INTRODUCTION

1. General ideas about the subject “Concepts of modern

2. Natural science and humanitarian culture.

3. Scientific method in the study of the surrounding world. development methods,

accumulation and dissemination of the achievements of modern natural

knowledge on the example of the practice of military activity.

4. Basic information about the measurement of quantities in the natural sciences.

General ideas about the discipline “Concepts

modern natural science".

Modern natural science is formed from such areas of scientific knowledge as

■ physics, chemistry, physical chemistry, mechanics;

■ geography, geology, mineralogy;

■ meteorology, astronomy, astrophysics, astrochemistry;

■ biology, botany, zoology, genetics;

■ human anatomy and physiology, —

and many, many others who study our planet, near and far Cosmos, solid matter, liquids and gases, living matter and man as a product of nature.

It is impossible to name all the scientists who have made the most significant contribution to the development of natural science, but one cannot talk about natural science without recalling such geniuses as G. Galileo, I. Newton, R. Descartes, M. V. Lomonosov, C. Darwin, G Mendel, M. Faraday, D. I. Mendeleev, V. I. Vernadsky.

The main concepts modern natural science. As you know, the term "concept" means a system of views, one or another understanding of phenomena, processes, or a single, defining idea, the leading thought of any work.

The purpose of the KSE is to acquaint students with natural science, as an integral part of part of the culture, with its fundamental principles and concepts, to form a holistic view of the world, manifested as the unity of nature, man, society.

To achieve the goals formulated in the program, the following aspects were reflected in the training manual. The characteristics of the dialectical relationship between the natural and humanitarian components of culture are considered. The bases of scientific knowledge of the surrounding world are stated, scientific methods of its research are classified. Information about the measurement of quantities in the natural sciences is given. The need to study KSE in order to form ideas of the modern picture of the world is motivated.

The stages of the emergence of rational knowledge as a methodology for studying the world, which occurred as a result of the dialectical struggle of various scientific and religious trends, are described. The basic information about the scientific pictures of the world and their essence is stated. The result of the development of methods of scientific knowledge was the dialectical continuity of experimental and theoretical research.

The evolution of the natural-science picture of the world based on the works of Isaac Newton, which was called mechanistic, is considered.

The next stage in the development of natural science knowledge was a multitude of discoveries in living chemistry and biology. Within the framework of the latter, evolutionary ideas were born and formed, which in the future became part of natural science as an integral part of the theory of development.

The discovery in the XVIII-XIX centuries of electric and magnetic fields led to the development of the electromagnetic picture of the world, in which the decisive role belongs short range theory. With the discovery of the atom and its structure, science, in particular physics, experienced the last and most violent revolution. By the beginning of the 20th century, a large number of facts had accumulated that were inexplicable from the point of view of the electromagnetic picture of the world. It was necessary to build a new one, called the modern one. It is inextricably linked with quantum mechanics, the theory of relativity, as well as with the latest achievements in genetic engineering and so on.

The fundamental concepts of the modern scientific picture of the world are analyzed, which include - a systematic research method, the principle of global evolutionism, the theory of self-organization or synergetics. Based on these conceptual features, it is possible to present the main trends in the development of the modern world, to consider the panorama of modern natural science.

It is shown that based on the scale of the observer, any objects of material nature can be considered either from the standpoint of a corpuscular or from the standpoint of a continuum concept of describing nature. There is no fundamental difference here, although, of course, one of the global laws of philosophy “on the transition of quantity into quality” is manifested.

A transition is being made to the study of the relationship between order and disorder in nature. Definitions of chaos and its measure - entropy are given. The models and mechanisms of order and chaos are discussed, their connection with the energy level of the material system is considered.

Based on a systematic approach in science, three levels of matter organization have been identified. The microcosm is considered from the point of view of the modern picture of the world, the manifestation of corpuscular-wave dualism in it. The macroworld is described from the standpoint of classical natural science, according to which matter exists in the form of substance and field. The systemic organization of the mega-world has been clarified.

The basic information about space and time is stated. It is shown that the structure of space and time is determined by the distribution of the masses of material objects and depends on the speed of their movement. The expression of the laws of symmetry in the world is the connection of space and time with the basic laws of natural science - the laws of conservation. The concepts of biological, psychological, social space and time are introduced.

Fundamental interactions are considered. Ideas are formed about the particles that carry out interactions, about the coupling constants. Characteristics of interactions are given in terms of range, intensity, source, and examples of specific manifestations are considered.

The attention is focused on the concepts of long-range and short-range interaction, conservation laws. Examples of their manifestation in various fields of natural science are analyzed.

Further, the basic principles of the physical picture of the world, which include the principle relativity, uncertainty, complementarity, superposition, symmetry. The attention is focused on the close interrelation of the stated principles and such attributes of matter as time, space, mass, energy. The basic concepts of Einstein's theory of relativity are outlined. The meaning of the Heisenberg uncertainty principle and the principle of complementarity is revealed. Specific examples of the manifestation of the superposition principle in electrodynamics, wave processes, quantum mechanics and even in the humanities are given.

The concept of state, dynamic and statistical regularities in nature are considered.

The basic, fundamental laws of nature are stated and on their basis the properties and behavior of complex polyatomic systems are explained. Specific examples of the functioning of various systems and the manifestation for them of such an important concept of natural science as bifurcation point. Understanding the considered fundamental laws of natural science allows us to proceed to the study of synergetic ideas about low-organized matter.

The presented material states that, to a large extent, the ongoing changes in the surrounding world are associated with the chemical interaction of elements or complexes formed from them, that is, due to chemical processes. For interacting substances, the reactivity is determined by the structure or structure of the elements that form them. It is the nature of the structure of the reacting substances that determines the properties of the resulting substances. The conceptual levels of knowledge in chemistry are formulated. It is shown that self-organization and evolution of such complex biological systems as man is possible precisely due to the implementation of a wide range of chemical reactions. Further ideas about stars, star systems are formed, their main characteristics are determined. Ideas about the Universe are given and models of its origin are considered. Based on the theory of global evolutionism, attention is focused on the origin and development of the solar system. The basic information about the internal structure and history of the geological development of the Earth is presented, modern concepts of the development of geospheric shells are formed. Scientific knowledge about the lithosphere as the biotic basis of life is presented. It is shown that a number of factors make the Earth a special planet in the solar system. At the same time, the hydrosphere is the cradle of life, and the world ocean is a “geochemical reactor”. Considerable attention is paid to the study of the ecological functions of the lithosphere. Two main directions of ecology are singled out and their tasks are disclosed. The basic information about the geographic shell of the Earth and its parameters is given. The geographic envelope of the Earth allows you to determine the coordinates of any point on the surface, understand the mechanisms of climate formation, calculate heights and depths, and record the time of events. The foundations of scientific knowledge about the features of the biological level of the organization of matter are outlined, the concept of a cell is formulated and its main properties are determined. Oscillatory and wave processes and their characteristics are considered. On the basis of these ideas, the processes of vital activity of organisms are analyzed and a conclusion is made about their cyclicity. It is shown that the diversity of living organisms ensures the stability and sustainability of geobiocenoses.

The natural-science hypotheses of the origin of life are considered. The possible ways of its development are shown and the prerequisites for its occurrence are highlighted. The presented material allows us to consider the Earth as a special object of the solar system, where the appearance of living beings was possible.

On the basis of modern materialistic ideas, primarily about natural selection, hypotheses of the origin of man are formulated. Groups of features connecting it with the animal world are identified, and characteristic differences are presented.

The line of human genealogy has been drawn up.

Based on paleontological information, the main factors that made man a social being are the joint production of food, the presence of fire, labor, and articulate speech.

According to the principle of global evolutionism, it is shown that the development of living organisms and their groups is subject to the laws of genetics. Its basic provisions are ideas about mutation, heredity, population. The main provisions of the synthetic theory of evolution are highlighted. Brief ideas about the health, performance and emotions of a person and the factors that determine them are given. The influence of cosmic cycles on the Earth's biosphere and processes in it is demonstrated. In particular, daily, seasonal and other influences on the lives of people, including military personnel, are shown. A representation of the noosphere has been formed, on the basis of which the ways of possible development of the surrounding world and humanity are outlined. The examples given show the importance of careful handling of nature in terms of bioethical problems, which in turn are related to the principle of irreversible development of matter. The same principle leads to the fact that such a parameter of matter as time is also irreversible.

Information about self-organization in inanimate nature, obtained on the basis of concepts of closed systems, is presented.

It is shown that the time of their existence is limited due to the increase in entropy. On the basis of synergistic ideas about open systems, it is shown that they can maintain a constant or even reduce the level of entropy due to the exchange of matter, energy, and information with the external environment. The development of living things in this case is due to the presence of fluctuations and positive feedback. It is shown that the processes of self-organization and self-complication occur when symmetry is broken in systems, i.e. when they are out of balance.

The presented material allows us to confirm the implementation of a successful attempt to represent the surrounding world from the standpoint of a single culture through the emergence of such disciplines as KSE, the creation of the Internet network, and so on.

For independent work of students on the topics of the subject, first of all, basic teaching aids available in the university library are offered. In addition to this literature, there are other textbooks that can be used in preparing for seminars or exams. The textbooks of the following authors most fully correspond to the course program: S.G. Khoroshavina, V.N. Lavrinenko, S.Kh. Karpenkov, G.I. Ruzavin,

At lectures, it is necessary to outline the material presented by the teacher, highlighting definitions, laws, main figures and diagrams. It is necessary to leave fields for making additions and explanations in the process of independent work. It is advisable to re-read the material on the day of recording and note the unclear in it.

When preparing for seminars, you should learn the main provisions of the lecture material. The level of assimilation can be assessed by the questions given at the end of the lecture or by the questions for the seminar. Questions not marked with (*) are required to be understood. Those that are marked with this sign imply a deeper study of them and can be presented in the form of a message or report at seminars. Preparation for the exam involves a fundamental study of the theoretical material of the course, as well as records of seminars, the choice of the main material that was included in the questions of the exam papers.

At lectures and seminars, the history of the emergence of science will be considered: first, as the sum of human knowledge about the world around us, rather disparate, chaotic (ancient Egypt, China, Mesopotamia, India), and then a transition was made to the knowledge system within the framework of philosophy (natural philosophy) of Aristotle, to the stages of the formation of modern science (the origin and development of scientific methods) from Copernicus to Einstein and modern cosmology.

To creation natural sciences(since the end of the 18th century): physics, chemistry, biology, geography, geology, astronomy, psychology, etc. led differentiation knowledge about nature, associated with the selection of the studied phenomena, processes, the development of methods for their study and in connection with the generality of the results obtained. Currently attempts imagine the world as one, to reveal the most general laws of the universe expressed in the creation of a generalized, integrative science - natural science. One of its main tasks is the desire to make deep philosophical, methodological conclusions about the universality of the action of the universal laws of evolution, about the systemic organization and self-organization of the surrounding world. Together with the principle of historicity, they allow us to talk about objective perception, understanding of the world in which we live, understanding the goals and meaning of the existence of our civilization.

In general, the KSE course covers the following topics: evolution, natural science picture of the world (history of natural science); modern scientific picture of the world; basic modern cosmological concepts; the main hypotheses of the origin of life and man; the place of man in the universe, the place of science in the modern world and the prediction of its development, etc.

