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In Theoretical Knowledge an original conception of a structure and dynamics of scientific knowledge is proposed. A detailed analysis of the foundations of science performed by the author allowed him to develop new ideas and approaches, to demonstrate how sociocultural factors are incorporated in the process of yielding of new theories. He shows direct and inverse links between foundations of science and new theories and empirical facts evolved from those, how among many potentially possible histories of science a culture selects just those directions which become a real history of science. The author analyses mechanisms of the generation of scientific theories and shows that those are changed in the process of historical development of science. He displays three historical types of scientific rationality (classical, non-classical and post-non-classical, which appears in modern science) and shows features of their coexistence and interplay. It is shown that along with the emerging of post-non-classical rationality science increases the sphere of its worldview applications. Science begins to correlate not only with the basic values of technogenic civilization but also with some values and patterns of traditional cultures. The investigation is based on the extensive literature on the history of natural and social sciences. The reader will find in the book authentic historical reconstructions of the processes of the development of classical and quantum electrodynamics, relativity, and conceptions of evolution in biology.
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THEORETICAL KNOWLEDGE SYNTHESE LIBRARY STUDIES IN EPISTEMOLOGY, LOGIC, METHODOLOGY, AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE Editor-in-Chief: VINCENT F. HENDRICKS, Roskilde University, Roskilde, Denmark JOHN SYMONS, University of Texas at El Paso, U.S.A. Honorary Editor: JAAKKO HINTIKKA, Boston University, U.S.A. Editors: DIRK VAN DALEN, University of Utrecht, The Netherlands THEO A.F. KUIPERS, University of Groningen, The Netherlands TEDDY SEIDENFELD, Carnegie Mellon University, U.S.A. PATRICK SUPPES, Stanford University, California, U.S.A. JAN WOLEN´SKI, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland VOLUME 326 Theoretical Knowledge by VYACHESLAV STEPIN Russian Academy of Science, Moscow, Russia A C.I.P. Catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN-10 ISBN-10 ISBN-13 ISBN-13 1-4020-3045-2 (HB) 1-4020-3046-0 (e-book) 978-1-4020-3045-1 (HB) 978-1-4020-3046-8 (e-book) Published by Springer, P.O. Box 17, 3300 AA Dordrecht, The Netherlands. www.springeronline.com Printed on acid-free paper English ranslation by A. G. Georgie and E. D. Rumiantseva All Rights Reserved © 2005 Springer No part of this work may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, microfilming, recording or otherwise, without written permission from the Publisher, with the exception of any material supplied specifically for the purpose of being entered and executed on a computer system, for exclusive use by the purchaser of the work. Printed in the Netherlands. CONTENTS Preface to the English Edition Preface ix xi CHAPTER ONE SCIENTIFIC COGNITION IN A SOCIOCULTURAL CONTEXT SCIENCE IN THE TECHNOGENIC CIVILIZATION CULTURE Traditional and technogenic civilizations Global crises and the problem of the scientific-technical progress value SPECIFICITY OF SCIENTIFIC COGNITION Main distinctive features of science Scientific and common cognition GENESIS OF SCIENTIFIC COGNITION Pre-science and developing science Spiritual revolution of antiquity Birth of the empirical sciences 1 1 1 7 10 10 15 20 20 24 30 CHAPTER TWO STRUCTURE OF THEORETICAL KNOWLEDGE ABSTRACT OBJECTS OF THEORY