SIBERIAN UNIVERSITY OF CONSUMER COOPERATION
Concepts Quiz modern natural science
Novosibirsk 2010
Introduction
1. Mechanical picture of the world
2. Electromagnetic picture of the world
3. Quantum – field picture of the world
Introduction
The very concept of a “scientific picture of the world” appeared in natural science and philosophy at the end of the 19th century, but a special, in-depth analysis of its content began to be carried out in the 60s of the 20th century. And yet, a clear interpretation of this concept has not yet been achieved. The fact is that this concept itself is somewhat vague and occupies an intermediate position between the philosophical and natural science reflection of development trends scientific knowledge. Thus, there are general scientific pictures of the world and pictures of the world from the point of view of individual sciences, for example, physical, biological, or from the point of view of any prevailing methods, styles of thinking - probabilistic-statistical, evolutionary, systemic, synergetic, etc. pictures of the world. At the same time, the following explanation of the concept of a scientific picture of the world can be given. (NKM).
The scientific picture of the world includes major achievements sciences that create a certain understanding of the world and man’s place in it. It does not include more specific information about the properties of various natural systems, or about the details of the cognitive process itself. At the same time, NCM is not a body of general knowledge, but represents a holistic system of ideas about general properties, spheres, levels and patterns of nature, thus forming a person’s worldview.
In contrast to strict theories, NCM has the necessary clarity and is characterized by a combination of abstract theoretical knowledge and images created using models. The features of various pictures of the world are expressed in their inherent paradigms. Paradigm (Greek – example, sample) is a set of certain stereotypes in the understanding of objective processes, as well as ways of knowing and interpreting them.
NCM is a special form of systematization of knowledge, mainly its qualitative generalization, ideological synthesis of various scientific theories.
1. Mechanical picture of the world
In the history of science, scientific pictures of the world did not remain unchanged, but replaced each other, thus we can talk about the evolution of scientific pictures of the world. The physical picture of the world is created through fundamental experimental measurements and observations on which theories are based that explain facts and deepen our understanding of nature. Physics is an experimental science, therefore it cannot achieve absolute truths (like knowledge itself in general), since experiments themselves are imperfect. This determines the constant development of scientific concepts.
Basic concepts and laws of MCM
The MCM was formed under the influence of materialistic ideas about matter and the forms of its existence. The very formation of the mechanical picture is rightly associated with the name Galileo Galilei, who was the first to use the experimental method to study nature, together with measurements of the quantities under study and subsequent mathematical processing of the results. This method was fundamentally different from the previously existing natural philosophical method, in which a priori, i.e., were invented to explain natural phenomena. speculative schemes not related to experience and observation; additional entities were introduced to explain incomprehensible phenomena.
The laws of planetary motion discovered by Johannes Kepler, in turn, indicated that there is no fundamental difference between the movements of earthly and celestial bodies, since they all obey certain natural laws.
The core of the MCM is Newtonian mechanics (classical mechanics).
The formation of classical mechanics and the mechanical picture of the world based on it occurred in 2 directions:
1) generalization of previously obtained results and, first of all, the laws of free fall of bodies discovered by Galileo, as well as the laws of planetary motion formulated by Kepler;
2) creating methods for quantitative analysis mechanical movement in general.
In the first half of the 19th century. Along with theoretical mechanics, applied (technical) mechanics also stands out, which has achieved great success in solving applied problems. All this led to the idea of the omnipotence of mechanics and to the desire to create a theory of heat and electricity also on the basis of mechanical concepts.
In any physical theory there are quite a few concepts, but among them there are basic ones, in which the specificity of this theory, its basis, is manifested. These concepts include:
· matter,
· movement,
· space,
· interaction
Each of these concepts cannot exist without the other four. Together they reflect the unity of the World.
MATTER is a substance consisting of tiny, further indivisible, solid moving particles - atoms. That is why the most important concepts in mechanics were the concepts of a material point and an absolutely rigid body. A material point is a body whose dimensions in the conditions of a given problem can be neglected, absolutely solid– a system of material points, the distance between which always remains unchanged.
SPACE. Newton considered two types of space:
· relative, which people become familiar with by measuring spatial relationships between bodies;
· the absolute is an empty container of bodies, it is not associated with time, and its properties do not depend on the presence or absence of material objects in it. Space in Newtonian mechanics is
Three-dimensional (the position of any point can be described by three coordinates),
Continuous
Endless
Homogeneous (the properties of space are the same at any point),
Isotropic (properties of space do not depend on direction).
