Scientific law. Are there any laws of history

The buildings 25.09.2019

Law represents the most common, substantial objective bonds and the ratio of M / in objects and phenomena; But not any connection acts as a law. For the Law, it is characteristic: a significant, stable, necessary, repeating, inherent bonds inherent in phenomena and mutual conditionality. The law expresses such a relationship, which, in the presence of well-known conditions, determines the nature of development. All laws are based on objective nature and can be divided into three groups: 1) Private and specific (private-scientific) laws (reflect the relationship of certain parts, parties and actants of real validity), 2) General or general laws of actions (apply either for all nature or on all social phenomena. For thinking there are such common s - how zn identity, zn contradiction, zth sufficient basis and zn excluded third, which is studied by formal and mathematical logic); 3) Universal or universal zth (refer to the z-s dialectics). Z-s dialectics act everywhere, cover all sides of the world, apply to the nature of society and thinking and have universal cognitive and methodological significance. The dialectic is developing not only the laws of being, but also the laws of knowledge, therefore D. is not only a doctrine on the laws of the development of being, but this is the theory of knowledge and logic at the same time, i.e. The doctrine of the laws in the form of thinking. Among the rigorous laws of D. It is customary to allocate three main zs: 1.z-n transition of quantitative changes to high-quality and back. 2.z-n unity and struggle of opposites. 3. Double denial.

43. Basic laws of dialectics: their essence.

Among the rigorous z-in d. It is customary to allocate three basic law: 1.And the transition of quantitative changes to high-quality and back. 2. Zacon unity and struggle opposites. 3. Double denial. D. laws reveal significant features, any developing phenomenon. They reveal: the mechanism of transition from the old to New (1), the source of development of objective peace and human thinking (2), its focus (peace) trends and relationships, development forms and development result (3). For the first time these laws formulated Hegel. The 1st law (in the first part) of his science of logic to the doctrine of being. 2nd law. Entity doctrine. The 3rd law is used when building the entire philosophical SIS-we. 1st law There is a relationship of such universal concepts as: Properties (Har-Ka Pree, Conditions His Difference or Communication with DR objects; SV-V-in relatively), quality (SV-B SBU-B, a decree on what is given a thing that is) , quantity (SV-B SOCOP, decree of the size of things and magnitude), measure (framework, in the Cat and Kach Kach Khar-ki is in the coord of harmony) and the category of jump (the form of transition from 1 quality comprehension in DR; races there are explosions ( Revolution) and slow (evolution)). Dialectics Kach and Number of COST is that not one roll change will not occur until the incidence of changes are accumulated. 2nd law: The concept of identity, category of difference, category of opposites, unity, struggle, contradictions. The splitting of the united and knowledge of the contradictory parts of it is the essence and core of dialectics. The unity is relatively, the struggle of absolute, the onset is the concept of applied a dialectical contradiction, which includes trends in the development of mutually complementary and denying each other. 3rd law:denial, dialectic denial, double denial, progress, cyclical, progress, regression. The main elements of the law: thesis, antithesis, synthesis.

Many people believe that if scientists have found evidence that supports the hypothesis, it "pumps out" to the theory, and if the theory turns out true, it becomes the law. However, it does not work. Facts, theories, hypotheses and laws are different parts of the scientific method. They can develop, but one to another - no. Let's talk about the whole four and try to understand what place in this quartet occupies a scientific law.

What is a scientific law?

If in general, the scientific law is a description of the observed phenomenon. He does not explain why this phenomenon exists and what causes it. Explanation is already a scientific theory, and everyone who thinks that the theory of logic should go into the law, are deeply mistaken.

"In science, laws are a start point," says the Associate Professor of Biology and Biogengery from the Rose-Halman Institute of Rose-Halman Peter Coppinger. - Hence, scientists can ask their as well as why. "

Scientific law, hypothesis, theory and fact

Relying on the data of the University of California, to begin with the delimitation of "four riders" of the scientific method.

