THEORY AND METHODOLOGY OF MODERN SCIENCE

Abstract

The article examines the peculiarities of the theoretical and methodological organization of classical science, its conceptual thesaurus, research tools and its prognostic potential in today's conditions. The connections between structural elements of classical science and classical scientific knowledge are analyzed: connections between theory and methodology, methodology and method, method (methods) and methodology, methodology and technology, etc. The nature of these connections is analyzed in detail at the levels of methodology adopted by classical science - philosophical, general scientific and special. Attention is focused on the methodological crisis of modern science as a way of organizing knowledge in post-information (network) societies and on the need for its paradigmatic transition from classical to post-non-classical methodology. It is shown that the category «self-developing system» is one of the basic ones in the post-non-classical science methodology. This category includes an understanding of the quantum nature of science, according to which science (as a perfect social system) is currently in two states at the same time: «the system itself» (the simple level) and «the self-evolving system» (the ideal level that it strives to reach). At the same time, credit is given to the metaposition of the collective author of the project of this system: the cognitive complexity of the author's consciousness, his experience, self-organization, and self-development are conditions that guarantee the effectiveness and competitiveness of this system. From the point of view of post-nonclassical methodology, the system of concepts presented in modern post-nonclassical science, in contrast to traditional classical science, is a «self-developing system». At least three basic features of such a system are that: 1) it is in extremely close interdisciplinary relations with other systems of understanding and transforming the world, and therefore borrows theories, methodologies and conceptual discourses from them; 2) it consists of a dynamic set of concepts, which are characterized, on the one hand, by a certain level of autonomy, and on the other, by mobile and permeable borders, and it is in dynamic conditions and on the basis of a dynamic conceptual thesaurus that new theories and methodologies are constructed; 3) the contribution to the processes of knowledge and the creation of new theories and methodologies is carried out by many authors, sometimes nameless, and all of them together can be considered a «collective author».