The most common concepts of the course include:

Concept(from the Latin Conceptio) is used in the sense of:

a) a system of views, one or another understanding of phenomena, processes;
b) a single, defining idea, the leading thought of any work, scientific work, etc.

natural science- system of knowledge about nature; a branch of science that studies the world around us as it is, in its natural state, existing independently of man.

The science- a system of knowledge about the phenomena and processes of the objective world and human consciousness, their essence and laws of development; Science as a social institution is a sphere of human activity in which scientific knowledge about the phenomena of nature and society is developed and systematized.

Natural science concepts- name the results of scientific research expressed in the form of scientific theories, laws, models, hypotheses, empirical generalizations.

Achievements in the natural sciences are an integral part of human culture, so the "Concepts of Modern Natural Science" is such a training course that should show the role and importance of natural science in understanding the world around us, in understanding the place of man in this world, in forming a scientific picture of the world.

Nowadays it has become fashionable to talk about the laws of nature and society. As applied to nature, this is, strictly speaking, not true. Nature knows no laws. It is we who invent them, trying to at least somehow systematize what is happening. The term "law of nature" should be understood in the sense that natural phenomena are repeatable and therefore predictable. Be that as it may, the recurrence of natural phenomena makes it possible for science to formulate laws that are commonly called the laws of nature. In their research, humanity is guided by some extremely general principles that facilitate the process of studying natural phenomena.

One of the most general natural science principles is principle of causality, stating that one natural phenomenon gives rise to another, being its cause.

The existence of a chain of causal relationships sometimes allows us to draw conclusions of a general nature. Thus, relying only on the continuity of the chain of causes and effects, the German ship's doctor Robert Mayer was able to formulate the law of conservation and transformation of energy, which is the fundamental law of modern natural science.

Note that the question “why” is, strictly speaking, illegal. We do not know and, apparently, we will never know the ultimate cause of any natural phenomenon. It would be more correct to ask "how". What pattern describes this phenomenon?

Science in its development is working to identify more and more profound causes of natural phenomena. This process gives theologians reason to argue that eventually the scientific process must lead to the determination of the ultimate cause, i.e. God, at which point science and religion will merge.

Another general principle is Cure principle and. It is named after the same Pierre Curie, who, together with his wife Maria Sklodowska-Curie, discovered the chemical element radium. In addition, Pierre Curie made quite a few more scientific discoveries in his short life. Apparently, the most important of them is the Curie principle.

Imagine some quality A. For example, an electric charge, or, say, red hair, or some other quality. It is unlikely that it will be evenly distributed in space. Most likely, there will be a gradient in space (The gradient of a scalar function is a vector directed towards the fastest increase of this function. The magnitude of the gradient is equal to the derivative of this function, taken in the direction of its fastest increase) of this quality.

Curie principle states that if there is a gradient of some quality A, then there will inevitably be a transfer of this quality towards its lack, and the flow of quality A, i.e. its quantity transferred through a unit area per unit time, is proportional to the magnitude of this gradient.

Imagine the spatial distribution of a commodity called bay leaf in our country. Its maximum falls, of course, in the subtropical zones of the Caucasus, and its minimum, which is quite natural, falls on the regions of the Far North. There is a bay leaf gradient. According to the Curie principle, the existence of such a gradient will lead to the transfer of bay leaves from the Caucasus to the North.

There is a huge number of empirical laws from the field of physical and chemical kinetics from Ohm's law to the classical diffusion equation, which are consequences of the Curie principle. It seems to me that economists should be very careful about this principle. A clear understanding of it will allow you to avoid a lot of mistakes.

Extremely productive in scientific terms is the previously mentioned the principle of duality (additionality). It is based on the dual nature of knowledge. You have probably already noticed the existence of paired concepts that jointly define the mutually exclusive aspects of the whole. The selection of such parts is an essential part of the process of cognition.

Describing anything, we resort to abstractions- highlighting the aspects of the studied, important in this respect. Non-essential parties are usually omitted from consideration. In the future, if the chosen abstraction turns out to be fruitful, it replaces the original idea of ​​the phenomenon under study. In this case, the rejected aspects of the phenomenon are omitted from consideration, even if they are very significant.

Principle of Duality

Principle of Duality instructs us to simultaneously consider two mutually exclusive sides when describing anything. Depending on the circumstances, one of them may be more significant. In other circumstances, the other will be more important. If, while trying to solve a problem, you have met with insurmountable difficulties, try an approach based on alternative representations. It is very likely that he will be successful.

Who among you will say what is light? In school, they explained to you that this is an electromagnetic wave. This representation is accepted in the classical paradigm and, in general, describes the property of light quite well. However, as you know, light is made up of individual particles called photons. Without this representation, it is impossible to explain the photoelectric effect, the Compton effect, and much more. So what is light - is it a wave or a stream of particles? When studying the properties of light, both abstractions are admissible. According to the principle of duality, it is possible to avoid errors in the description by conducting both descriptions in parallel.

Superposition principle

The principle of superposition states that the result of the impact on the material system of two factors can be represented as a superposition (superposition) of the impact of each of these factors acting independently of each other. In this principle, it is implicitly assumed that, when superimposed, the factors do not perturb each other. The principle is less general than the Curie principle. However, in many cases it turns out to be very useful.

Symmetry principle

The principle of symmetry is based on the initial ideas about the homogeneity and isotropy of space. Assumes the invariance of natural processes to symmetry transformations. Based on the principle of symmetry, Emmy Noether showed that the fundamental physical laws of conservation of energy and momentum (momentum) are a consequence of the homogeneity and isotropy of space.

The principle of symmetry uses the intuitive idea of ​​the complete equality of right and left. All the more surprising should seem to you the “left” orientation of living nature. You probably know that the molecules of many natural compounds are twisted like a spring. Such a twisted structure has, for example, sugar or cholesterol entering your organisms. Many enzymes of plant and animal origin have a helical structure. If such compounds are obtained by chemical synthesis, then in full accordance with the principle of symmetry, approximately the same number of molecules is obtained, twisted in the right and left helix. So, all life on our planet consists of molecules twisted in a left-handed spiral. Please note that your heart is also shifted to the left, not to the right. Why this is so remains to be seen. For now, however, the principle of symmetry, however temptingly obvious it may seem, is very, very limited.

Even more limited, although no less fruitful, is the principle of similarity. According to this principle, after a certain transformation, the equations describing similar systems turn out to be the same.

Take, for example, the so-called small oscillations. It turns out that after some mathematical transformations, the oscillation of a load suspended on a string and an electric current in an oscillatory circuit can be described by the same equation. The principle of similarity can be applied, alas, not always. However, if in the course of your practical activity you have managed to find similarities between some groups of phenomena, consider that you are guaranteed success.

The principle of relativity

According to the principle of relativity, there is no absolute motion. And consequently, there is no absolute space, absolute time, etc. This principle implies that the course of natural processes does not depend on the point of view of the observer who describes them. It was put forward by Albert Einstein as one of the foundations of the private theory of relativity. Disputed by many scientists. At present, it has firmly entered the inert core of the modern scientific paradigm.

A direct consequence of the principle of relativity is the principle of invariance of the laws of nature to the transformations of the reference frame in which they were formulated. The principle of invariance states that the form of the basic equations describing natural phenomena does not depend on the transformation of coordinates and time included in these equations.

The full course of the discipline is presented in a concise and accessible form, the most important modern concepts of the sciences of inanimate and living nature are highlighted. It is a supplemented and revised version of the textbook recommended by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation for studying the course "Concepts of modern natural science". For undergraduate students, undergraduates, graduate students and teachers of the humanities, for teachers of secondary schools, lyceums and colleges, as well as for a wide range of readers interested in various aspects of natural science.

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The following excerpt from the book Concepts of modern natural science (A. P. Sadokhin) provided by our book partner - the company LitRes.

Chapter 3. Natural science: its subject, structure and history of formation

3.1. The subject and structure of natural science

A person's desire for knowledge of the surrounding world is expressed in various forms, methods and directions of his research activities. Each of the main parts of the objective world - nature, society and man - is studied by separate sciences. The totality of scientific knowledge about nature is formed by natural science. Etymologically, the word "natural science" comes from a combination of two words: "nature" - nature and "knowledge" - knowledge about nature.

In modern use, the term "natural science" in general terms usually denotes the totality of the sciences of nature, which have as the subject of their research various phenomena and processes of nature, the laws of their evolution. In addition, natural science is a separate independent science of nature as a whole. In this capacity, it allows us to study any object of the world around us more deeply than any one natural science can do. Therefore, natural science, along with the sciences of society and thinking, is the most important part of human knowledge. It includes both the activity of obtaining knowledge and its results, i.e., the system of scientific knowledge about natural processes and phenomena.

The concept of "natural science" appeared in modern times in Western Europe and then denoted the totality of the sciences of nature. The roots of this idea go even deeper, to ancient Greece at the time of Aristotle, who was the first to systematize the knowledge about nature then available in his Physics. Today, there are two widespread ideas about the subject of natural science. The first asserts that natural science is the science of nature as a single entity, the second asserts that it is the totality of the sciences of nature considered as a whole. At first glance, these definitions are different. In fact, the differences are not so great, since the totality of the sciences of nature is not just the sum of disparate sciences, but a single complex of closely interconnected natural sciences that complement each other.

Being an independent science, natural science has its own subject of study, different from the subject of special (private) natural sciences. Its specificity is that it explores the same natural phenomena from the positions of several sciences at once, revealing the most general patterns and trends, considering nature "from above". This is the only way to present nature as a single integral system, to reveal the foundations on which the whole variety of objects and phenomena of the surrounding world is built. The result of such research is the formulation of the basic laws that connect the micro-, macro- and mega-worlds, the Earth and the Cosmos, physical and chemical phenomena with life and mind in the Universe.

When considering the issue of the structure of science, we noted that it is a complex branched system of knowledge. Natural science is no less complex system, all parts of which are in relation to hierarchical subordination. This means that the system of natural sciences can be represented as a kind of ladder, each step of which is a support for the science that follows it and, in turn, is based on the data of the previous science.

The foundation of all natural sciences, undoubtedly, is physics, the subject of which is bodies, their movements, transformations and forms of manifestation at various levels. It is impossible to engage in any natural science without knowing physics. Within physics, there are a large number of subsections that differ in their specific subject and research methods. The most important among them is mechanics - the doctrine of the balance and movement of bodies (or their parts) in space and time. Mechanical motion is the simplest and at the same time the most common form of motion of matter. Mechanics historically became the first physical science and for a long time served as a model for all natural sciences. Sections of mechanics are statics, which studies the conditions of equilibrium of bodies; kinematics, dealing with the movement of bodies from a geometric point of view; dynamics, considering the motion of bodies under the action of applied forces. Mechanics is the physics of the macrocosm, which originated in modern times. It is based on statistical mechanics (molecular-kinetic theory), which studies the motion of liquid and gas molecules. Later came atomic physics and elementary particle physics.

The next step in the hierarchy is chemistry, which studies chemical elements, their properties, transformations and compounds. The fact that it is based on physics is easily proved. Even at school chemistry lessons, they talk about the structure of chemical elements, their electron shells; this is an example of the use of physical knowledge in chemistry. In chemistry, inorganic and organic chemistry, chemistry of materials and other sections are distinguished.