  • Fact. Applications that are possible only after direct observation. For example, I have 20 trees outside the window. Just and provable.
  • Hypothesis. This is not just a guessed or assumption, but much more. The fact is that the hypothesis is based on previous experience, scientific knowledge, observations and logic. The hypothesis is, rather, the explanation of the phenomenon, not a guess. "The dining salt will dissolve in water faster than the stone" - not yet a hypothesis. "The size of the substance area affects the dissolution rate: a large area leads to the acceleration of the dissolution process" - this is already closer to the hypothesis, because There is an explanation why this happens. After that, the hypothesis can be checked by tugging the same, for example, with sugar. If sugar powder is dissolved faster than sugar sand - the hypothesis will receive confirmation. Of course, confirmation must be one.
  • Theory. This is an explanation of a wide range of phenomena. Usually they are briefs (do not include a large list of exceptions and special rules) are consistent, systematically and can be used to predict a number of different situations. The theory with a big hunt is accepted by the scientific community, if it is confirmed by different ways of evidence. Of course, even the most monumental theories can be shaken with new evidence.
  • Law. The scientific law, in contrast to the usual, is not indisputable and may have exceptions. Like other types of scientific knowledge, it can be refuted. This is usually a generalization of information, a description in a compact format that helps us build expectations from a particular situation. In some cases, the law can be similar to the fact, but there is an uncomplicated trait. "5 trees grows outside the window" - the fact, "the apple falls from the tree down, and not up" - the law. The difference is that the law is fair for specific circumstances, it is a description of the interaction of two or more things. Due to the strength of attraction, the apple falls down. We transfer the situation in the vacuum and the law is no longer applicable. And the trees rose outside the window, and grow. Or do not grow, which is also nothing more than a fact.

A variety of scientific laws

Some laws establish links between observed phenomena. For example, the equation of the state of the ideal gas describes how pressure, the molar volume and the absolute temperature of the ideal gas depends on each other. Other laws deal with phenomena that cannot be directly observed. Thus, the second law of thermodynamics is associated with the concept of entropy, which cannot be observed, just as the volume or pressure. There are laws that offer a more mechanistic explanation of one or another phenomenon. For example, the first law of Mendel - "When crossing two homozygous organisms belonging to different clean lines and different from each other in one pair of alternative manifestations of a sign, all the first generation of hybrids will be uniform and will carry a manifestation of a sign of one of the parents." It clearly explains and unob definite principles for the transfer of hereditary signs.

In the examples of the difference in theory and law

Although scientific laws and scientific theories are based on an extensive database of the empirical data adopted in the scientific community, and contribute to its unification, this is not the same thing.

"The law is a description (often mathematical) of natural phenomena. For example, the law of the World Newton's World or the Law of Independent Inheritance Mendel. They describe the phenomenon, but do not explain why this happens, "says Coppinger.

The law of global gravity was opened in the XVII century. He mathematically explains how two bodies in the universe interact with each other. However, the Newtonian law does not explain what gravity or how it works. Three centuries later, Albert Einstein coped with this, developing the theory of relativity. Only after that, scientists really began to understand what this gravity is so and how she works after all.

Another example of the difference between the law and theory will consider on the third law of Gregor Mendel: "When crossing two individuals that differ from each other on two (or more) couples of alternative features, genes and the corresponding signs are inherited independently of each other and are combined in all possible combinations. " "Mendel did not know anything about DNA or chromosomes. The biochemical explanation of his law appeared a hundred years later with their discovery. The chromosomal theory of heredity is used to explain this law to this day (and this is more than 100 years old - ed.), "Says Coppinger.

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Law as an element of scientific knowledge

1. The concept of scientific law: the laws of nature and the laws of science

Scientific knowledge acts as a difficultly organized system, which unites all sorts of forms of organization of scientific information: scientific concepts and scientific facts, laws, objectives, principles, concepts, problems, hypothesis, scientific programs, etc.

Scientific knowledge is a continuous process, i.e. A unified developing system of a relatively complex structure that formulates the unity of stable relationships between the elements of this system. The structure of scientific knowledge can be depicted in a variety of cuts and consequently, in the aggregate of its specific elements.

The central link of scientific knowledge is the theory. In the modern methodology of science, the following basic elements of the theory are distinguished.

1. The initial principles are fundamental concepts, principles, laws, equations, axioms, etc.

2. Idealized objects - abstract models of essential properties and bonds studied objects (for example, "absolute black body", "perfect gas", etc.).

3. The logic of the theory is a set of established rules and methods of evidence aimed at clarifying the structure and change in knowledge.

4. Philosophical installations and value factors.

5. A combination of laws and statements derived as a consequence of the main provisions of this theory in accordance with the specific principles.

