Round Table:THE CRITERION OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE
Victor V. Rozen. Saratov State University, Saratov< Russia
Abstract
The main signs of scientific knowledge are the following.
1. Consistency. Science is not just a "huge number of disparate facts", but their system, in which the individual parts are interconnected, these parts are ordered and subordinated to each other. The task of science is a holistic explanation of one or another fragment of reality.
2. Rationality. Any science begins with collecting facts. Then comes their selection, sorting, systematization; then – the promotion of hypotheses, general statements, explanations and, finally, the creation of theories explaining these facts and predicting new ones. At all these stages, abstract thinking "works", which is a purposeful and generalized reproduction in an ideal form of essential and regular properties, connections and relationships between objects of the objective world. The main forms of rational cognition: concepts, judgments, conclusions, hypotheses, theories.
3. Conclusiveness. New scientific provisions do not just "join" the existing ones. They must be, firstly, reasoned, justified within the framework of existing logical canons, and, secondly, consistent with previously accepted provisions. Conclusiveness is the most important feature of scientific knowledge, which distinguishes it, for example, from religion.
4. Empirical verifiability. This means the possibility of establishing the truth or falsity of theoretical propositions by correlating them with practical results obtained in experiments or observations of the natural course of events. This criterion includes two components: confirmation (verification) and refutation (falsification). The first component focuses on finding the true, the second on cutting off the false in scientific knowledge.
5. Fundamentality. To become scientific, knowledge must "break away" from its practical binding and acquire a theoretical character. Knowledge that is "looped" on solving purely practical problems cannot give rise to mathematics, physics, or cosmology.
Let us note in conclusion that the criteria of scientific validity are not absolute and final. They can change depending on the development of scientific knowledge and new discoveries.
Speaker
Victor V. Rozen
Saratov State University
Russia
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