These include the problem, idea, principle, law, assumptions, etc.

These include the problem, idea, principle, law, assumptions, etc.

In addition, we will consider such forms of scientific knowledge that differ, say, from judgments not formally (such as theory or model), but only functionally. These include the problem, idea, principle, law, assumption, etc. From the formal point of view, these are just ordinary judgments. However, in their functions in the movement of scientific knowledge and in the organization of knowledge, its defined forms differ significantly. Therefore, emphasis will be placed on the analysis of their role in the process of cognition, their relationship to each other and to more complex forms of scientific knowledge.

Problem and question

Scientific research is always a chain of successive problems. The problematic content of science is part of its general content as its component. However, the field of problems and the field of already completed knowledge are so closely interconnected that it is impossible to mechanically separate them from each other.

The problem is not only in the future, but also in the past. On the one hand, it states the inadequacy of the level of knowledge reached up to a certain point, the inability to explain on the basis of this knowledge new phenomena of reality. On the other hand, the problem carries a share of knowledge, the availability of which it owes its violation. Thus, the problem is a form of knowledge development, a form of transition from old knowledge to new. It arises together with the emergence of a “revolutionary situation” old knowledge no longer satisfies us, and new has not yet been fully formed.

Very often the problem is linked and even identified with the issue, emphasizing that the problem is an important, complex issue.

Obviously this is not entirely true. We can say that every problem is related to a question, but not every question is a problem. The problem finds its concentrated expression in the question, the central point of any problem is the central question. A complex problem can break down into a number of private problems and be expressed accordingly in the relevant private issues. However, the main feature of the problem is that to solve it, to answer the questions that express it, it is necessary to go beyond the “old” knowledge. As for the question in general, it is often enough to answer it “old” knowledge. This question, for all its importance and complexity for science, is not a problem. How is the problem born and developed? What is the mechanism of its violation? Obviously, the starting point of the problem is the emergence of a problematic situation in science, ie the contradiction between people’s knowledge of the needs for some practical or theoretical actions and ignorance of ways, methods of carrying out these actions.

The ultimate basis of the problem situation is practice. There is a lack of our knowledge about the object, giving “negative” results, the practice leads to new problems. At the same time we must not forget that science has relative independence, internal logic of its development, its internal contradictions, which also create problematic situations due to practice not directly, but only as a result of internal causes that arose as a result of this practice. This is the case in many fields of science: in mathematics, theoretical physics, etc.

The versatility of knowledge of the world and each phenomenon in general very often poses more new problems than it solves the old ones that appear under the problems. In this regard, the problem is a branch system that can be represented by a tree structure.

The emergence of new problems, the nomination of new aspects of the former problem is naturally the realization of one of the main requirements of dialectical logic – the comprehensiveness of the study of the object.

It is necessary to distinguish not only the problem and the question, but also the problem and the problem idea. The idea does not indicate ways to solve the problem, it is only put. The developed problem includes an indication of the way to solve it. At the level of design, as a rule, there are “premature” problems in science – that is, those for which “solutions” of both theoretical and practical nature have not yet matured. At the same time, the development of the problem is both its solution.

Although the violation of the problem and its solution – the processes are qualitatively different, but a sharp boundary between them can not be drawn. The violation of the problem is at the same time the beginning of the solution, and the more the researcher has progressed on the path of solving the problem, the more he has advanced on the path of its solution.

Incomplete knowledge about the object of study can give rise to fictitious problems (for example, “perpetual motion machine”).

The idea, the law

Ideas, especially new and fundamental ones, play an exceptional role in science. It is well known that wide horizons open up to science in cases of unexpected ideas.

The term “idea” was first introduced, most likely, by ancient Greek philosophers.

Initially, the concept had a purely ontological meaning (Democritus, Plato). The departure from a purely ontological understanding of ideas is associated with Aristotle, who initiated the understanding of ideas as forms of thinking.

Divided (philosophers of modern times) on the ideas of empiricism and rationalism. Empiricism, absolutizing experience and ignoring the specifics of thinking, considers the idea the result of any act of cognition, identifies the idea with the representation (D. Locke). Rationalism, on the contrary, tearing thinking away from experience, is unable to explain the objectivity of ideas and is forced to postulate their innateness (R. Descartes) and even seek the help of God. Dialectical-materialist epistemology does not completely reject all previous interpretations of ideas, https://123helpme.me/1984-summary/ but overcomes their one-sidedness, absorbs and preserves their positive meaning.

