The main stages of the development of science. recognition of the dominance of probabilistic-statistical laws

The history of the development of science suggests that the earliest evidence of science can be found in prehistoric times, such as the discovery of fire, and the development of writing. Early similarity records contain numbers and information about the solar system.

However the history of scientific development has become more important over time for human life.

Significant stages in the development of science

Robert Grosseteste

1200s:

Robert Grosseteste (1175 – 1253), founder of the Oxford school of philosophy and natural science, theorist and practitioner of experimental natural science, developed the basis for the correct methods of modern scientific experiments. His work included the principle that a request should be based on measurable evidence verified by testing. Introduced the concept of light as a bodily substance in its primary form and energy.

Leonardo da Vinci

1400s:

Leonardo da Vinci (1452 - 1519) Italian artist, scientist, writer, musician. I began my studies in search of knowledge about the human body. His inventions in the form of drawings of a parachute, a flying machine, a crossbow, a rapid-fire weapon, a robot, something like a tank. The artist, scientist and mathematician also collected information about searchlight optics and fluid dynamics issues.

1500s:

Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 -1543) advanced the understanding of the solar system with the discovery of heliocentrism. He proposed a realistic model in which the Earth and other planets revolve around the Sun, which is the center of the solar system. The scientist’s main ideas were outlined in the work “On the Rotations of the Celestial Spheres,” which spread freely throughout Europe and the whole world.

Johannes Kepler

1600s:

Johannes Kepler (1571 -1630) German mathematician and astronomer. He based the laws of planetary motion on observations. He laid the foundations for the empirical study of planetary motion and the mathematical laws of this motion.

Galileo Galilei perfected a new invention, the telescope, and used it to study the sun and planets. The 1600s also saw advances in the study of physics as Isaac Newton developed his laws of motion.

1700s:

Benjamin Franklin (1706 -1790) discovered that lightning is an electric current. He also contributed to the study of oceanography and meteorology. The understanding of chemistry also developed during this century, as Antoine Lavoisier, called the father of modern chemistry, developed the law of conservation of mass.

1800s:

Milestones included Alessandro Volta's discoveries regarding electrochemical series, which led to the invention of the battery.

John Dalton also contributed the atomic theory, which states that all matter is made up of atoms that form molecules.

The basis of modern research was put forward by Gregor Mendel and revealed his laws of inheritance.

At the end of the century, Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen discovered X-rays, and George Ohm's law served as the basis for understanding how to use electrical charges.

1900s:

The discoveries of Albert Einstein, best known for his theory of relativity, dominated the early 20th century. Einstein's theory of relativity is actually two separate theories. His special theory of relativity, which he outlined in his 1905 paper "Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies", concluded that time should vary depending on the speed of a moving object relative to the observer's frame of reference. His second theory of general relativity, which he published as The Basis of General Relativity, put forward the idea that matter causes the space around it to bend.

The history of the development of science in the field of medicine was forever changed by Alexander Fleming with molds as historically the first antibiotic.

Medicine, as a science, is also indebted to the polio vaccine in 1952, which was discovered by the American virologist Jonas Salk.

The following year, James D. Watson and Francis Crick discovered , which is a double helix formed with a base pair attached to a sugar-phosphate backbone.

2000s:

In the 21st century, the first project was completed, leading to a greater understanding of DNA. This has advanced the study of genetics, its role in human biology, and its use as a predictor of diseases and other disorders.

Thus, the history of the development of science has always been aimed at the rational explanation, prediction and control of empirical phenomena by great thinkers, scientists and inventors.

• 1. Ancient world. The conditions for the development of scientific thought first developed in Ancient Greece - the first theoretical systems arose already in the 6th century. BC e. Such thinkers Thales And Democritus, explained reality through natural principles as opposed to mythology. Aristotle(an ancient Greek scientist) was the first to describe the laws of nature, society and thinking, highlighting the objectivity of knowledge, logic, and persuasiveness. At the moment of cognition, a system of abstract concepts was introduced, the foundations of an evidence-based method of presenting the material were laid; separate branches of knowledge began to separate out: geometry ( Euclid), Mechanics ( Archimedes), astronomy ( Ptolemy).
• 2. Middle Ages. A number of areas of knowledge were enriched in the Middle Ages by scientists of the Arab East and Central Asia.

Ibn Sina, or Avicenna, (980-1037) created a huge work on medicine, dedicated to the diagnosis and treatment of ailments with drugs - “Canon”. His other work, Healing, covers a wide range of topics from philosophy to mathematics and physics.

Ibn Rushd(1126-1198) - Arab philosopher and physician, representative of Eastern Aristotelianism. He wrote the treatise “Refutation of the Refutation”; encyclopedic medical work. The author of the doctrine of dual truth differentiated religion into “rational”, accessible to the educated, and “figurative-allegorical”, accessible to everyone.

Abu Reyhan al-Biruni(973-1050) studied astronomy, created many instruments for observing the Sun, Moon and stars, geography, mathematics, optics, medicine, medicines, precious stones and astrology. He created a huge work on mineralogy - “The Book of Inexhaustible Knowledge about Precious Stones.”

Al-Razi(c. 845-935) - the greatest alchemist, one of the largest figures in medicine of the 9th-10th centuries, author of the famous work “Detailed Description”, covering practical medicine of that time, taking into account the experience of doctors in Greece, India and China.

In China approx. 1000, gunpowder was used for fireworks and signal transmission. OK. 1045 Li Chen invented collapsible type. Also in China, steering was created, a seismograph, a rudder, a compass, paper and much more were invented.

Due to the dominance of religion in Western Europe, a special philosophical science was born - scholasticism, and alchemy and astrology also developed. Alchemy contributed to the creation of the basis for science in the modern sense of the word, since it relied on the experimental study of natural substances and compounds and paved the way for the development of chemistry. Astrology was associated with the observation of celestial bodies and contributed to the development of an experimental base for future astronomy.

Among the most important inventions that were carried out in Europe of the Middle Ages, it should be noted that a monk invented the first mechanical clock in 999. In 1280, the first pair of glasses was made in Italy; it is assumed that this was done by the physicist Salvino degli Armati (1245-1317).

The role of invention is especially great Johann Guttenberg(between 1397 and 1400-1468) printing press. Gutenberg's ingenious invention consisted in the fact that he began to make convex metal movable letters, cut in reverse, type lines from them and use a press to stamp them on paper. In 1450, in Mainz, Gutenberg printed the 42-line Bible - the first full-length printed edition in Europe, recognized as a masterpiece of early printing (1282 pages).

Numerous discoveries, projects, experimental studies belong to Leonardo da Vinci(1452-1519). He was a scientist, engineer, architect, artist; worked in the fields of mathematics, natural sciences, mechanics, studied the properties of light and the movement of water, and defended the decisive importance of experience in understanding nature. His anatomical atlases surpassed in accuracy all those made before him. He invented a flying machine with bird-like wings, underwater vessels, a huge bow, a flywheel, a helicopter, a tank and powerful cannons. They left about 7 thousand sheets of manuscripts and notebooks. However, his works remained a “thing in itself”, since they were unknown to his contemporaries and were lost for several centuries.

3.The first scientific revolution.

The most important stage in the development of science was the New Age - 16-17 centuries. The determining role was played by the needs of nascent capitalism. During this period, the dominance of religious thinking was undermined, and experiment (experience) was established as the leading research method, which, along with observation, radically expanded the scope of knowable reality. At this time, theoretical reasoning began to be combined with the practical exploration of nature, which sharply increased the cognitive capabilities of science. This profound transformation of science that occurred in the 16th and 17th centuries is considered the first scientific revolution. It gave the world such names as N. Copernicus, G. Galileo, J. Bruno, I. Kepler, W. Harvey, R. Descartes, H. Huygens, I. Newton and others. The scientific revolution of the 17th century. associated with the revolution in natural science. The development of productive forces required the creation of new machines, the introduction of chemical processes, the laws of mechanics, and precision instruments for astronomical observations.

The scientific revolution went through several stages, and its formation took a century and a half. Its beginning has been made Nicolaus Copernicus(1473-1543) and his followers: Bruno, Galileo, Kepler. In 1543, the Polish scientist Copernicus published a book "On the Formations of the Celestial Spheres", in which he established the idea that the Earth, like the other planets of the Solar System, revolves around the Sun, which is the central body of the Solar System. Copernicus established that the Earth is not an exceptional celestial body. This dealt a blow to anthropocentrism, the doctrine that sees man as the central and highest goal of the universe, and religious legends, according to which the Earth occupies a central position in the Universe. The geocentric system of Ptolemy, accepted for many centuries, was rejected. But the work of Copernicus was banned by the Catholic Church from 1616 to 1828.

The teachings of Copernicus were developed by the Italian thinker Giordano Bruno(1548-1600), author of innovative works for his time “About infinity, the Universe and worlds”, “About cause, beginning and unity”. He believed that the Universe is infinite and immeasurable, that it represents countless stars, each of which is like the Sun and around which its planets revolve. Bruno's opinion is now fully supported by science. And then, for these bold views, Bruno was accused of heresy and burned by the Inquisition.

Galileo to Galilei(1564-1642) made the greatest achievements in the field of physics and the development of the most fundamental problem - motion. His achievements in astronomy are enormous: the substantiation and approval of the heliocentric system, the discovery of the four largest satellites of Jupiter out of 13 currently known; the discovery of the phases of Venus, the extraordinary appearance of the planet Saturn, created, as is now known, by rings representing a collection of solid bodies; a huge number of stars invisible to the naked eye. All of Galileo's scientific achievements are largely explained by the fact that the scientist recognized observations and experience as the starting point for knowledge of nature. Galileo was the first to observe the sky through a telescope (a telescope with 32x magnification was built by the scientist himself). Major works of Galileo - "Star Messenger", "Dialogues about two systems of the world".

One of the creators of modern astronomy was Johannes Kepler(1571-1630), who discovered the laws of planetary motion (Kepler's laws). He compiled the so-called Rudolf planetary tables, developed the foundations of the theory of eclipses, and invented a telescope with biconvex lenses. He reflected his theories in his works "New Astronomy" And "A Brief Overview of Copernican Astronomy".

An English doctor is considered the founder of modern physiology and embryology. William Harvey (1578-1657). "Anatomical study on the movement of the heart and blood in animals", which describes the systemic and pulmonary circulation - his main work. His teaching refuted the previously prevailing ideas set forth by the ancient Roman physician Galen(approx. 130-approx. 200). Harvey was the first to express the opinion that “every living thing comes from an egg.” However, the question remained open of how the blood coming from the heart through the veins returned to it through the arteries. His assumptions about the existence of tiny connecting vessels were proven in 1661. M. Malpigi, an Italian researcher who discovered capillaries connecting veins and arteries under a microscope.