TIME. Newton considered two types of time, similar to space: relative and absolute. People learn relative time in the process of measurements, but absolute (true, mathematical time) by itself and in its essence, without any relation to anything external, flows evenly and is otherwise called duration. Time flows in one direction - from the past to the future.
MOVEMENT. The MCM recognized only mechanical movement, i.e. a change in the position of the body in space over time. It was believed that any complex movement can be represented as a sum of spatial movements. The motion of any body was explained on the basis of Newton's three laws, using such concepts as force and mass.
INTERACTION. Modern physics reduces all the variety of interactions to 4 fundamental interactions: strong, weak, electromagnetic and gravitational.
It should be said that in classical mechanics The question of the nature of forces, in fact, did not arise, or rather, did not have fundamental significance. It’s just that all natural phenomena were reduced to the three laws of mechanics and the law of universal gravitation, to the action of forces of attraction and repulsion.
Basic principles of MCM
The most important principles of MCM are:
principle of relativity,
long-range principle
· principle of causality.
Galileo's principle of relativity. Galileo's principle of relativity states that in all inertial frames of reference all mechanical phenomena proceed in the same way. Inertial system reference (ISO) - a reference system in which the law of inertia is valid: any body that is not acted upon external forces or the action of these forces is compensated, is in a state of rest or uniform rectilinear motion.
The principle of long-range action. In MCM it was accepted that interaction is transmitted instantly, and the intermediate medium does not take part in the transmission of interaction. This position was called the principle of long-range action.
The principle of causality. There are no uncaused phenomena; it is always possible (in principle) to identify cause and effect. Cause and effect are interconnected and influence each other. The effect of one cause may be the cause of another effect. This idea was developed by the mathematician Laplace. He believed that all connections between phenomena are carried out on the basis of unambiguous laws. This doctrine of the conditionality of one phenomenon by another, of their unambiguous natural connection, entered physics as the so-called Laplace determinism (predetermination). Essential unambiguous connections between phenomena are expressed by physical laws.
2. Electromagnetic picture of the world
Basic experimental laws electromagnetism.
Electrical and magnetic phenomena have been known to mankind since ancient times. It was subsequently discovered that there are two types of electricity: positive and negative.
As for magnetism, the properties of some bodies to attract other bodies were known in ancient times, they were called magnets. The property of a free magnet to be established in the “North-South” direction already in the 2nd century. BC. used in Ancient China while traveling.
The 18th century, marked by the emergence of MCM, actually marked the beginning of systematic research into electrical phenomena. So it was established that like charges repel, and the simplest device appeared - an electroscope. In 1759, the English naturalist R. Simmer concluded that in the normal state any body contains an equal number of opposite charges that mutually neutralize each other. During electrification, their redistribution occurs.
At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th century, it was experimentally established that an electric charge consists of an integer elementary charges e=1.6×10-19 Cl. This is the smallest charge existing in nature. In 1897, J. Thomson discovered the smallest stable particle, which is the carrier of an elementary negative charge (electron).
Scientific picture of the world(Stepin) – a holistic system of ideas about the world, its structural characteristics and patterns, developed as a result of systematization and synthesis in the fundamental achievements of science. This is a special form of scientific and theoretical knowledge, developing in the process of the historical evolution of science. Scientific picture of the world is an important component scientific worldview, but is not reducible to it. In addition to knowledge, a worldview contains beliefs, values, ideals and norms of activity, emotions relate to the object of study, etc.
The structure of the scientific picture of the world:
1 ) conceptual level (philosophical categories, principles), which are specified in scientific picture of the world through the system generally scientific concepts, through the fundamental concepts of individual sciences.
2 ) sensory-figurative component – visual representations and images. Images act as a system and thanks to this, their understanding is ensured. scientific picture of the world a wide range of scientists, regardless of their specialization.
Forms of the scientific picture of the world:
1) by generality n scientific picture of the world appears in the following forms:
General scientific picture of the world, i.e. a form of systematization of knowledge developed in natural science and in social and humanitarian knowledge.
The natural-scientific picture of the world (nature) and the scientific picture of socio-historical reality (picture of society). Each of these pictures is a relatively independent aspect of the general scientific picture of the world.