In turn, chemistry forms the basis of biology - the science of the living, which studies the cell and everything derived from it. Biological knowledge is based on knowledge about matter, chemical elements. Among the biological sciences, botany (the plant world), zoology (the animal world) should be distinguished. Anatomy, physiology and embryology study the structure, functions and development of an organism, cytology - a living cell, histology - the properties of tissues, paleontology - fossil remains of life, genetics - problems of heredity and variability.

Earth sciences are the next step in the structure of natural science. This group includes geology, geography, ecology, etc. All of them consider the structure and development of our planet, which is a complex combination of physical, chemical and biological phenomena and processes.

The grandiose pyramid of knowledge about nature is completed by cosmology, which studies the Universe as a whole. Part of this knowledge is astronomy and cosmogony, which study the structure and origin of planets, stars, galaxies, etc. At this level, a new return to physics takes place, which allows us to speak of the cyclical, closed nature of natural science, which obviously reflects one of the most important properties of the nature.

The structure of natural science is not limited to the above-named sciences. The fact is that in science there are complex processes of differentiation and integration of scientific knowledge. The differentiation of science is the allocation within any science of narrower, particular areas of research, their transformation into independent sciences. So, within physics, solid-state physics and plasma physics stood out.

The integration of science is the emergence of new sciences at the junctions of old ones, the manifestation of the processes of unification of scientific knowledge. An example of this kind of science is physical chemistry, chemical physics, biophysics, biochemistry, geochemistry, biogeochemistry, astrobiology, etc.

Thus, the pyramid of natural sciences that we have built becomes much more complicated, including a large number of additional and intermediate elements.

3.2. History of natural science

In the history of the development of human civilization, the formation of scientific knowledge under the influence of various factors and causes has come a long way. Accordingly, natural science, being an integral part of science, has the same complex history. It cannot be understood without tracing the history of the development of science as a whole. According to historians of science, the development of natural science went through three stages and at the end of the twentieth century. entered the fourth stage. These stages are ancient Greek natural philosophy, medieval natural science, classical natural science of modern and modern times, and modern natural science of the 20th century.

The development of natural science is subject to this periodization. At the first stage, there was an accumulation of applied information about the nature and methods of using its forces and bodies. This is the so-called natural-philosophical stage in the development of science, representing the direct contemplation of nature as an undivided whole. At this stage, there was a correct coverage of the general picture of nature while neglecting the particulars, which was characteristic of all Greek natural philosophy.

Later, the process of accumulating knowledge was supplemented by a theoretical understanding of the causes, methods and characteristics of changes in nature, and the first concepts of a rational explanation of natural processes appeared. As a result, the so-called analytical stage in the development of science has come, when the analysis of nature is underway, the isolation and study of individual things and phenomena, the search for individual causes and effects. This approach is typical for the initial stage of the development of any science, and in the historical development of science - for the Late Middle Ages and the New Age. At this time, methods and theories were combined into natural science as an integral science of nature, a series of scientific revolutions took place that radically changed the practice of social development.

The result of the development of science is the synthetic stage, when scientists have recreated a complete picture of the world on the basis of the known details. This happened on the basis of combining analysis with synthesis and led to the emergence of modern science of the 20th century.

The beginning of science. Ancient Greek natural philosophy. Science is a complex multifaceted social phenomenon that could neither arise nor develop outside of society. Science appears only when special objective conditions are created for this that meet the previously noted criteria of science. These conditions correspond to the ancient Greek knowledge of the VI-IV centuries. BC e. At that time, fundamentally new features appeared in ancient Greek culture, which were not in the Ancient East - the recognized center of the birth of human civilization.

The emergence of the first forms of knowledge occurred in Eastern civilizations. More than 2 thousand years BC. e. in Egypt, Babylon, India, China, a relationship was established between theoretical knowledge and practical skills. This happened in all areas of human activity, but was mainly associated with agricultural culture (the first astronomical knowledge contributed to weather predictions, the rudiments of mathematics made it possible to measure land areas, etc.).

Historians of science associate the emergence of natural science with a scientific explosion in the 6th-4th centuries. BC e. in ancient Greece, which marked the beginning of the first period in the history of natural science - the period of natural philosophy (from lat. nature- nature), that is, the philosophy of nature as a system of knowledge about the natural causes of natural phenomena. From practical knowledge, which in those days was given by mathematics, astronomy, witchcraft, it was distinguished by a speculative interpretation of nature based on the position of the unity of natural phenomena and its integrity.

The beginning of ancient Greek natural philosophy refers to attempts to search for a natural primary element that ensures the unity and diversity of the natural world. This means that natural philosophy was distinguished by the desire to single out any one natural element as the basis of everything that exists. For the first time in history, this desire was expressed by the philosopher of the Miletus school Thales, who considered water to be the primary element of the whole world, since it is impossible to find an absolutely dry body in the world.

In ancient science, Thales was the first astronomer and mathematician, he was credited with the discovery of the annual rotation of the Sun, determining the time of the solstices and equinoxes. Thales argued that the moon does not shine with its own light, and the celestial bodies are the ignited earth. Thales divided the entire celestial sphere into five zones and introduced a calendar, determining the length of the year at 365 days and dividing it into 12 months of 30 days.

The first scientific program of Antiquity was the mathematical program introduced by Pythagoras of Samos and later developed by Plato. At its basis, as well as at the basis of other ancient programs, lay the idea that the world (Cosmos) is an ordered expression of a number of initial entities. Pythagoras found these entities in numbers and presented them as the fundamental principle of the world. Numerical ratios were considered by him as the basis of the entire universe, the source of the harmony of the Cosmos. According to Pythagoras and his students, the world is based on the quantitative relations of reality. They considered the whole Universe as a harmony of numbers and their relations, attributed special, mystical properties to certain numbers. This approach made it possible to see their quantitative unity behind the world of various qualitatively different objects. In addition, the Pythagoreans first put forward the idea of ​​a spherical shape of the Earth. The most striking embodiment of the mathematical program was the geometry of Euclid, whose famous book "Elements" appeared around 300 BC. e.

Ancient Greek natural philosophy received its highest development in the teachings of Aristotle, who united and systematized all the knowledge about the world around him that was contemporary to him. It became the basis of the third, continuum program of ancient science. The main treatises that make up Aristotle's doctrine of nature are "Physics", "On the Sky", "Meteorology", "On the Origin of Animals", etc. In these treatises, the most important scientific problems were posed and considered, which later became the basis for the emergence of individual sciences . Aristotle paid special attention to the issue of the movement of physical bodies, initiating the study of mechanical movement and the formation of the concepts of mechanics (speed, force, etc.). True, Aristotle's ideas about movement are fundamentally different from modern ones. He believed that there are perfect circular movements of celestial bodies and imperfect movements of earthly objects. If heavenly movements are eternal and unchanging, have no beginning and end, then earthly movements have them and are divided into natural and violent. According to Aristotle, every body has a natural place intended for it, which this body seeks to occupy. The movement of bodies to their place is a natural movement, it occurs by itself, without the application of force. An example is the fall of a heavy body down, the aspiration of fire upwards. All other movements on Earth require the application of force, are directed against the nature of bodies, and are violent. Aristotle proved the eternity of motion, but did not recognize the possibility of self-motion of matter; everything that moves is set in motion by other bodies. The primary source of movement in the world is the prime mover - God. Like the model of the Cosmos, these ideas, thanks to the indisputable authority of Aristotle, were so rooted in the minds of European thinkers that they were refuted only in modern times, after the discovery by G. Galileo of the idea of ​​inertia.

Aristotle's cosmology was geocentric in nature, as it was based on the idea that at the center of the world is our planet Earth, which has a spherical shape and is surrounded by water, air and fire, behind which are spheres of large celestial bodies revolving around the Earth along with other small luminaries.

The indisputable achievement of Aristotle was the creation of formal logic, set forth in his treatise "Organon" and put science on a solid foundation of logically based thinking using an ordered conceptual apparatus. He also owns the approval of the order of scientific research, which includes the study of the history of the issue, the formulation of the problem, the introduction of arguments "for" and "against", as well as the rationale for the decision. After Aristotle's works, scientific knowledge finally separated from metaphysics (philosophy), there was a differentiation of scientific knowledge itself. Mathematics, physics, geography, fundamentals of biology and medical science stood out in it.

Concluding the story about ancient science, one cannot fail to mention the work of other outstanding scientists of this time. Astronomy was actively developing, which needed to bring the observed movement of the planets into line (they move along complex trajectories, making oscillatory, loop-like movements) with their supposed movement in circular orbits, as required by the geocentric model of the world. The solution to this problem was the system of epicycles and deferents of the Alexandrian astronomer K. Ptolemy (I-II centuries AD). To save the geocentric model of the world, he suggested that around the motionless Earth there is a circle with a center displaced relative to the center of the Earth. Along this circle, which is called the deferent, moves the center of a smaller circle, called the epicycle.

It is impossible not to mention another ancient scientist who laid the foundations of mathematical physics. This is Archimedes, who lived in the III century. BC e. His works on physics and mechanics were an exception to the general rules of ancient science, since he used his knowledge to build various machines and mechanisms. Nevertheless, the main thing for him, as for other ancient scientists, was science itself, and mechanics became an important means of solving mathematical problems. Although for Archimedes technology was only a game of the mind (the attitude to technology, to machines as toys was characteristic of the entire Hellenistic science), the work of the scientist played a fundamental role in the emergence of such sections of physics as statics and hydrostatics. In statics, Archimedes introduced the concept of the center of gravity of bodies, formulated the law of the lever. In hydrostatics, he discovered the law that bears his name: a buoyant force acts on a body immersed in a liquid, equal to the weight of the liquid displaced by the body.

As can be seen from the above and far from complete list of ideas and trends in natural philosophy, at this stage the foundations of many modern theories and branches of natural science were laid. No less important is the formation of a style of scientific thinking during this period, which includes the desire for innovation, criticism, the desire for orderliness and a skeptical attitude towards generally accepted truths, the search for universals that give a rational understanding of the entire world around.

The decline of ancient Greek culture practically stopped the development of natural philosophy, but its ideas continued to exist for quite a long time. Finally, natural philosophy lost its significance only in the 19th century, when it ceased to replace the missing sciences, when natural science reached a high level of development, a large amount of factual material was accumulated and systematized, that is, when the real causes of many natural phenomena were revealed and the real connections between them.

The development of science in the Middle Ages. The development of natural science knowledge in the Middle Ages was associated with the establishment of two world religions: Christianity and Islam, which claimed to have absolute knowledge of nature. These religions explained the origin of nature in the form of creationism, that is, the doctrine of the creation of nature by God. All other attempts to explain the world and nature from themselves, without the admission of supernatural divine forces, were condemned and mercilessly suppressed. Many achievements of ancient science were forgotten at the same time.

Unlike Antiquity, medieval science did not offer new fundamental programs. At the same time, it was not limited to passive assimilation of the achievements of ancient science. The contribution of medieval science to the development of scientific knowledge consisted in the fact that a number of new interpretations and clarifications of ancient science were proposed, a number of new concepts and research methods that destroyed ancient scientific programs, paving the way for the mechanics of the New Age.

