The History of the Scientific Method: The Main Stages

   Aim. To reveal the content of the main stages of the evolution of the ideas of philosophers and scientists about the scientific method, its essence and possibilities.

   Methodology. Based on the material of the history of science and philosophy, the main stages of the development of ideas about the content of the scientific method, its nature, essence and cognitive capabilities are reconstructed. It is shown that these changes were caused both by the content of scientific knowledge in different eras and by the social and cultural context.

   Results. The position is substantiated that in the history of science and philosophy there have never been unambiguous ideas among scientists and philosophers about the scientific method, its nature, essence and cognitive capabilities. This took place at all stages of the history of science and philosophy, including our time. The basis of such ambiguity is a qualitatively different structure of scientific knowledge (different fields of science, levels and types of scientific knowledge), a change in the subject content of scientific knowledge, the level of philosophical reflection of scientific knowledge. It is shown that in the history of the methodology of science, from the very beginning, two competing research programs of the scientific method existed: monistic and pluralistic. Supporters of the monistic program proceeded from the idea of the existence of a single, universal scientific method, invariant with respect to various subjects of scientific knowledge; supporters of the pluralistic paradigm emphasized the dependence of the content of the scientific method from the content of the research subject and pointed to the facts of the use of different cognition methods in real science of any epoch. The analysis of the evolution of ideas about the scientific method shows that in the long-term historical competition between the monistic and pluralistic paradigms of the methodology of science, the victory turned out to be on the side of the latter. Methodological pluralism in science turned out to be a natural consequence of the subject and structural diversity of scientific knowledge.

   Research implications. It is proved that methodological pluralism in science is a natural and natural consequence of the subject and structural diversity of scientific knowledge, that methodological truth in science is as concrete as all other scientific knowledge. Awareness of this circumstance should become a necessary element of the methodological culture of a modern scientist.

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