Among the merits of the French scientist (mathematician, physicist, philosopher, philologist) Rene Descartes(1596-1650) - the introduction of the coordinate axis, which contributed to the unification of algebra and geometry. He introduced the concept of a variable quantity, which formed the basis of the differential and integral calculus of Newton and Leibniz. Descartes' philosophical positions are dualistic; he recognized the soul and the body, of which the soul is a “thinking” substance, and the body is an “extended” substance. He believed that God exists, that God created matter, motion and rest. Major works of Descartes - "Geometry", "Discourse on Method", "Principles of Philosophy".

Christiaan Huygens(1629-1695), Dutch scientist, invented the pendulum clock, established the laws of pendulum motion, laid the foundations of the theory of impact, the wave theory of light, and explained birefringence. They discovered the rings of Saturn and its satellite Titan. Huygens prepared one of the first works on the theory of probability.

Englishman Isaac Newton(1643-1727) - one of the greatest scientists in human history. He wrote a huge number of scientific papers in various fields of science ( "Mathematical principles of natural philosophy", "Optics" and etc.). The most important stages in the development of optics, astronomy, and mathematics are associated with his name. Newton created the foundations of mechanics, discovered the law of universal gravitation and developed on its basis the theory of the motion of celestial bodies. This scientific discovery made Newton famous forever. He also made such discoveries in the field of mechanics as the concepts of force, energy, the formulation of the three laws of mechanics; in the field of optics - the discovery of refraction, dispersion, interference, diffraction of light; in the field of mathematics - algebra, geometry, interpolation, differential and integral calculus.

In the 18th century revolutionary discoveries were made in astronomy by I. Kant and P. Laplace, as well as in chemistry - its beginning is associated with the name of A.L. Lavoisier. Immanuel Kant(1724-1804), German philosopher, founder of German classical philosophy, developed a cosmogonic hypothesis of the origin of the Solar system from the original nebula (treatise "General Natural History and Theories of the Sky"). Pierre Laplace(1749-1827) - French astronomer, mathematician, physicist, author of a classic work on the theory of probability and celestial mechanics (considered the dynamics of the Solar system as a whole and its stability), author of works "Treatise on Celestial Mechanics" And "Analytical theory of probability". Like Kant, he proposed a cosmogonic hypothesis, named after him (Laplace's hypothesis). French chemist Antoine Laurent Lavoisier(1743-1794) is considered one of the founders of modern chemistry. He used quantitative methods in his research. He found out the role of oxygen in the processes of combustion, burning of metals and respiration. One of the founders of thermochemistry. Author of the classic course "Elementary chemistry textbook", as well as essays "Methods for naming chemical elements". His life was cut short during the French Revolution - he was guillotined by decision of the Convention.

• 4. Industrial revolution.
• The 18th century entered the history of mankind as the century of the beginning industrial revolution. The birthplace of the industrial revolution was England, where already in the 30s and 40s of this century the transition from manufactories with manual labor to factories and factories using machines began. The introduction of machines into production covered such leading sectors of English industry as cotton, energy, metallurgy, and transport. It ended in the first part of the 19th century. Among the most important inventions of the era of the industrial revolution: the “flying shuttle” by J. Kay, the spinning wheel “Jenny” J. Hargreaves, water machine T. Haysa, mule machine S. Crompton, fabric bleaching method K. Berthollet, a method of dyeing patterned fabrics T. Bella, puddling method G. Korta, locomotive J. Stephenson and many others.

In the 19th century The industrial revolution covered all the leading countries of the world (USA, France, Germany, Japan, etc.). Among the inventors of these countries (except Japan) were: E. Whitney(cotton gin), R. Fulton(steamboat), J. Jacquard(patterned fabric loom), F. Girard(flax spinning machine), N. Leblanc(method of producing soda from sea water), McCormick(reaper), E.V. Siemens(Dynamo machine), F. Koenig(steam press for book printing).

And this is not all that the industrial revolution gave to humanity. The replacement of manual labor with machine labor led to the formation of industrial civilization, which was based on the successful development of applied, exact and natural sciences and stimulated new major shifts in scientific knowledge.

In the 19th century in science there were continuous revolutionary revolutions in all branches of natural science.

By the beginning of the 19th century. The experience and material accumulated by science in certain areas no longer fit within the framework of a mechanistic explanation of nature and society. A new round of scientific knowledge and a deeper and broader synthesis were required, combining the results of individual sciences. During this historical period, science was glorified Yu.R. Mayer (1814-1878), J. Joule (1818-1889), G. Helmholtz(1821-1894), who discovered the laws of conservation and transformation of energy, which provided a unified basis for all branches of physics and chemistry.

The creation was of great importance in understanding the world T. Schwann(1810-1882) and M. Schleidan(1804-1881) cell theory, which showed the uniform structure of all living organisms. C. Darwin(1809-1882), who created the theory of evolution in biology, introduced the idea of ​​development into natural science. Thanks to the periodic system of elements discovered by brilliant Russian scientists DI. Mendeleev(1834-1907), the internal connection between all known types of substances was proven. The flourishing of classical natural science contributed to the creation of a unified system of sciences.

5. Second scientific and technological revolution.

By the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. major changes occurred in the foundations of scientific thinking, the mechanistic worldview exhausted itself, which led classical science of the modern era to a crisis. This was also facilitated by the discovery of the electron and radioactivity. As a result of the resolution of the crisis, a new scientific revolution took place, starting in physics and covering all major branches of science. It is primarily associated with names Max Planck(1858-1947) and Albert Einstein(1879-1955). The discovery of the electron, radium, the transformation of chemical elements, the creation of the theory of relativity and quantum theory marked a breakthrough in the field of the microworld and high speeds. Advances in physics influenced chemistry. Quantum theory, having explained the nature of chemical bonds, opened up wide possibilities for science and production for the chemical transformation of matter; penetration into the mechanism of heredity began, genetics developed, and the chromosomal theory was formed.

Achievements of scientific thought of the late 19th - early 20th centuries. served as the basis for the technical revolution that took place during this period, it was called second scientific and technological revolution(NTR).

Outstanding inventors of the second scientific and technological revolution: E.V. Siemens(Dynamo machine); T. Edison(modern generator); C. Parsons(steam turbine); G. Daimler And K. Benz(internal combustion engine); R. Diesel(ICE with high efficiency); A.N. Lodygin(incandescent lamp); P.N. Yablochkov("electric candle"); T. Edison And D. Hughes(microphone); A.B. Stronger(automatic telephone exchange); A.S. Popov(radio); G. Marconi(transmission of electrical impulses without wire); J. A. Fleming(diode); G. Bessemer, P. Martin, S. Thomas(new methods of steel smelting); G. Daimler and K. Benz (automobiles); J. Dunlop(rubber tires); DI. Mendeleev, K.E. Tsiolkovsky, NOT. Zhukovsky(aeronautics issues); A.F. Mozhaisky, K. Ader(aircraft construction with a steam engine); J. Hiett(celluloid); and many others.

The core of the second scientific and technological revolution was energy- the invention of electricity and the internal combustion engine, which predetermined the transition from steam and coal to electricity and liquid fuel. A revolution in the energy industry and the invention of a method for transmitting electricity over long distances led to the birth of new types of transport - the car, airplane, electric locomotive, diesel locomotive, tram.

The automobile and the airplane not only revolutionized transport, but also gave impetus to the transformation of all related industries - mechanical engineering, metallurgy, chemistry. New methods of steel smelting were invented, the production of various types of high-quality steels developed, and the production of non-ferrous metals moved forward.

The second scientific and technological revolution marked the rapid development of new means of communication - telephone, telegraph, radio, which played a huge role in the dissemination of information throughout the world.

Mass production of catalysts, medicines, dyes, and mineral fertilizers was the result of progress in the chemical industry.

A technological revolution took place in agriculture, where chemical fertilizers, tractors and other agricultural machines were widely used. As a result, agricultural yields, livestock productivity, and labor productivity increased significantly, thanks to which this sector of the economy freed up a significant mass of workers needed for the industry. The leading countries of the world have switched to an industrial type of employment.

Achievements of science and technology became the basis of the military-technical revolution. At the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century. Military aircraft and tanks appeared, powerful naval vessels and automatic artillery weapons were created, new explosives and poisonous gases were invented, and radio communications began to be widely used. It is known that during this period the leading countries of the world intensified the arms race, preparing the material and technical base for the First and then the Second World Wars.

6. The third scientific and technological revolution.

At the end of the Second World War, the third scientific and technical ( scientific and technological) revolution. It is associated with fundamental changes in the field of productive forces in connection with the development of nuclear energy, astronautics, computer technology, biotechnology, and the production of new structural materials.

It should be noted that there is no generally accepted periodization of this scientific and technological revolution. There are two stages in the development of the third scientific and technological revolution: 1. from the mid-40s to the mid-60s; 2. from the mid-60s to the present. The boundary between these stages is considered to be the creation and introduction of fourth-generation computers into the economic systems of leading countries.

Inventions first stage included television, computers, transistors, radar, rockets, atomic bombs, hydrogen bombs, synthetic fibers, artificial earth satellites, jet aircraft, nuclear power plants, computer numerical control (CNC) machines, lasers, integrated circuits, communications satellites , high-speed express trains. Let us characterize some of the inventions.

In 1942, an Italian scientist E. Fermi(1901-1967) built a nuclear reactor in which a controlled nuclear reaction was carried out. The first atomic bomb was created under the leadership of an American physicist R. Oppenheimer(1904-1967). The first atomic bomb was dropped on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945.

A system for detecting bodies using radio waves - radar was created by a Scottish physicist RU. Watt(1892-1973). The radar installation he built in 1935 was capable of detecting an aircraft at a distance of 64 km. This system played a big role in protecting England from German air raids during the Second World War.

The first launch of the long-range V-2 rocket created by W. von Braun(1912-1977), was carried out in 1942. The speed of the V-2 was several times the speed of sound. The flight range was 320 km, and now some missiles reach a flight range of 9600 km.

Laser- optical quantum generator. Translated, "laser" means "light amplification as a result of stimulated emission." Lasers were first used in industry for drilling, welding and engraving. Currently, they are even used in surgical operations. The laser theory was developed in 1958 by American physicists C. Townes and A. Shelau. The first laser was created in 1960. T. Mayman.