From the point of view of the Christian worldview, man was considered created in the image and likeness of God, he was the master of the earthly world. Thus, a very important idea penetrates into the consciousness of a person, which never arose and could not arise in Antiquity: since a person is the master of this world, it means that he has the right to remake this world as he needs. A new, active approach to nature was also associated with a change in attitude to work, which becomes the duty of every Christian; gradually, physical labor began to enjoy more and more respect in medieval society. At the same time, a desire arose to facilitate this work, which caused a new attitude towards technology. The invention of machines and mechanisms ceased to be fun, as in Antiquity, and became a useful and respected business.

Thus, it was the Christian worldview that sowed the seeds of a new attitude towards nature. This attitude made it possible to get away from a contemplative attitude towards it and come to the experimental science of the New Age, which set as its goal the practical transformation of the world for the benefit of man.

In the depths of medieval culture, such specific areas of knowledge as astrology, alchemy, iatrochemistry, and natural magic successfully developed. Often they were called hermetic (secret) sciences. They were an intermediate link between the technical craft and natural philosophy, they contained the germ of the future experimental science due to their practical orientation. For example, for a millennium, alchemists tried to obtain a philosopher's stone with the help of chemical reactions, which contributes to the transformation of any substance into gold, to prepare an elixir of longevity. By-products of these searches and studies were the technologies for obtaining paints, glass, medicines, various chemicals, etc. Thus, alchemical studies, theoretically untenable, prepared the possibility of the emergence of modern science.

Very important for the formation of the classical science of modern times were new ideas about the world, refuting some of the provisions of the ancient scientific picture of the world. They formed the basis of the mechanistic explanation of the world. Without such ideas, classical natural science simply could not have appeared. This is how the concepts of emptiness, infinite space and movement in a straight line appeared, the concepts of “average speed”, “uniformly accelerated movement”, the concept of acceleration matured. Of course, these concepts cannot yet be considered clearly formulated and conscious, but without them the physics of modern times could not have appeared.

Also, a new understanding of mechanics was laid, which in Antiquity was an applied science. Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages considered all man-made tools as artificial, alien to nature. Because of this, they had nothing to do with the knowledge of the world, since the principle “like is known by like” was in effect. That is why only the human mind, by virtue of the principle of human similarity to the Cosmos (the unity of the micro- and macro Cosmos), could cognize the world. Later, tools began to be considered part of nature, only processed by man, and by virtue of their identity with it, they could be used to understand the world. The possibility of using the experimental method of cognition was opened.

Another innovation was the rejection of the ancient idea of ​​the model of perfection - the circle. This model was replaced by the infinite line model, which contributed to the formation of ideas about the infinity of the Universe, and also underlay the calculus of infinitesimal quantities, without which differential and integral calculus is impossible. The entire mathematics of modern times, and hence the entire classical science, is built on it.

Considering the question of the achievements of medieval science, it should be noted Leonardo da Vinci, who developed his own method of understanding nature. He was convinced that knowledge proceeds from private experiences and concrete results to scientific generalization. In his opinion, experience is not only a source, but also a criterion of knowledge. Being an adherent of the experimental method of research, he studied the fall of bodies, the trajectory of projectiles, the coefficients of friction, the resistance of materials, etc. In the course of his research, da Vinci laid the foundation for experimental natural science. For example, while doing practical anatomy, he left sketches of the internal organs of a person, provided with a description of their functions. As a result of many years of observations, he revealed the phenomenon of heliotropism (changes in the direction of growth of plant organs depending on the light source) and explained the reasons for the appearance of veins on the leaves. Leonardo da Vinci is considered the first researcher who identified the problem of the relationship between living beings and their natural environment.

3.3. The global scientific revolution of the 16th–17th centuries.

In the 16th-17th centuries, natural-philosophical and scholastic knowledge of nature turned into modern natural science - systematic scientific knowledge based on experiments and mathematical presentation. During this period, a new worldview was formed in Europe and a new stage in the development of science began, associated with the first global natural scientific revolution. Its starting point was the publication in 1543 of the famous book by N. Copernicus "On the rotation of the celestial spheres", which marked the transition from geocentric ideas about the world to the heliocentric model of the Universe. In the Copernican scheme, the universe still remained a sphere, although its size increased dramatically (this was the only way to explain the apparent immobility of the stars). In the center of the Cosmos was the Sun, around which all the planets known by that time, including the Earth with its satellite, the Moon, revolved. The new model of the world made clear many previously mysterious effects, first of all, the loop-like movements of the planets, which were now explained by the movement of the Earth around its axis and around the Sun. For the first time, the change of seasons was justified.

The next step in the formation of the heliocentric picture of the world was made by D. Bruno. He rejected the idea of ​​the Cosmos as a closed sphere limited by fixed stars, and for the first time stated that the stars are not lamps created by God to illuminate the night sky, but the same suns around which planets can revolve and on which people may live . Thus, D. Bruno proposed a sketch of a new polycentric picture of the universe, which was finally established a century later: the Universe is eternal in time, infinite in space, many planets inhabited by intelligent beings revolve around an infinite number of stars.

But, despite the grandeur of this picture, the Universe continued to be a sketch, a sketch, in need of fundamental justification. It was necessary to discover the laws operating in the world and proving the correctness of the assumptions of N. Copernicus and D. Bruno; this became the most important task of the first global scientific revolution, which began with the discoveries of G. Galileo. His works in the field of methodology of scientific knowledge predetermined the whole image of classical, and in many respects modern science. He gave natural science an experimental and mathematical character, formulated a hypothetical-deductive model of scientific knowledge. But the works of G. Galileo in the field of astronomy and physics are of particular importance for the development of natural science.

Since the time of Aristotle, scientists have believed that there is a fundamental difference between terrestrial and celestial phenomena and bodies, since the heavens are the location of ideal bodies consisting of ether. Because of this, it was believed that, being on Earth, it was impossible to study celestial bodies, this delayed the development of science. After the telescope was invented in 1608, G. Galileo improved it and turned it into a telescope with a 30x magnification. With his help, he made a number of outstanding astronomical discoveries. Among them are mountains on the Moon, spots on the Sun, phases of Venus, four largest moons of Jupiter. G. Galileo was the first to see that the Milky Way is a cluster of a huge number of stars. All these facts proved that the celestial bodies are not ethereal creatures, but quite material objects and phenomena. After all, there cannot be mountains on an “ideal” body, like on the Moon, or spots, like on the Sun.

With the help of his discoveries in mechanics, G. Galileo destroyed the dogmatic constructions of Aristotelian physics that dominated for almost two thousand years. For the first time, he tested many of Aristotle's statements empirically, thereby laying the foundations for a new branch of physics - dynamics, the science of the movement of bodies under the action of applied forces. It was G. Galileo who formulated the concepts of physical law, speed, acceleration. But the greatest discoveries of the scientist were the idea of ​​inertia and the classical principle of relativity.

According to the classical principle of relativity, no mechanical experiments carried out inside the system can determine whether the system is at rest or moving uniformly and rectilinearly. Also, the classical principle of relativity states that there is no difference between rest and uniform rectilinear motion, they are described by the same laws. G. Galileo confirmed the equality of motion and rest, i.e., the equality of inertial systems (at rest or moving relative to each other uniformly and rectilinearly), by reasoning with numerous examples. For example, a traveler in a ship's cabin has good reason to believe that a book lying on his table is at rest. But the man on the shore sees that the ship is sailing, and has every reason to say that the book is moving at the same speed as the ship. Is this how the book actually moves or is it at rest? This question obviously cannot be answered "yes" or "no". An argument between a traveler and a man on the shore would be a waste of time if each of them defended his point of view and denied the partner's point of view. To agree on positions, they only need to recognize that at the same time the book is at rest relative to the ship and is moving relative to the shore with the ship.

Thus, the word "relativity" in the name of Galileo's principle has no other meaning than that which we put into the statement: motion or rest is always motion or rest relative to what serves us as a frame of reference.

A huge role in the development of science was played by the research of R. Descartes in physics, cosmology, biology, and mathematics. The teaching of R. Descartes is a unified natural-scientific and philosophical system based on the postulates of the existence of continuous matter that fills all space, and its mechanical movement. The scientist set the task of explaining all known and unknown phenomena of nature, based on the principles of the structure of the world and ideas about matter established by him, using only the "eternal truths" of mathematics. He revived the ideas of ancient atomism and built a grandiose picture of the Universe, embracing in it all the elements of the natural world: from heavenly bodies to the physiology of animals and humans. At the same time, R. Descartes built his model of nature only on the basis of mechanics, which at that time achieved the greatest success. The idea of ​​nature as a complex mechanism, which R. Descartes developed in his teaching, was later formed into an independent direction in the development of physics, called Cartesianism. Cartesian (Cartesian) natural science laid the foundations for a mechanical understanding of nature, the processes of which were considered as the movement of bodies along geometrically described trajectories. However, Cartesian teaching was not exhaustive. In particular, the motion of the planets had to obey the law of inertia, i.e., be rectilinear and uniform. But since the orbits of the planets remain continuous closed curves and no such movement occurs, it becomes obvious that some kind of force deflects the movement of the planets from a rectilinear trajectory and makes them constantly “fall” towards the Sun. Henceforth, the most important problem of the new cosmology was to elucidate the nature and character of this force.

The nature of this force was discovered by I. Newton, whose work completed the first global natural scientific revolution. He proved the existence of gravity as a universal force, formulated the law of universal gravitation.

Newtonian physics has become the pinnacle of the development of views in the understanding of the natural world in classical science. Isaac Newton substantiated the physical and mathematical understanding of nature, which became the basis for the entire subsequent development of natural science and the formation of classical natural science. In the course of his research, the scientist created methods of differential and integral calculus to solve problems in mechanics. Thanks to this, he was able to formulate the basic laws of dynamics and the law of universal gravitation. The mechanics of I. Newton is based on the concepts of the amount of matter (body mass), momentum, force and three laws of motion: the law of inertia, the law of proportionality of force and acceleration, the law of equality of action and reaction.

Although I. Newton proclaimed: “I do not invent hypotheses!” Nevertheless, a number of hypotheses were proposed by him, and they played an important role in the further development of natural science. These hypotheses were connected with the further development of the idea of ​​universal gravitation, which remained rather mysterious and incomprehensible. In particular, it was necessary to answer the questions, what is the mechanism of action of this force, with what speed it spreads, and whether it has a material carrier.

Answering these questions, I. Newton suggested (confirmed, as it seemed then, by countless facts) long range principle instantaneous action of bodies on each other at any distance without any intermediate links, through the void. The principle of long-range action is impossible without involving the concepts of absolute space and absolute time, also proposed by I. Newton.

Absolute space was understood as a receptacle for world matter. It is comparable to a big black box in which you can put a material body, but you can also remove it - then there will be no matter, but space will remain. Absolute time must also exist as a universal duration, a constant cosmic scale for measuring all countless concrete movements, which can flow independently without the participation of material bodies. It was in such absolute space and time that the gravitational force instantly spread. It is impossible to perceive absolute space and time in sensory experience. Space, time and matter in this concept are three entities independent of each other.

The works of I. Newton completed the first global scientific revolution, forming the classical polycentric scientific picture of the world and laying the foundation for the classical science of modern times.

