Means of scientific research (means of cognition). In the course of the development of science, means of cognition are developed and improved: material, mathematical, logical, linguistic. In addition, recently it is obviously necessary to add information media to them as a special class. All means of cognition are specially created means. In this sense, material, informational, mathematical, logical, linguistic means of cognition have a common property: they are designed, created, developed, justified for certain cognitive purposes.
Material means pozna Scientific research is, first of all, instruments for scientific research. In the history of the emergence material resources knowledge is associated with the formation of empirical research methods - observation, measurement, experiment.
These means are directly aimed at the objects being studied; they play a major role in the empirical testing of hypotheses and other results of scientific research, in the discovery of new objects and facts. The use of material means of knowledge in science in general - microscope, telescope, synchrophasotron, Earth satellites, etc. - has a profound influence on the formation of the conceptual apparatus of sciences, on the methods of describing the subjects being studied, on the methods of reasoning and ideas, on the generalizations, idealizations and arguments used.
Information means of cognition. The massive introduction of computer technology, information technology, and telecommunications radically transforms research activities in many branches of science, making them tools of scientific knowledge. In particular, in recent decades, computer technology has been widely used to automate experiments in physics, biology, technical sciences etc., which makes it possible to simplify research procedures hundreds and thousands of times and reduce data processing time. In addition, information tools can significantly simplify the processing of statistical data in almost all branches of science. And the use of satellite navigation systems greatly increases the accuracy of measurements in geodesy, cartography, etc.
Mathematical means of cognition. The development of mathematical means of cognition has an increasing influence on the development of modern science; they also penetrate into the humanities and social sciences. Mathematics, being the science of quantitative relations and spatial forms, abstracted from their specific content, has developed and applied specific means of abstracting form from content and formulated rules for considering form as an independent object in the form of numbers, sets, etc., which simplifies, facilitates and accelerates the process of cognition, allows you to more deeply identify the connection between objects from which the form is abstracted, isolate the starting points, and ensure the accuracy and rigor of judgments. Mathematical tools make it possible to consider not only directly abstracted quantitative relations and spatial forms, but also logically possible ones, that is, those that are derived according to logical rules from previously known relations and forms. Under the influence of mathematical means of cognition, the theoretical apparatus of descriptive sciences undergoes significant changes. Mathematical tools make it possible to systematize empirical data, identify and formulate quantitative dependencies and patterns. Mathematical tools are also used as special forms of idealization and analogy (mathematical modeling).
Logical means of cognition. In any research, a scientist has to solve logical problems:
What logical requirements must be satisfied by reasoning that allows one to make objectively true conclusions; how to control the nature of these reasonings?
What logical requirements must the description of empirically observed characteristics satisfy?
How to logically analyze the initial systems of scientific knowledge, how to coordinate some knowledge systems with other knowledge systems (for example, in sociology and closely related psychology)?
How to build a scientific theory that allows you to give scientific explanations, predictions, etc.?
The use of logical means in the process of constructing reasoning and evidence allows the researcher to separate controlled arguments from intuitively or uncritically accepted ones, false ones from true ones, confusion from contradictions.
Language means of cognition. An important linguistic means of cognition are, among other things, the rules for constructing definitions of concepts. In any scientific research, a scientist has to clarify the introduced concepts, symbols and signs, and use new concepts and signs. Definitions are always associated with language as a means of cognition and expression of knowledge. The rules for using languages, both natural and artificial, with the help of which the researcher builds his reasoning and evidence, formulates hypotheses, draws conclusions, etc., are the starting point of cognitive actions. Knowing them has a great influence on the effectiveness of use linguistic means knowledge in scientific research.
Methods of scientific research. A significant, sometimes decisive role in the construction of any scientific work the research methods used play a role. Research methods are divided into empirical (empirical - literally - perceived through the senses) and theoretical.
Theoretical methods:
Methods - cognitive actions: identifying and resolving contradictions, posing a problem, constructing a hypothesis, etc.;
Methods-operations: analysis, synthesis, comparison, abstraction and specification, etc.
Empirical methods:
Methods - cognitive actions: examination, monitoring, experiment, etc.;
Methods-operations: observation, measurement, survey, testing, etc.
Theoretical methods- operations are defined (considered) by basic mental operations, which are: analysis and synthesis, comparison, abstraction and concretization, generalization, formalization, induction and deduction, idealization, analogy, modeling, thought experiment.
Analysis- this is the decomposition of the whole under study into parts, the identification of individual signs and qualities of a phenomenon, process or relationships of phenomena, processes. Analysis procedures are an organic component of any scientific research and usually form its first phase, when the researcher moves from an undifferentiated description of the object under study to the identification of its structure, composition, its properties and characteristics. The same phenomenon, process can be analyzed in many aspects. A comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon allows us to examine it in more depth.
Synthesis- connection of various elements, sides of an object into a single whole (system). Synthesis is not a simple summation, but a semantic connection. If you simply connect phenomena, no system of connections will arise between them; only a chaotic accumulation of individual facts will form. Synthesis is the opposite of analysis, with which it is inextricably linked. Synthesis as a cognitive operation appears in various functions of theoretical research. Any process of concept formation is based on the unity of the processes of analysis and synthesis. Empirical data obtained in a particular study are synthesized during their theoretical generalization. In theoretical scientific knowledge, synthesis acts as a function of the interconnection of theories related to one subject area, as well as as a function of combining competing theories (for example, the synthesis of corpuscular and wave concepts in physics). Synthesis also plays a significant role in empirical research.
Analysis and synthesis are closely related. If the researcher has a more developed ability to analyze, there may be a danger that he will not be able to find a place for details in the phenomenon as a whole. The relative predominance of synthesis leads to superficiality, to the fact that details essential for the study will not be noticed, which may have great importance to understand the phenomenon as a whole.
Comparison is a cognitive operation underlying judgments about the similarity or difference of objects. With the help of comparison, the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of objects are identified, their classification, ordering and evaluation are carried out. Comparison is comparing one thing to another. In this case, an important role is played by the grounds, or signs of comparison, which determine possible relationship between objects. Comparison makes sense only in a set of homogeneous objects that form a class. Comparison of objects in a particular class is carried out according to principles that are essential for this consideration. Moreover, objects that are comparable on one basis may not be comparable on other characteristics. The more accurately the characteristics are assessed, the more thoroughly the comparison of phenomena is possible. An integral part of comparison is always analysis, since for any comparison in phenomena it is necessary to isolate the corresponding characteristics of comparison. Since comparison is the establishment of certain relationships between phenomena, then, naturally, synthesis is also used during the comparison.
Abstraction- one of the main mental operations that allows you to mentally isolate and turn into an independent object of consideration individual aspects, properties or states of an object in its pure form. Abstraction underlies the processes of generalization and concept formation. Abstraction consists in isolating such properties of an object that do not exist by themselves and independently of it. Such isolation is possible only in the mental plane - in abstraction. Thus, the geometric figure of a body in itself does not really exist and cannot be separated from the body. But thanks to abstraction, it is mentally isolated, fixed, for example, with the help of a drawing, and independently considered in its special properties. One of the main functions of abstraction is to highlight general properties a certain set of objects and in fixing these properties, for example, through concepts.
Specification- a process opposite to abstraction, that is, finding the holistic, interconnected, multilateral and complex. The researcher initially forms various abstractions, and then, on their basis, through concretization, reproduces this integrity (mental concrete), but at a qualitatively different level of knowledge of the concrete. Therefore, dialectics distinguishes two processes of ascent in the process of cognition in the coordinates “abstraction - concretization”: the ascent from the concrete to the abstract and then the process of ascent from the abstract to the new concrete (G. Gegel). The dialectics of theoretical thinking consists in the unity of abstraction, the creation of various abstractions and concretization, movement towards the concrete and its reproduction.
Generalization- one of the main cognitive mental operations, consisting of isolating and fixing relatively stable, invariant properties of objects and their relationships. Generalization allows you to display the properties and relationships of objects regardless of the particular and random conditions of their observation. Comparing objects of a certain group from a certain point of view, a person finds, identifies and denotes by word their identical, common properties, which can become the content of the concept of this group, class of objects. Separating general properties from private ones and denoting them with a word makes it possible to cover the entire variety of objects in an abbreviated, condensed form, reduce them into certain classes, and then, through abstractions, operate with concepts without directly referring to individual objects. The same real object can be included in both narrow and broad classes, for which scales of generality of characteristics are built on the principle of genus-species relations. The function of generalization is to organize the variety of objects and their classification.
Formalization- displaying the results of thinking in precise concepts or statements. It is, as it were, a “second order” mental operation. Formalization is opposed to intuitive thinking. In mathematics and formal logic, formalization is understood as the display of meaningful knowledge in a symbolic form or in a formalized language. Formalization, that is, the abstraction of concepts from their content, ensures the systematization of knowledge, in which its individual elements coordinate with each other. Formalization plays a significant role in the development of scientific knowledge, since intuitive concepts, although they seem clearer from the point of view of ordinary consciousness, are of little use for science: in scientific knowledge it is often impossible not only to resolve, but even to formulate and pose problems until the structure of the concepts related to them will be clarified. True science is possible only on the basis of abstract thinking, consistent reasoning of the researcher, proceeding in a logical linguistic form through concepts, judgments and conclusions.
In scientific judgments, connections are established between objects, phenomena or between their specific features. In scientific conclusions, one judgment comes from another, and a new one is made on the basis of already existing conclusions. There are two main types of inferences: inductive (induction) and deductive (deduction).
Induction- this is an inference from particular objects, phenomena to a general conclusion, from individual facts to generalizations.
Deduction- this is an inference from the general to the particular, from general judgments to particular conclusions.
Idealization- mental construction of ideas about objects that do not exist or are not realizable in reality, but those for which there are prototypes in the real world. The process of idealization is characterized by abstraction from the properties and relationships inherent in objects of reality and the introduction into the content of the concepts being formed of such features that, in principle, cannot belong to their real prototypes. Examples of concepts that are the result of idealization could be mathematical concepts"point", "straight"; in physics - “material point”, “absolutely black body”, “ideal gas”, etc. Concepts that are the result of idealization are said to represent idealized (or ideal) objects. Having formed concepts of this kind about objects through idealization, one can subsequently operate with them in reasoning as with really existing objects and build abstract diagrams of real processes that serve for a deeper understanding of them. In this sense, idealization is closely related to modeling.
Analogy, modeling. Analogy is a mental operation when knowledge obtained from the consideration of any one object (model) is transferred to another, less studied or less accessible for study, less visual object, called a prototype, original. This opens up the possibility of transferring information by analogy from model to prototype. This is the essence of one of the special methods of the theoretical level - modeling (construction and research of models). The difference between analogy and modeling is that if analogy is one of the mental operations, then modeling can be considered in different cases both as a mental operation and as an independent method - an action method.
Model- an auxiliary object, selected or transformed for cognitive purposes, providing new information about the main object. The forms of modeling are varied and depend on the models used and the scope of their application. According to the nature of the models, subject and sign (information) modeling are distinguished. Subject modeling is carried out on a model that reproduces certain geometric, physical, dynamic, or functional characteristics of the modeling object - the original; in the particular case of analogue modeling, when the behavior of the original and the model is described by common mathematical relationships, for example, by the common differential equations. In symbolic modeling, models are diagrams, drawings, formulas, etc. The most important type of such modeling is mathematical modeling.
Modeling is always used together with other research methods, and it is especially closely related to experiment. The study of a phenomenon using its model is a special type of experiment - a model experiment, which differs from a regular experiment in that in the process of cognition an “intermediate link” is included - a model, which is both a means and an object of experimental research, replacing the original.
A special type of modeling is thought experiment. In such an experiment, the researcher mentally creates ideal objects, correlates them with each other within the framework of a certain dynamic model, mentally simulating the movement and situations that could take place in a real experiment. At the same time, ideal models and objects help to identify “in their purest form” the most important, essential connections and relationships, mentally play out possible situations, and weed out unnecessary options.
Modeling also serves as a way to construct something new that does not previously exist in practice. Researcher having studied character traits real processes and their trends, searches for their new combinations based on the leading idea, makes their mental reconstruction, that is, models the required state of the system under study (just like any person and even an animal, builds his activity based on the initially formed “model of the required future" - according to N.A. Bernstein). In this case, hypothetical models are created that reveal the mechanisms of connection between the components of what is being studied, which are then tested in practice. In this understanding, modeling has recently become widespread in the social sciences and humanities - in economics, pedagogy, etc., when different authors propose different models of firms, industries, educational systems, etc.
Along with operations logical thinking Theoretical methods-operations can also include (perhaps conditionally) imagination as a mental process for creating new ideas and images with its specific forms of fantasy (creating implausible, paradoxical images and concepts) and dreams (as creating images of what is desired).
Theoretical methods (methods - cognitive actions). The general philosophical, general scientific method of cognition is dialectics - the real logic of the content creative thinking, reflecting the objective dialectics of reality itself. The basis of dialectics as a method of scientific knowledge is the ascent from the abstract to the concrete (G. Hegel) - from general and poor in content forms to dissected and richer in content, to a system of concepts that allows one to comprehend an object in its essential characteristics. In dialectics, all problems acquire a historical character; the study of the development of an object is a strategic platform for knowledge. Finally, dialectics is oriented in knowledge towards the disclosure and ways of resolving contradictions.
