Scientific knowledge - essence, criteria, classification and organization

Scientific knowledge — a system of knowledge about the laws of nature, society, and thought. Scientific knowledge is the foundation of the scientific picture of the world, since it describes the laws of its development.

The essence of scientific knowledge

Scientific knowledge is:

• the cognitive basis of human activity;
• a socially conditioned activity;
• knowledge that has varying degrees of reliability.

Being a specific kind of knowledge, scientific knowledge must meet a number of criteria, among which are predictive power, verifiability (testability in practice), systematicity, and consistency of results .

Criteria of scientific validity of knowledge

• Truthfulness of knowledge - its correspondence to objective reality
• Intersubjectivity
• Systematicity

Empirical and theoretical levels

Scientific knowledge is usually considered on two levels — empirical and theoretical. Each of these levels employs its own special research methods and has a different significance for scientific knowledge as a whole.

Empirical knowledge

Empirical knowledge accumulates as a result of direct contact with reality in observation or experiment. Science relies on firmly established facts obtained through the empirical, that is, experiential, route. At the empirical level, facts are accumulated, along with their initial systematisation and classification. Empirical knowledge makes it possible to formulate empirical rules, regularities and laws, which are statistically derived from observed phenomena.

The main methods of empirical knowledge are:

• experiment — observation of objects and phenomena under controlled or artificially created conditions in order to identify their essential characteristics;
• observation — purposeful perception of phenomena of objective reality without introducing changes into the reality being studied;
• measurement — identification of the quantitative characteristics of the reality being studied. As a result of measurement, objects are compared according to certain properties;
• comparison — simultaneous identification of the relationship and assessment of properties or features common to two or more objects;
• description — recording, by means of natural or artificial language, information about objects and phenomena.

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

classification of scientific knowledge

Theoretical knowledge

Empirical knowledge by itself can rarely exhaustively explain a particular phenomenon. Such knowledge has little heuristic value, that is, it does not open up new possibilities for scientific inquiry. That is precisely why a theoretical level of knowledge is necessary, at which the empirical data obtained are fitted into a definite system. At the same time, without certain theoretical principles it is impossible to begin any empirical research.

Thus, the essence of theoretical knowledge is the description, explanation and systematisation of processes and regularities identified empirically, as well as an attempt at a holistic grasp of reality.

The main methods of theoretical knowledge are:

• formalisation — the construction of abstract models that are meant to explain the essence of the phenomena under study;
• axiomatisation — theoretical construction based on axioms, that is, statements whose truth does not need to be proved;
• the hypothetico-deductive method — the construction of deductively interconnected hypotheses that explain empirical facts.

The main components of theoretical knowledge are:

• Problem — a form of knowledge whose content is something not yet known but that needs to be known, i.e. it is knowledge about not-knowing, a question that has arisen in the course of cognition and requires an answer; a problem includes two main stages in the movement of cognition — formulation and solution.
• Hypothesis — a form of knowledge in the shape of an assumption formulated on the basis of a number of facts. Hypothetical knowledge is probabilistic rather than reliable in nature and requires verification and justification. Some hypotheses subsequently turn into theories, while others are modified, refined and made more specific, and still others are discarded as false. The decisive criterion of the truth of a hypothesis is practice in all its forms, whereas the logical (theoretical) criterion of truth plays an auxiliary role.
• Theory — knowledge that provides a holistic representation of the regular and essential connections in a particular sphere of reality. A theory is constructed with the aim of explaining objective reality. The main task of a theory is the description, systematisation and explanation of all available empirical data. However, a theory does not directly describe the surrounding reality. In formulating a theory, researchers operate with ideal objects, which, unlike real ones, are characterised 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, relying on the corresponding fundamental theories.

The metatheoretical level

It is a more general level of scientific knowledge compared with the empirical and theoretical levels, is internally connected with them in the process of the development of scientific knowledge, and is made concrete for each scientific theory.

As its main components it includes general-scientific knowledge (the general-scientific picture of the world, general-scientific methodological, logical and axiological principles) and the philosophical foundations of science.

The metatheoretical level in mathematics is formed by metamathematics and metalogic. In the natural-science and socio-humanitarian disciplines, the metatheoretical level consists of the corresponding pictures of the world, as well as general-scientific and philosophical principles .

Forms of organisation of scientific knowledge

structure of a scientific theory

See also

• Gnoseology
• Knowledge
• Science
• Scientific research
• Sociology of scientific knowledge
• Theory
• Scientist
• Epistemology
• [[b9198]]

See also

• 6.4. Organizing Scientific Research: Preparatory, Main, and Final Stages, Their Tasks, and Scholarly Discourse