3.4. Classical natural science of modern times

It is natural that on the basis of the noted achievements, the further development of natural science acquired an ever greater scale and depth. There were processes of differentiation of scientific knowledge, associated with significant progress in the already formed and with the emergence of new independent sciences. Nevertheless, the natural science of that time developed within the framework of classical science, which had its own specific features that left an imprint on the work of scientists and its results.

The most important characteristic of classical science is mechanistic - representation of the world as a machine, a gigantic mechanism, clearly functioning on the basis of the eternal and unchanging laws of mechanics. It is no coincidence that the most common model of the universe was a huge clockwork. Therefore, mechanics was the standard of any science that was tried to be built on its model. It was also considered as a universal method for studying the surrounding phenomena. This was expressed in the desire to reduce any processes in the world (not only physical and chemical, but also biological, social) to simple mechanical movements. Such a reduction of the higher to the lower, the explanation of the complex through the simpler is called reductionism.

The consequences of mechanism were the predominance of quantitative methods for analyzing nature, the desire to decompose the process or phenomenon under study to its smallest components, reaching the final limit of the divisibility of matter. Randomness was completely excluded from the picture of the world, scientists strove for complete knowledge about the world - absolute truth.

Another feature of classical science was metaphysical - consideration of nature as a non-developing whole, unchanged from century to century, always identical to itself. Each object or phenomenon was studied separately from the others, their connections with other objects were ignored, and the changes that occurred with these objects and phenomena were only quantitative. Thus arose a strong anti-evolutionist attitude of classical science.

The mechanistic and metaphysical nature of classical science was clearly manifested not only in physics, but also in chemistry and biology. This led to the rejection of the recognition of the qualitative specifics of life and the living. They have become the same elements in the "mechanism" world as objects and phenomena of inanimate nature.

These features of classical science were most clearly manifested in the natural sciences of the 18th century, creating many theories that have been almost forgotten by modern science. The reductionist tendency was clearly manifested, the desire to reduce all sections of physics, chemistry and biology to the methods and approaches of mechanics. In an effort to reach the final limit of the divisibility of matter, the scientists of the XVIII century. created "the doctrine of weightless" - electric and magnetic fluids, caloric, phlogiston as special substances that provide bodies with electrical, magnetic, thermal properties, as well as the ability to burn. Among the most significant achievements of natural science of the XVIII century. it should be noted the development of atomic and molecular ideas about the structure of matter, the formation of the foundations of the experimental science of electricity.

The principles of non-Euclidean geometry by K. Gauss, the concept of entropy and the second law of thermodynamics by R. Clausius, the periodic law of chemical elements by D.I. Mendeleev, the theory of natural selection by Ch. Darwin and A.R. Wallace, G. Mendel's theory of genetic inheritance, D. Maxwell's electromagnetic theory.

These and many other discoveries of the nineteenth century. raised natural science to a qualitatively new level, turned it into a disciplinary organized science. From a science that collected facts and studied complete, completed, individual objects, it turned into a systematizing science about objects and processes, their origin and development. This happened during the complex scientific revolution of the mid-nineteenth century. But all these discoveries remained within the framework of the methodological guidelines of classical science. The idea of ​​the world-"machine" has not become a thing of the past, but has only been corrected, all the provisions about the cognizability of the world and the possibility of obtaining absolute truth have remained unchanged. The mechanistic and metaphysical features of classical science were only shaken, but not discarded. Because of this, the science of the nineteenth century. carried the seeds of a future crisis, which was supposed to be resolved by the second global scientific revolution of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

3.5. Global scientific revolution of the late XIX - early XX century.

A number of remarkable discoveries destroyed the entire classical scientific picture of the world. In 1888, the German scientist G. Hertz discovered electromagnetic waves, brilliantly confirming D. Maxwell's prediction. In 1895, V. Roentgen discovered rays, later called x-rays, which were short-wave electromagnetic radiation. The study of the nature of these mysterious rays, capable of penetrating through opaque bodies, led D. Thompson to the discovery of the first elementary particle - the electron.

To the great discoveries of the late XIX century. the works of A.G. Stoletov on the study of the photoelectric effect, P.N. Lebedev on the pressure of light. In 1901, M. Planck, trying to solve the problems of the classical theory of radiation of heated bodies, suggested that energy is emitted in small portions - quanta, and the energy of each quantum is proportional to the frequency of the emitted radiation. The coefficient of proportionality connecting these quantities is now called Planck's constant ( h). It is one of the few universal physical constants of our world and is included in all equations of the physics of the microworld. It was also found that the mass of an electron depends on its speed.

All these discoveries in just a few years overturned the slender building of classical science, which in the early 1880s. seemed almost finished. All previous ideas about matter and its structure, motion and its properties and types, about the form of physical laws, about space and time were refuted. This led to a crisis in physics and the whole of natural science, and became a symptom of a deeper crisis in all of classical science.

The situation began to change for the better only in the 1920s. with the onset of the second stage of the scientific revolution. It is associated with the creation of quantum mechanics and its combination with the theory of relativity, created in 1906–1916. Then a new quantum-relativistic picture of the world began to take shape, in which the discoveries that led to the crisis in physics were explained.

The beginning of the third stage of the scientific revolution was the mastery of atomic energy in the 1940s. and subsequent research, which is associated with the emergence of electronic computers and cybernetics. Also during this period, physics passes the baton to chemistry, biology and the cycle of earth sciences, beginning to create their own scientific pictures of the world. Since the middle of the 20th century, science has finally merged with technology, leading to the modern scientific and technological revolution.

The main conceptual change in the natural sciences of the twentieth century. there was a rejection of the Newtonian model of obtaining scientific knowledge through experiment to an explanation. Einstein proposed a different model for explaining natural phenomena, in which the hypothesis and the rejection of common sense as a way to test the statement became primary, and the experiment became secondary.

The development of the Einsteinian approach led to the rejection of Newtonian cosmology and formed a new picture of the world in which logic and common sense ceased to operate. It turns out that I. Newton's solid atoms are almost completely filled with emptiness, that matter and energy pass into each other. Three-dimensional space and one-dimensional time have turned into a four-dimensional space-time continuum. According to this picture of the world, the planets move in their orbits not because some force attracts them to the Sun, but because the very space in which they move is curved. Subatomic phenomena simultaneously manifest themselves both as particles and as waves. You cannot simultaneously calculate the location of a particle and measure its acceleration. The uncertainty principle fundamentally undermined Newtonian determinism. The concepts of causality were violated; substances, solid discrete bodies have given way to formal relations and dynamic processes.

These are the main provisions of the modern quantum-relativistic scientific picture of the world, which is becoming the main result of the second global scientific revolution. It is associated with the creation of modern (non-classical) science, which in all its parameters differs from classical science.

3.6. The main features of modern natural science and science

The mechanistic and metaphysical nature of classical science has been replaced by new dialectical attitudes of universal connection and development. Mechanics is no longer the leading science and the universal method for studying environmental phenomena. The classical model of the world - "clockwork" has been replaced by the model of the world - "thought", for the study of which the system approach and the method of global evolutionism are best suited. The metaphysical foundations of classical science, which considered each object in isolation, as something special and complete, are gone.

Now the world is recognized as a set of multi-level systems that are in a state of hierarchical subordination. At the same time, at each level of the organization of matter, their own laws operate. Analytical activity, which was the main one in classical science, is giving way to synthetic tendencies, to a systematic and holistic consideration of objects and phenomena of the objective world. Confidence in the existence of a finite limit of the divisibility of matter, the desire to find the ultimate material fundamental principle of the world were replaced by the belief in the fundamental impossibility of doing this (the inexhaustibility of matter in depth). Obtaining absolute truth is considered impossible; truth is considered relative, existing in a variety of theories, each of which studies its own slice of reality.

These features of modern science are embodied in new theories and concepts that have appeared in all areas of natural science. Among the important scientific achievements of the XX century. – theory of relativity, quantum mechanics, nuclear physics, theory of physical interaction; a new cosmology based on the Big Bang theory; evolutionary chemistry, striving to master the experience of living nature; the discovery of many secrets of life in biology, etc. But the true triumph of non-classical science, undoubtedly, was cybernetics, which embodied the ideas of a systematic approach, as well as synergetics and non-equilibrium thermodynamics, based on the method of global evolutionism.

Starting from the second half of the twentieth century. researchers record the entry of natural science into a new stage of development - post-non-classical, which is characterized by a number of fundamental principles and forms of organization. Evolutionism, cosmism, environmentalism, the anthropic principle, holism and humanism are most often singled out as such principles. These principles orient modern natural science not so much towards the search for abstract truth as towards its usefulness for society and every individual. The main indicator in this case is not economic expediency, but the improvement of the living environment of people, the growth of their material and spiritual well-being. Natural science thus really turns its face to man, overcoming the eternal nihilism in relation to the burning needs of people.

Modern natural science has a predominantly problematic, interdisciplinary orientation instead of the previously dominant narrow-disciplinary orientation of natural science research. Today, it is fundamentally important to use a combination of different natural sciences in relation to each specific case of research when solving complex complex problems. Hence, such a feature of post-non-classical science as the growing integration of natural, technical and human sciences becomes clear. Historically, they differentiated, branched off from a certain single basis, developing autonomously for a long time. Characteristically, the humanities are becoming the leading element of such growing integration.

In the analysis of the features of modern natural science, one should note such a fundamental feature of it as the impossibility of free experimentation with objects (fundamental research). A real natural-science experiment turns out to be dangerous for the life and health of people. The powerful natural forces awakened by modern science and technology are capable of leading to severe local, regional and even global crises and catastrophes if they are handled ineptly.

Researchers of science note that modern natural science is organically merging more and more with production, technology and the life of people, turning into the most important factor in the progress of civilization. It is no longer limited to the studies of individual "armchair" scientists, but includes in its orbit complex teams of researchers from different scientific fields. In the process of research activities, representatives of various natural disciplines are increasingly becoming aware of the fact that the Universe is a systemic integrity with yet insufficiently understood laws of development, with global paradoxes, in which the life of each person is connected with cosmic patterns and rhythms. The universal connection of processes and phenomena in the Universe requires a comprehensive study adequate to their nature, and in particular global modeling based on the method of system analysis. In accordance with these tasks, methods of system dynamics, synergetics, game theory, and program-targeted control are increasingly being used in modern natural science, on the basis of which forecasts are made for the development of complex natural processes.

Modern concepts of global evolutionism and synergetics make it possible to describe the development of nature as a successive change of structures born from chaos, temporarily gaining stability, but then again striving for chaotic states. In addition, many natural systems appear as complex, multifunctional, open, non-equilibrium, the development of which is unpredictable. Under these conditions, the analysis of the possibilities for the further evolution of complex natural objects appears to be fundamentally unpredictable, associated with many random factors that can become the basis for new forms of evolution.

All these changes are taking place as part of the ongoing global scientific revolution, which is likely to end by the middle of the 21st century. Of course, now it is difficult to imagine the shape of the future science. Obviously, it will differ from both classical and modern (non-classical) science. But some of its features listed above are already visible.

Table 3.1. The most significant natural scientists: from the VI century. BC e to the 20th century.