Laws of dialectics: the transition of quantitative changes into qualitative ones, unity and struggle of opposites, etc.; analysis of paired dialectical categories: historical and logical, phenomenon and essence, general (universal) and individual, etc. are integral components of any well-constructed scientific research.
Scientific theories tested by practice: any such theory, essentially, acts as a method in constructing new theories in this or even other areas of scientific knowledge, as well as as a method that determines the content and sequence of the researcher’s experimental activities. Therefore, the difference between scientific theory as a form of scientific knowledge and as a method of cognition in this case is functional in nature: being formed as a theoretical result of past research, the method acts as the starting point and condition for subsequent research.
Proof - a method - a theoretical (logical) action, during which the truth of a thought is justified with the help of other thoughts. Any proof consists of three parts: thesis, arguments (arguments) and demonstration. According to the method of conducting evidence, there are direct and indirect, and according to the form of inference - inductive and deductive. Rules of evidence:
1. The thesis and arguments must be clear and precisely defined.
2. The thesis must remain identical throughout the entire proof.
3. The thesis should not contain a logical contradiction.
4. The arguments given in support of the thesis must themselves be true, beyond doubt, must not contradict each other and be a sufficient basis for this thesis.
5. The proof must be complete.
In the totality of methods of scientific knowledge, an important place belongs to the method of analyzing knowledge systems. Any scientific knowledge system has a certain independence in relation to the reflected subject area. In addition, knowledge in such systems is expressed using language, the properties of which influence the relationship of knowledge systems to the objects being studied - for example, if any sufficiently developed psychological, sociological, pedagogical concept is translated into, say, English, German, French languages- will it be clearly perceived and understood in England, Germany and France? Further, the use of language as a carrier of concepts in such systems presupposes one or another logical systematization and logically organized use of linguistic units to express knowledge. And, finally, no system of knowledge exhausts the entire content of the object being studied. In it, only a certain, historically specific part of such content always receives description and explanation.
The method of analyzing scientific knowledge systems plays an important role in empirical and theoretical research problems: when choosing an initial theory, a hypothesis for solving a selected problem; when distinguishing between empirical and theoretical knowledge, semi-empirical and theoretical solutions to a scientific problem; when justifying the equivalence or priority of using certain mathematical tools in various theories, related to the same subject area; when exploring the possibilities of disseminating previously formulated theories, concepts, principles, etc. for new ones subject areas; substantiation of new possibilities for the practical application of knowledge systems; when simplifying and clarifying knowledge systems for training and popularization; for coordination with other knowledge systems, etc.
The deductive method (synonym - axiomatic method) is a method of constructing a scientific theory, in which it is based on some initial provisions of the axiom (synonym - postulates), from which all other provisions of this theory (theorem) are deduced in a purely logical way through proof. The construction of a theory based on the axiomatic method is usually called deductive. All concepts of deductive theory, except for a fixed number of initial ones (such initial concepts in geometry, for example, are: point, straight line, plane) are introduced through definitions that express them through previously introduced or derived concepts. A classic example of deductive theory is Euclidian geometry. The deductive method is used to build theories in mathematics, mathematical logic, and theoretical physics;
- the second method has not received a name in the literature, but it certainly exists, since in all other sciences, except those listed above, theories are built using a method that we will call inductive-deductive: first, an empirical basis is accumulated, on the basis of which theoretical generalizations (induction) are built, which can be built on several levels - for example, empirical laws and theoretical laws- and then these obtained generalizations can be extended to all objects and phenomena covered by this theory (deduction) - see Fig. 6 and Fig. 10. Most theories in the sciences about nature, society and man are constructed using the inductive-deductive method: physics, chemistry, biology, geology, geography, psychology, pedagogy, etc.
Other theoretical research methods (in the sense of methods - cognitive actions): identifying and resolving contradictions, posing a problem, constructing hypotheses, etc. up to the planning of scientific research, we will consider below in the specifics of the time structure of research activity - constructing phases, stages and stages scientific research.
Empirical methods(methods-operations).
Literature Study, documents and results of activities. Questions about working with scientific literature will be discussed separately below, since this is not only a research method, but also a mandatory procedural component of any scientific work. The source of factual material for the research is also a variety of documentation: archival materials in historical research; documentation of enterprises, organizations and institutions in economic, sociological, pedagogical and other studies, etc. The study of performance results plays an important role in pedagogy, especially when studying the problems of professional training of pupils and students; in psychology, pedagogy and sociology of labor; and, for example, in archeology, when conducting excavations, analysis of the results of people’s activities: from the remains of tools, dishes, dwellings, etc. allows us to restore the way of their life in a particular era.
Observation- in principle, the most informative research method. This is the only method that allows you to see all aspects of the phenomena and processes being studied that are accessible to the perception of the observer - both directly and with the help of various instruments.
Depending on the goals pursued in the process of observation, the latter can be scientific or non-scientific. Purposeful and organized perception of objects and phenomena of the external world, associated with the solution of a specific scientific problem or task, is usually called scientific observation. Scientific observations involve obtaining certain information for further theoretical understanding and interpretation, for approval or refutation of any hypothesis, etc.
Scientific observation consists of the following procedures:
Determining the purpose of observation (why, for what purpose?);
Selection of an object, process, situation (what to observe?);
Choosing the method and frequency of observations (how to observe?);
Selection of methods for recording the observed object, phenomenon (how to record the information received?);
Processing and interpretation of the information received (what is the result?) - see, for example,.
The observed situations are divided into:
Natural and artificial;
Controlled and not controlled by the subject of observation;
Spontaneous and organized;
Standard and non-standard;
Normal and extreme, etc.
In addition, depending on the organization of observation, it can be open and hidden, field and laboratory, and depending on the nature of the recording - ascertaining, evaluative and mixed. Based on the method of obtaining information, observations are divided into direct and instrumental. Based on the scope of coverage of the objects under study, continuous and selective observations are distinguished; by frequency - constant, periodic and single. A special case of observation is self-observation, which is quite widely used, for example, in psychology.
Observation is necessary for scientific knowledge, since without it science would not be able to obtain initial information, would not have scientific facts and empirical data, therefore, the theoretical construction of knowledge would be impossible.
However, observation as a method of cognition has a number of significant disadvantages. The personal characteristics of the researcher, his interests, and finally, his psychological state can significantly influence the results of the observation. Objective observation results are even more susceptible to distortion in cases where the researcher is focused on obtaining a certain result, on confirming his existing hypothesis.
To obtain objective observation results, it is necessary to comply with the requirements of intersubjectivity, that is, observation data must (and/or can) be obtained and recorded, if possible, by other observers.
Replacing direct observation with instruments unlimitedly expands the possibilities of observation, but also does not exclude subjectivity; the evaluation and interpretation of such indirect observation is carried out by the subject, and therefore the subjective influence of the researcher can still occur.
Measurement. Measurement is used everywhere, in any human activity. Thus, almost every person takes measurements dozens of times during the day, looking at his watch. General definition measurement is as follows: Measurement is a cognitive process consisting of comparing... a given quantity with some of its value, taken as a standard of comparison.
Including, measurement is an empirical method (method-operation) of scientific research.
A specific measurement structure can be distinguished, including the following elements:
1) a cognizing subject who carries out measurements for certain cognitive purposes;
2) measuring instruments, which can include both devices and tools designed by man, and objects and processes given by nature;
3) the object of measurement, that is, the measured quantity or property to which the comparison procedure is applicable;
4) a method or method of measurement, which is a set of practical actions, operations performed using measuring instruments, and also includes certain logical and computational procedures;
5) the result of a measurement, which is a named number expressed using appropriate names or signs.
The epistemological justification of the measurement method is inextricably linked with the scientific understanding of the relationship between the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the object (phenomenon) being studied. Although this method only records quantitative characteristics, these characteristics are inextricably linked with the qualitative certainty of the object being studied. It is thanks to qualitative certainty that quantitative characteristics to be measured can be identified. The unity of the qualitative and quantitative aspects of the object being studied means both the relative independence of these aspects and their deep interconnection. The relative independence of quantitative characteristics makes it possible to study them during the measurement process, and use the measurement results to analyze the qualitative aspects of the object.
The problem of measurement accuracy also relates to the epistemological foundations of measurement as a method of empirical knowledge. The accuracy of the measurement depends on the ratio of objective and subjective factors in the measurement process.
Such objective factors include:
The possibility of identifying certain stable quantitative characteristics in the object under study, which in many cases of research, in particular, social and humanitarian phenomena and processes, is difficult, and sometimes even impossible;
The capabilities of measuring instruments (their degree of perfection) and the conditions in which the measurement process takes place. In some cases, finding the exact value of a quantity is fundamentally impossible. It is impossible, for example, to determine the trajectory of an electron in an atom, etc.
Subjective measurement factors include the choice of measurement methods, the organization of this process and a whole range of cognitive capabilities of the subject - from the qualifications of the experimenter to his ability to correctly and competently interpret the results obtained.
Along with direct measurements, the method of indirect measurement is widely used in the process of scientific experimentation. With indirect measurement, the desired quantity is determined on the basis of direct measurements of other quantities associated with the first functional relationship. Based on the measured values of mass and volume of a body, its density is determined; The resistivity of a conductor can be found from the measured values of resistance, length and cross-sectional area of the conductor, etc. The role of indirect measurements is especially great in cases where direct measurement in conditions of objective reality is impossible. For example, the mass of any space object (natural) is determined using mathematical calculations based on the use of measurement data of other physical quantities.
Survey. This empirical method is used only in the social sciences and humanities. The survey method is divided into oral survey and written survey. Oral survey (conversation, interview). The essence of the method is clear from its name. During the interview, the questioner has personal contact with the answerer, that is, he has the opportunity to see how the answerer reacts to a particular question. The observer can, if necessary, ask various additional questions and thus obtain additional data on some unanswered questions.
Oral surveys provide specific results and can be used to obtain comprehensive answers to complex questions of interest to the researcher. However, respondents answer questions of a “sensitive” nature in writing much more frankly and give more detailed and thorough answers.
The respondent spends less time and energy on an oral response than on a written one. However, this method also has its own negative sides. All respondents are in different conditions, some of them can receive additional information through the researcher’s leading questions; the facial expression or some gesture of the researcher has some effect on the respondent.
The questions used for the interview are planned in advance and a questionnaire is drawn up, where space should be left for recording (logging) the answer.
Basic requirements when writing questions:
1) the survey should not be random, but systematic; at the same time, questions that are more understandable to the respondent are asked earlier, more difficult ones - later;
2) questions must be concise, specific and understandable for all respondents;
3) questions should not contradict ethical standards.
Survey rules:
1) during the interview, the researcher must be alone with the respondent, without outside witnesses;
2) each oral question is read from the question sheet (questionnaire) verbatim, unchanged;
3) the order of the questions is strictly followed; the respondent should not see the questionnaire or be able to read subsequent questions;
4) the interview should be short - from 15 to 30 minutes, depending on the age and intellectual level of the respondents;
5) the interviewer should not influence the respondent in any way (indirectly suggest an answer, shake his head as a sign of disapproval, nod his head, etc.);
6) the interviewer can, if necessary, if the given answer is unclear, ask additionally only neutral questions (for example: “What did you want to say by this?”, “Explain in a little more detail!”).
7) answers are recorded in the questionnaire only during the survey.
The responses are subsequently analyzed and interpreted.
Written survey - questionnaire. It is based on a pre-developed questionnaire (questionnaire), and the responses of respondents (interviewees) to all items of the questionnaire constitute the required empirical information.
The quality of empirical information obtained as a result of a survey depends on factors such as the wording of the survey questions, which should be understandable to the respondent; qualifications, experience, integrity, psychological characteristics researchers; the situation of the survey, its conditions; emotional condition respondents; customs and traditions, ideas, everyday situations; and also - attitude towards the survey. Therefore, when using such information, it is always necessary to make allowances for the inevitability of subjective distortions due to the specific individual “refraction” of it in the minds of the respondents. And where we are talking about fundamentally important issues, along with the survey, they also turn to other methods - observation, expert assessments, document analysis.
Particular attention is paid to the development of a questionnaire - a questionnaire containing a series of questions necessary to obtain information in accordance with the objectives and hypothesis of the study. The questionnaire must meet the following requirements: be reasonable regarding the purposes of its use, that is, provide the required information; have stable criteria and reliable rating scales that adequately reflect the situation being studied; the wording of the questions must be clear to the respondent and consistent; Questionnaire questions should not cause negative emotions in the respondent (answer).
Questions can be closed or open-ended. A question is called closed if it has a full set of answer options in the questionnaire. The respondent only marks the option that coincides with his opinion. This form of the questionnaire significantly reduces the filling out time and at the same time makes the questionnaire suitable for processing on a computer. But sometimes there is a need to find out directly the opinion of the respondent on a question that excludes pre-prepared answer options. In this case, they resort to open questions. When answering an open question, the respondent is guided only by his own ideas. Therefore, this response is more individualized.
