Scientific knowledge

Scientific knowledge is:

• cognitive basis of human activity;
• socially determined activities;
• knowledge with a different degree of reliability.

Being a specific type of knowledge, scientific knowledge must meet a number of criteria , among which are predictive power , verifiability (verifiability in practice), consistency and consistency of results ^[1] .

Scientific knowledge is usually considered at two levels - empirical and theoretical. Each of these levels uses its own special research methods and has different meanings for scientific knowledge as a whole.

Empirical knowledge

Empirical knowledge is accumulated as a result of direct contact with reality in observation or experiment. Science relies on firmly established facts obtained empirically, that is, experimentally. At the empirical level, the accumulation of facts, their primary systematization and classification. Empirical knowledge makes it possible to formulate empirical rules, laws, and laws that are statistically inferred from observed phenomena.

The main methods of empirical knowledge are:

• Experiment - observation of objects and phenomena in controlled or artificially created conditions in order to identify their essential characteristics;

• Observation - a focused perception of the phenomena of objective reality without making changes to the reality that is being investigated;

• Measurement - revealing the quantitative characteristics of the studied reality. As a result of the measurement, objects are compared according to certain properties;

• Comparison - simultaneous identification of the ratio and assessment of common properties for two or more objects or signs;

• Description - fixation by means of a natural or artificial language of information about objects and phenomena.

Information obtained using empirical methods is subjected to statistical processing. After that, scientists can make certain generalizations. The information received must be verified , therefore, scientists are required to describe in detail the sources of information and the methods used.

Theoretical knowledge

Empirical knowledge alone rarely can fully explain a certain phenomenon. Such knowledge is unheuristic , that is, it does not open up new possibilities for scientific research. That is why a theoretical level of knowledge is needed at which the obtained empirical data fits into a certain system. At the same time, it is impossible to begin any empirical research without certain theoretical principles.

Thus, the essence of theoretical knowledge is the description, explanation and systematization of processes and patterns identified empirically, as well as an attempt to holistic coverage of reality.

The main methods of theoretical knowledge are:

• Formalization - the construction of abstract models that should explain the essence of the phenomena under study;
• Axiomatization is a theoretical construction based on axioms, that is, statements whose truth does not need to be proved;
• The hypothetical - deductive method is the construction of deductively interconnected hypotheses explaining empirical facts.

The main components of theoretical knowledge are:

• The problem is a form of knowledge, the content of which is that which has not yet been known, but what needs to be known, that is, this knowledge of ignorance, a question that arose in the course of cognition and requires an answer; the problem includes two main stages of the movement of cognition - formulation and solution.
• A hypothesis is a form of knowledge in the form of an assumption formulated on the basis of a number of facts. Hypothetical knowledge is probabilistic, not reliable, and requires verification, justification. Some hypotheses subsequently turn into theories, while others are modified, refined, and concretized, while others are discarded as false. The decisive criterion for the truth of the hypothesis is practice in all its forms, while the logical (theoretical) criterion of truth plays an auxiliary role.
• Theory - knowledge, giving a holistic display of regular and essential relationships in a certain area of ​​reality. The theory is built to explain objective reality. The main task of the theory is the description, systematization and explanation of all available empirical data. However, the theory does not directly describe the surrounding reality. In formulating the theory, researchers operate on ideal objects, which, unlike real ones, are characterized not by an infinite, but by a limited number of properties.

The theoretical level of knowledge has two components - fundamental theories and theories that describe a specific area of ​​reality, based on the corresponding fundamental theories.

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• The science
• Scientific research
• Scientist
• Knowledge
• Epistemology
• Epistemology
• Sociology of Scientific Knowledge
• Theory