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Introduction…………………………………………………………………..………….3

1. Classification of sciences

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List of sources used……………………………….…………….15

Introduction

It is well known that natural science is a set of sciences about nature. The task of natural science is the knowledge of the objective laws of nature and the promotion of their practical use in the interests of man. Natural science arises as a result of the generalization of observations received and accumulated in the process of people's practical activities, and is itself the theoretical basis of this practical activity.

In the 19th century, it was customary to divide natural sciences (or experimental knowledge of nature) into 2 large groups. The first group traditionally covers the sciences of natural phenomena(physics, chemistry, physiology), and the second - about objects of nature. Although this division is rather arbitrary, it is obvious that the objects of nature are not only the entire surrounding material world with celestial bodies and the earth, but also the inorganic constituent parts of the earth, and the organic beings located on it, and, finally, man.

Consideration of celestial bodies is the subject of astronomical sciences, the earth is the subject of a number of sciences, of which the most developed are geology, geography and physics of the earth. The knowledge of objects that are part of the earth's crust and located on it is the subject of natural history with its three main departments: mineralogy, botany and zoology. Man, on the other hand, serves as the subject of anthropology, the most important components of which are anatomy and physiology. In turn, medicine and experimental psychology are based on anatomy and physiology.

In our time, such a generally accepted classification of the natural sciences no longer exists. According to the objects of research, the broadest division is the division into the sciences of living and so-called inanimate nature. The most important large areas of natural science (physics, chemistry, biology) can be distinguished by the forms of motion of matter that they study. However, this principle, on the one hand, does not allow covering all natural sciences (for example, mathematics and many related sciences), on the other hand, it is not applicable to substantiate further classification divisions, that complex differentiation and interconnection of sciences that are so characteristic of modern natural science.

In modern natural science, two opposite processes are organically intertwined: continuous differentiation natural sciences and increasingly narrow areas of science and integration these separate sciences.

1. Classification of sciences

The classification procedure originates from a simple observation, which took shape in a specific cognitive device. However, the classification makes it possible to obtain a real meaningful increment of knowledge on the way to revealing new groups of phenomena.

The classification procedure, addressed to science itself, cannot ignore the classification proposed by F. Bacon (1561-1626) as a generalization of the circle of knowledge known in his time. In his landmark work "On the Dignity and Multiplication of the Sciences" he creates a wide panorama of scientific knowledge, including poetry in the friendly family of sciences. The Baconian classification of sciences is based on the basic abilities of the human soul: memory, imagination, reason. Therefore, the classification takes the following form: history corresponds to memory; imagination - poetry; mind is philosophy.

In the natural sciences of Goethe's time (the end of the 18th century), it was believed that all objects of nature are connected with each other by a grandiose single chain leading from the simplest substances, from elements and minerals through plants and animals to man. The world was drawn by Goethe as a continuous "metamorphosis" of forms. Ideas about qualitatively different "levels of organization" of nature were developed by the objective idealists Schelling and Hegel. Schelling set himself the task of consistently revealing all the stages of the development of nature in the direction of the highest goal, i.e. consider nature as an expedient whole, the purpose of which is in the generation of consciousness. The stages of nature identified by Hegel were associated with various stages of evolution, interpreted as the development and embodiment of the creative activity of the "world spirit", which Hegel calls the absolute idea. Hegel talked about the transition of mechanical phenomena to chemical (the so-called chemism) and further to organic life (organism) and practice.

A major milestone in the development of the classification of sciences was the teaching of Henri de Saint-Simon (1760-1825). Summing up the development of science of his time, Saint-Simon argued that the mind seeks to base its judgments on observed and discussed facts. On the positive foundation of the empirically given, he (reason) has already transformed astronomy and physics. Particular sciences are elements of a general science - philosophy. The latter became semi-positive when the particular sciences became positive, and will become completely positive when all the particular sciences become positive. This will be realized when physiology and psychology are based on observed and discussed facts, for there are no phenomena that would not be either astronomical, or chemical, or physiological, or psychological. As part of his natural philosophy, Saint-Simon tried to find universal laws that govern all the phenomena of nature and society, to transfer the methods of natural science disciplines to the field of social phenomena. He equated the organic world with fluid matter and represented man as an organized fluid body. The development of nature and society was interpreted as a constant struggle between solid and fluid matter, emphasizing the diverse connection of the common with the whole.

The personal secretary of Saint-Simon, Auguste Comte, proposes to take into account the law of the three stages of the intellectual evolution of mankind as the basis for developing a classification of sciences. In his opinion, the classification must meet two main conditions - dogmatic and historical. The first consists in arranging the sciences according to their successive dependence, so that each one builds on the previous one and prepares the next one. The second condition prescribes that the sciences be arranged according to the course of their actual development, from the most ancient to the newest.

The various sciences are distributed according to the nature of the phenomena being studied, either according to their decreasing generality and independence, or according to their increasing complexity. From such an arrangement flow speculations more and more complex, as well as more and more sublime and complete. In the hierarchy of sciences, the degree of reduction in abstractness and increase in complexity is of great importance. Humanity is the ultimate goal of any theoretical system. The hierarchy of sciences is as follows: mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology and sociology. The first of these constitutes the starting point of the latter, which, as has already been said, is the sole fundamental aim of all positive philosophy.

To facilitate the usual use of the hierarchical formula, it is convenient to group the terms by two, presenting them in the form of three pairs: initial - mathematical-astronomical, final - biological-sociological and intermediate - physical-chemical. In addition, each pair shows the natural similarity of the paired sciences, and their artificial separation, in turn, leads to a number of difficulties. This is especially evident in the separation of biology from sociology.

The basis of O. Comte's classification is the principles of movement from the simple to the complex, from the abstract to the concrete, from the ancient to the new. And although more complex sciences are based on less complex ones, this does not mean the reduction of higher to lower ones. In Comte's classification, there are no such sciences as logic, because, in his opinion, it is part of mathematics, and psychology, which is partly a fragment of biology, partly sociology.

Further steps in the development of the problem of classification of sciences, taken, in particular, by Wilhelm Dilthey (1833-1911), led to the separation of the sciences of the spirit and the sciences of nature. In the work "Introduction to the sciences of the spirit," the philosopher distinguishes them primarily by subject. The subject matter of the natural sciences is phenomena external to man. The sciences of the spirit are immersed in the analysis of human relationships. In the first, scientists are interested in observing external objects as data from the natural sciences; secondly, internal experiences. Here we color our ideas about the world with our emotions, while nature is silent, as if alien. Dil-tey is sure that the appeal to "experience" is the only foundation of the sciences about the spirit. The autonomy of the sciences about the spirit establishes a connection between the concepts of "life", "expression", "understanding". There are no such concepts either in nature or in the natural sciences. Life and experience are objectified in the institutions of the state, church, jurisprudence, etc. It is also important that understanding is turned to the past and serves as a source of sciences about the spirit.

Wilhelm Windelband (1848-1915) proposes to distinguish sciences not by subject, but by method. He divides scientific disciplines into nomothetic and ideographic. In the department of the first - the establishment of general laws, the regularity of objects and phenomena. The latter are aimed at studying individual phenomena and events.

However, the external opposition of nature and spirit is not able to provide an exhaustive basis for the entire diversity of sciences. Heinrich Rickert (1863-1936), developing the idea put forward by Windelband about the separation of nomothetic and ideographic sciences, comes to the conclusion that the difference stems from different principles of selection and ordering of empirical data. The division of the sciences into the sciences of nature and the sciences of culture in his famous work of the same name best expresses the opposition of interests that divide scientists into two camps.

For Rickert, the central idea is that the reality given in cognition is immanent in consciousness. Impersonal consciousness constitutes nature (natural science) and culture (cultural sciences). Natural science is aimed at identifying general laws, which are interpreted by Rickert as a priori rules of reason. History deals with unrepeatable single phenomena. Natural science is free from values, culture and individualizing understanding of history is the realm of values. The indication of value is especially important. “Those parts of reality which are indifferent to values ​​and which we consider in the indicated sense only as nature, have for us ... only natural scientific interest ... their individual appearance has significance for us not as individuality, but as an instance of more or less general concept.On the contrary, in the phenomena of culture and in those processes that we put to them as preliminary steps in some relation ... our interest is directed to a special and individual, to their unique and non-repeating course, i.e. we study them also historically, in an individualizing way. Rickert distinguishes three Kingdoms: reality, value, meaning; they correspond to three methods of comprehension: explanation, understanding, interpretation.

Undoubtedly, the separation of nomothetic and ideographic methods was an important step in the classification of sciences. In a general sense, the nomo-thetic method (from the Greek nomothetike, which means "legislative art") is aimed at generalizing and establishing laws and is manifested in natural science. According to the distinction between nature and culture, general laws are disproportionate and incommensurable with a unique and singular existence, in which there is always something inexpressible with the help of general concepts. From this follows the conclusion that the nomothetic method is not a universal method of cognition and that the ideographic method must be used to cognize the "single".

The name of the ideographic method (from Greek, idios - "special", grapho - "I write") indicates that this is a method of the historical sciences of culture. Its essence is in the description of individual events with their value coloring. Significant events can be singled out among individual events, but their single regularity is never seen. Thus, the historical process appears as a set of unique and inimitable events, in contrast to the approach to natural science declared by the nomothetic method, where nature is covered by regularity.

Cultural sciences, according to Rickert, are widespread in such areas as religion, church, law, state, and even economy. And although the economy can be called into question, Rickert defines it this way: "Technical inventions (and therefore the economic activity that is derived from them) are usually made with the help of the natural sciences, but they themselves do not belong to the objects of natural scientific research."

Is it possible to consider that in the coexistence of both these two types of science, and the methods corresponding to them, the responses of those distant disputes between nominalists and realists, which agitated medieval scholastic disputes, are reflected? Apparently yes. After all, those statements that are heard from the ideographic sciences (in particular, that the individual is the basis of the general and the latter does not exist outside of it, they cannot be separated from each other and assume a separate existence), are at the same time the arguments of the nominalists, for whom it is the individual, as a real-life fact can be taken as the basis of true knowledge.

With regard to the current situation, it should be noted that both in the exact, pomological sciences, oriented towards regularity and repetition, and in the individualizing, ideographic sciences, oriented towards the singular and unique, the singular cannot and should not be ignored. Does natural science have the right to refuse to analyze individual facts, and will that chronicle be fair in which the general connection of events will not be traced?

For the methodology and philosophy of science, Rickert's reflections are of interest, in which the general and the individual are not simply opposed, which would be naive, but differentiation appears, i.e. in distinguishing the types of general and singular. In the natural sciences, the relation of the general to the singular is the relation of the genus and the individual (instance). In the social historical sciences, singularity, as it were, represents, represents universality, acting as a pattern manifested in a visual way. Individual causal series - such is the purpose and meaning of the historical sciences.