Compliance with a number of other requirements also helps to increase the reliability of answers. One of them is to provide the respondent with the opportunity to evade the answer and express an uncertain opinion. To do this, the rating scale should include answer options: “it’s hard to say,” “difficult to answer,” “it varies,” “when and how,” etc. But the predominance of such options in the answers is evidence of either the incompetence of the respondent or the unsuitability of the wording of the question to obtain the necessary information.
In order to obtain reliable information about the phenomenon or process under study, it is not necessary to interview the entire contingent, since the object of study can be numerically very large. In cases where the object of study exceeds several hundred people, selective questioning is used.
Method of expert assessments. Essentially, this is a type of survey associated with the involvement of the most competent people in the assessment of the phenomena and processes being studied, whose opinions, complementing and cross-checking each other, allow a fairly objective assessment of what is being studied. Using this method requires a number of conditions. First of all, this is a careful selection of experts - people who know the area being assessed, the object being studied well, and are capable of an objective, unbiased assessment.
The choice of an accurate and convenient rating system and corresponding measurement scales is also essential, which organizes judgments and makes it possible to express them in certain quantities.
It is often necessary to train experts to use the proposed scales for unambiguous assessment in order to minimize errors and make assessments comparable.
If experts acting independently of each other consistently give coinciding or similar assessments or express similar opinions, there is reason to believe that they are approaching objectiveness. If the estimates differ greatly, then this indicates either an unsuccessful choice of the rating system and measurement scales, or the incompetence of the experts.
Varieties of the expert assessment method are: the commission method, the brainstorming method, the Delphi method, the heuristic forecasting method, etc. A number of these methods will be discussed in the third chapter of this work.
Testing- an empirical method, a diagnostic procedure consisting in the use of tests (from English test - task, test). Tests are usually asked to subjects either in the form of a list of questions that require short and unambiguous answers, or in the form of tasks that do not take much time to solve and also require unambiguous solutions, or in the form of any short-term practical work of the subjects, for example, qualifying trial work in a professional education, labor economics, etc. Tests are divided into blank, hardware (for example, on a computer) and practical; for individual and group use.
Related information.
In the course of the development of science, facilities knowledge :
– material,
– mathematical,
- brain teaser,
– linguistic,
– informational.
All means of cognition are specially created means. In this sense, material, informational, mathematical, logical, linguistic means of cognition have a common property: they are designed, created, developed, justified for certain cognitive purposes (Fig. 4.6).
Material resources knowledge is, first of all, instruments for scientific research. In history, the emergence of material means of knowledge is associated with the formation of empirical research methods - observation, measurement, experiment. These means are directly aimed at the objects being studied; they play a major role in the empirical testing of hypotheses and other results of scientific research, in the discovery of new objects and facts. The use of material means of knowledge in science in general - microscope, telescope, synchrophasotron, Earth satellites, etc. – has a profound influence on the formation of the conceptual apparatus of sciences, on the methods of describing the subjects being studied, on the methods of reasoning and ideas, on the generalizations, idealizations and arguments used.
Figure 4.6 – Scientific research tools
Information media knowledge. The massive introduction of computer technology, information technology, and telecommunications radically transforms research activities in many branches of science, making them tools of scientific knowledge. In particular, in recent decades, computer technology has been widely used to automate experiments in physics, biology, technical sciences, etc., which makes it possible to simplify research procedures hundreds and thousands of times and reduce data processing time. In addition, information tools can significantly simplify the processing of statistical data in almost all branches of science. And the use of satellite navigation systems greatly increases the accuracy of measurements in geodesy, cartography, etc.
Mathematical tools knowledge. The development of mathematical means of cognition has an increasing influence on the development of modern science; they also penetrate into the humanities and social sciences. Mathematics, being the science of quantitative relations and spatial forms, abstracted from their specific content, has developed and applied specific means of abstracting form from content and formulated rules for considering form as an independent object in the form of numbers, sets, etc., which simplifies, facilitates and accelerates the process of cognition, allows you to more deeply identify the connection between objects from which the form is abstracted, isolate the starting points, and ensure the accuracy and rigor of judgments. Mathematical tools make it possible to consider not only directly abstracted quantitative relations and spatial forms, but also logically possible ones, that is, those that are derived according to logical rules from previously known relations and forms. Under the influence of mathematical means of cognition, the theoretical apparatus of descriptive sciences undergoes significant changes. Mathematical tools make it possible to systematize empirical data, identify and formulate quantitative dependencies and patterns. Mathematical tools are also used as special forms of idealization and analogy (mathematical modeling).
Logical tools knowledge. In any study, the scientist has to decide logic problems:
– what logical requirements must be satisfied by reasoning that allows one to make objectively true conclusions; how to control the nature of these reasonings?
– what logical requirements should the description of empirically observed characteristics satisfy?
– how to logically analyze the initial systems of scientific knowledge, how to coordinate some knowledge systems with other knowledge systems (for example, in sociology and closely related psychology)?
– how to build a scientific theory that allows you to give scientific explanations, predictions, etc.?
The use of logical means in the process of constructing reasoning and evidence allows the researcher to separate controlled arguments from intuitively or uncritically accepted ones, false ones from true ones, confusion from contradictions.
Language means knowledge. An important linguistic means of cognition are, among other things, the rules for constructing definitions of concepts. In any scientific research, a scientist has to clarify the introduced concepts, symbols and signs, and use new concepts and signs. Definitions are always associated with language as a means of cognition and expression of knowledge.
The rules for using languages, both natural and artificial, with the help of which the researcher builds his reasoning and evidence, formulates hypotheses, draws conclusions, etc., are the starting point of cognitive actions. Knowledge of them has a great influence on the effectiveness of using linguistic means of cognition in scientific research.
Next to the means of cognition are the methods of scientific knowledge (research methods).
Under research methods the very methods of studying phenomena, obtaining scientific information in order to establish natural connections, relationships, and construct scientific theories are understood.
IN research work Master's students, as a rule, use well-known methods of psychological, pedagogical, sociological and economic research. The choice of research methods depends on the definition of the topic, problem, hypothesis, purpose and objectives of the study. This issue is covered quite fully in the specialized literature. At the same time, it makes sense to briefly describe the main methods.
All research methods can be divided into theoretical, empirical and mathematical (statistical and econometric).
Methods of theoretical research(theoretical methods) are necessary to define problems, formulate hypotheses and to evaluate the collected facts.
Theoretical analysis– is the identification and consideration of individual aspects, signs, features, properties of phenomena. Analysis manifests itself in the mental division of a whole (phenomenon, property, process or relationship between objects) into its component parts, carried out in the process of cognition, and allows one to obtain information about the structure of the object of study.
Analysis is accompanied by synthesis and allows one to penetrate into the essence of the issue being studied.
Synthesis - the process (usually purposeful) of connecting or combining previously separate things or concepts into something qualitatively new, whole or representing a set. In addition to analysis, the synthesis method allows us to obtain ideas about the connections between the components of the object of study.
Inductive method– a method of cognition built on induction, which involves the movement of thought (the process of logical inference) from particular judgments to general ones.
Deductive method – a method of constructing scientific theories based on the use of deductive techniques (deduction) - a system of logical inferences from general judgments to a particular conclusion. The beginning (premises) of deduction are axioms, postulates or simply hypotheses that have the nature of general statements, and the end is consequences from the premises, theorems, and conclusions. If the premises of a deduction are true, then its consequences are true. Deduction is the main means of proof.
Comparison– a method of cognition underlying judgments about the similarity or difference of objects. Using comparison, the qualitative and quantitative characteristics of objects are revealed.
Generalization– a method of cognition that leads to the identification and designation of relatively stable properties of an object. IN coursework often resort to using this method when generalizing concepts - a logical operation through which, as a result of excluding a specific feature, a concept of a wider scope but less content is obtained.
Abstraction – This is a method of cognition, which is a mental selection of the essential properties and connections of an object and abstraction from its other properties and connections, which are recognized as particular and unimportant. This theoretical generalization allows us to reflect the basic patterns of the objects or phenomena under study, study them, and also predict new, unknown patterns. We can say that abstraction allows you to mentally abstract from the unimportant properties of an object and highlight the essential, basic properties, features, and connections.
Specification– filling the schematized cognitive picture of an object with particular features, due to which it becomes possible to move from one scheme to another, more optimal for solving specific problems.
Systematization– a method of unification, reduction of groups of units homogeneous by certain characteristics (parameters, criteria) to a certain hierarchical unity for functional purposes based on the existing connections between them and/or complementary connections with the outside world.
Classification– a method of grouping objects of study or observation in accordance with their common characteristics. As a result of the developed classification, a classified system (classification) is created.
Modeling– research of any objects on their models(from Latin modis, French modele - sample), that is, on conventional images, diagrams or physical structures similar to the object under study, using methods of analogy and similarity theory when conducting and processing experimental data. Modeling is used when, for some reason, it is difficult or impossible to study an object in natural conditions, or when it is necessary to facilitate the process of studying an object.
The model reflects the main, from the point of view of the problem being solved, properties of the modeling object in a simpler, reduced form. At the same time, the model reflects the structure, properties, interconnections and relationships between the elements of the object under study. The object under study, in relation to which the model is made, is called original, sample, prototype.
In sociological research, modeling is carried out using signs, symbols, drawings (diagrams).
Theoretical methods are associated with the study and analysis of relevant literature, which makes it possible to find out what problems in the area under study and in what aspects have already been sufficiently studied, what scientific discussions are ongoing, what is outdated, and what issues have not yet been resolved.
Working with literature involves methods such as:
compilation of bibliography – a list of sources selected for work in connection with the problem under study;
abstracting – a condensed summary of the main content of one or more works on a general topic;
note-taking– keeping more detailed records, the basis of which is highlighting the main ideas and provisions of the work;
annotation – a summary of the general contents of the book or article;
citation – verbatim recording of expressions, factual or digital data contained in a literary source.
Empirical methods – These are research methods based on a description of facts, practical activities, and actual experience of organizing something (without subsequent conclusions and theoretical generalizations, since these are already theoretical research methods).
Conversation– is carried out according to a pre-planned plan, highlighting issues that require clarification, but improvisation is allowed, that is, a slight deviation from the plan, so the conversation is conducted in a free form without recording the respondents’ answers.
Interview(is a type of conversation) - the researcher adheres to pre-planned and recorded questions asked in a certain sequence, and records the respondents’ answers.
Questionnaire– a method of mass collection of material using a questionnaire in which questions are presented to respondents in writing. When surveying, you can use both questionnaires developed by other authors and your own, independently developed.
Studying the documentation– a research method in which various organizational and practical documentation, regulatory and instructional documents are studied. At the same time, generalizations and conclusions are made, attention is drawn to the structure of the document, the main provisions relevant for this study are indicated, etc.
Scientific observation– a general scientific method of collecting primary information by directly recording by the researcher events, phenomena and processes occurring under certain conditions. Obtaining empirical information occurs using human senses, various kinds of scientific instruments and operational means for recording and quantifying incoming information. Scientific observation is distinguished by a clear goal, systematicity, and, if necessary, the use of instruments. This method also includes the study and generalization of experience.
Experiment– a method of scientific research, with the help of which, in natural or artificially created conditions (controlled and managed), a phenomenon, process is studied, a search is conducted for new, more effective way solving any problem. An experiment is a specially organized test of one or another method or technique of a specialist. It involves active intervention in real system, so it's essence consists in changing the conditions in which the object under study is located, and main function – test the effectiveness (or ineffectiveness) of this intervention. At the same time, control and management of all experimental factors is carried out systematically, the effects (positive or negative) of changes in the object must be measured using sound qualimetric tools and scientifically interpreted. Let us note the leading difference between experiment and observation. During the experiment, the researcher introduces new factors into the process and observes, records and describes the consequences of his intervention, and during the observation the researcher only observes, records and describes what is happening in reality without any intervention. The experimental method is aimed at studying cause-and-effect relationships between the objects being studied. It contains features characteristic of theoretical knowledge: highlighting the side of an object (phenomenon) that interests the researcher, and abstracting from its other sides. In the process of cognition, experiment and theory interact: experiment confirms or refutes a theory at the stage of a hypothesis and provides material for its development.
The dissertation requires:
- introduce experimental program (develop a research methodology and experimental plan, methods for collecting and processing the results obtained);
- carry out and describe ascertaining experiment (the current state of the research object is studied, the real state of affairs is established in order to obtain primary material for further understanding and organization of a formative experiment);
– if necessary, carry out pilot experiment , allowing you to check individual aspects and readiness for main (formative, transformative) experiment , during which the put forward hypothesis, its introduced conditions and their influence on the object of study, feasibility will be checked;
– conduct, describe and evaluate the main experiment, and, if necessary, conduct and evaluate a delayed experiment.
Results and description of the main experiment, quantitative and qualitative analysis, interpretation of the obtained facts, formulation of conclusions and practical recommendations is a mandatory element of the dissertation.
Statistical methods or, in other words, methods of statistical processing of experimental data, are used to process data obtained by survey and experimental methods, as well as to establish quantitative relationships between the phenomena being studied (see Table 1).