Scientific law is a form of organizing scientific knowledge, which consists in the formulation of general statements about the properties and relationships of the subject area under study. Scientific laws are an internal, substantial and sustainable connection of phenomena, which causes their ordered change.

The concept of scientific law began to be formed in the XVI-XVII centuries. During the creation of science in the current sense of the word. For a long time it was believed that this concept is universally and applies to all areas of knowledge: each science is designed to determine the laws and based on them to outlines and explain the studied phenomena. On the laws of history were spoken, in particular, O. Kont, K. Marx, J.S. Mill, Spencer. At the end of the IXX century, V. Windelband and Rickert put forward the idea that, along with generalizing sciences, with their task, the opening of scientific law, there are individualizing sciences that do not formulate any of their laws, but representing the objects under study in their uniqueness and uniqueness.

The main features of scientific laws are:

Necessity,

Universality

Repeatability

Invariance.

In scientific knowledge, the law is presented as an expression of the necessary and general relationship between the noted phenomena, for example, between charged particles of any nature (the law of the coulon) or by any bodies with a mass (law of gravity) in physics. In the various currents of modern philosophy of science, the concept of the law is compared with the concepts (categories) of the essence, forms, goals, relations, structures. As shown by the discussions in the philosophy of the science of the XX century, included in the definition of the law of the properties of the need and generality (in the limit - generality), as well as the ratio of the classes of "logical" and "physical" laws, the objectivity of the latter to this day relate to the most relevant and difficult issues Research

The law of nature is a certain unconditional (often mathematically pronounced) the law of a natural phenomenon, which is always peaked in familiar conditions and everywhere with the same need. Such an idea of \u200b\u200bthe law of nature was developed in the XVII-XVIII centuries. As a result of the progress of the exact sciences at the stage of development of classical science.

The versatility of the law indicates that it applies to all objects of its area, acts at any time and at any point of space. The need for the property of the scientific law is due not to the structure of thinking, but by the organization of the real world, although it also depends on the hierarchy of the statements in scientific theory.

In the life of a scientific law, which exciting an extensive circle of phenomena, one can distinguish three characteristic stages:

1) the era of becoming when the law functions as a hypothetical descriptive approval and is tested above all empirically;

2) the era of maturity, when the law is fully confirmed empirically, acquired its systemic support and functions not only as an empirical generalization, but also as a rule of evaluation of other, less reliable statements of the theory;

3) the era of old age when he is already in the core of the theory, is used primarily as a rule of evaluation of its other statements and can be left only with the theory itself; The inspection of such a law concerns primarily its effectiveness within the framework of the theory, although it remains for it, and the empirical support for it remains during its formation.

In the second and third stages of its being, the scientific law is a descriptive-evaluation statement and is checked as all such statements. For example, the second law of Newton's movement for a long time was the actual truth.

We needed many centuries of persistent empirical and theoretical studies to give it a strict wording. Now the scientific law of nature acts as part of Newton's classical mechanics as an analytically true statement that cannot be refuted by any observations.

The interpretation of the phenomena of the environment and social life of us is one of the most important tasks of natural science and social sciences. Long before the emergence of science, people tried to explain the world around them anyway, as well as their own mental features and experiences. However, such explanations, as a rule, were unsatisfactory, since they were often based or on an animation of the forces of nature, or on faith in supernatural forces, God, fate, etc. Therefore, they could, at best, could satisfy the psychological need of a person in search of any Or a response to mutual questions, but did not give the true idea of \u200b\u200bthe world at all.

True explanations that should be called truly scientific, armed together with the appearance of science itself. And this is quite understandable, since scientific explanations are based on precisely formulated laws, concepts and theories that are absent in everyday knowledge. Therefore, the adequacy and depth of explaining the phenomena and events around us are largely determined by the degree of penetration of science into objective patterns that control these phenomena and events. In turn, the laws themselves may be truly understood only within the framework of the relevant scientific theory, although they serve the conceptual core around which the theory is being built.

Of course, you should not deny the possibilities and usefulness of explaining some everyday phenomena based on the empirical generalization of the observed facts.

Such explanations are also calculated to the number of real, but they are limited only in ordinary, spontaneous-empirical knowledge, in reasoning based on the so-called common sense. In the science, not only simple generalizations, but empirical laws are trying to explain with the help of committed theoretical laws. Although real explanations can be very diverse in their depth or strength, however they must all meet two major requirements.

