific scientific disciplines, and we will not consider them.

Methodological foundations of natural science. Let us now proceed to a discussion of the most important and general methodological principles for natural science. principles of scientific creativity, ideals, criteria and norms of science . The most important of them are the following:

1. The materialistic basis of the worldview, objectivity, conviction in the cognizability of nature by rational methods. In turn, these requirements are directly related to the most important methodological concept of the conditionality of everything that happens in reality by causal relationships.

2. The use of strictly defined concepts, characteristics, values. At the same time, it is necessary to understand that it is impossible to define absolutely strictly any object or process. What is the ballpoint pen you are currently using to underline text? Where is the boundary between her and the surrounding air outside and between her and the ink inside on paper? What is the process of underlining text? Is it the physical process of transferring ink to paper, or the chemical process of the interaction of ink molecules with paper molecules, or the intellectual process of selecting and highlighting the most significant fragments of text? Obviously the choice depends on the nature of the task and the range of expected results. There are great dangers of subjectivism here, since the very formulation of the problem already contains a limited set of possible solutions.

3. Reproducibility of results under similar conditions. This principle implies that if the conditions for observing a certain phenomenon are recreated in another place (laboratory, production) or in the same place, but after some time, then the phenomenon or process will repeat again. Those. the only question is the severity of the experimental conditions, the accuracy of reproduction of all circumstances. As already mentioned, it is impossible to reproduce and measure anything absolutely exactly, but abstracting from insignificant details, you can repeat the main, fundamental result as many times as you like.

4. The last instance in the struggle of theories, ideas, concepts is experience (experiment). Only he is the supreme judge in the question of what is the Truth, and not the most elegant, logical or authoritative judgments. It is not necessary to see here the opposition of theory and experience. Purely theoretically, many objects, laws were discovered (for example, electromagnetic waves, many elementary particles, astronomical objects, etc.), but all these discoveries received the status of strict scientific facts only after experimental confirmation. Such an understanding of the relationship between the role of theory and practice in natural science did not arise immediately. Only in the early Middle Ages, in the fight against scholastic methods, was the requirement for experimental verification of any conclusions strengthened, no matter how authorities they expressed and logically harmonious and irreproachable did not seem. This principle was most clearly and concisely formulated, perhaps, by the English thinker of the 16th-17th centuries, Francis Bacon: “The criterion of truth is practice” in his work “The New Organon” (1620), written, as it were, in continuation and development of the famous work of Aristotle , more precisely, a collection of logical and methodological works "Organon" (from the Latin instrument, tool) in the 4th century BC. In a more artistic form, the same principle is expressed in the famous phrase of J. Goethe: "Theory, my friend, is dry, but the tree of life is green."

5. In the previous module, we already talked about the desire to quantify and describe the surrounding reality. In modern natural science, quantitative methods and mathematical apparatus play a large and ever-increasing role. So the "mathematization" of knowledge about nature can be considered an almost mandatory requirement.

6. At the beginning of this module, the role of modeling as a general scientific method of studying Nature was discussed. In connection with the desire to “mathematize” natural science, the creation of models of one kind or another becomes practically mandatory at all stages of research, whether it is thinking about an idea or a thought experiment, a full-scale experimental setup and experience, processing and interpreting the results obtained. Trying to express this situation in a laconic form of an aphorism, one can state "Modern natural science is a world of quantitative models." Without a reasonable, careful, qualified simplification of a real situation, process, object, it is impossible to make any effective mathematical approaches.

7. Already in the Middle Ages, it was obvious that the avalanche growth of various facts, data, theories requires their systematization and generalization. Otherwise, the flow of information will overwhelm and drown the fundamental, key provisions in a sea of details. At the same time, new concepts, objects, principles, "essences" must be introduced into science with the greatest care, carefully checking whether they are reduced to known ones, whether they are just their varieties. This strict filter protects science from unjustified swelling, makes it in a broad sense "international", transparent, accessible for understanding and mastering by different sections of society. The danger of the opposite approach also became apparent at the dawn of classical natural science, and in the aphoristic form inherent in that time, the demand for laconism, generality, and universality was formulated by the English philosopher of the 14th century. Occam: "Entities should not be multiplied unless absolutely necessary" or in a looser translation " do not invent unnecessary entities ". Often this most important methodological principle of science is called " Occam's razor ", cutting off unnecessary, unproductive and artificially introduced "essences" that clutter up science.

8. The need for integration, universalization of knowledge, reducing them to the smallest possible number of fundamental principles is an ideal that thinkers have been striving for since ancient Greece. At the same time, this was seen as the highest aesthetics of science, reflecting the harmony of the structure of the world. “The reduction of many to one is the fundamental principle of beauty,” Pythagoras formulated this principle so succinctly in the 5th century BC.

9. Since science is not a set of ossified rules, laws, theories, but a dynamically developing and continuously renewing living organism, the question regularly arises about the relationship between established “old” knowledge and emerging “new” knowledge. On the one hand, if a certain law, theory, doctrine, through numerous checks, control experiments, applications to practical problems, received the status of not a hypothesis, but a reliable truth, then they have already entered the golden fund of science. On the other hand, if new data or theories have appeared that contradict the old ones, but describe related phenomena better, more fully, or those that could not be explained within the framework of the old ideas, the latter should give way to the new. But how to give in? Just quietly retire into the archives of the history of science, freeing up a niche, or remain in the ranks, but in a different capacity, interacting in a certain way with new ideas? It is hard to imagine that, say, such a powerful theory as the classical mechanics of Sir I. Newton, which has been proving its validity and fruitfulness for three centuries (both in the world of movement of dust particles, balls, steam engines, ships, and in the world of planets) would be erroneous or unnecessary after the creation of quantum mechanics. Niels Bohr, a brilliant Danish physicist, one of the creators of quantum mechanics, thinking about this problem, formulated in 1918 the most important methodological approach: conformity principle . In short, it lies in the fact that a more universal new concept, a theory (if it is not speculative, but true in reality), should not cross out the well-mastered and repeatedly tested old teaching, but absorb it as a special case (Fig. 3.3). In this case, it is usually easy to formulate the conditions (limits of applicability) within which the old (usually simpler theory) will give correct results. Of course, they can also be obtained from a more general but more complex new theory, but this is not justified from the point of view of labor costs. Not only classical and quantum mechanics, but also, for example, thermodynamics of equilibrium systems and synergetics (the theory of self-organization in open non-equilibrium systems), classical Faraday-Maxwell electromagnetism and quantum electrodynamics, motion mechanics with small (compared to the speed of light) velocities and Einstein's special theory of relativity (mechanics of movement at near-light speeds), Darwinism and genetics, and many other branches of natural science. This, of course, does not exclude the withering away and oblivion of ideas, concepts, theories that have not passed the test of experiment (for example, the theory of caloric, perpetual motion, etc.), but in the overwhelming majority of cases, contradictions in science are removed in accordance with the principle of correspondence.

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