If a master's thesis develops a new subject in the tourism industry (for example, a new tourism product), then the effectiveness of its implementation is checked using econometric methods(see table 2).
Table 1 - Table of statistical methods for summarizing and processing experimental results
| Name scale | Ordinal scale | Interval scale | |
| Methods for primary processing of experimental results | · registration · ranking · frequency · fashion | · registration · ranking · frequency · mode · median | · registration · ranking · frequency · mode · median · mean value · dispersion · coefficient of variation |
| Methods for secondary processing of experimental results | · association coefficient · c² criterion · McNamara criterion | · Spearman coefficient · Candel coefficient · c² test · sign test · median test · Wilcoxon-Mann-Whitney test · Kolmogorov-Smirnov test | · linear correlation (Pearson) · c² test · Fisher test · Student t test · Wilcoxon test |
Table 2 - Table of econometric methods for summarizing and processing experiment results
Let's give brief description the second group of mathematical methods - econometric.
Expert review - a method of conducting intuitive-logical analysis of a problem. It includes: Delphi methods, heuristic methods, brainstorming, the “collective notebook” method, and the synectics method.
Detailing -
Detailing - division of summary indicators into their constituent factors that influence the formation of the overall value of a process or phenomenon. Produced according to time, specific gravity, place. In service and tourism, it allows you to establish the influence of seasonality on the level of costs; generate cost estimates for products; etc.
Accounting - this is documentation, inventory, accounting or financial statements. Allows you to: conduct continuous monitoring of economic processes, for example, record the time of work; compare values, resources, obligations, etc. with accounting data; summarize information about the economic activities of the enterprise.
Quantitative and cost expression - digitized volume of demand, supply, prospects for the development of a process or phenomenon.
SWOT analysis - an abbreviation for the first letters of English words: strength, weakness, opportunity, threat. Allows for a detailed study of the internal and external environment of the enterprise. Identified by this method signals are the basis for developing and making management decisions.
Construction of forecast scenarios - method of sequential removal of uncertainty. Can only be implemented using intelligent information systems within the framework of neural network technologies. A scenario should be understood as a hypothetical picture of the sequential development of events in space and time. This is some possible assessment of the development of the system, reflected by the trajectory of parameters, states, conditions of its existence. The methodology for making forecasts includes two stages: preparatory and scenario. These include: development of a hypothesis, systematic description of the forecast object, determination of the “tube” of possible trajectories, development of “situation-factor” matrices, calculations based on basic scenarios, putting forward development alternatives, and drawing up the final document.
Graphic reflection of the dynamics of the process under study(bar or line chart, histogram) is an illustration of the research results (the point of intersection of the supply and demand curves, etc.).
Cause-and-effect analysis - a method of removing uncertainty and identifying symptoms of a problem. To solve a problem, it is necessary to eliminate its cause (axiom). The results of identifying and eliminating causes are reflected on the effects screen. During the implementation of the method, the concepts of “entry” to the problem and “exit” from it are used.
Directional control - observation from the beginning of practical activity to its end. It includes: measurement, comparison of actual data, goals, plotting.
Filter control - differs from preliminary, guiding and subsequent. It is implemented if a deviation of the observed data from those planned is noticed.
Performance measurement - in other words, the effectiveness of any process, the success of its organizers and performers, and profitability. Economic efficiency is the ratio of results to costs. Social - the degree of satisfaction of consumer demand for goods or services. In the socio-cultural sphere, the assessment of social efficiency prevails, however, the best way fully measuring the result is a measurement of social and economic, as well as environmental, legal and ethical effectiveness. Efficiency can be assessed by the final results of the process. The means of its description should be quantitative and qualitative indicators. Criteria for measuring efficiency: quantity and quality of goods or services; production culture; activity, initiative, intelligence of the staff.
Functional cost analysis (FCA) - method of comprehensive study of the functions of an object at all stages of its life cycle, aimed at estimating minimum costs. A function is an activity, duty, work, purpose, role, external manifestation of the properties of an object. Cost analysis - cost analysis. FSA: function analysis, cost analysis, resource analysis for performing functions. The methodological basis of the method is the functional approach as part of the system-functional approach. FSA stages: preparatory, informational, analytical, creative, research, recommendation, implementation and monitoring of results. The most effective reflection of FSA results is the FAST chart. The FAST technique allows you to answer the questions: what functions are the object of analysis, what is supposed to be done to implement this function, what affects the function, who performs it, etc.
Decision tree - a schematic reflection of a system of solutions, hierarchically ordered within the framework of a basic coordinate system. The main structural elements are “branches” and “nodes”. “Branches” are decision options, possible consequences of decisions. "Nodes" are places where and when decisions must be executed. The technique of constructing a coordinate system with logical-temporal or spatial ordering of solutions is used.
Transcript
1 Means and methods of scientific research Means and methods are the most important components of the logical structure of the organization of activities. Therefore, they constitute a large section of methodology as a doctrine of the organization of activity. Means of scientific research (means of cognition). In the course of the development of science, means of cognition are developed and improved: material, mathematical, logical, linguistic. In addition, recently it is obviously necessary to add information media to them as a special class. All means of cognition are specially created means. In this sense, material, informational, mathematical, logical, linguistic means of cognition have a common property: they are designed, created, developed, justified for certain cognitive purposes. Material means of cognition are, first of all, instruments for scientific research. In history, the emergence of material means of knowledge is associated with the formation of empirical research methods - observation, measurement, experiment. These means are directly aimed at the objects being studied; they play a major role in the empirical testing of hypotheses and other results of scientific research, in the discovery of new objects and facts. The use of material means of knowledge in science in general - microscope, telescope, synchrophasotron, Earth satellites, etc. - has a profound influence on the formation of the conceptual apparatus of sciences, on the methods of describing the subjects being studied, on the methods of reasoning and ideas, on the generalizations, idealizations and arguments used. Information means of cognition. The massive introduction of computer technology, information technology, and telecommunications radically transforms research activities in many branches of science, making them tools of scientific knowledge. Including in recent
For 2 decades, computer technology has been widely used to automate experiments in physics, biology, technical sciences, etc., which makes it possible to simplify research procedures hundreds and thousands of times and reduce data processing time. In addition, information tools can significantly simplify the processing of statistical data in almost all branches of science. And the use of satellite navigation systems greatly increases the accuracy of measurements in geodesy, cartography, etc. Mathematical means of cognition. The development of mathematical means of cognition has an increasing influence on the development of modern science; they also penetrate into the humanities and social sciences. Mathematics, being the science of quantitative relations and spatial forms, abstracted from their specific content, has developed and applied specific means of abstracting form from content and formulated rules for considering form as an independent object in the form of numbers, sets, etc., which simplifies, facilitates and accelerates the process of cognition, allows you to more deeply identify the connection between objects from which the form is abstracted, isolate the starting points, and ensure the accuracy and rigor of judgments. Mathematical tools make it possible to consider not only directly abstracted quantitative relations and spatial forms, but also logically possible ones, that is, those that are derived according to logical rules from previously known relations and forms. Under the influence of mathematical means of cognition, the theoretical apparatus of descriptive sciences undergoes significant changes. Mathematical tools make it possible to systematize empirical data, identify and formulate quantitative dependencies and patterns. Mathematical tools are also used as special forms of idealization and analogy (mathematical modeling). Logical means of cognition. In any research, a scientist has to solve logical problems:
3 - what logical requirements must be satisfied by reasoning that allows one to make objectively true conclusions; how to control the nature of these reasonings? - what logical requirements should the description of empirically observed characteristics satisfy? - how to logically analyze the initial systems of scientific knowledge, how to coordinate some knowledge systems with other knowledge systems (for example, in sociology and closely related psychology)? - how to build a scientific theory that allows you to give scientific explanations, predictions, etc.? The use of logical means in the process of constructing reasoning and evidence allows the researcher to separate controlled arguments from intuitively or uncritically accepted ones, false ones from true ones, confusion from contradictions. Language means of cognition. An important linguistic means of cognition are, among other things, the rules for constructing definitions of concepts. In any scientific research, a scientist has to clarify the introduced concepts, symbols and signs, and use new concepts and signs. Definitions are always associated with language as a means of cognition and expression of knowledge. The rules for using languages, both natural and artificial, with the help of which the researcher builds his reasoning and evidence, formulates hypotheses, draws conclusions, etc., are the starting point of cognitive actions. Knowledge of them has a great influence on the effectiveness of using linguistic means of cognition in scientific research. Methods of scientific research. A significant, sometimes decisive role in the construction of any scientific work is played by the research methods used. Research methods are divided into empirical (empirical - literally - perceived through the senses) and theoretical. If methodology is the study of the organization of activity, then scientific research is a cycle of activity, its structural units are
4 directed actions. As is known, an action is a unit of activity, the distinctive feature of which is the presence specific purpose. The structural units of action are operations correlated with objective and objective conditions for achieving the goal. The same goal, correlated with the action, can be achieved in different conditions; this or that action can be implemented by different operations. At the same time, the same operation can be included in different actions (A.N. Leontyev). Based on this, we distinguish (see Table 3): methods-operations; action methods. Table 3. Methods of scientific research THEORETICAL EMPIRICAL methods - operations methods - actions methods - operations methods - actions analysis dialectics (as a method) study methods of tracking literature, object: survey, documents and monitoring, study and results generalization of activity experience synthesis construction of hypotheses observation methods object transformations: experimental work, experiment comparison scientific theories, survey (oral and written) abstraction tested by practice measurement testing concretization proof expert assessments analogy method of analysis generalization of knowledge systems formalization deductive (axiomatic) method modeling identification and resolution of contradictions induction problem solving deduction inductive idealization deductive method thought experiment imagination
5 This approach does not contradict the definition of a method, which gives encyclopedic Dictionary: - firstly, a method as a way to achieve a goal, solve a specific problem - method-action; - secondly, a method as a set of techniques or operations for the practical or theoretical development of reality - a method-operation. Thus, in the future we will consider research methods in the following grouping: Theoretical methods: - methods - cognitive actions: identifying and resolving contradictions, posing a problem, constructing a hypothesis, etc.; - methods-operations: analysis, synthesis, comparison, abstraction and concretization, etc. Empirical methods: - methods - cognitive actions: survey, monitoring, experiment, etc.; - operational methods: observation, measurement, survey, testing, etc. Theoretical methods (methods-operations). Theoretical methods-operations have a wide field of application, both in scientific research and in practical activities. Theoretical methods - operations are defined (considered) by the main mental operations, which are: analysis and synthesis, comparison, abstraction and concretization, generalization, formalization, induction and deduction, idealization, analogy, modeling, thought experiment. Analysis is the decomposition of the whole under study into parts, the identification of individual features and qualities of a phenomenon, process or relationships of phenomena, processes. Analysis procedures are an organic component of any scientific research and usually form its first phase, when the researcher moves from an undifferentiated description of the object under study to the identification of its structure, composition, its properties and characteristics.
6 The same phenomenon, process can be analyzed in many aspects. A comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon allows us to examine it in more depth. Synthesis is the combination of various elements, aspects of an object into a single whole (system). Synthesis is not a simple summation, but a semantic connection. If you simply connect phenomena, no system of connections will arise between them; only a chaotic accumulation of individual facts will form. Synthesis is the opposite of analysis, with which it is inextricably linked. Synthesis as a cognitive operation appears in various functions of theoretical research. Any process of concept formation is based on the unity of the processes of analysis and synthesis. Empirical data obtained in a particular study are synthesized during their theoretical generalization. In theoretical scientific knowledge, synthesis acts as a function of the interconnection of theories related to one subject area, as well as as a function of combining competing theories (for example, the synthesis of corpuscular and wave concepts in physics). Synthesis also plays a significant role in empirical research. Analysis and synthesis are closely related. If the researcher has a more developed ability to analyze, there may be a danger that he will not be able to find a place for details in the phenomenon as a whole. The relative predominance of synthesis leads to superficiality, to the fact that essential details for the study will not be noticed, which can be of great importance for understanding the phenomenon as a whole. Comparison is a cognitive operation that underlies judgments about the similarity or difference of objects. With the help of comparison, the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of objects are identified, their classification, ordering and evaluation are carried out. Comparison is comparing one thing to another. In this case, an important role is played by the grounds, or signs of comparison, which determine the possible relationships between objects. Comparison makes sense only in a set of homogeneous objects that form a class. Comparison of objects in a particular class is carried out according to principles that are essential for this consideration. In this case, the objects compared
7 based on one characteristic may not be comparable on other characteristics. The more accurately the characteristics are assessed, the more thoroughly the comparison of phenomena is possible. An integral part of comparison is always analysis, since for any comparison in phenomena it is necessary to isolate the corresponding characteristics of comparison. Since comparison is the establishment of certain relationships between phenomena, then, naturally, synthesis is also used during the comparison. Abstraction is one of the main mental operations that allows you to mentally isolate and turn into an independent object of consideration individual aspects, properties or states of an object in its pure form. Abstraction underlies the processes of generalization and concept formation. Abstraction consists in isolating such properties of an object that do not exist by themselves and independently of it. Such isolation is possible only in the mental plane - in abstraction. Thus, the geometric figure of a body in itself does not really exist and cannot be separated from the body. But thanks to abstraction, it is mentally isolated, fixed, for example, with the help of a drawing, and independently considered in its special properties. One of the main functions of abstraction is to highlight the common properties of a certain set of objects and to fix these properties, for example, through concepts. Concretization is a process opposite to abstraction, that is, finding the holistic, interconnected, multilateral and complex. The researcher initially forms various abstractions, and then, on their basis, through concretization, reproduces this integrity (mental concrete), but at a qualitatively different level of knowledge of the concrete. Therefore, dialectics distinguishes two processes of ascent in the process of cognition in the coordinates “abstraction - concretization”: the ascent from the concrete to the abstract and then the process of ascent from the abstract to the new concrete (G. Hegel). The dialectics of theoretical thinking consists in the unity of abstraction, the creation of various abstractions and concretization, movement towards the concrete and its reproduction.