First, all true interpretation should be based with such a calculation so that its arguments, argumentation and specific characteristics have directly related to those subjects, phenomena and events that they explain. The execution of this query represents the desired premium in order to consider the explanation adequate, but one thing is not enough for loyalty to interpretation.

Secondly, any inspection should allow fundamentability. This request has an extremely important meaning in natural science and experienced sciences, as it makes it possible to assort truly scientific explanations from any kind of purely speculative and natural philosophical constructions, also claiming to explain real phenomena. The principal testability of the explanation does not exclude the application as arguments of such theoretical principles, postulates and laws that cannot be checked directly empirically.

It is only necessary that the clarification delivered the potential to derive individual results that allow an experienced test.

Based on the knowledge of the law, a valid foresight of the process flow is likely. "To know the law", this means to disclose one or another side of the essence of the subject under study, phenomena. The knowledge of the laws of the organization is the main task of the organization's theory. With regard to the organization, the law is the necessary, significant and permanent connection between the elements of the internal and external environment, which causes their ordered change.

The concept of the law is close to the concept of regularity, which can be considered as some "expansion of the law" or "a set of interrelated laws providing a stable trend or aspiration of the system changes."

Laws differ in terms of the degree of community and sphere. Universal laws detect the relationship between the most versatile properties and phenomena of nature, society and human thinking.

Scientific law - the formulation of objective communication of phenomena and is called scientific because this objective relationship is becoming poisonless by science and can be used in the interests of the development of society.

The scientific law formulates a permanent, repeating and necessary link between phenomena and, therefore, it is not about a simple coincidence of two rows of phenomena, not about randomly discovered relations, but about such causal interdependence, when one group of phenomena inevitably generates another, being their cause.

