Читать книгу Scientific research basics in the transportation process - A. Yu. Timkova - Страница 4

The main tasks of science include:

1) the discovery of the laws of motion of nature, society, thinking and knowledge;

2) collection, analysis, generalization of facts;

3) systematization of acquired knowledge;

4) explanation of the essence of phenomena and processes;

5) forecasting events, phenomena and processes;

6) establishment of directions and forms of practical use of acquired knowledge.

Being integral to the practical way of mastering the world, science as the production of knowledge is a very specific form of activity, different from both activity in the sphere of material production and other types of spiritual activity.

If in material production knowledge is used only as an ideal means, then in science its obtaining forms the main and immediate goal, regardless of the form in which this goal is embodied – whether in the form of a theoretical description, a scheme of a technological process, a summary of experimental data or a formula of what kind. – or a drug. Unlike types of activity, the result of which is often known in advance or set before the start of activity, scientific activity is rightfully called such only insofar as it gives an increment to new knowledge, i.e. its result is fundamentally unconventional. That is why science acts as a force that constantly revolutionizes other activities.

From the aesthetic (artistic) way of mastering reality, the bearer of which is art, science is distinguished by the desire for impersonal, maximally generalized objective knowledge, while in art the results of artistic knowledge are inseparable from an individually unique personal element. Often, art is characterized as «thinking in images», and science – as «thinking in concepts», with the aim of emphasizing that the former develops mainly the sensual-imaginative side of a person’s creative ability, while science develops mainly the intellectual-conceptual one. However, these differences do not mean an impenetrable line between science and art, which are united by a creatively cognitive attitude to reality. On the one hand, in the constructions of science, in particular in the construction of a theory, in a mathematical formula, in the scheme of an experiment or its idea, the aesthetic element often plays a significant role, which was specially noted by many scientists. On the other hand, works of art carry, in addition to aesthetic, and cognitive load.

The relationship between science and philosophy as specific forms of social consciousness has a complex character. Philosophy always, to some extent, performs in relation to science the functions of the methodology of cognition and the worldview interpretation of its results. Philosophy is also united with science by the desire to build knowledge in a theoretical form, to the logical evidence of one’s conclusions. This striving reaches its highest embodiment in dialectical materialism, a philosophy that consciously and openly associates itself with science, with the scientific method, making the most general laws of the development of nature, society and thought the subject of its study and, at the same time, relying on the results of science.

The development of science is characterized by a cumulative character. At each historical stage, it summarizes its past achievements in a concentrated form, and each result of science is an integral part of its general fund, not being crossed out by subsequent successes in cognition, but only being refined and processed.

The continuity of science leads to a single line of its progressive development and its irreversible character. It also ensures the functioning of science as a special kind of «social memory» of mankind, theoretically crystallizing the past experience of knowing reality and mastering its laws.

The process of development of science finds its expression not only in the increase in the amount of accumulated positive knowledge. It also affects the entire structure of science.

At each historical stage, scientific knowledge uses a certain set of cognitive forms – fundamental categories and concepts, methods, principles and explanation schemes, i.e. everything that is united by the concept of style of thinking. For example, the ancient style of thinking was characterized by observation as the main way of obtaining knowledge; the science of modern times is based on experiment and on the dominance of the analytical approach, which directs thinking to the search for the simplest, further indecomposable primary elements of the reality under study. Modern science is characterized by the desire for a holistic and multilateral coverage of the objects under study.

Each specific structure of scientific thinking, after its approval, opens the way to the extensive development of knowledge, to its spread to new spheres of reality. However, the accumulation of new material that cannot be explained on the basis of existing schemes forces us to look for new, intensive ways of developing science, which leads from time to time to scientific revolutions, i.e. a radical change in the main components of the content structure of science, to the promotion of new principles of knowledge, categories and methods of science. The alternation of extensive and revolutionary periods of development, which is characteristic both for science as a whole and for its individual branches, sooner or later also finds its expression in corresponding changes in the forms of organization of science.

The entire history of science is permeated by a complex dialectical combination of processes of differentiation and integration; the development of ever new areas of reality and the deepening of knowledge lead to the differentiation of science, to its fragmentation into more and more specialized areas of knowledge; at the same time, the need for the synthesis of knowledge constantly finds expression in the tendency towards the integration of science.

Initially, new branches of science were formed according to the objective feature – in accordance with the involvement in the process of cognition of new areas and aspects of reality. For modern science, the transition from subject to problem orientation is becoming more and more characteristic, when new areas of knowledge arise in connection with the advancement of a certain major theoretical or practical problem. Thus, a significant number of butt (boundary) sciences such as biophysics, etc. arose. Their appearance continues the process of differentiation of science in new forms, but at the same time provides a new basis for the integration of previously disparate scientific disciplines.

Important integrating functions in relation to individual branches of science are performed by philosophy, which generalizes the scientific picture of the world, as well as individual scientific disciplines such as mathematics, logic, cybernetics, arming science with a system of unified methods.

Science can be seen as a system consisting of:

– theories;

– methodology,

– research methods and techniques;

– practice of implementation of the obtained results.

If science is considered from the point of view of the interaction between the subject and the object of knowledge, then it includes the following elements: the object is what a particular science studies. For example, the object of the theory of finance is the basic laws of the emergence and development of finance, their essence, purpose and functioning; subject – a specific scientist, specialist, researcher, scientific organization; scientific activity of subjects applying certain techniques, methods for discovering the laws of reality.

The development of science proceeds from the collection of facts, their study and systematization, generalization and disclosure of individual patterns to a coherent, logically coherent system of scientific knowledge, which makes it possible to explain already known facts and predict new ones.

The path of knowledge is determined from living contemplation to abstract thinking and from the latter to practice.

The process of cognition includes the accumulation of facts. No science can exist without systematization and generalization, without logical comprehension of facts. But although facts are the necessary material for a scientist, they are not science in themselves. Facts become an integral part of scientific knowledge when they appear in a systematized, generalized form.

Facts are systematized and generalized with the help of the simplest abstractions – concepts (definitions), which are important structural elements of science. The broadest concepts are called categories. These are the most general abstractions. The categories include philosophical concepts about the form and content of phenomena, in economic theory – this is a product, value, etc.

An important form of knowledge is principles (postulates), axioms. Under the principle understand the initial provisions of any branch of science. They are the initial form of systematization of knowledge (the axioms of Euclidean geometry, Bohr’s postulate in quantum mechanics, etc.).

The most important component link in the system of scientific knowledge is scientific laws that reflect the most essential, stable, repetitive objective internal connections in nature, society and thinking. Usually laws act in the form of a certain correlation of concepts, categories.

The highest form of generalization and systematization of knowledge is theory. Theory is understood as the doctrine of generalized experience (practice), which formulates scientific principles and methods that make it possible to generalize and cognize existing processes and phenomena, analyze the effect of various factors on them and offer recommendations for using them in people’s practical activities.