8 Generalization is one of the main cognitive mental operations, consisting of isolating and fixing relatively stable, invariant properties of objects and their relationships. Generalization allows you to display the properties and relationships of objects regardless of the particular and random conditions of their observation. Comparing objects of a certain group from a certain point of view, a person finds, identifies and denotes by word their identical, common properties, which can become the content of the concept of this group, class of objects. Separating general properties from private ones and denoting them with a word makes it possible to cover the entire variety of objects in an abbreviated, condensed form, reduce them into certain classes, and then, through abstractions, operate with concepts without directly referring to individual objects. The same real object can be included in both narrow and broad classes, for which scales of generality of characteristics are built on the principle of genus-species relations. The function of generalization is to organize the variety of objects and their classification. Formalization - displaying the results of thinking in precise concepts or statements. It is, as it were, a “second order” mental operation. Formalization is opposed to intuitive thinking. In mathematics and formal logic, formalization is understood as the display of meaningful knowledge in a symbolic form or in a formalized language. Formalization, that is, the abstraction of concepts from their content, ensures the systematization of knowledge, in which its individual elements coordinate with each other. Formalization plays a significant role in the development of scientific knowledge, since intuitive concepts, although they seem clearer from the point of view of ordinary consciousness, are of little use for science: in scientific knowledge it is often impossible not only to resolve, but even to formulate and pose problems until the structure of the concepts related to them will be clarified. True science is possible only on the basis of abstract thinking, consistent reasoning of the researcher, proceeding in a logical linguistic form through concepts, judgments and conclusions.
9 In scientific judgments, connections are established between objects, phenomena or between their certain characteristics. In scientific conclusions, one judgment comes from another, and a new one is made on the basis of already existing conclusions. There are two main types of inferences: inductive (induction) and deductive (deduction). Induction is an inference from particular objects, phenomena to a general conclusion, from individual facts to generalizations. Deduction is an inference from the general to the particular, from general judgments to particular conclusions. Idealization is the mental construction of ideas about objects that do not exist or are not realizable in reality, but those for which there are prototypes in the real world. The process of idealization is characterized by abstraction from the properties and relationships inherent in objects of reality and the introduction into the content of the concepts being formed of such features that, in principle, cannot belong to their real prototypes. Examples of concepts that are the result of idealization can be the mathematical concepts “point”, “straight line”; in physics - “material point”, “absolutely black body”, “ideal gas”, etc. Concepts that are the result of idealization are said to represent idealized (or ideal) objects. Having formed concepts of this kind about objects through idealization, one can subsequently operate with them in reasoning as with really existing objects and build abstract diagrams of real processes that serve for a deeper understanding of them. In this sense, idealization is closely related to modeling. Analogy, modeling. Analogy is a mental operation when knowledge obtained from the consideration of any one object (model) is transferred to another, less studied or less accessible for study, less visual object, called a prototype, original. This opens up the possibility of transferring information by analogy from model to prototype. This is the essence of one of the special methods of the theoretical level - modeling (construction and research of models). The difference between analogy and modeling is
10 is that if analogy is one of the mental operations, then modeling can be considered in different cases both as a mental operation and as an independent method - an action method. Model is an auxiliary object, selected or transformed for cognitive purposes, providing new information about the main object. The forms of modeling are varied and depend on the models used and the scope of their application. According to the nature of the models, subject and sign (information) modeling are distinguished. Subject modeling is carried out on a model that reproduces certain geometric, physical, dynamic, or functional characteristics of the modeling object - the original; in a particular case - analogue modeling, when the behavior of the original and the model is described by unified mathematical relationships, for example, unified differential equations. In symbolic modeling, models are diagrams, drawings, formulas, etc. The most important type of such modeling is mathematical modeling (see more details below). Modeling is always used together with other research methods, and it is especially closely related to experiment. The study of a phenomenon using its model is a special type of experiment - a model experiment, which differs from a regular experiment in that in the process of cognition an “intermediate link” is included - a model, which is both a means and an object of experimental research, replacing the original. A special type of modeling is a thought experiment. In such an experiment, the researcher mentally creates ideal objects, correlates them with each other within the framework of a certain dynamic model, mentally simulating the movement and situations that could take place in a real experiment. At the same time, ideal models and objects help to identify “in their purest form” the most important, essential connections and relationships, mentally play out possible situations, and weed out unnecessary options.
11 Modeling also serves as a way to construct something new that does not previously exist in practice. The researcher, having studied the characteristic features of real processes and their trends, searches for new combinations based on the leading idea, makes their mental reconstruction, that is, models the required state of the system being studied (just like any person and even an animal, builds his activity based on the initially formed “model of the required future” - according to N.A. Bernstein). In this case, hypothetical models are created that reveal the mechanisms of connection between the components of what is being studied, which are then tested in practice. In this understanding, modeling has recently become widespread in the social sciences and humanities - in economics, pedagogy, etc., when different authors propose different models of firms, industries, educational systems, etc. Along with the operations of logical thinking, theoretical methods of operations can also include (perhaps conditionally) imagination as a mental process of creating new ideas and images with its specific forms of fantasy (creating implausible, paradoxical images and concepts) and dreams (as creating images of what is desired). Theoretical methods (methods - cognitive actions). The general philosophical, general scientific method of cognition is dialectics - the real logic of meaningful creative thinking, reflecting the objective dialectics of reality itself. The basis of dialectics as a method of scientific knowledge is the ascent from the abstract to the concrete (G. Hegel) - from general and poor in content forms to dissected and richer in content, to a system of concepts that allows one to comprehend an object in its essential characteristics. In dialectics, all problems acquire a historical character; the study of the development of an object is a strategic platform for knowledge. Finally, dialectics is oriented in knowledge towards the disclosure and ways of resolving contradictions.
12 Laws of dialectics: the transition of quantitative changes into qualitative ones, unity and struggle of opposites, etc.; analysis of paired dialectical categories: historical and logical, phenomenon and essence, general (universal) and individual, etc. are integral components of any well-constructed scientific research. Scientific theories tested by practice: any such theory, essentially, acts as a method in constructing new theories in this or even other areas of scientific knowledge, as well as as a method that determines the content and sequence of the researcher’s experimental activities. Therefore, the difference between scientific theory as a form of scientific knowledge and as a method of cognition in this case is functional in nature: being formed as a theoretical result of past research, the method acts as the starting point and condition for subsequent research. Proof - a method - a theoretical (logical) action, during which the truth of a thought is justified with the help of other thoughts. Any proof consists of three parts: thesis, arguments (arguments) and demonstration. According to the method of conducting evidence, there are direct and indirect, and according to the form of inference - inductive and deductive. Rules of evidence: 1. The thesis and arguments must be clear and precisely defined. 2. The thesis must remain identical throughout the entire proof. 3. The thesis should not contain a logical contradiction. 4. The arguments given in support of the thesis must themselves be true, beyond doubt, must not contradict each other and be a sufficient basis for this thesis. 5. The proof must be complete. In the totality of methods of scientific knowledge, an important place belongs to the method of analyzing knowledge systems (see, for example,). Any scientific knowledge system has a certain independence in relation to the reflected subject area. In addition, knowledge in such systems is expressed using language, the properties of which influence the relationship of knowledge systems to
13 objects being studied - for example, if any sufficiently developed psychological, sociological, pedagogical concept is translated into, say, English, German, French - will it be unambiguously perceived and understood in England, Germany and France? Further, the use of language as a carrier of concepts in such systems presupposes one or another logical systematization and logically organized use of linguistic units to express knowledge. And, finally, no system of knowledge exhausts the entire content of the object being studied. In it, only a certain, historically specific part of such content always receives description and explanation. The method of analyzing scientific knowledge systems plays an important role in empirical and theoretical research problems: when choosing an initial theory, a hypothesis for solving a selected problem; when distinguishing between empirical and theoretical knowledge, semi-empirical and theoretical solutions to a scientific problem; when justifying the equivalence or priority of using certain mathematical tools in various theories related to the same subject area; when exploring the possibilities of disseminating previously formulated theories, concepts, principles, etc. to new subject areas; substantiation of new possibilities for the practical application of knowledge systems; when simplifying and clarifying knowledge systems for training and popularization; for coordination with other knowledge systems, etc. Further, theoretical methods-actions will include two methods for constructing scientific theories: - the deductive method (synonymous with the axiomatic method) - a method for constructing a scientific theory in which it is based on some initial provisions axioms (synonym - postulates), from which all other provisions of a given theory (theorem) are derived purely logically through proof. The construction of a theory based on the axiomatic method is usually called deductive. All concepts of deductive theory, except for a fixed number of initial ones (such initial concepts in geometry, for example, are: point, straight line, plane) are introduced through definitions,
14 expressing them through previously introduced or derived concepts. A classic example of deductive theory is Euclidian geometry. The deductive method is used to build theories in mathematics, mathematical logic, and theoretical physics; - the second method has not received a name in the literature, but it certainly exists, since in all other sciences, except those listed above, theories are built using a method that we will call inductive-deductive: first, an empirical basis is accumulated, on the basis of which theoretical generalizations (induction) are built, which can be built into several levels - for example, empirical laws and theoretical laws - and then these resulting generalizations can be extended to all objects and phenomena covered by a given theory (deduction) - see Fig. 6 and Fig. 10. The inductive-deductive method is used to build most theories in the sciences of nature, society and man: physics, chemistry, biology, geology, geography, psychology, pedagogy, etc. Other theoretical research methods (in the sense of methods - cognitive actions): identification and resolving contradictions, posing problems, constructing hypotheses, etc. up to the planning of scientific research, we will consider below in the specifics of the time structure of research activity - the construction of phases, stages and stages of scientific research.
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Methodologyscientific
research
Lecture 3
Topic 3. Means and methods of scientific research
Means of cognition: material, informational,mathematical, logical, linguistic.
Classification of scientific research methods.
Empirical and theoretical levels of knowledge.
Theoretical research methods (analysis, synthesis,
comparison, abstraction, concretization, generalization,
formalization, induction, deduction, idealization,
analogy, modeling).
Empirical research methods (study
literature, documents and results of activities,
observation, measurement, survey, expert method
assessments, testing, survey, monitoring,
study and generalization of experience, experiment,
retrospection, forecasting).
Scientific Research Tools
Means of scientific research (means of cognition)
In the course of the development of science,means of knowledge are being improved: material,
mathematical, logical, linguistic. Besides, in
lately it is obviously necessary to add to them
information media as a special class.
All means of cognition are specially created
facilities. In this sense, material
informational, mathematical, logical,
linguistic means of cognition have a common
property: they are designed, created, developed,
justified for certain educational purposes. Material
Language
Information
Facilities
knowledge
brain teaser
Mathematical
Material means of knowledge
These funds are directly aimed at the studiedobjects, they play the main role in empirical
testing hypotheses and other scientific results
research, in the discovery of new objects, facts.
The use of material means of knowledge in science
in general – microscope, telescope, synchrophasotron,
Earth satellites, etc. - has a profound impact on
formation of the conceptual apparatus of sciences, into ways
descriptions of the subjects being studied, methods of reasoning and
representations, on the generalizations used,
idealizations and arguments.
In the history of the emergence of material resources
knowledge is associated with the formation of empirical methods
research - observation, measurement, experiment.
Information means of cognition
Mass introduction of computer technology,information technologies, telecommunications
radically transforms the scientific research industry
activities in many branches of science, makes them
by means of scientific knowledge.
In recent decades, computing has widely
used to automate experiments in physics,
biology, technical sciences, etc., which allows
simplify research hundreds, thousands of times
procedures and reduce data processing time. Except
In addition, information means make it possible to significantly
simplify the processing of statistical data practically
in all branches of science. And the use of satellite
navigation systems greatly increases the accuracy
measurements in geodesy, cartography, etc. Computer technology of formalized description,
design and visualization of gene networks:
gene network editor GenNetEd.
Edit component
properties
Mathematical means of cognition
Mathematics has formulated the rules of considerationobject of study in the form of numbers, sets, etc.,
abstracted from specific content, which
simplifies, facilitates and accelerates the process of cognition,
allows you to more deeply identify the relationship between objects,
isolate the starting positions, ensure accuracy
and severity of judgment.
Mathematical tools allow us to consider not
only directly abstracted
quantitative relationships and spatial
forms, but also logically possible, which deduce
according to logical rules from previously known
relationships and forms.