Based on what was developed in 1918 by French scientists led by P. Langevin(1872-1946) sonar systems for sound location (sends sound waves, and any object encountered along the way reflects them) in the 50s of the 20th century. Scottish doctor Ian Donald created a method for studying human internal organs and even the fetus of a child in the womb. This process was called ultrasound diagnostics(ultrasound).

One of the first computers- ENIAC (Electronic Numerical Integrator and Calculator) developed J. Mauchly(1907-1980) and J. Eckart for the US Army. Compared to a modern computer, it was very bulky - it occupied an entire room and performed much fewer operations. Computer technologies gradually improved. The dimensions of computers decreased, and their capabilities increased. In 1964, the American company IBM released the first word-processing computer. In 1978, the American company Quix created a computer that used magnetic disks to record text. In the 80s, personal computers with special programs began to replace typewriters.

On second stage Scientific and technological revolution invented microprocessors, fiber-optic information transmission, industrial robots, biotechnology, ultra-large and volumetric integrated circuits, heavy-duty ceramics, fifth-generation computers, genetic engineering, and thermonuclear fusion. The core of this stage of scientific and technological progress was the synthesis of three basic scientific and technical areas: microelectronics, biotechnology, and computer science. They reflect the fundamental achievements of quantum physics, molecular biology, cybernetics and information theory.

At the end of the 20th century. The age of iron, which has been the main construction material for almost three millennia, ends. Thanks to the achievements of the scientific and technological revolution of the 20th century. humanity can already give priority to materials that have specified properties - composites, ceramics, plastics and synthetic resins, and products made from metal powders.

At the end of the 20th century. is being intensively formed post-industrial civilization. A real revolution is taking place in communications and transport technology. Fiber-optic communications, space communications, facsimile, and cellular communications are widely used.

One of the greatest discoveries of the 20th century. scientists recognize the creation DNA models. Biology, especially molecular, by the mid-20th century. advanced to one of the first places in natural science. American scientists F. Crick And D. Watson using materials R. Franklin And M. Wilkins, studied DNA using X-rays and in 1953 created a model of the DNA molecule. Its shape is a double intertwined spiral. The model showed how the division of DNA molecules and the formation of new copies occurs. In 1962, Crick, Watson and Wilkins were awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine.

In the modern world, science is becoming increasingly important and developing at an ever faster pace. The role of fundamental, theoretical science is especially strengthened, and this process is characteristic of all areas of knowledge.

7. Modern stage.

Achievements of the modern stage in the field of medicine and genetics include a number of new discoveries. There are reports that scientists have managed not only to grow a human bladder in laboratory conditions, but also to successfully transplant it into the human body.

Adenoviruses have been discovered that can cause obesity, which indicates the possibility of infection with such a disease. One of the genes associated with the regulation of aggression and anxiety has been identified.

Scientists at the University of California, Irvine, have found that to achieve the same Q-scores, men and women use different areas of the brain - the intelligence of men is based on the gray matter of the brain, and the intelligence of women is based on the white matter.

American scientists grew a network of blood vessels from a cell culture. They planted human venous epithelial cells on a three-dimensional culture of mouse mesenchymal cells and implanted such a structure into mice. For modern medicine, the results obtained are invaluable.

Studies of saliva samples will help in the development of various diagnostic tests, since it has been established that human saliva contains a large amount of proteins. And the process of collecting saliva is much simpler, cheaper and safer than collecting blood traditionally used for most laboratory tests

In the field of genetics, genetic mapping of a dog has been carried out for the first time. It showed that the genomes of humans and their four-legged friend are 75% identical.

In the summer of 2003, Italian embryologists managed to obtain the first clone of a horse.

2003 marked the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the structure of DNA. Scientists have announced the complete decoding of 98% of the nucleotide sequence of human chromosomes.

A gene that slows down aging has been known for five years now. Scientists have found that removing the 81K2 gene from the body leads to a fantastic increase in life - by as much as six times. These results have so far been confirmed in yeast and human liver cells. Removing this gene, in addition to prolonging life, can turn the experimental subject into a “superman”. Long-lived cells lacking the 81K2 gene showed a completely unusual ability to resist stress. Despite the fact that scientists exposed the modified cells to oxidants and hot air, the cells stubbornly clung to life, although ordinary cells would have died long ago.

A device the size of a fountain pen has been made, designed to remove harmful viruses from the blood. According to its creators, it can catch smallpox, Ebola, Marburg and other dangerous diseases from human blood. Operating principle: the device is installed on the arm and “connected” to a person’s vein. The heart itself pumps blood through it (filtration of viruses is based on the fact that the sizes of blood plasma cells and viruses differ many times). In 12 minutes, the heart completes a full cycle of pumping all the blood. Within a few hours of wearing the device, all blood is completely cleared of viruses.

In 2004, it was reported that a technology had been developed for the production of atomic clocks, which are located in a volume of several cubic millimeters.

Over the past decades, advances in physics have included a new theory linking the mass of neutrinos to the accelerating expansion of the Universe.

The US Brookhaven National Laboratory near New York recently launched a new accelerator - the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider. It allows you to accelerate and collide not only protons, as in conventional accelerators, but also the atomic nuclei of many elements of the Mendeleev Periodic Table, including gold. In the experiments, a substance was recreated that previously existed only once in the history of the Universe - at the moment of its origin. When gold atoms collide at ultra-high speeds, the structure of the nucleus disappears, and all the quarks and gluons previously “packed” into nucleons mix and form a new superdense phase of nuclear matter - quark-gluon plasma. The temperature at the point of impact reaches 4 billion degrees, this is the highest temperature in the existing universe. Many scientists have expressed their observations. For example, during the lifetime of this plasma (10-23 s), scientists were able to see how elementary particles were again formed from the plasma, and also study the properties of a new type of matter. It turned out that plasma is most likely similar in its properties to a liquid than to a gas. The project was implemented by an international team of scientists: 45 institutes from 11 countries, including Russia.

However, a number of scientists have raised questions about the safety of this type of experiment. In their opinion, by simulating the conditions under which the Universe arose, it is possible to repeat the conditions of the “big bang”, in which the reactor will become the center of the emergence of a new universe. If this happens, then, of course, not only the reactor, the Earth, the solar system and our galaxy will disappear, but also, most likely, the entire existing Universe. Despite the fantastic nature of this threat, the assumption is not without meaning: according to the now recognized cosmological theory, the entire existing Universe arose from a single particle, which was in some specific singular state (infinitely high density and temperature).

Sadly, the social responsibility of scientists has always been below the opportunistic requirements of the time. The issue of responsibility of scientists is again on the agenda.

science production thought scientist

Science, like religion and art, originates in the depths of mythological consciousness and in the further process of cultural development is separated from it. Primitive cultures do without science, and only in a sufficiently developed culture does it become an independent sphere of cultural activity. At the same time, science itself, in the course of its historical evolution, undergoes significant changes, and ideas about it (the image of science) also change. Many disciplines that were considered sciences in the past are no longer considered sciences from a modern point of view (for example, alchemy). At the same time, modern science assimilates elements of true knowledge contained in various teachings of the past.

There are four main periods in the history of science.

1) From the 1st millennium BC until the 16th century. This period can be called the period pre-sciences. During this period, along with everyday practical knowledge passed on from generation to generation over the centuries, the first philosophical ideas about nature (natural philosophy) began to emerge, which had the character of very general and abstract speculative theories. The rudiments of scientific knowledge were formed within natural philosophy as its elements. With the accumulation of information, techniques and methods used to solve mathematical, astronomical, medical and other problems, corresponding sections are formed in philosophy, which are then gradually separated into separate sciences: mathematics, astronomy, medicine, etc.

However, the scientific disciplines that emerged during the period under review continued to be interpreted as parts of philosophical knowledge. Science developed mainly within the framework of philosophy and in very weak connection with life practice and the craft with it. This is a kind of “embryonic” period in the development of science, preceding its birth as a special form of culture.

2) XVI-XVII centuries- era scientific revolution. It begins with the studies of Copernicus and Galileo and culminates with the fundamental physical and mathematical works of Newton and Leibniz.

During this period the foundations of modern natural science were laid. Individual, scattered facts obtained by artisans, medical practitioners, and alchemists begin to be systematically analyzed and generalized. New norms for the construction of scientific knowledge are being formed: experimental testing of theories, mathematical formulation of the laws of nature, a critical attitude towards religious and natural philosophical dogmas that do not have an experimental basis. Science is acquiring its own methodology and is increasingly beginning to solve issues related to practical activities. As a result, science is formalized as a special, independent field of activity. Professional scientists are appearing, a university education system is developing, in which their training takes place. A scientific community emerges with its specific forms and rules of activity, communication, and information exchange.

3) XVIII-XIX centuries. The science of this period is called classical. During this period, many separate scientific disciplines were formed, in which enormous factual material was accumulated and systematized. Fundamental theories are created in mathematics, physics, chemistry, geology, biology, psychology and other sciences. Technical sciences emerge and begin to play an increasingly prominent role in material production. The social role of science is increasing, its development is considered by thinkers of that time as an important condition for social progress.

4) Since the 20th century– a new era in the development of science. Science of the twentieth century. called postclassical, because at the threshold of this century it experienced a revolution, as a result of which it became significantly different from the classical science of the previous period. Revolutionary discoveries at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. shake the foundations of a number of sciences. In mathematics, set theory and the logical foundations of mathematical thinking are subject to critical analysis. In physics, the theory of relativity and quantum mechanics are created. Genetics develops in biology. New fundamental theories are emerging in medicine, psychology and other human sciences. The entire appearance of scientific knowledge, the methodology of science, the content and forms of scientific activity, its norms and ideals are undergoing major changes.

Second half of the 20th century leads science to new revolutionary transformations, which in the literature are often characterized as a scientific and technological revolution. Achievements of science are being introduced into practice on a previously unheard of scale; Science is causing especially big changes in the energy sector (nuclear power plants), transport (automotive industry, aviation), and electronics (television, telephony, computers). The distance between scientific discoveries and their practical application has been reduced to a minimum. In past times, it took 50-100 years to find ways to practically use the achievements of science. Now this is often done in 2-3 years or even faster. Both the state and private firms spend large amounts of money to support promising areas of scientific development. As a result, science is growing rapidly and turning into one of the most important branches of social labor.