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And at any point of space. The necessity inherent in AD is not logical, but ontological. It is determined not by the structure of thinking, but by the device of the real world, although it also depends on the hierarchy of the statements included in the scientific theory. N.Z. They are, for example, approval: "If the conductor flows the current, the magnetic" is formed around the conductor, "" chemical oxygen with hydrogen gives water "," if there is no developed civil society in the country, there is no sustainable democracy in it. " The first of these laws belongs to physics, the second to chemistry, the third to sociology.
N.Z. divided into dynamic and statistical. The first, also referred to the regularities of rigid determination, fix strictly unambiguous communications and dependencies; In the formulation of the second, the methods of probability theory play a decisive role.
Neospestivism made attempts to find formal logical criteria for the actions of N.Z. From the randomly true general statements (such, for example, as "all swans in this zoo are white"), but these attempts ended in nothing. Nomic (expressing N.Z.) with logical TZR. It does not differ from any other general conditional statement.
For the concept of AD, which plays a key role in the methodology of such sciences, such as chemistry, economic, sociology, etc., characterized simultaneously and inaccuracy. Ambiguity stems from the confusion the meaning of the concept of ontological necessity; Inaccuracy is primarily due to the fact that general statements included in scientific theory can change its structure during the development of the theory. Thus, the known chemical multiple relationship was originally a simple empirical hypothesis, which also had a random and dubious. After the works of the English Chemist V. Dalton Chemistry was radically rebuilt. The situation on multiple relationships was included in the chemical composition, and it became impossible to check or refute experimentally. Chemical atoms can be combined only in relation to one to one or in some integer proportion - now it is the principle of modern chemical theory. In the process of transforming the assumption to the tautology, the provision on multiple relationships at some stage of its existence has become the law of chemistry, and then stopped to be it again. The fact that scientific assertion can not only AD, but also stop being it would be impossible if the ontological depended only on the objects under study and did not depend on the internal structure describing their theory, from changing its allegations of the hierarchy.
N.Z., related to wide areas of phenomena, have a distinctly expressed dual, descriptive-prescriptive ( cm. Descriptive-valued statements). They describe and explain some combination of facts. As descriptions, they must correspond to empirical data and empirical generalizations. However, such N.Z. There are also evaluation standards as other statements of the theory and the facts themselves. If the role of the value component in N.Z. It is exaggerated, they become only a means to streamline observation results and their compliance of reality (their truth) turns out to be incorrect. So, N. Hanson compares the most common N.Z. With the recipes of the chef: "Recipes and theories themselves cannot be neither true nor false. But with the help of theory, I can say more about what I am watching. If the description is absoluteized, N.Z. Ontologizes and appear as direct, unambiguous and uniquely displaying the fundamental characteristics of being.
In the life of AD, covering a wide circle of phenomena, it is possible to allocate, so on, three typical stages:
1) the period of formation, when functions as a hypothetical descriptive approval and is checked first of all empirically;
2) the period of maturity, when the law is sufficiently confirmed empirically, received its systemic support and functions not only as an empirical, but also as a rule of assessment of other, less reliable statements of theory;
3) the period of old age, when it is already included in the core of the theory, is used primarily as a rule of assessing its other statements and can be discarded only with the theory itself; The inspection of such a law concerns primarily its effectiveness within the framework of the theory, although it remains for it, and the empirical support for it remains during its formation.
In the second and third stages of its existence of N.Z. It is a descriptive-evaluation statement and is checked as all such statements. For example, the second law of Newton's movement for a long time was the actual truth. There were centuries of persistent empirical and theoretical studies in order to give it a strict wording. Now this law acts as part of Newton's classical mechanics as an analytically true statement that cannot be refuted by any observations.
In the so-called Empirical laws, or the laws of small community, similar to the law of Ohm or the law of Gay-Loussak, the estimated component is negligible. The evolution of theories, including such laws, does not change the places of the latter in the aerarchy of theory of theory; The new theories coming to the place of the old one, quite dismissed such laws in their own.
One of the main functions of the N.Z. -, or answer to the question: "Why is the study occurred?" The explanation is usually a deduction of the explanatory phenomenon from some N.Z. and approval of initial conditions. This kind of explanation is made to call "nomologic", or "explanation through the covering law". An explanation can rely not only at AD, but also at a random general situation, as well as for the approval of the causal communication. Explanation through N.Z. It also has, however, a well-known advantage of other types of explanation: gives an explanable personality necessary.
The concept of N.Z. The beginning is to develop in 16-17 centuries. During the formation of science in the current sense of the word. For a long time it was believed that the concept is universally and applies to all areas of knowledge: each science is designed to establish laws and based on them to describe and explain the studied phenomena. On the laws of history were spoken, in particular, O. Kont, K. Marx, J.S. Mill, Spencer.
IN . 19th century V. Windelband and Rickert nominated the idea that, along with generalizing sciences, with their task, the discovery of the N.N., there are individualizing sciences that do not formulate any own laws, but representing the objects under study in their uniqueness and uniqueness ( cm. Nomomethetic science), ( cm. Idiographic science). Do not go to the opening of N.Z. Sciences involved in the "man in history", or, opposed to sciences. Failures in search of laws of history and the very idea of \u200b\u200bsuch laws, started by Windelband and Rickert and then continued by M. Weber, K. Popper, etc., led to gray. 20 V. To the significant weakening of the position of those who tied the concept of science with the concept of N.Z. At the same time, it became clear that between the sciences aimed at the opening of the N.E., and the sciences with others, the main, does not coincide, contrary to the opinion of Windelband and Rickert, with the border between the sciences of nature (nometic sciences) and cultural sciences ( idiographic sciences).
"Science exists only there," writes the laureate of the Nobel Prize in the economy of M. Alla, - where are present that can be studied and predicted. Such is the heavenly mechanics. But this is the situation of most social phenomena, and in particular economic phenomena. Their scientific really allows you to show the same striking patterns as those that are found in physics. That is why economic is science and obeys the same principles and the same methods as physical sciences. " This kind is still common to representatives of specific scientific disciplines. However, that science, not establishing its own AD, is impossible, does not withstand methodological criticism. Economic science really formulates specific patterns, but neither nor history nor linguistics, nor the more regulatory sciences, similar to ethics and aesthetics, are not established by N.Z. These sciences are not given a nomic, and the causal explanation to the studied phenomena or nominate an understanding operation that is not descriptive, but on evaluation approval, instead of the operation of explaining. Formulate N.Z. those sciences (natural and social), which are used as their coordinate system comparative; Do not install N.Z. Science (humanitarian and natural), at the base of which lies absolute categories ( cm. Absolute), ( cm. Historicism), ( cm. Classification of sciences), ( cm. SCIENCE ).

Philosophy: Encyclopedic Dictionary. - M.: Gardariki. Edited by A.A. Ivin. 2004 .