Mathematical means of cognition
Under the influence of mathematical means of cognitionis undergoing significant changes
theoretical apparatus of descriptive sciences.
Mathematical tools allow
systematize empirical data,
identify and formulate quantitative
dependencies and patterns.
Mathematical tools are also used as
special forms of idealization and analogy
(math modeling).
Logical means of cognition
In any study, the scientist has to decidelogical tasks:
- what logical requirements must be met?
reasoning that allows one to make objectively true
conclusions; how to control the nature of these
reasoning?
- what logical requirements should it satisfy?
description of empirically observed characteristics?
- how to logically analyze source systems
scientific knowledge, how to coordinate certain knowledge systems with
other knowledge systems (for example, in sociology and
closely related psychology)?
- how to build a scientific theory that allows
give scientific explanations, predictions, etc.?
Logical means of cognition
Using logical tools inthe process of constructing reasoning and
evidence allows the researcher
separate controlled arguments from
intuitively or uncritically
accepted, false from true,
confusion from contradictions.
Logical means of cognition
The principle of induction states that: Observationphenomenon X, which corresponds to theory T,
increases the likelihood that theory T
true.
Inductive inferences are widely
used in science. Opinion about truth
many scientific laws (such as, for example,
Newton's laws) is based on the fact that
many observations confirm them
truth while not existing
observations that would contradict these
laws (in those conditions where these laws must
be applicable according to theory). “Suppose there is a theory according to which everything
crows are black. According to formal logic, this theory
is equivalent to the theory that all objects that are not black
are not crows. If a person sees a lot of black people
Voronov, then his confidence that this theory is correct,
will increase. If he sees a lot of red apples, then this
will increase his confidence that all non-black objects
are not ravens, and, according to the above, should also
increase his confidence that all crows are black.”
However, this conclusion contradicts the intuitive perception
situations by a person. Seeing red apples will increase
the observer's confidence that all non-black objects are not
are crows, but it will not increase his confidence in
that all crows are black.
Sophism is a certain logical conclusion in structure that proves an absurd or paradoxical statement,
something logicalstructure
inference,
proving
absurd or
paradoxical
statement,
which
contradicts
generally accepted
objective
truth.
Modern sophism, justifying,
that with age, “years of life” not only seem,
but actually in short:
“Every year of your life is its 1/n part, where n is
the number of years you have lived. But p+1>p. Hence,
1/ n+1<1/п».
Language means of cognition
Rules are an important means of language cognitionconstructing definitions of concepts. Anyway
scientific research, the scientist has to clarify
introduced concepts, symbols and signs, use new ones
concepts and signs. Definitions are always related to language as
a means of cognition and expression of knowledge.
Rules for the use of languages, both natural and
artificial, with the help of which the researcher builds
formulates his reasoning and evidence
hypotheses, draws conclusions, etc., are the initial
point of cognitive action. Knowledge of them has
great impact on efficiency of use
linguistic means of cognition in scientific research. "The boundaries of my language mean boundaries
my world" (L. Wittgenstein)
“By word and through word we know
reality, and the word is reality itself"
(P. Florensky)
“Language helps us understand the world in the same way
like vision and hearing” (N. Chomsky)
“Truth cannot be conveyed in one language”
(I. Garin)
Classification of scientific research methods
Definitions
Method (gr. methodos) is 1) a way of knowing,research into natural and social phenomena
life; 2) technique, method and course of action.
The scientific method is a system of rules and regulations
guiding human activity
(production, political, cultural,
scientific, educational, etc.) to achieve
set goal.
If methodology is the strategy of scientific
research to achieve the goal,
formulated in the hypothesis of the expected
scientific results (general path of knowledge),
then the method is a tactic that shows how best
just go this way.
Definitions
Methods of science - a system of regulatory principles, inaccording to which scientific research is built
activity.
Research methods - techniques, procedures and operations
empirical and theoretical knowledge and study
phenomena of reality. With the help of this group
methods obtain reliable information used
to build scientific theories and develop practical
recommendations.
The system of research methods is determined by the initial
the researcher’s concept: his ideas about
essence and structure of what is being studied, general methodological
orientation, goals and objectives of a particular study.
No method gives the researcher a ready-made template
Proper and adequate use is requiredscientific methods. As Academician P. Kapitsa noted,
The scientific method is like a violin
Stradivarius, the most perfect of violins, but
to play it, you need to be a musician and know
music. Without this, she will be just as false as
an ordinary violin."
The method depends not so much on the object, but on
subject. Researchers are often faced with the question of
choosing a research method. This choice is influenced
influence of the level of scientific training of the researcher,
experience of cognitive activity, etc. Therefore on
based on the same theory may arise
subjective modifications of the method. Scientific Research Methods
THEORETICAL
EMPIRICAL
operation methods
action methods
methods of operation
action methods
analysis
synthesis
comparison
abstracted
no
specification
generalization
formalization
induction
deduction
idealization
analogy
modeling
mental
experiment
imagination
dialectics
scientific theories,
proof
systems analysis
knowledge
deductive
(axiomatically
j) method
inductive-deductive
method
identification and
permission
contradictions
staging
problems
construction
hypotheses
studying
literature,
documents and
results
activities
observation
measurement
survey
(oral and
writing)
expert
estimates
testing
e
methods
tracking
object
(examination,
monitoring,
study and
generalization
experience)
methods
transformation
object
(experienced work,
experiment)
methods
research
object in
time
(retrospective,
Classification of dissertation research methods
I. Search (until the result is obtained)II. Receipts (while receiving the result)
III. Justifications
IV. Presentations
(after
receiving
result)
RESULT
SEARCH
RECEIVING
JUSTIFICATION
PRESENTATION
Theoretical "methods -
operations" are determined
by main
thinking
operations:
analysis and synthesis,
comparison,
abstraction and
specification,
generalization
formalization, induction
and deduction, idealization,
analogy, modeling,
thought experiment.
Theoretical methods-operations
Analysis is the decomposition of the whole being studied intoparts, highlighting individual characteristics and qualities
phenomenon, process or relationship of phenomena,
processes. Analysis procedures include organic
an integral part of any scientific research
and usually form its first phase when
the researcher moves from the undivided
descriptions of the object being studied to identify it
structure, composition, its properties and characteristics.
One and the same phenomenon, process can be
analyze in many aspects. Comprehensive
analysis of a phenomenon allows us to consider it more deeply.
Theoretical methods-operations
Synthesis - the combination of different elements, sidesobject into a single whole (system). Synthesis is not easy
summation, but a semantic connection.
Synthesis is the opposite of analysis, with which it is inextricably
connected. Synthesis as a cognitive operation appears in
various functions of theoretical research. Any
the process of concept formation is based on unity
processes of analysis and synthesis. Empirical data
obtained in a particular study are synthesized
during their theoretical generalization.
In theoretical scientific knowledge, synthesis appears in
functions of the relationship between theories related to one
subject area, as well as in the union function
competing theories, for example, the synthesis of corpuscular and
wave concepts in physics).
Theoretical methods-operations
Comparison is a cognitive operationunderlying judgments of similarity or
differences between objects. Using comparison
quantitative and qualitative are identified
characteristics of objects, their
classification, ordering and evaluation.
Comparison is a comparison of one with
to others. In this case, an important role is played
grounds, or signs of comparison, which
determine possible relationships between
objects.
Theoretical methods-operations
Abstraction is one of the mainmental operations, allowing
mentally isolate and turn into
independent object of consideration
individual aspects, properties or states
object in its pure form. Abstraction lies
at the basis of the processes of generalization and education
concepts.
Such a distinction is only possible in
mentally - in the abstract. So,
the geometric figure of the body itself
does not really exist and cannot be separated from the body
Maybe. But thanks to abstraction she
mentally highlighted, fixed, for example
– with the help of a drawing, and independently
considered in its specific
Theoretical methods-operations
Specification- process,
the opposite of abstraction, that is
finding a holistic, interconnected,
multifaceted and complex. Researcher
initially forms various
abstractions, and then based on them
reproduces through concretization
this integrity (mental concrete), but
already at a qualitatively different level of knowledge
specific.
Dialectics of theoretical thinking and
consists in the unity of abstraction,
creating various abstractions and
concretization, movement towards the specific and
Theoretical methods-operations
Generalization is one of the main cognitivemental operations, consisting of isolating and
fixation of relatively stable, invariant properties
objects and their relationships
Generalization allows you to display properties and relationships
objects, regardless of their particular and random conditions
observations. Separation of general properties from private ones and
designating them with a word allows for an abbreviated, condensed
form to cover the entire variety of objects, reduce them into
defined classes and then through abstractions
operate with concepts without direct reference
to individual objects.
The generalization function is to order the variety
objects, their classification.
Theoretical methods-operations
Formalization - display of resultsthinking in precise concepts or statements.
Is, as it were, a mental operation of the “second
order." Formalization is contrasted
intuitive thinking. In mathematics and
In formal logic, formalization is understood as
display of content knowledge in symbolic
form or in formalized language.
Formalization, that is, the abstraction of concepts from their
content, provides systematization of knowledge,
in which individual elements coordinate it
together. True science is only possible
based on abstract thinking, consistent
researcher's reasoning taking place in
logical linguistic form through concepts,
judgments and conclusions.
Theoretical methods-operations
Scientific judgments establish connections betweenobjects, phenomena or between their specific
signs. There is one judgment in scientific conclusions
comes from another, based on already existing
new conclusions are drawn. There are two main
types of conclusions: inductive (induction) and deductive
(deduction).
Induction
- this is an inference from private
objects, phenomena to a general conclusion, from individual
facts to generalizations.
Deduction is an inference from the general to
to the particular, from general judgments to particular conclusions.
Theoretical methods-operations
Analogy (modeling) – mentalan operation when knowledge obtained from the consideration of any one object (model) is transferred to another,
less studied or less accessible to study, less
a visual object called a prototype, an original.
It becomes possible to transfer information via
analogies from model to prototype.
This is the essence of one of the special methods of theoretical
level - modeling (construction and research
models). Difference between analogy and modeling
is that if the analogy is one of
mental operations, then modeling can
be considered in different cases and as a mental
operation and as an independent method – method-action.
Theoretical methods-actions
Cognitive methods-actions include:dialectics, scientific theories, proof, analysis
knowledge systems, deductive (axiomatic) method,
inductive-deductive method, problem posing,
building hypotheses.
Laws of dialectics: transition of quantitative
changes in quality, unity and struggle
opposites, etc.; paired analysis
dialectical categories: historical and logical,
phenomenon and essence, general (universal) and individual and
others are integral components of any
well-constructed scientific research.
Theoretical methods-actions
Scientific theories tested by practice: anysuch a theory essentially acts as a function
method when constructing new theories in a given or
even in other areas of scientific knowledge, as well as in
functions of the method that determines the content and
experimental sequence
researcher activities.
Proof – theoretical (logical)
an action during which the truth of something
thoughts are justified with the help of other thoughts.
Any proof consists of three parts: thesis,
arguments (arguments) and demonstration. By method
evidence can be direct or indirect,
in the form of inference - inductive and
deductive.
Theoretical methods-actions
Deductive method (synonym - axiomaticmethod) is a way of constructing a scientific theory, in which
it is based on certain starting points
axioms (synonym - postulates), from which all the rest
the provisions of this theory (theorem) are derived purely
logically through proof.
Inductive-deductive method: first
an empirical basis is accumulated, on the basis of which
theoretical generalizations are constructed (induction), which
can be built in several levels - for example,
empirical laws and theoretical laws - and then these
the resulting generalizations can be extended to all
objects and phenomena covered by this theory
(deduction).
Theoretical methods-actions
Hypothetical method of cognitioninvolves the development of a scientific hypothesis on
basis of studying physical, chemical, etc.,
essence of the phenomenon under study,
formulating a hypothesis, drawing up
calculation scheme of the algorithm (model), its
study, analysis, development of theoretical
provisions.
The historical method of cognition presupposes
study of the emergence, formation and
development of objects in chronological order
sequences.
Control questions
1.2.
3.
4.
5.
Give examples of material,
informational, mathematical, logical,
linguistic means of cognition.
What is the "scientific method"?
How are scientific methods classified?
knowledge?
Name the main theoretical methods
research. Which of them do you expect?
use at various stages of implementation
scientific research?
What is the peculiarity of specific scientific methods in comparison with
general scientific? Give examples.
Control questions
1. there is a possibility of inductivereasoning that can be illustrated
next joke. Eating cucumbers is dangerous.
This conclusion is not unfounded and is based on a large
statistical material. Almost all people
those suffering from chronic diseases ate cucumbers,
99% of people who died of cancer ate cucumbers during their lifetime,
70.1% of those killed in plane and car accidents the day before
accidents consumed cucumbers in one form or another.
Almost 70% of criminals come from families
where cucumbers were periodically consumed, and (that
interesting) 98% of juvenile delinquents
come from families where cucumbers were consumed
constantly.
This example shows how easy it is to give away stupidity
for scientific truth, justifying an erroneous hypothesis
statistical data.