Principles of the classification of sciences by F. Engels. When in 1873 Engels began to develop a classification of the forms of motion of matter, the Comte view of the classification of sciences was widespread in scientific circles. The founder of positivism, O. Comte, was sure that each science has as its subject a separate form of the movement of matter, and the objects of various sciences are sharply separated from each other: mathematics | physics | chemistry | biology | sociology. This correspondence was called the principle of coordination of sciences. Engels paid attention to how objects studied by various sciences are interconnected and pass one into another. The idea arose to reflect the process of progressive development of moving matter, going along an ascending line from the lowest to the highest, from the simple to the complex. The approach where mechanics was linked and passed into physics, the latter into chemistry, then into biology and the social sciences (mechanics... physics... chemistry... biology... social sciences), became known as the principle of subordination. And indeed, wherever we look, we will never find any form of movement in complete isolation from other forms of movement, everywhere and everywhere there are only processes of transformation of one form of movement into others. Forms of the motion of matter exist in a continuous-discontinuous process of transformation into each other. “The classification of sciences,” F. Engels noted, “each of which analyzes a separate form of motion or a series of interconnected and passing into each other forms of motion of matter, is at the same time a classification, an arrangement, according to their inherent sequence of these forms of motion themselves, And therein lies its significance."

When Engels began work on "The Dialectics of Nature", the concept of energy had already been established in science, extended to the field of inorganics - inanimate nature. However, it became more and more clear that there can be no absolute boundary between animate and inanimate nature. A convincing example of this was the virus - a transitional form and a living contradiction. Once in an organic environment, he behaved like a living body, while in an inorganic environment he did not manifest himself like that. It can be said that Engels far-sightedly predicted the transition from one form of motion of matter to another, since by the time his concept arose, science had studied only the transitions between mechanical and thermal forms. There was also interest in the assumption that outstanding discoveries would soon appear at the intersection of sciences, in the border areas. Taking up the development of one of these border areas linking nature and society, Engels proposed the labor theory of anthroposociogenesis - the origin of man and human society. At one time, Charles Darwin (1809-1882), conducting comparative anatomical studies of man and monkeys, came to the conclusion that man was of a purely animal origin. He identified two forms of competition: intraspecific and interspecific. Intraspecific competition led to the extinction of unadapted forms and ensured the survival of the fit ones. This position formed the basis of natural selection. Engels, on the other hand, appreciated the role of social factors, and in particular the special role of labor, in the process of anthroposociogenesis. In the XX century. It was at the intersection of sciences that the most promising areas of new sciences appeared: biochemistry, psycholinguistics, computer science.

Thus, if in the first classifications of sciences the natural abilities of the human soul (memory, imagination, etc.) acted as the basis, then, according to our contemporary Russian researcher B. Kedrov, the fundamental difference between the Engels classification was precisely that "She puts the principle of objectivity at the basis of the division of sciences: the differences between the sciences are due to the differences in the objects they study." Thus, the classification of sciences has a solid ontological foundation - the qualitative diversity of nature itself, various forms of the movement of matter.

In connection with the new data of natural science, the five-term classification of the forms of motion of matter developed by Engels was subjected to significant refinements. The most famous is the modern classification proposed by B. Kedrov, in which he distinguished six main forms of motion: subatomic physical, chemical, molecular physical, geological, biological and social. Note that the classification of the forms of motion of matter was conceived as the basis for the classification of sciences.

There is another approach, according to which the entire diversity of the world can be reduced to three forms of motion of matter: basic, partial and complex. The main ones include the broadest forms of motion of matter: physical, chemical, biological, social. A number of authors question the existence of a single physical form of the motion of matter. However, one can hardly agree with this. All objects united by the concept of the physical have two of the most common physical properties - mass and energy. The entire physical world is characterized by a general all-encompassing law of conservation of energy.

Private forms are part of the main ones. So, physical matter includes vacuum, fields, elementary particles, nuclei, atoms, molecules, macrobodies, stars, galaxies, Metagalaxy. The complex forms of matter and motion include astronomical (Metagalaxy - galaxy - stars - planets); geological (consisting of the physical and chemical forms of the motion of matter in the conditions of a planetary body); geographical (including physical, chemical, biological and social forms of matter movement within the litho-, hydro- and atmosphere). One of the essential features of the complex forms of motion of matter is that the dominant role in them is ultimately played by the lowest form of matter - physical. For example, geological processes are determined by physical forces: gravity, pressure, heat; geographical laws are determined by the physical and chemical conditions and ratios of the upper shells of the Earth.

Conclusion

The philosophy of science, logically, must be clear about what type of science it prefers to deal with. According to the already established, although rather young tradition, all sciences were divided into three clans: natural, social, technical. However, no matter how these groups of sciences compete with each other, in their totality they have a common goal associated with the most complete comprehension of the universe.

The issues of classification and interconnection of natural sciences are discussed to this day. At the same time, there are different points of view. One of them is that all chemical phenomena, the structure of matter and its transformation can be explained on the basis of physical knowledge; there is nothing specific in chemistry. Another point of view - each type of matter and each form of material organization (physical, chemical, biological) are so isolated that there are no direct links between them. Of course, such different points of view are far from the true solution of the most complex issue of classification and hierarchy of the natural sciences. One thing is quite obvious - despite the fact that physics is a fundamental branch of natural science, each of the natural sciences (with the same general task of studying nature) is characterized by its subject of study, its research methodology and is based on its own laws that are not reducible to the laws of other branches. science. And serious achievements in modern natural science are most likely with the successful combination of comprehensive knowledge accumulated over a long period of time in physics, chemistry, biology, and many other natural sciences.

List of sources used

1. Karpenkov S.Kh. K26 Concepts of modern natural science: A textbook for universities. - M.: Academic Project, 2000. Ed. 2nd, rev. and additional – 639 p.
2. Likhin A.F. Concepts of modern natural science: textbook. - MTK Welby, Prospekt Publishing House, 2006. - 264 p.
3. Turchin V.F. Phenomenon of Science: A Cybernetic Approach to Evolution. Ed. 2nd - M.: ETS, 2000. - 368 p.
4. Khoroshavina S. G. Concepts of modern natural science: a course of lectures / Ed. 4th. - Rostov n / D: Phoenix, 2005. - 480 p.

Federal Agency for Education

State educational institution

Higher professional education

Moscow State University

Instrumentation and informatics

E.A. Kolomiytseva

CONCEPTS OF MODERN NATURAL SCIENCE

Short course of lectures

Reviewers:

Ph.D., prof. Figurovsky E.N., Ph.D., Assoc. Shpichenetsky B.Ya.

E.A. Kolomiytseva. CONCEPTS OF MODERN NATURAL SCIENCE.

A short course of lectures. M., 2006, 80 p.

The textbook is intended for MGUPI students studying the discipline "Concepts of modern natural science"

MGUPI, 2006

Introduction............................................................................................................................	4
Lecture 1. Subject and methods of natural science………………………………………………	4
Lecture 2. Practical methods of physical research. Physical quantities and measurements…………………………………………………………………………………..	7
Lecture 3. Macroworld. Motion in classical mechanics……………………………..	9
Lecture 4. Forces in nature. Fundamental interactions………………………..	13
Lecture 5. Measures of motion - momentum and energy. Laws of conservation and symmetry of space-time………………………………………………………………………	15
Lecture 6. Physical fields. Concepts of short range and long range………….	18
Lecture 7. Megaworld. Elements of private theory of relativity. Relativistic concept…………………………………………………………………………………..	19
Lecture 8. Problems of space and time…………………………………………...	21
Lecture 9. Wave processes…………………………………………………………….	25
Lecture 10. Laws of the microcosm. Corpuscular-wave dualism of matter. The principle of complementarity and problems of causality………………………………...	29
Lecture 11. Elementary particles. Quarks……………………………………………..	32
Lecture 12. Radioactivity…………………………………………………………………	34
Lecture 13. Dynamic and statistical patterns………………………….	36
Lecture 14. Energy in thermodynamic processes…………………………………..	39
Lecture 15. Order and disorder in nature. Phase transitions. Entropy. The second law of thermodynamics and the "arrow of time"………………………………………………..	41
Lecture 16. Synergetics. The ratio of order and chaos in open non-equilibrium systems……………………………………………………………………………………….	44
Lecture 17. Origin and evolution of the Universe…………………………………….	47
Lecture 18. Planet Earth…………………………………………………………………	53
Lecture 19. Elements of chemistry…………………………………………………………………	57
Lecture 20. Water and hypotheses about the origin of life on Earth. Self-organization in living nature……………………………………………………………………………..	60
Lecture 21. Biosphere and environmental problems. The concept of the noosphere……………………..	63
Lecture 22. Molecular basis of life. DNA and information………………………..	67
Lecture 23. The phenomenon of man……………………………………………………………….	70
Lecture 24. Theory of evolution in biology. Principles of universal evolutionism. The path to a single culture .................................................................. ...............................	74
Exam Preparation Questions……………………………………………………..	77
Tasks for independent solution………………………………………………….	79
	80

Introduction

The discipline "Concepts of modern natural science" is included in the state educational standard for the humanities and social sciences. The purpose of this course is to familiarize students with modern ideas about nature and the place of man in it. It is no secret that many of them have a bias towards purely humanitarian knowledge. Meanwhile, a modern specialist needs a broad outlook. Perhaps the most tempting prospect would be to show students the life of a person in its unity with nature, the integrity and uniqueness of the environment, to make them feel the beauty and power of human thought, which is able to cover the whole world from the Universe to an elementary particle, to develop a taste for obtaining knowledge, to encourage reading popular science literature and self-education. Ultimately, this is a necessary condition for the formation of a harmonious personality.

Lecture 1.

The subject and methods of natural science

1. The subject of natural science. Natural science and humanitarian culture.

natural science is a complex of knowledge about nature, which constitutes one of the most important parts of human culture.

Culture is a broad, multifaceted concept that can be defined in many ways. There are a large number of different definitions of culture (about 170), of which we will give one that quite satisfactorily reflects its most important features:

Culture is a system of means of human activity, thanks to which the activity of an individual, groups, and all mankind is planned, carried out, and stimulated in their interaction with nature and among themselves.

Thus, culture as a whole can be divided into three main branches:

culture material(tools, dwellings, clothing, transport) - the entire sphere of material activity and its results;

culture social- the basic rules of behavior in society;

culture spiritual(knowledge, education, morality, law, worldview, science, art).

Accordingly, the knowledge of mankind can be divided into

system of knowledge about nature - natural sciences and

a system of knowledge about the positively significant values ​​of the existence of an individual, groups, states, humanity as a whole - the humanities.

Each of these sections of human knowledge has its own specifics:

Natural science knowledge is deeply specialized, it is constantly being improved, distinguished by objectivity, reliability, and is of great importance for the existence of man and society.

Humanitarian knowledge is activated based on the individual's belonging to a particular social group. They are characterized by subjectivity, i.e. allow the possibility of interpretations, idealizations that contradict the real properties of objects.

Nevertheless, natural science and humanitarian knowledge are interconnected, being independent parts of a single system of knowledge of science:

they are based on a single basis: the needs and interests of man and mankind in creating optimal conditions for self-preservation and improvement of one's life;

between them there is an interchange of achieved results.

2. Science and the scientific method.

The science- a term denoting generalized and systematized knowledge in any field.

Since ancient times, people have tried understand the essence of the observed natural phenomena and their regularities. Moreover, the first motive for this was practical interest - the possibility use received knowledge. So initially two aspects of natural science coexisted - cognitive and applied. In modern science, both of these aspects are also present.

Knowledge of the laws of nature and the creation of a picture of the world on this basis is the immediate, closest goal natural sciences. The ultimate goal is to promote the practical use of these laws. The prospect of practical application of this or that discovery is not always obvious from the very beginning, the theory, as a rule, develops with some advance.