Let's start with the fact that the history of science is characterized by uneven development in space and time: huge outbreaks of activity are replaced by long periods of calm, lasting until a new outbreak, often in a different region. But the location and timing of the rise in scientific activity has never been accidental: periods of flourishing science usually coincide with periods of increased economic activity and technological progress. Over time, the centers of scientific activity moved to other regions of the Earth and, rather, followed the movements of the centers of trade and industrial activity rather than directing it.

Modern science is preceded by pre-science in the form of individual elements of knowledge that arose in ancient societies (Sumerian culture, Egypt, China, India). The most ancient civilizations developed and accumulated large reserves of astronomical, mathematical, biological, and medical knowledge. But this knowledge did not go beyond the scope of pre-science; it was of a prescription nature, set forth mainly as instructions for practice - for maintaining calendars, measuring land, predicting river floods, taming and selecting animals. Such knowledge, as a rule, had a sacred character. Although it was combined with religious ideas, it was kept and passed down from generation to generation by priests; it did not acquire the status of objective knowledge about natural processes.

About two and a half thousand years ago, the center of scientific activity from the East moved to Greece, where, based on criticism of religious and mythological systems, a rational basis for science was developed. In contrast to the scattered observations and recipes of the East, the Greeks moved on to the construction of theories - logically connected and coordinated systems of knowledge, involving not just a statement and description of facts, but also their explanation and comprehension in the entire system of concepts of a given theory. The formation of strictly scientific forms of knowledge, isolated from both religion and philosophy, is usually associated with the name of Aristotle, who laid the initial foundations for the classification of various knowledge. Science began to function as an independent form of social consciousness in the Hellenistic era, when the integral culture of antiquity began to differentiate into separate forms of spiritual activity.

In ancient science, the idea of ​​inviolability, based on sensory observation and common sense. Let us recall Aristotle's physics, in which sensory observation and common sense - and only they - determine the nature of the methodology for explaining the world and the events taking place in it. His teaching divides the world into two regions, which are qualitatively different from each other in their physical properties: the region of the Earth (“sublunary world”) - the region of constant changes and transformations - and the region of the ether (“supralunar world”) - the region of everything eternal and perfect. From this follows the position about the impossibility of a general quantitative physics of the sky and the Earth, and ultimately, a position that elevates geocentric ideas to the rank of ideological dominant. It was precisely this philosophical approach that led to the fact that the physics of the “sublunar world” does not need mathematics - the science, as it was understood in antiquity, about ideal objects. But astronomy, which studies the perfect “supralunar world,” needs it. Aristotle's ideas about motion and force expressed only data from direct observation and were based not on mathematics, but on common sense. In the physics of the ancients, nothing was said about idealized objects, such as an absolutely solid body, a material point, an ideal gas, and it was not said precisely because this physics was alien to controlled experimentation. Everyday experience or direct observation served as the cornerstone of knowledge, which did not make it possible to raise questions related to the essence of the observed phenomena, and, consequently, to the establishment of the laws of nature. Aristotle would probably be extremely surprised at how a modern scientist studies nature - in a scientific laboratory fenced off from the world, under artificially created and controlled conditions, actively interfering with the natural course of natural processes.

The religious Middle Ages did not significantly change this state of affairs. Only in the late Middle Ages, since the Crusades, did the development of industry bring to life a mass of new mechanical, chemical and physical facts, which provided not only material for observation, but also means for experimentation. The development of production and the associated growth of technology in the Renaissance and Modern times contributed to the development and dissemination of experimental and mathematical research methods. Revolutionary discoveries in natural science made during the Renaissance were further developed in modern times, when science rapidly began to enter into life as a special social institution and a necessary condition for the functioning of the entire system of social production. This applies primarily to natural science in the modern sense, which was experiencing a period of its formation at that time.

What new did modern science bring to ideas about the world?

The idea of ​​the inviolability of philosophical and scientific values, based on common sense, was rejected by philosophical thought and natural science of the New Age. Physics becomes experimental science, sensory observation is connected with theoretical thinking, Methods of abstraction and the associated mathematization of knowledge enter the scientific scene. Experimental data are no longer described by common sense concepts, but are interpreted by a theory that correlates concepts that are far from sensory immediacy in content. Space, time and matter began to interest researchers from the quantitative side, and even if the idea of ​​the creation of nature was not denied, it was assumed that the Creator was a mathematician and created nature according to the laws of mathematics. Galileo argued that nature should be studied through experience and mathematics, not through the Bible or anything else. Experimental dialogue with nature involves active intervention rather than passive observation. The phenomenon under study must be previously dissected and isolated so that it can serve as an approximation to some ideal situation, perhaps physically unattainable, but consistent with the accepted conceptual scheme. Nature, as if in a court hearing, is cross-examined through experimentation in the name of a priori principles. Nature's answers are recorded with the greatest precision, but their correctness is assessed in terms of the idealization that guides the researcher in setting up the experiment. Everything else is considered not information, but secondary effects that can be neglected. It is not without reason that in the era of the emergence of modern science in European culture there was a widespread comparison of an experiment with torture of nature, through which the researcher must extract from nature its innermost secrets. The idea of ​​science as an enterprise that penetrates deeper and deeper into the mysteries of existence is reflected in the rationalistic attitude, according to which the activity of science is a process aimed at the final exposure of the mysteries of existence.

The founders of modern science perspicaciously saw in the dialogue between man and nature an important step towards a rational understanding of nature. But they claimed much more. Galileo and those who came after him shared the belief that science could reveal global truths about nature. In their opinion, not only is nature written in a mathematical language that can be deciphered through properly designed experiments, but the language of nature itself is unique. From here it is not far to the conclusion about the homogeneity of the world and, therefore, the accessibility of comprehending global truths through local experimentation. The complexity of nature was proclaimed to be apparent, and the diversity of nature to fit into universal truths embodied in the mathematical laws of motion. Nature is simple and does not luxury with superfluous causes of things, Newton taught. This was a science that knew success, confident that it was able to prove the powerlessness of nature before the insight of the human mind.

These and other similar ideas prepared a revolution in modern science, which culminated in the creation of Galileo-Newton mechanics - the first natural science theory. Theoretical natural science that arose in this historical era was called "classical science""and completed the long process of the formation of science in the proper sense of the word.

The methodology of classical science was very clearly expressed by the French mathematician and astronomer P. Laplace. He believed that nature itself is subject to rigid, absolutely unambiguous causal relationships, and if we do not always observe this unambiguity, it is only due to the limitations of our capabilities. “A mind which knew for any given moment all the forces that animate nature, and the relative position of all its constituent parts, if in addition it were sufficiently vast to subject these data to analysis, would embrace in one formula the movements of the greatest bodies The universe is on a par with the movements of the smallest atoms: there would be nothing left that would be unreliable for him, and the future, as well as the past, would appear before his gaze.” From Laplace's point of view, the ideal example of a scientific theory is celestial mechanics, in which, based on the laws of mechanics and the law of universal gravitation, it was possible to explain “all celestial phenomena in their smallest details.” It not only led to the understanding of a huge number of phenomena, but also provided a model for the “true method of investigating the laws of nature.”

The classical scientific picture of the world is based on the idea of ​​the qualitative homogeneity of natural phenomena. The entire variety of processes is limited by macromechanical movement, all natural connections and relationships are exhausted by a closed system of eternal and unchanging laws of classical mechanics. In contrast to ancient and especially medieval ideas, nature is viewed from the point of view of the natural order, in which only mechanical objects take place.

All the major physicists of the late 19th and early 20th centuries believed that all the great and generally all conceivable discoveries in physics had already been accomplished, that the established laws and principles were unshakable, only their new applications were possible, and that, therefore, the further development of physical science would consist only in clarification of minor details. Theoretical physics seemed to many to be basically a completed science, having exhausted its subject. It is significant that one of the leading physicists of that time, V. Thomson, giving a speech on the occasion of the beginning of the new century, said that physics had turned into a developed, complete system of knowledge, and further development would consist only of some improvements and raising the level of physical theories. True, he noticed that the beauty and clarity of dynamic theories is dimmed due to two small “clouds” in a clear sky: one is the absence of the ethereal wind, the other is the so-called “ultraviolet catastrophe.” Despite the fact that in the second half of the 19th century. mechanistic ideas about the world were significantly shaken by new revolutionary ideas in the field of electromagnetism (M. Faraday, J. Maxwell), as well as a cascade of scientific discoveries inexplicable on the basis of the laws of classical science; the mechanistic picture of the world remained dominant until the end of the 19th century.

And so, against the background of this centuries-old confidence of many scientists in the absolute indestructibility of the laws, principles and theories established by them and their predecessors, a revolution began that crushed these only seemingly eternal ideas. Human knowledge has penetrated into unusual layers of existence and there encountered unusual types of matter and forms of its movement. The conviction in the universality of the laws of classical mechanics disappeared, because the previous ideas about space and time, the indivisibility of the atom, the constancy of mass, the immutability of chemical elements, unambiguous causality, etc., were destroyed. At the same time, the classical stage in the development of natural science ended, and a new stage began non-classical natural sciences, characterized by quantum relativistic ideas about physical reality. From the two “clouds” mentioned by Thomson in the clear sky of physical science were born those two theories that determined the essence of non-classical physics - the theory of relativity and quantum physics. And they formed the basis of the modern scientific picture of the world.

How does non-classical science differ from classical science?

In classical science, any theoretical construction was not only considered, but also consciously created as a generalization of experimental data, as an auxiliary means of describing and interpreting the results of observation and experiment, results obtained independently of the theoretical construction. New views replace the old ones only because they are based on a larger number of facts, on the refined value of previously roughly measured quantities, on the results of experience with previously unknown phenomena or with previously undetected parameters of previously studied processes. Scientific knowledge, based on the fact that the entire dynamics of knowledge consists in a continuous increase in the total sum of empirical generalizations, does not know and cannot know a growth model other than the one that is uniquely related to cumulativeness. According to this view, the development of science seems to be a consistent growth of what has once been known, just as a straight wall is built up brick by brick. Essentially, this approach recognizes only the growth of science, but rejects its true development: the scientific picture of the world does not change, but only expands.

