By cognition we mean the totality of processes,methods and procedures for acquiring knowledge about various phenomena and objects. The goal of knowledge, according to different researchers, is the mastery of the forces of nature, the improvement of man, and the search for truth.
Knowledge is divided into scientific and unscientific.In the latter, in turn, ordinary, artistic, mythological and religious knowledge is distinguished. Scientific knowledge differs from other forms. It is a process of acquiring knowledge, although subjective and relative, to some extent, but aimed at reflecting the laws connected with objective reality, which can be called reality. The task facing scientific knowledge is the description, explanation and forecasting of processes and phenomena occurring in reality.
The structure of scientific knowledge implies divisionit is at levels in which forms and methods of cognition are singled out. The structure of scientific knowledge has two levels - in the form of empirical and theoretical methods. Some researchers distinguish a third level - the metatheoretical method of cognition.
At the empirical level, there is a collection of factual material, empirical experience, as well as their primary generalization.
The main methods of empirical knowledgethere are two basic points: observations and experiments. Observation is a method consisting in a purposeful, deliberate, organized perception of the objects of the surrounding world, based on sensory knowledge of the world, during which knowledge about the nature and properties of the object is extracted. The experiment implies, unlike observation, the possibility of active influence on the phenomena and processes studied.
At the theoretical level, processing takes placedata and facts, obtained empirically, identify the internal relationships between different phenomena. At this level, the structure of scientific knowledge is represented by hypotheses and theories. Hypothesis is a scientific assumption that explains some phenomena and requires experimental verification and theoretical justification. Theory is a system of interrelated statements and proofs that explains and predicts phenomena in one area or another. The theory should reflect the objective laws of the development of nature, as well as society.
The structure of scientific knowledge in philosophyimplies another level - meta-theoretical. Here there are philosophical attitudes, as well as methods, ideals, standards, norms, regulations, etc. At the metatheoretical level, there is a scientific picture of the world.
The structure of scientific knowledge impliesrelationship. This means that the two main ways of learning in the form of empirical and theoretical are necessarily related to each other. Empirical cognition by observation and experimentation gathers new data, stimulating theoretical cognition, posing new tasks for it, and theoretical cognition, in turn, generalizes and explains phenomena obtained empirically, and also puts forward hypotheses and theories that require empirical confirmation.
The structure of scientific knowledge in philosophy repeats the structure of unscientific cognition.
The development of scientific knowledge has led to the separation ofscience to discipline. The disciplinary structure of science is of a dual nature. On the one hand, the division of science into disciplines, branches, sections allows a particular person to specialize in a particular problem and to study it deeper. But, on the other hand, this specialization shatters the general knowledge, leading to a loss of its integrity. That is why in the last century the process of integrating the sciences began, the result of which was the emergence of new sciences at the junction of the already existing ones. So, at the junction of biology and technology, bionics appeared, using the structures of living organisms to solve engineering problems