So, in the system of natural science, we have identified two levels - the theoretical level and the practical (experimental) level.

The techniques used in the theoretical and practical assimilation of reality constitute the scientific method. Thus, science answers the question: "What is reality?", and the scientific method indicates how to deal with this reality.

scientific methods are different level:

United (universal): dialectical, metaphysical;

General scientific (used in all sciences): practical (empirical) - observation, description, measurement, experiment, and theoretical - comparison, analogy, analysis and synthesis, idealization, generalization, ascent from the abstract to the concrete, induction and deduction;

Special-scientific (used in specific disciplines).

A feature of modern natural science is its constructive orientation, i.e. reality is not only studied, but also designed with specific goals. This is expressed in the widespread use of methods of mathematical modeling of processes and phenomena with the help of computers.

The initial stage of the study is, as a rule, practice; it also serves as the final criterion for the truth (adequacy) of any theory, as well as the purpose of the study.

3. Historical aspects of the development of natural science.

The process of formation of natural science was not uniform. The development of scientific thought can be broadly divided into stages. At each stage, a certain style of thinking dominated, which was based on the achievements of science that were available at that time. Thus, the range of tasks to be researched and the research methodology were set. Such generally recognized scientific achievements and the dominant style of scientific thinking are called paradigm. A change, often a radical breakdown of the existing paradigm, means a transition to the next stage in the development of natural science and is called scientific and technological revolution.

First stage, which flourished in the ancient period, is characterized by the predominance of purely speculative reasoning about the nature of things and phenomena. Natural science at this stage is not yet separated from philosophy, and in fact they constitute one science, natural philosophy, which reflects the ideas of the ancients about the world as a whole. Despite the amazing insights of Democritus, Archimedes, and others, natural philosophy cannot yet be considered a science in the modern sense.

First scientific and technological revolution many historians of science associate with the activities of Aristotle. It was then that science began to differ from other forms of knowledge of the world. The idea of ​​the sphericity of the Earth was expressed, a geocentric model of the world was built.

Aristotle's ideas determined the state of science until the Renaissance.

Second scientific and technological revolution associated with the introduction into scientific practice of the experiment as a way to test hypotheses. During this period, the accumulation of factual material and its generalization took place, natural science acquired a form more familiar to us. In the works of modern scientists - Galileo, Kepler, Newton - the foundations of classical science were laid.

Second phase The development of natural science lasted until the end of the nineteenth century, this is the time of the full flowering of classical science. The law of conservation and transformation of energy has been established. optics, electrodynamics, thermodynamics, theoretical mechanics was built (Hamilton, Lagrange, Maxwell, Fresnel, Boltzmann). In chemistry, a strict concept of an element was established (Lavoisier), chemical reactions and compounds were studied, Mendeleev's periodic law was discovered, and structural chemistry arose (Butlerov). In biology, the most important ideas about the evolution of all living things win (Lamarck, Darwin); the cell was discovered (Schleiden and Schwann) and the material carrier of heredity - the gene (Mendel).

Thus, the conditions were prepared for a new scientific and technological revolution, which captured the entire twentieth century and continues to this day.

For third scientific and technological revolution characteristic:

Close interaction of various fields of science, development of interdisciplinary links. The vast majority of discoveries occur at the intersection of sciences.

Transition from classical ideas to non-classical ones: creation of general and special relativity theory, quantum field theory (quantum mechanics).

Study of the most complex non-equilibrium nonlinear processes occurring in complex systems. It turns out that these processes, which lead to the self-organization of the system, to the emergence of new structures, proceed similarly in various areas of natural science. This allows us to consider such disciplines as physics, cosmology, geology, chemistry, biology, and even traditionally humanitarian disciplines such as history, ethnology, sociology, and economics from a unified standpoint. This approach has been called synergy. This is the most promising area of ​​modern natural science.

The rapid development of information technologies, which make it possible to carry out a huge amount of calculations at high speed and to explore the most complex processes. Information becomes on a par with matter.

At the forefront of modern natural science is a person, his interests and goals. Science becomes ethical.

4. The main sections of modern natural science.

Currently, there are about 15 thousand scientific disciplines in the world, and their number is constantly growing. It is believed that for every 10-15 years the amount of scientific information doubles. There are a large number of interdisciplinary sciences.

Of course, it is practically impossible to classify all natural sciences. You can only build chains, guided by some principle. For example, according to the complexity of the object under study: physics  chemistry (inorganic, organic)  biology  medicine. By the scale of the object under study: astronomy (in particular, astrophysics)  geology (including the geology of individual planets)  geography  ecology  biology. According to the method used: logic  mathematics  physics. As you can see, the key science in each of these chains is physics. It is this science that studies the most fundamental, fundamental laws of nature. Therefore, knowledge of basic physical concepts and laws is a mandatory component of any education.

5. Structural levels of matter organization.

At the heart of modern ideas about the structure of the material world lies systems approach. Any object or phenomenon, in accordance with this approach, is considered as a complex formation, which includes components organized in integrity. We give definitions of the most important concepts:

System- a set of elements and relationships between them;

Connections- the relationship between the elements of the system. Ties make up structure systems. They can be horizontal (coordination between elements of the same order) and vertical (reflecting subordination, i.e. subordination, of elements of different order). The set of horizontal links forms the levels of organization of the system, the set of vertical links reflects their hierarchy.

All the matter of the Universe is also a colossal, most complex system. Can be distinguished three levels of the structure of matter:

When studying the subject "Concepts of modern natural science", we, as in any science, must move from the simplest ideas and concepts to more complex ones. The most simple and familiar to us are those phenomena that we encounter in everyday life and observe directly. All of them are described within the framework of classical ideas, which should be remembered at the beginning of the course.

Lecture 2.

Practical methods of physical research. Physical quantities and measurements.

The initial interaction of a person (researcher) with an object or phenomenon takes place directly in practice. Here there is an accumulation and systematization of facts, their description. All this - practical, or empirical, the level of knowledge. It includes observation, measurement, experiment. Only on the basis of the received data is built hypothesis and there is a rise to a higher, theoretical level of knowledge.

1. Observations.

Observation has been the main way to obtain information about the surrounding world and the phenomena that occur in it since ancient times. Observation can be carried out both with the help of our natural senses: sight, hearing, smell, touch and even taste. However, all these feelings are developed in different people to varying degrees, so such observations are rather imperfect. Any conclusions drawn from such observations will be highly subjective.

There is a huge number of phenomena that are generally inaccessible to direct human perception. For example, we do not see electromagnetic waves whose frequencies lie outside the optical range, we do not perceive ultrasound, we are not able to look into the microworld.

For a more objective, deep and versatile study of reality, the human body needs to be "helped" - the use of instruments is required. However, the device-object system is no longer the same as the original object.

Measurements and measuring instruments.

Observation becomes part of scientific research if certain comparisons and conclusions are made on the basis of this observation. In order to compare any properties of material objects, it is required to give these properties quantitative characteristics. Moreover, in quantum mechanics it is believed that only those objects that can be measured really exist: “The fundamentally immeasurable is physically unreal” (Bohr, Heisenberg). The procedure for obtaining quantitative information about the object of study is called measurement. The instrument used to measure is called instrument. The theory of measurement deals with a special science - metrology. The simplest way to measure ( straight) lies in the fact that the object under study is compared with standard taken as a unit. The most famous standard is a platinum-iridium rod 1 meter long, stored in Paris, in the Chamber of Weights and Measures. The inconveniences of such measurements associated with the storage and reproduction of copies of the standard are obvious. At present (since 1983) it has been decided to consider 1 meter as the distance traveled by light in a vacuum in a time of 1/299792458 seconds.

To measure time, you also need a standard. It is currently believed that 1 second is the time during which there are 9192631830 periods of oscillations of radiation emitted by the cesium isotope
.

Note that to measure the quantities describing the phenomena of the macrocosm, the phenomena of the microcosm and the megaworld are involved.

In accordance with the latest agreements, the reference length of 1 meter is not measured directly, but is calculated by the formula
, where With is the speed of light in vacuum. This measurement is called indirect. The vast majority of physical measurements are indirect. Indirect measurements can also include the method extrapolation, which is based on the assumption that in the area where no measurements were made, the behavior of the system remains the same. Extrapolation is not always confirmed by experiment.

1. physical dimensions. International SI system.

When measuring, the researcher obtains quantitative characteristics of any property of a given object. Each quantity has its own physical meaning and its own unit of measurement - the dimension. Values ​​of different dimensions cannot be compared, added or subtracted from each other, because they describe different properties of objects.

The units of measurement proved to be conveniently agreed between all countries. This was primarily due to economic interests. Currently, the world community has adopted a single metric system of measures, called the International System (SI). Its basic units (requiring definition using a standard):

Length - 1 meter;

Time - 1 second;

Weight - 1 kilogram;

Thermodynamic temperature - 1 Kelvin;

The amount of substance is 1 mol;

The strength of the electric current - 1 Ampere;

Light intensity - 1 candela;

The remaining physical quantities are obtained from those listed and are called derivatives, for example, N, J, W, V, Ohm.

4. Measurement errors.

Any measurement can only be carried out with some accuracy. It is fundamentally impossible to obtain an absolutely accurate value of a physical quantity for a number of reasons. The first of them is that the measurement is the result of the interaction of the device and the object. In turn, the devices themselves are technical devices and have limited capabilities. In addition, probabilistic properties are inherent in any physical quantity, and this is a fundamental property of all matter, which we will talk about especially in a special lecture. It is said that the measurement of magnitude X 0 produced with a certain precision
, and the value itself is called absolute mistake or absolute measurement error. The natural scientist can only assert that the true value of the quantity being measured lies in the interval from (
) before (
):
.

Sometimes it's more convenient to talk about relative error or relative measurement error:
. This value, especially when expressed as a percentage, gives a very clear idea of ​​the accuracy of the measurements.

Let's list main factors experimental inaccuracies. In addition to the gross blunders of the experimenter himself, they can be divided into two groups:

1) systematic, which are determined by the accuracy class of the device (1/2 division) and, possibly, some kind of constant error of the device;

2) statistical due to random deviations from the true value in each particular experiment. It is often necessary to take the average as the true value of the quantity.
, where N is the number of experiments. The more experiments were done, the closer to the true value.

Experiment.

As a rule, the researcher plans his observations and measurements in advance, guided by some hypothesis, i.e. assumptions about the expected outcome. A. Einstein pointed out that "only theory determines what can be observed." For a deeper insight into the essence of the phenomenon, it is required to change the conditions of the experiment, thereby interfering with the object of study.

Purposeful actions associated with changes in the object of study itself are called experiment. The experiment makes it possible to reveal such properties and patterns inside the object, which are hidden under normal conditions.

A special form of experiment - thought experiment. Recently, more and more importance has been numerical experiment in which the scientist deals with mathematical models of natural phenomena.

1. Using the results of the experiment. Theory. Criteria of scientific character and truth of the theory.

The results of the experiment should be interpreted. If the initial hypothesis of the researcher is confirmed, then the research moves to a new level - theoretical , i.e. a scientific theory is being built within the framework of the existing paradigm. If a satisfactory theory describing the observed phenomenon cannot be constructed, this can lead to a revolutionary paradigm shift.

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