A special picture of the world of individual sciences (disciplinary ontology) (for example: the physical world, the biological world). Each of special paintings the world can be presented as a set of certain theoretical constructs, a figurative model of the area being studied.
2) from the point of view of historical and cultural affiliation: NCM mainly acts as a natural scientific picture of the world, therefore in its sequence it looks like this: mechanical picture of the world, electrodynamic picture of the world, quantum relational picture of the world, synergetic picture of the world. The first three are based on the natural scientific picture of the world.
Functions of the scientific picture of the world:
1) systematization of knowledge;
2) ensuring connection with the experience and cut of the corresponding era;
3) be a research program that focuses on the formulation of empirical and theoretical problems, as well as the choice of means to solve them.
Operational foundations of the scientific picture of the world:
Special pictures of the world serve as the material on the basis of which first pictures of nature and society are formed, then general scientific pictures of the world.
First, the transition is carried out, i.e. movement from disciplinary to interdisciplinary levels of science systematization. Such a transition is carried out not as a simple summation of special pictures of the world, but as their complex synthesis, in the process of which the leading role is played by pictures of the reality of the currently main scientific disciplines. In the conceptual framework of these disciplines, general scientific concepts are identified, which become the core of first the natural scientific and socio-historical picture, and then the general scientific picture of the world. Around this core, the fundamental concepts of special sciences are organized, included in the second-level picture of the world, and then in the general scientific picture. The resulting picture of the world not only systematizes knowledge about nature and society, but is also formed as a research program that gives a vision of the connections between the subjects of various sciences and determines the strategy for transferring strategies from one science to another.
The postulates of the scientific picture of the world depend on the attitudes of the era.
Dilthey included in the picture of the world: goal, life, man, subject => the picture of the world rests on man.
1) Aristotelian(VI-IV centuries BC) as a result of this scientific revolution, science itself arose, science was separated from other forms of knowledge and exploration of the world, certain norms and samples of scientific knowledge were created. This revolution is most fully reflected in the works of Aristotle. He created formal logic, i.e. the doctrine of evidence, the main tool for deducing and systematizing knowledge, developed a categorical conceptual apparatus. He established a kind of canon for the organization of scientific research (history of the issue, statement of the problem, arguments for and against, justification for the decision), differentiated knowledge itself, separating the natural sciences from mathematics and metaphysics
2) Newtonian scientific revolution(XVI-XVIII centuries). Its starting point is considered to be the transition from geocentric model world to heliocentric, this transition was caused by a series of discoveries associated with the names of N. Copernicus, G. Galileo, I. Kepler, R. Descartes, I. Newton, summed up their research and formulated the basic principles of a new scientific picture of the world in a general form. Main changes:
Classical natural science spoke the language of mathematics, was able to identify strictly objective quantitative characteristics of earthly bodies (shape, size, mass, motion) and express them in strict mathematical laws.
The science of modern times has found powerful support in the methods experimental research, phenomena under strictly controlled conditions.
The natural sciences of this time abandoned the concept of a harmonious, complete, purposefully organized cosmos; according to them, the Universe is infinite and united only by the action of identical laws.
Mechanics became the dominant feature of classical natural science; all considerations based on the concepts of value, perfection, and goal setting were excluded from the sphere of scientific research.
Cognitive activity implied a clear opposition between the subject and the object of research. The result of all these changes was a mechanistic scientific picture of the world based on experimental mathematical natural science.
3) Einstein's revolution(turn of the XIX-XX centuries). It was determined by a series of discoveries (the discovery of the complex structure of the atom, the phenomenon of radioactivity, discrete nature electromagnetic radiation etc.). As a result, the most important premise of the mechanistic picture of the world was undermined - the conviction that with the help of simple forces acting between unchanging objects one can explain all natural phenomena.
Scientific picture of the world
Scientific picture of the world (abbr. NCM) - one of the fundamental concepts in natural science - a special form of systematization of knowledge, qualitative generalization and ideological synthesis of various scientific theories. Being an integral system of ideas about the general properties and patterns of the objective world, the scientific picture of the world exists as a complex structure, including components a general scientific picture of the world and a picture of the world of individual sciences (physical, biological, geological, etc.). Pictures of the world of individual sciences, in turn, include corresponding numerous concepts - certain ways of understanding and interpreting any objects, phenomena and processes of the objective world that exist in each individual science. A belief system that affirms the fundamental role of science as a source of knowledge and judgment about the world is called scientism.