Watch what is "Scientific Law" in other dictionaries:

    Scientific law - The form of the organization of scientific knowledge, consisting in the formulation of universal assertions on the properties and relations of the subject area under study. The logical form of scientific laws is the following: Vx (a (x) \u003d in (x)), where V quantifier of universality ("all"), x ... ... Philosophy of Science: Dictionary of Basic Terms

    Scientific law - See law, scientific ...

    Scientific law - (Scientific LAW) The formulation of a homogeneous connection between empirical phenomena, according to which the presence of somewhere and ever the conditions of the specified species A creates certain conditions in V. The law universal conditional statement in the form for anyone ... Large Sociological Dictionary

    Scientific law - Theory, which has gained reliable confirmation, that is, the judgment is not changeable in the involvement of new facts, which has a high degree of predictability (probability) ... Physical anthropology. Illustrated Dictionary.

    Required, significant, sustainable, repeated relationship between phenomena. 3. Expresses the relationship between objects, components of this object, between the properties of things, as well as between the properties inside the item. There are 3. ... ... Philosophical Encyclopedia

    Starist law - Scientific law when he is expressed in terms of the likelihood that certain connections will exist, is a statistical law - provided that the probability is less than 1.0. In some respects, such laws are a step ... ... Explanatory dictionary of psychology

    LAW - - 1. Required, substantial, sustainable, repeated relationship between phenomena in nature and society. The concept of "Z." It is akin to the concept of "essence." Z. expresses common relationships, connections inherent in all phenomena of this kind, class. Cognition Z. ... ... Encyclopedic Dictionary of Psychology and Pedagogy

Next, the idea is justified that neither the science history, social philosophy do not establish any laws of the development of society. In this regard, these disciplines do not differ from other sciences on the formation, speaking of unique, non-repetitive events and processes.

The idea that the story is intended to formulate special laws that are subject to the development of society is erroneous and does not agree with modern methodological ideas about historical knowledge.

Partially this thought is associated with ascending to a new time and still remaining quite common conviction that the task of each science is to open scientific laws relating to the object being studied. If some discipline does not establish any laws, it is not a scientific, but parapatic or even a pseudo-scientific research.

The incorrect idea of \u200b\u200bthe history of both the science, revealing the laws of the development of society, is also largely based on the vague ideas about the scientific law and on the usual confusion between the laws of science and social trends, in many ways reminiscent of scientific laws, according to those who are not.

The scientific law is a universal, ontologically necessary statement on the connection of phenomena.

General form of scientific law:

"For any object from this subject area, it is true that if it has a property BUT, then he also has a property with ontological necessity IN".

The universality of the law means that it applies to all objects of its field, acts at any time and at any point of space. The need to inherent with scientific law is not logical, but ontological. It is determined not by the structural of thinking, but the device of the real world itself, although it also depends on the assertion hierarchy included in the scientific theory.

Scientific laws are, for example, approval: "If the conductor flows the current, the magnetic field is formed around the conductor," the chemical reaction of oxygen with hydrogen gives water "," if there is no developed, sustainable civil society in the country, there is no sustainable democracy "and T.P. The first of these laws belongs to physics, the second to chemistry, the third to sociology.

Scientific laws are divided into dynamic and statistical. The first, referred to also by laws tough determination fixed strictly designated links and dependencies; In the formulation of the second, the methods of probability theory play a decisive role.

Nezozitism made an attempt to find formal-logical criteria for distinguishing scientific laws and randomly true general statements (such, for example, as "all swans in this zoo whites"), but these attempts ended with nothing. The nomic (expressing scientific law) statement, from a logical point of view, is no different from any other general conditional statement.

For the concept of scientific law, playing a key role in the methodology of such sciences, such as physics, chemistry, economic science, sociology, etc., simultaneously inexplicity and inaccuracy are characteristic. Ambiguity stems from the confusion the meaning of the concept of ontological necessity; Inaccuracy is primarily due to the fact that general statements included in scientific theory can change their place in its structure during the development of the theory.

Thus, the well-known chemical law of multiple relations was originally a simple empirical hypothesis that had also random and dubious confirmation. After the works of the English chemist V. Dalton, the chemistry was radically rebuilt. The situation on multiple relationship was made by an integral part of the determination of the chemical composition, and it became impossible to check or refute experimentally. Chemical atoms can be combined only in relation to one to one or in some integer proportion - now it is the constitutive principle of modern chemical theory. In the process of turning the assumption in the tautology, the provision of multiple relationships at some stage of its existence was made by the law of chemistry, and then no longer ceased to be.