The task of classical natural science was seen in finding the unchanging laws of nature, and its outstanding representatives believed that they had already found these laws. These were considered the principles of classical mechanics, which is reflected in Lagrange’s very expressive aphorism: “Newton is the happiest of mortals, for the truth can be discovered only once, and Newton discovered this truth.” The development of physics after Newton was interpreted as a kind of reduction of what was known and what will be known to the provisions of classical mechanics. In such a teaching, the microworld, macroworld and megaworld should obey the same laws, representing only enlarged or reduced copies of each other. With this approach, it is difficult to accept, for example, the idea of ​​atoms, the sizes and properties of which cannot in any way be understood within classical constructions. It is not surprising that the opponent of the atomic theory, W. Ostwald, considered the atomic hypothesis to be like a horse, which must be looked for inside a steam locomotive in order to explain its movement. The atom is in the form of a classical object and is actually very similar to such a horse. Understanding what kind of “horse” is hidden inside a steam locomotive is the task of non-classical science - first to create a model, and then to put a fundamentally new meaning into it.

In non-classical science, a different attitude has developed: theory becomes the leading element of the cognitive process, possessing heuristic value and predictive power, and facts receive their interpretation only in the context of a certain theory. From this follows the historical variability of the forms of knowledge of the world: for non-classical science it is essential not only to find a theory that describes a certain range of phenomena, but it is extremely important to find ways of transition from this theory to a deeper and more general one. It was in this way that the theory of relativity, quantum mechanics, and quantum electrodynamics arose and became established; it was in this way that the modern theory of elementary particles and astrophysics developed. “The best destiny of a physical theory is to point the way to the creation of a new, more general theory, within the framework of which it remains a limiting case.”

The peculiarity of non-classical physics is revealed, perhaps, most clearly in the approach to solving the question of the relationship between subject and object. Unlike classical science, which believes that the characteristics of the subject do not affect the results of cognition in any way, non-classical science in its methodological settings recognizes the presence of the subject in the process of cognition as inevitable and irremovable, and therefore the results of cognition cannot but contain an “admixture of subjectivity.” Everyone knows the statement of an outstanding scientist of the twentieth century. N. Bora that “in the drama of life we ​​are both actors and spectators.” According to another outstanding physicist W. Heisenberg, quantum theory established the point of view according to which man describes and explains nature not in his, so to speak, “bare self,” but exclusively refracted through the prism of human subjectivity. Highly appreciating K. Weizsäcker's formula: “Nature was before man, but man was before natural science,” he reveals its meaning: “The first half of the statement justifies classical physics with its ideals of complete objectivity. The second half explains why we cannot free ourselves from the paradoxes of quantum theory and from the need to apply classical concepts."

Thus, having emerged in modern times, science goes through classical, non-classical and post-non-classical stages in its development, at each of which corresponding ideals, norms and research methods are developed, and a unique conceptual apparatus arises. But the emergence of a new type of rationality and a new image of science should not be understood simplistically in the sense that each new stage leads to the complete disappearance of the ideas and methodological settings of the previous stage. On the contrary, there is continuity between them. Non-classical science did not destroy classical rationality at all, but only limited the scope of its action. When solving a number of problems, non-classical ideas about the world and knowledge turn out to be redundant, and the researcher can focus on classical examples (for example, when solving a number of problems in celestial mechanics, it is not at all necessary to involve the holes of a quantum relativistic description).

It is assumed that the development of science is deterministic, in contrast to the unpredictable course of events inherent in art history. Looking back at the bizarre and sometimes mysterious history of natural science, one cannot help but doubt the correctness of such statements. There are truly astonishing examples of facts that have been overlooked simply because the cultural climate was not prepared to accommodate them in a self-consistent scheme. For example, the heliocentric idea, adequate to reality (from the views of the late Pythagoreans to its stronger version in the teachings of Aristarchus of Samos, who lived in 111 century BC) did not find the proper response and was rejected by ancient science, and the geocentric cosmology of Aristotle, having received mathematical formulation in the works of C. Ptolemy, set the standard for scientific constructions and had a tremendous influence on the scientific picture of the world of late antiquity and the Middle Ages until the 16th century. What are the reasons for what happened? Maybe they should be sought in the authority of Aristotle? Or is it the greater scientific development of geocentric views compared to heliocentric ones?

The better development of the geocentric system of the world, as well as the authority of its authors, certainly played an important role in the establishment of geocentric views. However, it is easy to notice that, having limited ourselves to such an explanation, we leave the question unresolved: why did the geocentric system turn out to be better developed and for what reasons did the research efforts of the most outstanding thinkers turn out to be aimed at developing an inadequate reality system?

The answer, apparently, should be sought in the fact that any scientific theory (as well as scientific knowledge itself, taken in all its diversity) is not a self-sufficient and self-sufficient result of the activity of an abstract epistemological subject. The interweaving of theory into the socio-historical practice of society and through it into the general culture of the era is the most important moment of its viability and development. Although science is a relatively self-developing system of knowledge, nevertheless, the trend of development of scientific knowledge is ultimately determined by the social practice of subjects of cognitive activity, the general dynamics of their socio-cultural traditions. Since in world science there are no absolutely random theories and completely isolated from the entire human culture, the emergence or, more precisely, the promotion of this or that scientific idea and its perception by the scientific community are far from the same thing. For the acceptance of a new theory, the degree of preparedness of the historical era to perceive it is much more important than considerations related to the talent of its author or the degree of its development. To believe, following F. Dyson, that if Aristarchus of Samos had greater authority than Aristotle, then heliocentric astronomy and physics would have saved humanity from the “1800-year darkness of ignorance” means completely ignoring the real historical context. E. Schrödinger is right when, to the indignation of many philosophers of science, he wrote: “There is a tendency to forget that all natural sciences are connected with universal human culture and that scientific discoveries, even those that seem at the moment to be the most advanced and accessible to the understanding of a select few, are still meaningless outside of their cultural context. That theoretical science that does not recognize that its constructs ultimately serve for reliable assimilation by the educated stratum of society and transformation into an organic part of the general picture of the world; theoretical science, I repeat, whose representatives instill ideas in each other in a language that, at best, is understandable only to a small group of close fellow travelers - such a science will certainly break away from the rest of human culture; in the future, it is doomed to impotence and paralysis, no matter how long it continues and no matter how stubbornly this style is maintained for the elite.”

The philosophy of science has shown that as a criterion for the scientific nature of knowledge, a whole complex of characteristics should be considered: evidence, intersubjectivity, impersonality, incompleteness, systematicity, criticality, immorality, rationality.

1. Science is evidence-based in the sense that its provisions are not simply declared, not simply accepted on faith, but are deduced and proven in an appropriate systematized and logically ordered form. Science lays claim to the theoretical validity of both the content and methods of achieving knowledge; it cannot be created by order or decree. Real observations, logical analysis, generalizations, conclusions, establishing a cause-and-effect relationship based on rational procedures - these are the evidentiary means of scientific knowledge.

2. Science is intersubjective in the sense that the knowledge it obtains is generally valid, universally binding, in contrast, for example, to opinion, which is characterized by non-general significance and individuality. The sign of intersubjectivity of scientific knowledge is concretized thanks to the sign of its reproducibility, which indicates the property of invariance of knowledge obtained in the course of cognition by every subject.

3. Science is impersonal in the sense that neither the individual characteristics of the scientist, nor his nationality or place of residence are in any way represented in the final results of scientific knowledge. A scientist is distracted from any manifestations that characterize a person’s attitude to the world; he looks at the world as an object of research and nothing more. Scientific knowledge is of greater value the less it expresses the individuality of the researcher.

4. Science is incomplete in the sense that scientific knowledge cannot achieve absolute truth, after which there will be nothing left to explore. Absolute truth, as complete and complete knowledge about the world as a whole, acts as the limit of the aspirations of the mind, which will never be achieved. The dialectical regularity of cognitive movement through an object is that the object in the process of cognition is included in ever new connections and, because of this, appears in all new qualities, all new content is, as it were, drawn out of the object, it seems to turn each time to its other side, in It reveals all new properties. The task of cognition is to comprehend the real content of the object of cognition, and this means the need to reflect the entire variety of properties, connections, and mediations of a given object, which are essentially infinite. Because of this, the process of scientific knowledge is endless.

5. Science is systematic in the sense that it has a definite structure rather than being an incoherent collection of parts. A collection of disparate knowledge that is not united into a coherent system does not yet form a science. Scientific knowledge is based on certain starting points and patterns that make it possible to combine relevant knowledge into a single system. Knowledge turns into scientific knowledge when the purposeful collection of facts, their description and explanation is brought to the level of their inclusion in the system of concepts, in the composition of the theory.

6. Science is critical in the sense that its foundation is free-thinking and therefore it is always ready to question and reconsider even its most fundamental results.

7. Science is value neutral in the sense that scientific truths are neutral in moral and ethical terms, and moral assessments can relate either to the activity of obtaining knowledge or to the activity of applying it. “The principles of science can only be expressed in the indicative mood; experimental data are also expressed in the same mood. The researcher can juggle with these principles as much as he likes, combine them, pile them on top of each other; everything he gets from them will be in the indicative mood. He will never receive a proposal that says: do this or don’t do that, i.e. proposals that would be consistent with or contrary to morality.”

Only the simultaneous presence of all these signs in a known result of cognition fully determines its scientific nature. The absence of at least one of these signs makes it impossible to qualify this result as scientific. For example, “universal delusion” can be intersubjective, religion can also be systematic, truth can also include pre-science, everyday knowledge, and opinions.

Rental block

OGBOU SPO "Ivanovo Energy College"

“The main stages of the development of science”

Completed

Ivanovo 2015

Introduction:

Two and a half thousand years of the history of science leave no doubt that it is developing, i.e. changes irreversibly qualitatively over time. Science is constantly increasing its volume, continuously branching out, becoming more complex, etc. This development turns out to be uneven: with a “ragged” rhythm, a bizarre interweaving of the slow painstaking accumulation of new knowledge with the “landslide” effect of introducing “crazy ideas” into the body of science, overturning the pictures of the world that have developed over centuries in an incomprehensibly short time. The actual history of science looks quite fragmented and chaotic. But science would have betrayed itself if, in this “Brownian movement” of hypotheses, discoveries, theories, it had not tried to find some kind of orderliness, a natural course of formation and change of ideas and concepts, i.e. discover the hidden logic of the development of scientific knowledge.

Identifying the logic of the development of science means understanding the patterns of scientific progress, its driving forces, causes and historical conditionality. The modern vision of this problem differs significantly from what prevailed, perhaps, until the middle of our century. Previously, it was believed that in science there is a continuous increase in scientific knowledge, a constant accumulation of new scientific discoveries and more and more accurate theories, which ultimately creates a cumulative effect in different areas of knowledge of nature. Nowadays, the logic of the development of science seems different: the latter develops not through the continuous accumulation of new facts and ideas, not step by step, but through fundamental theoretical shifts, which at one point reshape the hitherto familiar general picture of the world and force scientists to rebuild their activities on the basis of fundamentally different worldviews . The step-by-step logic of the slow evolution of science was replaced by the logic of scientific revolutions and disasters. Due to the novelty and complexity of the problem in the methodology of science, there has not yet been a generally accepted approach or model of the logic of the development of scientific knowledge. There are many such models. But some still emerged as clear leaders.