General scientific methods:
I. Empirical1.1. Observation (deliberate and purposeful perception).
1.2. Experiment (observing change as a result of
organized intervention in the self-flowing course of events
1.3. Measurement (establishing quantitative characteristics)
1.4. Comparison (or comparison of two theories?).
II. Theoretical
2.1.
2.2.
2.3.
2.4.
Formalization.
Axiomatic.
Hypothetico-deductive.
Ascent from the abstract to the concrete.
III. General studies
3.1.
3.2.
3.3.
3.4.
3.5.
Analysis, synthesis.
Abstraction, generalization.
Idealization, modeling.
Analogy, induction.
Systems approach.
76
Classification of scientific methods
I.II.
III.
IV.
V.
Philosophical:
metaphysical
dialectical
phenomenological
hermeneutical
General scientific:
empirical
theoretical
general logical
Private scientific
Disciplinary.
Interdisciplinary.
Topic 5 Methodology of theoretical research
Methodology (from Greek μεθοδολογία - the doctrine of methods; from ancient Greek μέθοδος from μετά- + ὁδός, lit. “the path following something” and ancient Greek λόγος - thought, reason) - teaching about methods , methods and strategies for researching the subject.
Methodology structure
The methodology can be considered in two sections: both theoretical, and it is formed by the branch of philosophical knowledge epistemology, and practical, focused on solving practical problems and purposefully transforming the world. The theoretical strives for a model of ideal knowledge (in the conditions specified by the description, for example, the speed of light in a vacuum), while the practical is a program (algorithm), a set of techniques and ways of how to achieve the desired practical goal and not sin against the truth, or what we consider true knowledge. The quality (success, effectiveness) of the method is tested by practice, by solving scientific and practical problems - that is, by searching for principles for achieving a goal, implemented in a complex of real cases and circumstances.
The methodology can be distinguished as follows:
Foundations of the methodology: philosophy, logic, systemology, psychology, computer science, systems analysis, science, ethics, aesthetics;
Characteristics of activity: features, principles, conditions, norms of activity;
Logical structure of activity: subject, object, subject, forms, means, methods, result of activity, problem solving;
Temporal structure of activity: phases, stages, stages.
Technology of performing work and solving problems: means, methods, methods, techniques.
The methodology is also divided into substantive and formal. The substantive methodology includes the study of laws, theories, the structure of scientific knowledge, scientific criteria and the system of research methods used. Formal methodology is associated with the analysis of research methods from the point of view of logical structure and formalized approaches to the construction of theoretical knowledge, its truth and argumentation.
Methods in science are methods and techniques for studying the phenomena that constitute the subject of this science. The use of these techniques should lead to correct knowledge of the phenomena being studied, i.e. to an adequate (corresponding to reality) reflection in the human mind of their inherent features and patterns.
Research methods used in science cannot be arbitrary, chosen without sufficient grounds, just at the whim of the researcher. True knowledge is achieved only when the methods used in science are constructed in accordance with the objectively existing laws of nature and social life, which are expressed in the philosophy of dialectical and historical materialism.
When constructing scientific research methods, it is necessary first of all to rely on the following of these laws:
a) all phenomena of the reality around us are interconnected and conditioned. These phenomena do not exist in isolation from each other, but always in an organic connection, therefore the correct methods of scientific research should investigate the phenomena being studied in their mutual connection, and not metaphysically, as existing supposedly separated from each other;
b) all phenomena of the reality around us are always in the process of development, change, therefore the correct methods should study the phenomena being studied in their development, and not as something stable, frozen in its immobility.
At the same time, scientific methods of research must proceed from a correct understanding of the development process itself: 1) as consisting not only of quantitative, but, most importantly, of qualitative changes, 2) as having as its source the struggle of opposites, internally inherent in the phenomenon of contradictions. The study of phenomena outside the process of their development is also one of the significant errors of the metaphysical approach to the knowledge of reality.
The logical structure includes the following components: subject, object, subject, forms, means, methods of activity, its result.
Epistemology is a theory of scientific knowledge (synonymous with epistemology), one of the components of philosophy. In general, epistemology studies the laws and possibilities of knowledge, explores the stages, forms, methods and means of the process of knowledge, conditions and criteria for the truth of scientific knowledge.
The methodology of science as a doctrine of the organization of scientific research activity is that part of epistemology that studies the process of scientific activity (its organization).
Classifications of scientific knowledge.
Scientific knowledge is classified on different grounds:
– by groups of subject areas, knowledge is divided into mathematical, natural, humanitarian and technical;
– according to the method of reflecting the essence of knowledge, they are classified into phenomenalist (descriptive) and essentialist (explanatory). Phenomentalistic knowledge is a qualitative theory endowed with predominantly descriptive functions (many branches of biology, geography, psychology, pedagogy, etc.). In contrast, essentialist knowledge is explanatory theories, usually constructed using quantitative means of analysis;
– in relation to the activities of certain subjects, knowledge is divided into descriptive (descriptive) and prescriptive, normative – containing instructions, direct instructions for activity. Let us stipulate that the material contained in this subsection from the field of scientific studies, including epistemology, is of a descriptive nature, but, firstly, it is necessary as a guide for any researcher; secondly, it is, in a certain sense, the basis for further presentation of the prescriptive foundation of the methodology of science, normative material related directly to the methodology of scientific activity;
– according to functional purpose, scientific knowledge is classified into fundamental, applied and development;
Empirical knowledge is established facts of science and empirical patterns and laws formulated on the basis of their generalization. Accordingly, empirical research is aimed directly at the object and is based on empirical, experimental data.
Empirical knowledge, being an absolutely necessary stage of cognition, since all our knowledge ultimately arises from experience, is still not enough to understand the deep internal laws of the emergence and development of a cognizable object.
Theoretical knowledge is formulated general patterns for a given subject area that make it possible to explain previously discovered facts and empirical patterns, as well as to predict and anticipate future events and facts.
Theoretical knowledge transforms the results obtained at the stage of empirical knowledge into deeper generalizations, revealing the essence of the phenomena of the first, second, etc. orders, patterns of emergence, development and change of the object being studied.
Both types of research – empirical and theoretical – are organically interconnected and determine each other’s development in the holistic structure of scientific knowledge. Empirical research, revealing new facts of science, stimulates the development of theoretical research and poses new tasks for them. On the other hand, theoretical research, developing and concretizing new perspectives for explaining and predicting facts, orients and guides empirical research.
Semiotics is a science that studies the laws of construction and functioning of sign systems. Semiotics is naturally one of the foundations of the methodology, since human activity, human communication makes it necessary to develop numerous systems of signs with the help of which people could transmit various information to each other and thereby organize their activities.
In order for the content of a message that one person can convey to another, conveying the knowledge he has acquired about a subject or the attitude he has developed towards a subject, to be understood by the recipient, a method of transmission is necessary that would allow the recipient to reveal the meaning of this message. And this is possible if the message is expressed in signs that carry the meaning entrusted to them, and if the person transmitting the information and the recipient equally understand the connection between the meaning and the sign.
Since communication between people is unusually rich and diverse, humanity needs many sign systems, which is explained by:
– features of the transmitted information that make one prefer one language over another. For example, the difference between scientific language and natural language, the difference between the languages of art and scientific languages, etc.
– features of the communicative situation that make the use of a particular language more convenient. For example, the use of natural language and sign language in private conversation; natural and mathematical - at a lecture, for example, in physics; language of graphic symbols and light signals - when regulating street traffic, etc.;
– the historical development of culture, which is characterized by a consistent expansion of communication opportunities between people. Up to today's gigantic capabilities of mass communication systems based on printing, radio and television, computers, telecommunication networks, etc.
The issues of using semiotics in methodology, as well as in all science and practice, frankly speaking, have been completely insufficiently studied. And there are many problems here. For example, the vast majority of researchers in the field of social sciences and humanities do not use mathematical modeling methods, even when it is possible and appropriate, simply because they do not speak the language of mathematics at the level of its professional use. Or another example - today many studies are carried out at the “junction” of sciences. Let's say pedagogy and technology. And here confusion often arises due to the fact that the researcher uses both professional languages “mixed up”. But the subject of any scientific research, say a dissertation, can only lie in one subject area, one science. And, accordingly, one language should be the main, end-to-end language, and the other should only be auxiliary.
Standards of scientific ethics.
A separate issue that needs to be addressed is the issue of scientific ethics. The norms of scientific ethics are not formulated in the form of any approved codes, official requirements, etc. However, they exist and can be considered in two aspects - as internal (in the community of scientists) ethical standards and as external - as the social responsibility of scientists for their actions and their consequences.
The ethical standards of the scientific community, in particular, were described by R. Merton back in 1942 as a set of four basic values:
– universalism: the truth of scientific statements must be assessed regardless of the race, gender, age, authority, and titles of those who formulate them. Thus, science is initially democratic: the results of a major, famous scientist should be subject to no less strict testing and criticism than the results of a novice researcher;
– community: scientific knowledge should freely become common property;
– disinterest, impartiality: A scientist must seek the truth unselfishly. Reward and recognition should be considered only as a possible consequence of scientific achievements, and not as an end in themselves. At the same time, there is both scientific “competition”, which consists in the desire of scientists to obtain scientific results faster than others, and competition between individual scientists and their teams for receiving grants, government orders, etc.
– rational skepticism: Each researcher is responsible for assessing the quality of what his colleagues have done, and he is not relieved of responsibility for using data obtained by other researchers in his work unless he himself has verified the accuracy of this data. That is, in science it is necessary, on the one hand, respect for what predecessors did; on the other hand, a skeptical attitude towards their results: “Plato is my friend, but the truth is dearer” (Aristotle’s saying).
Features of individual scientific activity:
1. A scientist must clearly limit the scope of his activities and determine the goals of his scientific work.
In science, as in any other area of professional activity, there is a natural division of labor. A scientist cannot engage in “science in general,” but must identify a clear direction of work, set a specific goal and consistently move towards achieving it. We will talk about research design below, but here it should be noted that the property of any scientific work is that on the path of the researcher, the most interesting phenomena and facts constantly “come across”, which in themselves are of great value and which one wants to study in more detail. But the researcher risks being distracted from the core of his scientific work, studying these phenomena and facts that are incidental to his research, behind which new phenomena and facts will be discovered, and this will continue endlessly. The work will thus “blur” away. As a result, no results will be achieved. This is a typical mistake made by most novice researchers and needs to be warned about. One of the main qualities of a scientist is the ability to focus only on the problem he is dealing with, and use all the others - “side” ones - only to the extent and at the level as they are described in contemporary scientific literature.
2. Scientific work is built “on the shoulders of predecessors.”
Before embarking on any scientific work on any problem, it is necessary to study in the scientific literature what has been done in this area by predecessors.
3. A scientist must master scientific terminology and strictly build his conceptual apparatus.
The point is not only to write in complex language, as many novice scientists often mistakenly believe: that the more complex and incomprehensible, the supposedly more scientific. The advantage of a real scientist is that he writes and speaks about the most complex things in simple language. The point is something else. The researcher must draw a clear line between everyday and scientific language. And the difference is that ordinary spoken language does not have special requirements for the accuracy of the terminology used. However, as soon as we start talking about these same concepts in scientific language, questions immediately arise: “In what sense is such and such a concept, such and such a concept, etc. used? In each specific case, the researcher must answer the question: “In what sense does he use this or that concept?”
In any science there is a phenomenon of parallel existence of various scientific schools. Each scientific school builds its own conceptual apparatus. Therefore, if a novice researcher takes, for example, one term in the understanding, interpretation of one scientific school, another - in the understanding of another school, a third - in the understanding of a third scientific school, etc., then there will be a complete discrepancy in the use of concepts, and no Thus, the researcher will not create a new system of scientific knowledge, since no matter what he says or writes, he will not go beyond the scope of ordinary (everyday) knowledge.
4. The result of any scientific work, any research must be formalized in “written” form (printed or electronic) and published - in the form of a scientific report, scientific report, abstract, article, book, etc.
This requirement is due to two circumstances. Firstly, only in writing can you present your ideas and results in a strictly scientific language. This almost never happens in spoken language. Moreover, writing any scientific work, even the smallest article, is very difficult for a novice researcher, since what is easily spoken in public speeches or mentally spoken “to oneself” turns out to be “unwriteable.” Here is the same difference as between ordinary, everyday and scientific languages. In oral speech, we ourselves and our listeners do not notice logical flaws. Written text requires strict logical presentation, and this is much more difficult to do. Secondly, the goal of any scientific work is to obtain and communicate new scientific knowledge to people. And if this “new scientific knowledge” remains only in the researcher’s head, no one can read about it, then this knowledge, in fact, will be lost. In addition, the number and volume of scientific publications are an indicator, albeit a formal one, of the productivity of any scientist. And each researcher constantly maintains and updates the list of his published works.
Features of collective scientific activity:
1. Pluralism of scientific opinion.
Since any scientific work is a creative process, it is very important that this process is not “regulated.” Naturally, the scientific work of each research team can and should be planned quite strictly. But at the same time, every researcher, if he is sufficiently literate, has the right to his point of view, his opinion, which must, of course, be respected. Any attempts at dictatorship, imposing a common unified point of view on everyone, never led to a positive result. Let us recall, for example, the sad story of T.D. Lysenko, when domestic biology was thrown back decades.