The fact that general scientific statement can not only become a scientific law, but also to stop being it would be impossible if the ontological necessity depended only on the objects under study and did not depend on the internal structure of the theory describing them, from the time of the hierarchy of its statements.

Scientific laws related to extensive areas of phenomena have a distinctly expressed dual, descriptive-compripient character. They describe and explain some combination of facts. As descriptions, they must correspond to empirical data and empirical generalizations. At the same time, such scientific laws are also the standards for evaluating both other statements of the theory and the facts themselves. If the role of the value component in scientific laws is exaggerated, they become only a means to streamline the results of the observation and the question of their registration of reality (their truth) is incorrect.

There are thus three typical stages in the life of a wide scientific law:

  • 1) the period of its formation, when it functions as a hypothetical descriptive statement and is checked first of all empirically;
  • 2) the period of maturity of the law, when it is sufficiently confirmed empirically, received its systemic support and operates not only as an empirical generalization, but also as a rule of assessment of other, less reliable, theory statements;
  • 3) the period of old-age law, when he is already in the core of the theory, is primarily used, as a rule, to evaluate its other statements and can be discarded only with the theory itself; The inspection of such a law concerns primarily its effectiveness within the framework of the theory, although it remains for it, and the empirical support for it remains during its formation.

In the second and third stages of its existence, the scientific law is a dual, descriptive-evaluation statement and is checked as all the allegations of this kind. It is precisely about typical stages of the evolution of the law, and not that each law passes all three stages.

Here you can draw an analogy with the stages of human life: young, maturity and old age. The allocation of these stages does not mean that each person's biography includes them all: some people wait to deep old age, others die completely young.

Similarly, scientific laws representing simple empirical generalizations ("all metals of electrically conductive", "all multicellular living organisms are mortal", etc.), never enter, as it seems, during the old age. This explains their amazing - in comparison with other scientific laws - sustainability: when the theory in which they came into, they are usually becoming elements of the new one who came to replacing the theory.

As an example of the Law, which has passed in its evolution, all three stages can be given to the second law of Newton's mechanics. For a long time, this law was the actual truth. There were centuries of persistent empirical and theoretical studies in order to give it a strict wording. Now this law acts as part of Newton's theory as an analytically true statement that cannot be refuted by any observations.

Another example of the law that has passed all three typical evolution phases, a previously mentioned chemical law of multiple relations, which has become an analytical statement after Dalton's works.

In the second and third stages of its existence, scientific law is a descriptive-assessment statement and is checked as all such statements.

In the so-called empirical laws or the laws of a small community, such as the law of Ohm or the law of Gay-Loussak, the estimated component is negligible. The evolution of theories, including such laws, does not change the places of the latter in the aerarchy of theory of theory; The new theories coming to the place of the old one, fairly occasionally include such laws into their empirical basis.

General principles of scientific theories and scientific laws have a clearly pronounced descriptive character. Laws describe and explain certain aggregates of facts, and in this capacity the laws must comply with empirical data. On the other hand, more or less well-established scientific principles and laws always advocate the evaluation standards as other statements of the scientific theory and the facts themselves. The scientific law says not only about what is, but also that should be if the course of real events corresponds to the describing theory.

If the role of the value component in the general principles of scientific theory is exaggerated, they become only a means to streamline observation results and the question of the correspondence of these principles of reality is incorrect.

So, N. Hanson compares general theoretical judgments with the recipes of the chef. As a recipe only prescribes that it is necessary to do with existing products and the theoretical judgment should be considered, rather, as an indication that makes it possible to carry out certain operations with some class of observation objects. "Recipes and theories," Hanson concludes, - they themselves cannot be neither true nor false. But with the help of theory, I can say something more about what I am watching. "

Not only the general principles are valuely loaded, but also in one way or another all the laws of scientific theories. Scientific fact and scientific theory is impossible to strictly separate from each other. The facts are interpreted in terms of theory, their content is determined not only by the fact that they are directly established by them, but also how much they occupy in the theoretical system. Theoretical load of the language of observation and the facts expressed in it means that the facts are not always valid neutral.

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