This topic is currently very relevant, since science permeates our entire lives and penetrates into all areas.

The purpose of the work is to study the philosophical understanding of science and the stages of its historical development. The objectives of the research can be formulated in accordance with the goal to study scientific materials related to this topic.

1. Introduction.
2. History of science.
   1. Philosophy of Science.
   2. The main stages of the development of science.
3. 1. Scientific organizations.
   2. Scientific picture of the world.
   3. Pseudoscience.
4. Conclusion.
5. List of sources used.
6. History of science.

History of science is the study of the phenomenon of science in its history. Science, in particular, is the totality of empirical, theoretical and practical knowledge about the World obtained by the scientific community. Since, on the one hand, science represents objective knowledge, and on the other, the process of its acquisition and use by people, a conscientious historiography of science must take into account not only the history of thought, but also the history of the development of society as a whole.

The study of the history of modern science relies on many surviving original or reprinted texts. However, the words “science” and “scientist” themselves came into use only in the 18th and 20th centuries, and before that, natural scientists called their work “natural philosophy.”

Although empirical research has been known since ancient times (for example, the works of Aristotle and Theophrastus), and the scientific method was basically developed in the Middle Ages (for example, Ibnal-Haytham, Al-Biruni or Roger Bacon), the beginnings of modern science go back to the New Age. time, a period called the scientific revolution, which occurred in the 16th and 17th centuries in Western Europe.

The scientific method is considered so essential to modern science that many scientists and philosophers consider work done before the Scientific Revolution to be "pre-scientific." Therefore, historians of science often give science a broader definition than is customary in our time in order to include the period of Antiquity and the Middle Ages in their studies.

The first and main reason for the emergence of science is the formation of subject-object relations between man and nature, between man and his environment. This is due, first of all, to the transition of humanity from gathering to producing economy. Thus, already in the Paleolithic era, man created the first tools from stone and bone - an ax, knife, scraper, spear, bow, arrows, mastered fire and built primitive dwellings. In the Mesolithic era, a person weaves a net, makes a boat, engages in woodworking, and invents a bow drill. During the Neolithic period (before 3000 BC), man developed pottery, mastered agriculture, made pottery, used a hoe, sickle, spindle, clay, log, and pile buildings, and mastered metals. Uses animals as draft power, invents wheeled carts, a potter's wheel, a sailboat, and furs. By the beginning of the first millennium BC, iron tools appeared.

The second reason for the formation of science is the complication of human cognitive activity. “Cognitive”, search activity is also characteristic of animals, but due to the complication of human subject-practical activity, human mastery of various types of transformative activities, profound changes occur in the structure of the human psyche, the structure of his brain, and changes are observed in the morphology of his body.

The development of science was an integral part of the general process of intellectual development of the human mind and the formation of human civilization. The development of science cannot be considered in isolation from the following processes:

Speech formation;

Account development;

The emergence of art;

Formation of writing;

Formation of worldview (myth);

The emergence of philosophy.

Periodization of science.

One of the primary problems in the history of science is the problem of periodization. Usually the following periods of development of science are distinguished:

Pre-science the origin of science in the civilizations of the Ancient East: astrology, pre-Euclidean geometry, literacy, numerology.

Ancient science the formation of the first scientific theories (atomism) and the compilation of the first scientific treatises in the era of Antiquity: Ptolemy’s astronomy, Theophrastus’ botany, Euclid’s geometry, Aristotle’s physics, as well as the emergence of the first proto-scientific communities represented by the Academy

Medieval magical science formation of experimental science using the example of Jabir's alchemy

Scientific revolution and classical science formation of science in the modern sense in the works of Galileo, Newton, Linnaeus

Non-classical science science in the era of crisis of classical rationality: Darwin's theory of evolution, Einstein's theory of relativity, Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, the Big Bang hypothesis, René Thom's catastrophe theory, Mandelbrot's fractal geometry.

Another division into periods is possible:

pre-classical (early antiquity, search for absolute truth, observation and reflection, method of analogies)

classical (XVI-XVII centuries, planning of experiments appears, the principle of determinism is introduced, the importance of science increases)

non-classical (end of the 19th century, the emergence of powerful scientific theories, for example, the theory of relativity, the search for relative truth, it becomes clear that the principle of determinism is not always applicable, and the experimenter influences the search for experiment)

post-non-classical (end of the 20th century, synergetics appears, the subject field of knowledge expands, science goes beyond its boundaries and penetrates into other areas, search for the goals of science).

Background of modern science:

The accumulation of knowledge occurs with the advent of civilizations and writing; the achievements of ancient civilizations (Egyptian, Mesopotamian, etc.) in the field of astronomy, mathematics, medicine, etc. are known. However, under the dominance of mythological, pre-rational consciousness, these successes did not go beyond a purely empirical and practical framework. For example, Egypt was famous for its geometers; but if you take an Egyptian geometry textbook, then you can see only a set of practical recommendations for a land surveyor, presented dogmatically (“if you want to get this, do this and that”); the concept of theorem, axiom and especially proof was absolutely alien to this system. Indeed, the demand for “evidence” would seem almost blasphemous in conditions that presupposed an authoritarian transfer of knowledge from teacher to student.

It can be considered that the true foundation of classical science was laid in Ancient Greece, starting around the 6th century. BC e., when mythological thinking was first replaced by rationalistic thinking. Empirics, largely borrowed by the Greeks from the Egyptians and Babylonians, is supplemented by scientific methodology: the rules of logical reasoning are established, the concept of hypothesis is introduced, etc., a number of brilliant insights appear, such as the theory of atomism. Aristotle played a particularly important role in the development and systematization of both methods and knowledge itself. The difference between ancient science and modern science was its speculative nature: the concept of experiment was alien to it, scientists did not seek to combine science with practice (with rare exceptions, for example, Archimedes), but on the contrary were proud of their involvement in pure, “disinterested” speculation. Partly, this is explained by the fact that Greek philosophy assumed [source not specified 582 days] that history repeats itself cyclically, and the development of science is meaningless, since it will inevitably end in a crisis of this science.

Christianity, which spread in Europe, abolished the view of history as repeating periods (Christ, as a historical figure, appeared on earth only once) and created a highly developed theological science (born in fierce theological disputes with heretics in the era of the Ecumenical Councils), built on the rules of logic . However, after the division of churches in 1054, a theological crisis worsened in the western (Catholic) part. Then interest in empirics (experience) was completely discarded, and science began to be reduced to the interpretation of authoritative texts and the development of formal logical methods in the form of scholasticism. However, the works of ancient scientists who received the status of “authorities”: Euclid in geometry, Ptolemy in astronomy, him and Pliny the Elder in geography and natural sciences, Donatus in grammar, Hippocrates and Galen in medicine and, finally, Aristotle, as a universal authority in most fields of knowledge brought the foundations of ancient science to the New Time, serving as the real foundation on which the entire edifice of modern science was laid.

During the Renaissance, there was a turn to empirical and rationalistic research free from dogmatism, in many ways comparable to the revolution of the 6th century. BC e. This was facilitated by the invention of printing (mid-15th century), which dramatically expanded the basis for future science. First of all, there is the formation of the humanities, or studia humana (as they were called in contrast to theology studia divina); in the middle of the 15th century. Lorenzo Valla publishes the treatise “On the Forgery of the Donation of Constantine,” thereby laying the foundations for scientific criticism of texts; a hundred years later, Scaliger lays the foundations for scientific chronology.

In parallel, there is a rapid accumulation of new empirical knowledge (especially with the discovery of America and the beginning of the Age of Discovery), undermining the picture of the world bequeathed by the classical tradition. The theory of Copernicus also deals a severe blow to it. Interest in biology and chemistry is being revived.

The Birth of Modern Science

Vesalius' anatomical studies revived interest in the structure of the human body.

Modern experimental natural science emerged only at the end of the 16th century. Its appearance was prepared by the Protestant Reformation and the Catholic Counter-Reformation, when the very foundations of the medieval worldview were called into question. Just as Luther and Calvin transformed religious doctrines, the works of Copernicus and Galileo led to the abandonment of Ptolemy's astronomy, and the works of Vesalius and his followers brought significant changes to medicine. These events marked the beginning of the process now called the scientific revolution.

Newton, Isaac

The theoretical justification of the new scientific methodology belongs to Francis Bacon, who substantiated in his “New Organon” the transition from the traditional deductive approach (from a general speculative assumption or authoritative judgment to a particular one, that is, to a fact) to an inductive approach (from a particular empirical fact to general, that is, to a pattern). The emergence of the systems of Descartes and especially Newton - the latter was entirely built on experimental knowledge - marked the final severance of the “umbilical cord” that connected the emerging science of modern times with the ancient medieval tradition. The publication of the Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy in 1687 was the culmination of the scientific revolution and gave rise to an unprecedented surge of interest in scientific publications in Western Europe. Among other scientists of this period, Brahe, Kepler, Halley, Brown, Hobbes, Harvey, Boyle, Hooke, Huygens, Leibniz, and Pascal also made outstanding contributions to the scientific revolution.

Philosophy of Science.

Philosophy of science branch of philosophy that studies the concept, boundaries and methodology of science. There are also more specialized sections of philosophy of science, for example philosophy of mathematics, philosophy of physics, philosophy of chemistry, philosophy of biology.

The philosophy of science as a direction of Western and domestic philosophy is represented by many original concepts that offer one or another model for the development of science and epistemology. It is focused on identifying the role and significance of science, the characteristics of cognitive and theoretical activity.

Philosophy of science as a philosophical discipline, along with the philosophy of history, logic, methodology, and cultural studies, which explores its cross-section of the reflexive relationship of thinking to being (in this case, to the being of science), arose in response to the need to comprehend the sociocultural functions of science in the conditions of scientific and technological revolution. This is a young discipline that declared itself only in the second half of the 20th century. While the direction called “philosophy of science” arose a century earlier.

“The subject of the philosophy of science,” as researchers note, “is the general patterns and trends of scientific knowledge as a special activity for the production of scientific knowledge, taken in their historical development and considered in a historically changing sociocultural context.”