There is even the term “Lysenkoism” - a political campaign to persecute and defame a group of geneticists, deny genetics and temporarily ban genetic research in the USSR (even though the Institute of Genetics continued to exist). It received its popular name after T. D. Lysenko, who became a symbol of the campaign. The campaign unfolded in scientific biological circles from approximately the mid-1930s to the first half of the 1960s. Its organizers were party and government officials, including I.V. Stalin himself. In a figurative sense, the term Lysenkoism can be used to refer to any administrative persecution of scientists for their “politically incorrect” scientific views
In particular, the existence of different scientific schools in the same branch of science is also due to the objective need for the existence of different points of view, views, and approaches. And life and practice then confirm or refute various theories, or reconcile them, as, for example, it reconciled such ardent opponents as R. Hooke and I. Newton were in physics, or I.P. Pavlov and A.A. Ukhtomsky in physiology.
1675, meeting of the newly founded Royal Society of London, discussion of the work of thirty-two-year-old Cambridge resident Isaac Newton “The Theory of Light and Colors” ...
So, confident in advance of success, the young scientist sets out its essence in detail. He confirms his propositions with the results of a brilliant series of experiments. Experiments with glass prisms amaze those gathered with their surprise and novelty. They are about to applaud him, when suddenly the famous optics specialist Robert Hooke, invited to the meeting as a reviewer, gets up and turns everything upside down.
He, without hiding sarcasm, publicly declares that the accuracy of the experiments does not raise any doubts in him, because before Newton... he carried them out himself, which, fortunately, he managed to report in his scientific work “Micrography”. Having carefully read the contents of this work, it is not difficult to notice that the same data are presented there only with different conclusions, which Hooke is ready to convince the audience right on the spot by reading some excerpts from it. It is strange that, published ten years ago, it inexplicably escaped the attention of Newton, who was carried away by optics. Well, the devil is with him, this plagiarism. The main thing is that Newton very ineptly used the material he borrowed without asking, which is why he came to the erroneous conclusion about the corpuscular nature of light. Newton’s other conclusion regarding the presence of seven color components in a white light beam and the explanation of the eye’s immunity to this phenomenon due to their non-manifestation does not fit into any gates at all. “Taking this conclusion as truth,” the indignant Hooke quipped, “one can with great success declare that musical sounds are hidden in the air before they sound.”
Hooke himself adhered to a completely different concept in his view of the nature of light. He was convinced that light should be considered in the form of transverse waves, and its stripe color could only be explained by the reflection of a refracted ray from the surface of a glass prism.
Imagine how furious Newton was with his reviewer! In his response, he sharply condemned Hooke for his tone, which was unacceptable for a scientist of his rank, and called the accusation of plagiarism vile slander, dictated by envy of his person and scientific achievements.
Hooke, of course, did not forgive Newton for this insolence and, after a while, burst out with a series of angry accusatory letters, to which Newton did not fail to respond in the same spirit. All of these letters have been preserved and have been published. Reading them, you simply blush with shame for these scientists. Perhaps no one else in its history has ever reached such licentiousness. Apparently, both great scientists believed that a thought sounds more convincing when it is accompanied by a strong word.
The most curious thing is that, having poured verbal slop on each other’s heads, but without proving anything to each other, the rivals made peace.
However, time decided their dispute - currently Newton’s corpuscular theory and the presence of seven color components in a white light beam are studied in a school physics course.
A. A. Ukhtomsky entered the history of domestic and world science and culture as one of the brilliant successors of the St. Petersburg physiological school, the birth of which is associated with the names of I. M. Sechenov and N. E. Vvedensky. This school existed simultaneously and in parallel with the school of I.P. Pavlov, but its discoveries and achievements were, as it were, “muffled” by the widely popularized works of I.P. Pavlov and his school, recognized by the Soviet authorities as the “only correct” view on the development of scientific thought.
However, both domestic physiological schools - the school of I.P. Pavlova and the school of A.A. Ukhtomsky in the 30s of the 20th century joined forces and brought their theoretical views closer together in understanding the mechanisms of behavior control.
2. Communications in science.
Any scientific research can only be carried out within a certain community of scientists. This is due to the fact that any researcher, even the most qualified one, always needs to discuss and discuss with colleagues their ideas, obtained facts, theoretical constructs - in order to avoid mistakes and misconceptions. It should be noted that among beginning researchers there is often an opinion that “I will do scientific work on my own, but when I get great results, then I will publish, discuss, etc.” But, unfortunately, this does not happen. Scientific Robinsonades never ended in anything worthwhile - the person “buried himself in,” became confused in his quest and, disappointed, left scientific activity. Therefore, scientific communication is always necessary.
One of the conditions for scientific communication for any researcher is his direct and indirect communication with all colleagues working in a given branch of science - through specially organized scientific and scientific-practical conferences, seminars, symposia (direct or virtual communication) and through scientific literature - articles in printed and electronic magazines, collections, books, etc. (mediated communication). In both cases, the researcher, on the one hand, speaks himself or publishes his results, on the other hand, he listens and reads what other researchers, his colleagues, are doing.
3. Implementation of research results
- the most important moment of scientific activity, since the ultimate goal of science as a branch of the national economy is, naturally, the implementation of the results obtained in practice. However, one should caution against the widely held idea among people far from science that the results of every scientific work must necessarily be implemented. Let's imagine such an example. More than 3,000 candidate and doctoral dissertations are defended annually in pedagogy alone. If we proceed from the assumption that all the results obtained must be implemented, then imagine a poor teacher who must read all these dissertations, and each of them contains from 100 to 400 pages of typewritten text. Naturally, no one will do this.
The implementation mechanism is different. The results of individual studies are published in theses and articles, then they are summarized (and thus, as it were, “abbreviated”) in books, brochures, monographs as purely scientific publications, and then in an even more generalized, abbreviated and systematized form they end up in university textbooks. And already completely “wrung out”, the most fundamental results end up in school textbooks.
In addition, not all studies can be implemented. Often, research is carried out to enrich the science itself, the arsenal of its facts, and the development of its theory. And only after the accumulation of a certain “critical mass” of facts and concepts do qualitative leaps in the introduction of scientific achievements into mass practice occur. A classic example is the science of mycology - the study of molds. Whoever has mocked mycological scientists for decades: “mold should be destroyed, not studied.” And this happened until in 1940 A. Fleming (Sir Alexander Fleming - British bacteriologist) discovered the bactericidal properties of penicillium (a type of mold). Antibiotics created on their basis made it possible to save millions of human lives only during the Second World War, and today we cannot imagine how medicine would manage without them.
Modern science is guided by three basic principles of knowledge: the principle of determinism, the principle of correspondence and the principle of complementarity.
The principle of determinism, being general scientific, organizes the construction of knowledge in specific sciences. Determinism appears, first of all, in the form of causation as a set of circumstances that precede in time any given event and cause it. That is, there is a connection between phenomena and processes, when one phenomenon, process (cause), under certain conditions, necessarily generates and produces another phenomenon, process (effect).
The fundamental drawback of the previous, classical (the so-called Laplacean) determinism is the fact that it was limited to directly acting causality, interpreted purely mechanistically: the objective nature of chance was denied, probabilistic connections were taken beyond the limits of determinism and opposed to the material determination of phenomena.
The modern understanding of the principle of determinism presupposes the presence of various objectively existing forms of interconnection of phenomena, many of which are expressed in the form of relationships that do not have a directly causal nature, that is, they do not directly contain the moment of generation of one by the other. This includes spatial and temporal correlations, functional dependencies, etc. Including, in modern science, in contrast to the determinism of classical science, uncertainty relations, formulated in the language of probabilistic laws or relations of fuzzy sets, or interval quantities, etc., are especially important.
However, all forms of real interrelations of phenomena ultimately develop on the basis of universal active causality, outside of which not a single phenomenon of reality exists. Including such events, called random, in the aggregate of which statistical laws are revealed. Recently, probability theory, mathematical statistics, etc. are increasingly being introduced into research in the social sciences and humanities.
Principle of correspondence. In its original form, the correspondence principle was formulated as an “empirical rule” expressing a natural connection in the form of a limiting transition between the theory of the atom, based on quantum postulates, and classical mechanics; and also between special relativity and classical mechanics. So, for example, four mechanics are conventionally distinguished: classical mechanics of I. Newton (corresponding to large masses, that is, masses much greater than the mass of elementary particles, and small speeds, that is, velocities much less than the speed of light), relativistic mechanics - the theory of relativity A. Einstein (“large” masses, “large” velocities), quantum mechanics (“small” masses, “small” velocities) and relativistic quantum mechanics (“small” masses, “large” velocities). They are completely consistent with each other “at the junctions”. In the process of further development of scientific knowledge, the truth of the principle of correspondence was proven for almost all the most important discoveries in physics, and after this in other sciences, after which its generalized formulation became possible: theories, the validity of which has been experimentally established for a particular area of phenomena, with with the emergence of new, more general theories, they are not discarded as something false, but retain their significance for the previous field of phenomena as the ultimate form and special case of new theories. The conclusions of new theories in the area where the old “classical” theory was valid turn into the conclusions of the classical theory.
It should be noted that strict implementation of the principle of correspondence takes place within the framework of the evolutionary development of science. But situations of “scientific revolutions” are not excluded, when a new theory refutes the previous one and replaces it.
The principle of correspondence means, in particular, the continuity of scientific theories. Researchers have to pay attention to the need to follow the principle of correspondence, since recently works have begun to appear in the humanities and social sciences, especially those carried out by people who came to these branches of science from other, “strong” areas of scientific knowledge, in which attempts are being made to create new theories, concepts, etc., little or nothing related to previous theories. New theoretical constructs can be useful for the development of science, but if they do not correlate with the previous ones, then science will cease to be integral, and scientists will soon cease to understand each other at all.
The principle of complementarity. The principle of complementarity arose as a result of new discoveries in physics also at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, when it became clear that a researcher, while studying an object, makes certain changes to it, including through the instrument used. This principle was first formulated by N. Bohr (Niels Henrik David Bohr - Danish theoretical physicist and public figure, one of the founders of modern physics): reproducing the integrity of a phenomenon requires the use of mutually exclusive “additional” classes of concepts in cognition. In physics, in particular, this meant that obtaining experimental data about some physical quantities is invariably associated with changing data about other quantities, additional to the first (narrow - physical - understanding of the principle of complementarity). With the help of complementarity, equivalence is established between classes of concepts that comprehensively describe contradictory situations in various spheres of cognition (general understanding of the principle of complementarity).
The principle of complementarity significantly changed the entire structure of science. If classical science functioned as an integral education, focused on obtaining a system of knowledge in a final and complete form, on an unambiguous study of events, excluding from the context of science the influence of the activities of the researcher and the means used by him, on assessing the knowledge included in the available fund of science as absolutely reliable, then with With the advent of the principle of complementarity, the situation changed.
The following is important:
– the inclusion of the subjective activity of the researcher in the context of science led to a change in the understanding of the subject of knowledge: it was now not reality “in its pure form,” but a certain slice of it, given through the prisms of accepted theoretical and empirical means and methods of its mastery by the knowing subject;
– the interaction of the object being studied with the researcher (including through instruments) cannot but lead to different manifestations of the properties of the object depending on the type of its interaction with the cognizing subject in different, often mutually exclusive conditions. And this means the legitimacy and equality of various scientific descriptions of an object, including various theories describing the same object, the same subject area. That is why, obviously, Bulgakov’s Woland says: “All theories are worth one another.”
It is important to emphasize that the same subject area can, in accordance with the principle of complementarity, be described by different theories. The same classical mechanics can be described not only by Newton’s mechanics, known from school physics textbooks, but also by W. Hamilton’s mechanics, G. Hertz’s mechanics, and K. Jacobi’s mechanics. They differ in their starting positions - which is taken as the main indeterminable quantities - force, impulse, energy, etc.
Or, for example, currently many socio-economic systems are studied through the construction of mathematical models using various branches of mathematics: differential equations, probability theory, game theory, etc. At the same time, the interpretation of the results of modeling the same phenomena and processes using different mathematical means gives, although similar, but still different conclusions.
Means of scientific research (means of cognition)
In the course of the development of science, means of cognition are developed and improved: material, mathematical, logical, linguistic. In addition, recently it is obviously necessary to add information media to them as a special class. All means of cognition are specially created means. In this sense, material, informational, mathematical, logical, linguistic means of cognition have a common property: they are designed, created, developed, justified for certain cognitive purposes.
Material means of knowledge- These are, first of all, instruments for scientific research. In history, the emergence of material means of knowledge is associated with the formation of empirical research methods - observation, measurement, experiment.
These means are directly aimed at the objects being studied; they play a major role in the empirical testing of hypotheses and other results of scientific research, in the discovery of new objects and facts. The use of material means of knowledge in science in general - microscope, telescope, synchrophasotron, Earth satellites, etc. – has a profound influence on the formation of the conceptual apparatus of sciences, on the methods of describing the subjects being studied, on the methods of reasoning and ideas, on the generalizations, idealizations and arguments used.
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