Basic postulates of ideas:

An idea is a form of thinking, an experienced origin of ideas; An idea is a specific form of thinking, the main function of which is to systematize and synthesize knowledge (I. Kant); An idea is the highest form of expression of objective truth, its connection with practice and its embodiment in reality (V. Hegel).

In formal logic there is a point of view according to which, the idea is expressed by means of concept and has no formally logical differences from it.

If any idea is a concept, then not every concept is an idea. A concept becomes an idea only when it serves as the backbone of some system of knowledge.

The difference between a concept and an idea is relative, as it can be carried out only within a certain system of knowledge. The same concept in different knowledge systems can play different roles. Only when on its basis there is a synthesis of knowledge, the formation of a system of knowledge, only then does the concept act as an idea. This is the function of the concept of electromagnetic field in classical electrodynamics, etc.

For modern science, the most typical form of knowledge is theory. As part of the theory, the idea acts as an input idea, a central position that unites in the theory of concepts and judgments that are part of a holistic system. This is its functional difference from the concept. As for the difference between an idea and a concept included in the theory, its essence is as follows: the idea reflects the fundamental pattern underlying the theory, while other concepts reflect certain essential aspects and aspects of this pattern.

Ideas that express too general and fundamental patterns can not only serve as a framework for theory, but also link a number of theories in the field of science, a separate area of ​​knowledge. There are ideas that underlie all science, in the foundation of knowledge in general. In addition, the idea may exist before the creation of the theory – as a prerequisite for its construction.

The idea is not only the basis of the theory, but also its boundary (different ideas correspond to different theories). But, as we know, the same qualities are inherent in the scientific principle. This suggests that the concepts of idea and principle are the same.

It is clear that every principle expresses a fundamental pattern, in connection with which extremely general and important laws are often called principles (for example, the law of conservation of energy and matter). At the same time, of course, the rank of the principle does not reduce, albeit important, but local laws that are part of the theory.

It is not necessary, obviously, to rigidly connect the idea and the principle, because scientific principles do not always act as abstract expressions of ideas. Often principles are considered as ideas, the same important scientific statements are called principles, ideas (for example, speak both about the dialectical principle of development, and about the dialectical idea of ​​development).

From the formal-logical point of view, the principle can not be distinguished from the idea and the law, it is also a judgment.

But if the function of the idea is the systematization of knowledge in the formation of scientific theory, then in a similar way and the principle plays a role, but in relation to empirical, experiential knowledge. The principle in science acts as a direct generalization of experience, facts.

Thus, the principle, being a generalization of facts, can at the same time be used in constructing a theory as the main thinking, that is, to play the role of an idea. If in the theory it is used as ordinary knowledge, then the idea of ​​the theory can not be called.

All the above shows that any principle and any idea are the laws of science, because they express the essential and necessary reflections of reality. At the same time, the law does not always act as a principle or idea. If, say, in the process of unfolding any theory, some very important statement is obtained, then it acts neither as a principle nor as an idea, but is considered as a law. Of course, this does not mean that in the future such a law can not be generalized as a result of the spread to other areas of reality, transformed into a fundamental principle. However, this also does not preclude the need to distinguish between laws, principles and ideas in the system of all available knowledge.

Theory

Theory is understood as a system of knowledge that describes and explains the set of phenomena of a certain area of ​​reality and reduces the laws discovered in this area to a single unifying principle.

The construction of the theory is based on the results obtained at the empirical level of research. In theory, these results are organized, reduced to a coherent system, united by a common idea, refined on the basis of abstractions, idealizations, principles introduced into the theory.

The newly created theory has a number of important requirements:

Scientific theory must be adequate to the object being described, which allows, to a certain extent, to replace experimental research with theoretical experiments. The theory must meet the requirement of completeness of the description of some area of ​​reality, ie all the wealth of research data in this area should be described in terms of the input basis of the theory, using its basic principles, concepts, abstraction , idealization, axioms, etc.