Psychological Concept of the Scientific Rationality Types. Part 2. Development of Scientific Knowledge

In: Voprosy Filosofii, Heft 11, S. 34-44

Abstract

In the first part of the article, it was shown that the type of scientific rationality of a particular theory is determined by the substantial features of the ideal ob­jects used. Depending on the contribution of two components to their content – elements of sensory experience and "free fiction" of the researcher – it is pro­posed to distinguish eight types of rationality. In the second part of the article, an attempt is made to trace the main trends of the historical change of these types of rationality in the history of science, as well as to identify the psycho­logical regulators of the creation of a new scientific knowledge by a particular researcher, specifically involving a transition to a different type of scientific rationality. The provisions of the psychological concept of the scientific ra­tionality types based on the constructivist version of the Self-Determination Theory are developed. A brief analysis of the changes of the rationality types in the history of natural sciences and socio-humanitarian knowledge is given. It is shown that the change of rationality types is nonlinear and assumes the simultaneous coexistence of at least several types within the same branch of science. At the same time, the type of rationality shared by a particular re­searcher determines his individual views on the permissibility of such coexist­ence. Within the framework of the constructivist version of the Self-Determin­ation Theory, the psychological regulators of the formation and competition of scientific knowledge (which are various types of emotionally charged im­ages created by the human psyche) are also analyzed. Psychological regulators of the researcher's transition to a new type of scientific rationality for a spe­cific scientific field are identified.