Philosophy of science has the status of historical sociocultural knowledge, regardless of whether it is focused on the study of natural sciences or social sciences and humanities. The philosopher of science is interested in scientific research, the “discovery algorithm,” the dynamics of the development of scientific knowledge, and research methods. (It should be noted that the philosophy of science, although interested in the reasonable development of sciences, is still not intended to directly ensure their reasonable development, as multidisciplinary metascience is called upon to do.) If the main goal of science is to obtain truth, then the philosophy of science is one of the most important areas for humanity application of his intellect, within which the question “how is it possible to achieve truth?” is discussed.

Main directions of philosophy of science

The immediate predecessor of the philosophy of science is epistemology of the 17th and 18th centuries. (both empirical and rationalistic), at the center of which was an understanding of the essence of scientific knowledge and methods of obtaining it. Epistemological issues were the central theme of the classical stage of modern philosophy, from R. Descartes and J. Locke to I. Kant. Without understanding these issues, it is impossible to understand the philosophy of science of the 19th and 20th centuries.

As a separate direction of philosophy, the philosophy of science took shape in the 19th century. Several stages can be distinguished in its development.

Positivism:

Positivism goes through a series of stages, traditionally called first positivism, second positivism (empirio-criticism) and third positivism (logical positivism, neopositivism). A common feature of all of these movements is empiricism, dating back to F. Bacon, and the rejection of metaphysics, by which positivists understand the classical philosophy of the New Age - from Descartes to Hegel. Also, positivism in general is characterized by a one-sided analysis of science: it is believed that science has a significant impact on the culture of mankind, while it itself is subject only to its internal laws and is not influenced by social, historical, aesthetic, religious and other external factors.

Main features of positivism:

science and scientific rationality are recognized as the highest value;

the requirement to transfer natural science methods to the humanities;

an attempt to rid science of speculative constructions, the requirement to verify everything by experiment;

faith in the progress of science.

Criticism of positivism:

1. The world is considered as a mechanical aggregate of particular areas, where the sum of the particulars gives the whole.

2. The world does not contain any holistic, universal properties and laws.

3. Denial of philosophy, which leads to the denial of the partisanship of philosophy, which entails falling into the worst philosophy.

4. The last reality sensations, which indicates the borrowing of the logic of subjective idealism (it is impossible to verify whether anything lies behind the sensations).

1.2. The main stages of the development of science.

In early human societies, cognitive and production aspects were inseparable; initial knowledge was of a practical nature, acting as a guide to certain types of human activity. The accumulation of such knowledge constituted an important prerequisite for future science.

For the emergence of science proper, appropriate conditions were needed: a certain level of development of production and social relations, the division of mental and physical labor, and the presence of broad cultural traditions that ensured the perception of the achievements of other peoples and cultures.

The corresponding conditions first developed in Ancient Greece, where the first theoretical systems arose in the 6th century. BC. Thinkers such as Thales and Democritus already explained reality through natural principles as opposed to mythology. The ancient Greek scientist Aristotle was the first to describe the laws of nature, society and thinking, bringing to the fore the objectivity of knowledge, logic, and persuasiveness. At the moment of cognition, a system of abstract concepts was introduced, the foundations of an evidence-based method of presenting the material were laid; Separate branches of knowledge began to separate out: geometry (Euclid), mechanics (Archimedes), astronomy (Ptolemy).

A number of areas of knowledge were enriched in the Middle Ages by scientists of the Arab East and Central Asia: Ibn Sta, or Avicenna, (9801037), Ibn Rushd (11261198), Biruni (9731050). In Western Europe, due to the dominance of religion, a specific philosophical science, scholasticism, was born, and alchemy and astrology also developed. Alchemy contributed to the creation of the basis for science in the modern sense of the word, since it relied on the experimental study of natural substances and compounds and prepared the ground for the development of chemistry. Astrology was associated with the observation of celestial bodies, which also developed the experimental base for future astronomy.

The most important stage in the development of science was the New Age of the 16th and 17th centuries. Here the needs of nascent capitalism played a decisive role. During this period, the dominance of religious thinking was undermined, and experiment (experience) was established as the leading method of research, which, along with observation, radically expanded the scope of knowable reality. At this time, theoretical reasoning began to be combined with the practical exploration of nature, which sharply strengthened the cognitive capabilities of science. This profound transformation of science, which occurred in the 16th-17th centuries, is considered the first scientific revolution, which gave the world such names as G. Galshey (1564 x 1642) , (15711630), W. Harvey (15781657), R. Descartes (15961650), H. Huygens (16291695), I. Newton (16431727), etc.

The scientific revolution of the 17th century is associated with a revolution in natural science. The development of productive forces required the creation of new machines, the introduction of chemical processes, the laws of mechanics, and the construction of precision instruments for astronomical observations.

The scientific revolution went through several stages, and its formation took a century and a half. It began with N. Copernicus and his followers Bruno, Galileo, Kepler. In 1543, the Polish scientist N. Copernicus (14731543) published the book “On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres,” in which he established the idea that the Earth, like the other planets of the Solar System, revolves around the Sun, which is the central body of the Solar System. systems. Copernicus established that the Earth is not an exceptional celestial body, which dealt a blow to anthropocentrism and religious legends, according to which the Earth supposedly occupies a central position in the Universe. Ptolemy's geocentric system was rejected.

Galileo was responsible for the largest achievements in the field of physics and the development of the most fundamental problem of motion; his achievements in astronomy were enormous: the justification and approval of the heliocentric system, the discovery of the four largest satellites of Jupiter out of 13 currently known; the discovery of the phases of Venus, the extraordinary appearance of the planet Saturn, created, as is now known, by rings representing a collection of solid bodies; a huge number of stars invisible to the naked eye. Galileo achieved success in scientific achievements to a large extent because he recognized observations and experience as the starting point for knowledge of nature.

The modern world is characterized as a period of rapid development of scientific and technical aspects of human life, which naturally find their application in the economic sphere, reducing physical stress on humans. However, the obvious advantages of using scientific and technological achievements also have a downside, which in the course of cultural studies is fixed as the problem of the sociocultural consequences of the scientific and technological revolution.

Newton created the foundations of mechanics, discovered the law of universal gravitation and developed on its basis the theory of the motion of celestial bodies. This scientific discovery made Newton famous forever. He owns such achievements in the field of mechanics as the introduction of the concepts of force, inertia, the formulation of the three laws of mechanics; in the field of optics discovery of refraction, dispersion, interference, diffraction of light; in the field of mathematics algebra, geometry, interpolation, differential and integral calculus.

In the 18th century, revolutionary discoveries were made in astronomy by I. Kant (172-41804) and P. Laplace (17491827), as well as in chemistry; its beginning is associated with the name of AL.Lavoisier (17431794). The activities of M.V. date back to this period. Lomonosov (17111765), who anticipated much of the subsequent development of natural science.

In the 19th century, science experienced continuous revolutionary upheavals in all branches of natural science.

The reliance of modern science on experiment and the development of mechanics laid the foundation for establishing a connection between science and production. At the same time, by the beginning of the 19th century. The experience and material accumulated by science in certain areas no longer fit into the framework of a mechanistic explanation of nature and society. A new round of scientific knowledge and a deeper and broader synthesis was required, combining the results of individual sciences. During this historical period, science was glorified by Yu.R. Mayer (18141878), J. Joule (18181889), G. Helmgolts (18211894), who discovered the laws of conservation and transformation of energy, which provided a unified basis for all branches of physics and chemistry. Of great importance in understanding the world was the creation of the cellular theory by T. Schwann (18101882) and M. Schleiden (18041881), which showed the uniform structure of all living organisms. Charles Darwin (18091882), who created the theory of evolution in biology, introduced the idea of ​​development into natural science. Thanks to the periodic system of elements discovered by the brilliant Russian scientist D.I. Mendeleev (18341907), the internal connection between all known types of matter was proven.

Thus, by the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. major changes occurred in the foundations of scientific thinking, the mechanistic worldview exhausted itself, which led classical science of the modern era to a crisis. This was facilitated, in addition to those mentioned above, by the discovery of the electron and radioactivity. As a result of the resolution of the crisis, a new scientific revolution took place, which began in physics and covered all the main branches of science. It is associated primarily with the names of M. Planck (18581947) and A. Einstein (18791955), the discovery of the electron, radium, the transformation of chemical elements, the creation of the theory of relativity and quantum theory marked a breakthrough into the field of the microworld and high speeds. Advances in physics influenced chemistry. Quantum theory, having explained the nature of chemical bonds, opened up wide possibilities for science and production for the chemical transformation of matter; penetration into the mechanism of heredity began, genetics developed, and the chromosomal theory was formed.

By the middle of the 20th century, biology moved to one of the first places in natural science, where such fundamental discoveries were made as the establishment of the molecular structure of DNA by F. Crick (born 1916) and J. Watson (born 1928), and the discovery of the genetic code.

Science today is an extremely complex social phenomenon that has multilateral connections with the world. It is considered from four sides (like any other social phenomenon - politics, morality, law, art, religion):

1) from the theoretical, where science is a system of knowledge, a form of social consciousness;

2) from the point of view of the social division of labor, where science is a form of activity, a system of relations between scientists and scientific institutions;

3) from the point of view of a social institution;

4) from the point of view of the practical application of scientific findings from the perspective of its social role.

Currently, scientific disciplines are usually divided into three large groups: natural, social and technical. Branches of science differ in their subjects and methods. At the same time, there is no sharp line between them and a number of scientific disciplines occupy an intermediate interdisciplinary position, for example, biotechnology, radiogeology.

Sciences are divided into fundamental and applied. Fundamental sciences are the knowledge of the laws governing behavior and interaction of the basic structures of nature, society and thinking. These laws are studied in their “pure form,” which is why fundamental sciences are sometimes called pure sciences.

The goal of applied sciences is to apply the results of fundamental sciences to solve not only cognitive, but also social and practical problems.

The creation of a theoretical foundation for applied sciences determines, as a rule, the rapid development of fundamental sciences compared to applied ones. In modern society, in developed industrial countries, the leading place belongs to theoretical, fundamental knowledge, and its role is constantly increasing. In the cycle “basic research development implementation” focus on reducing movement times.

The role of science in modern society.

The 20th century became the century of a victorious scientific revolution. Scientific and technological progress has accelerated in all developed countries. Gradually, there was an increasing increase in the knowledge intensity of products. Technology was changing production methods. By the mid-20th century, the factory method of production became dominant. In the second half of the 20th century, automation became widespread. By the end of the 20th century, high technologies developed and the transition to an information economy continued. All this happened thanks to the development of science and technology. This had several consequences. Firstly, demands on employees have increased. They began to be required to have greater knowledge, as well as an understanding of new technological processes. Secondly, the share of mental workers and scientists has increased, that is, people whose work requires deep scientific knowledge. Thirdly, the growth in well-being caused by scientific and technical progress and the solution of many pressing problems of society gave rise to the faith of the broad masses in the ability of science to solve the problems of mankind and improve the quality of life. This new faith was reflected in many areas of culture and social thought. Such achievements as space exploration, the creation of nuclear energy, the first successes in the field of robotics gave rise to a belief in the inevitability of scientific, technological and social progress, and raised the hope of a quick solution to such problems as hunger, disease, etc.

And today we can say that science in modern society plays an important role in many industries and spheres of people’s lives. Undoubtedly, the level of development of science can serve as one of the main indicators of the development of society, and it is also, undoubtedly, an indicator of the economic, cultural, civilized, educated, modern development of the state.

The functions of science as a social force in solving global problems of our time are very important. An example here is environmental issues. As is known, rapid scientific and technological progress is one of the main causes of such dangerous phenomena for society and people as the depletion of the planet’s natural resources, air, water, and soil pollution. Consequently, science is one of the factors in the radical and far from harmless changes that are taking place today in the human environment. The scientists themselves do not hide this. Scientific data also plays a leading role in determining the scale and parameters of environmental hazards.

The growing role of science in public life has given rise to its special status in modern culture and new features of its interaction with various layers of public consciousness. In this regard, the problem of the characteristics of scientific knowledge and its relationship with other forms of cognitive activity (art, everyday consciousness, etc.) is acutely raised.

This problem, being philosophical in nature, at the same time has great practical significance. Understanding the specifics of science is a necessary prerequisite for the introduction of scientific methods in the management of cultural processes. It is also necessary for constructing a theory of management of science itself in the conditions of scientific and technological revolution, since elucidation of the laws of scientific knowledge requires an analysis of its social conditionality and its interaction with various phenomena of spiritual and material culture.

As the main criteria for identifying the functions of science, it is necessary to take the main types of activities of scientists, their range of responsibilities and tasks, as well as the areas of application and consumption of scientific knowledge. Some of the main functions are listed below:

1) the cognitive function is given by the very essence of science, the main purpose of which is precisely the knowledge of nature, society and man, the rational and theoretical comprehension of the world, the discovery of its laws and patterns, the explanation of a wide variety of phenomena and processes, the implementation of predictive activities, that is, the production of new scientific knowledge;

2) the worldview function is, of course, closely related to the first, its main goal is to develop a scientific worldview and a scientific picture of the world, study the rationalistic aspects of man’s relationship to the world, substantiate the scientific worldview: scientists are called upon to develop worldview universals and value orientations, although, of course, the leading Philosophy plays a role in this matter;

3) the production, technical and technological function is designed to introduce innovations, innovations, new technologies, forms of organization, etc. into production. Researchers talk and write about the transformation of science into a direct productive force of society, about science as a special “shop” of production, classifying scientists as productive workers, and all this precisely characterizes this function of science;

4) the cultural, educational function lies mainly in the fact that science is a cultural phenomenon, a noticeable factor in the cultural development of people and education. Her achievements, ideas and recommendations have a noticeable impact on the entire educational process, on the content of curriculum plans, textbooks, on technology, forms and methods of teaching. Of course, the leading role here belongs to pedagogical science. This function of science is carried out through cultural activities and politics, the education system and the media, the educational activities of scientists, etc. Let us not forget that science is a cultural phenomenon, has a corresponding orientation, and occupies an extremely important place in the sphere of spiritual production.

2.1. Scientific organizations.

There are quite a large number of scientific organizations in the scientific community. Voluntary scientific societies play an active role in the development of science, the main task of which is the exchange of scientific information, including during conferences and through publications in periodicals published by the society. Membership in scientific societies is voluntary, often free, and may require membership fees. The state can provide various types of support to these societies, and society can express a consistent position to the authorities. In some cases, the activities of voluntary societies also cover broader issues, such as standardization. One of the most authoritative and widespread societies is IEEE. International scientific unions allow both collective and individual membership. National academies of sciences in some European countries have historically grown out of national scientific societies. In Great Britain, for example, the role of the Academy is played by the Royal Scientific Society.

The first scientific societies appeared in Italy in the 1560s - these were the “Academy of the Secrets of Nature” (Academia secretorum naturae) in Naples (1560), the “Academy of Lynchians” (Accademia dei Lincei literally, “academy of lynx-eyed”, that is, those with a special vigilance) in Rome (1603), “Academy of Experienced Knowledge” (“Academy of Experiments”, 1657) in Florence. All of these Italian academies, which included many important thinkers and public figures led by visiting honorary member Galileo Galilei, were created with the aim of promoting and expanding scientific knowledge in the field of physics through regular meetings, the exchange of ideas and experiments. Undoubtedly, they influenced the development of European science as a whole.

The need for accelerated development of science and technology required the state to take a more active role in the development of science. Accordingly, in a number of countries, for example, in Russia, Academies were created by decree from above. However, most Academies of Sciences have adopted democratic charters, ensuring their relative independence from the state

1. Popularization of science

Popularization of science is the process of disseminating scientific knowledge in a modern and accessible form to a wide range of people (who have a certain level of preparedness to receive information).

Popularization of science, “translation” of specialized knowledge into the language of an unprepared listener or reader is one of the most important tasks facing popularizers of science. The task of a science popularizer is to transform boring scientific data into information that is interesting and understandable to the majority. The popularization of science can be aimed both at society as a whole and at part of it, for example, the younger generation. Science fiction plays an important role in this process, having anticipated and inspired many scientific discoveries. A significant contribution to this was made by the science fiction writer Jules Verne, one of the pioneers of the genre. The arrival of young people in science and high-tech areas of production, the attention of the uninitiated part of society to scientific problems depend on the degree of popularity of science. Scientists, as bearers of scientific knowledge, are interested in their preservation, development and increase, which is facilitated by the influx of young people into it. Popularization of science increases the number of people interested in science by stimulating interest in it.

Expressions such as entertaining science (the term was coined by Yakov Perelman), popular science, pop science (a synonym for the cliche “popular science”) are used as synonyms for the popularization of science. A survey conducted by the Institute of Psychology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, in which scientists were asked whether they knew about the existence of pop science and their attitude towards it, showed that the majority of scientists perceive pop science not only as popular science, but also as:

“primitivization of science for the crowd”, “transformation of science into a spectacle in the worst sense of the word”, “profanation of science”, “vulgarized interpretation of scientific achievements to the point of perversion”, “bringing science to the level of comics”, etc.

Tycho Brahe believed that scientific knowledge should be available only to rulers who know how to use it. Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences Ludwig Faddeev spoke about the popularization of science:

“We are aware that we must still explain to people, taxpayers, what we are doing. But we need to popularize those areas of science that are already fully understood. Modern science is more difficult to popularize. Talking about all sorts of quarks, strings, Yang-Mills fields... it turns out bad with deceptions"

1. Pseudo science.

Pseudoscience (from the Greek ψευδής “false” + science; synonym pseudoscience, terms similar in meaning: parascience, quasiscience, alternative science, non-academic science) activity or teaching that consciously or unconsciously imitates science, but in essence is not science.

Another common definition of pseudoscience is “an imaginary or false science; a body of beliefs about the world mistakenly regarded as being based on the scientific method or as having the status of modern scientific truths.”

Science and pseudoscience

The main difference between pseudoscience and science is the uncritical use of new unverified methods, dubious and often erroneous data and information, as well as the denial of the possibility of refutation, while science is based on facts (verified information), verifiable methods and is constantly developing, parting with refuted theories and offering new. Vitaly Ginzburg, Nobel laureate in physics 2003: “Pseudoscience is all kinds of constructions, scientific hypotheses, and so on, which contradict firmly established scientific facts. I can illustrate this with an example. Here, for example, is the nature of heat. We now know that heat is a measure of the chaotic motion of molecules. But this was once not known. And there were other theories, including the caloric theory, which is that there is some kind of liquid that flows and transfers heat. And then it was not pseudoscience, that's what I want to emphasize. But if a person comes to you now with the caloric theory, then he is an ignoramus or a swindler. Pseudoscience is something that is obviously false.”

According to the definition of Doctor of Philosophy V. Kuvakin: “Pseudoscience is such a theoretical construction, the content of which, as can be established during an independent scientific examination, does not correspond either to the norms of scientific knowledge or to any area of ​​reality, and its subject either does not exist in principle, or substantially falsified.”

One of the possible reasons for issuing a verdict of pseudoscience (pseudoscience) is the not always conscious use of scientific methodology to explain real facts and observed phenomena, which in principle cannot be the object of scientific study. Thus, academician L. Mandelstam, referring to scientific research, said: “...In general, I believe that phenomena that are fundamentally non-repeatable, that occur in principle only once, cannot be the object of study.” At the same time, he mentioned the opinion of the English mathematician and philosopher Whiteted, who believed that the birth of theoretical physics was connected precisely with the application of the idea of ​​periodicity to various issues.

Conclusion.

In my course work, I examined such an important topic in philosophy as “Science and its role in modern society.” Expanding on the topic, I showed that science was relevant in ancient times, and it is still relevant today. And undoubtedly, science will be relevant in the future.

They say that if Bach had not existed, the world would never have heard music. But if Einstein had not been born, the theory of relativity would sooner or later be discovered by some scientist.

The famous aphorism of F. Bacon: “Knowledge is power” is more relevant today than ever. Moreover, if in the foreseeable future humanity will live in the conditions of the so-called information society, where the main factor of social development will be the production and use of knowledge, scientific, technical and other information. The increasing role of knowledge (and, to an even greater extent, the methods of obtaining it) in the life of society must inevitably be accompanied by an increase in the knowledge of sciences that specifically analyze knowledge, cognition and research methods.

Science is the comprehension of the world in which we live. Accordingly, science is usually defined as a highly organized and highly specialized activity for the production of objective knowledge about the world, including man himself.

Abstract. History of science. Philosophy of Science. The main stages of the development of science. The role of science in modern society. The purpose of the work is to study the philosophical understanding of science and the stages of its historical development. Scientific picture of the world. The objectives of the research can be formulated in accordance with the goal to study scientific materials related to this topic.

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