In the process of learning about the world around us, knowledge, abilities, skills, types of behavior and communication are reflected and consolidated in the human mind. The totality of the results of human cognitive activity forms a certain model (picture of the world). In the history of mankind, quite a lot have been created and existed a large number of a wide variety of pictures of the world, each of which was distinguished by its own vision of the world and its specific explanation. However, the progress of ideas about the world around us is achieved mainly through scientific research. The scientific picture of the world does not include private knowledge about the various properties of specific phenomena, or about the details of the cognitive process itself. The scientific picture of the world is not the totality of all human knowledge about the objective world; it represents an integral system of ideas about the general properties, spheres, levels and patterns of reality.
Scientific picture of the world- a system of human ideas about the properties and patterns of reality (the really existing world), built as a result of generalization and synthesis of scientific concepts and principles. Uses scientific language to refer to objects and phenomena of matter.
Scientific picture of the world- many theories collectively describing known to man the natural world, a holistic system of ideas about the general principles and laws of the structure of the universe. The picture of the world is a systemic formation, therefore its change cannot be reduced to any single (even the largest and most radical) discovery. We are usually talking about a whole series of interrelated discoveries (mainly basic sciences), which are almost always accompanied by a radical restructuring of the research method, as well as significant changes in the very norms and ideals of science.
Scientific picture of the world- a special form of theoretical knowledge that represents the subject of scientific research in accordance with a certain stage of its historical development, through which specific knowledge obtained in various fields of scientific research is integrated and systematized.
For Western philosophy in the mid-90s of the 20th century, there were attempts to introduce new categorical means into the arsenal of methodological analysis, but at the same time, a clear distinction between the concepts of “picture of the world” and “scientific picture of the world” was not made. In our domestic philosophical and methodological literature, the term “picture of the world” is used not only to denote a worldview, but also in a narrower sense - when it comes to scientific ontologies, that is, those ideas about the world that are a special type of scientific theoretical knowledge. In this meaning scientific picture of the world acts as a specific form of systematization of scientific knowledge that sets a vision of the objective world of science in accordance with a certain stage of its functioning and development .
The phrase can also be used natural scientific picture of the world .
In the process of scientific development, knowledge, ideas and concepts are constantly updated; earlier ideas become special cases of new theories. The scientific picture of the world is not a dogma and not an absolute truth. Scientific ideas about the world around us are based on the totality of proven facts and established cause-and-effect relationships, which allows us to make conclusions and predictions about the properties of our world that contribute to the development of human civilization with a certain degree of confidence. The discrepancy between the test results of a theory, hypothesis, concept, and the identification of new facts - all this forces us to reconsider existing ideas and create new ones that are more consistent with reality. This development is the essence of the scientific method.
According to the indicated meanings, the concept of a scientific picture of the world is split into a number of interrelated concepts, each of which means a special type of scientific picture of the world How special level of systematization of scientific knowledge :
They also highlight a “naive” picture of the world
The scientific picture of the world is neither philosophy nor science; The scientific picture of the world differs from scientific theory in the philosophical transformation of the categories of science into fundamental concepts and the absence of the process of obtaining and arguing knowledge; Moreover, the scientific picture of the world is not reduced to philosophical principles, since it is a consequence of the development of scientific knowledge.
Clearly and unambiguously fixed radical changes in the scientific picture of the world, scientific revolutions in the history of the development of science, three can be distinguished, which are usually personified by name three scientists who played the greatest role in the changes that took place.
Period: VI-IV centuries BC
Conditioning:
Reflection in works:
Result:
Period: XVI-XVIII centuries
Starting point: transition from a geocentric model of the world to a heliocentric one.
Conditioning:
Reflection in works:
Main changes:
Result: the emergence of a mechanistic scientific picture of the world on the basis of experimental mathematical natural science.
Period: turn of the XIX-XX centuries.
Conditioning:
The result: the most important premise of the mechanistic picture of the world was undermined - the conviction that with the help of simple forces acting between unchanging objects, all natural phenomena can be explained.
The scientific picture of the world is one of the possible pictures of the world, therefore it has something in common with all other pictures of the world - mythological, religious, philosophical - and something special that distinguishes the scientific picture of the world from the diversity of all other images of the world
The scientific picture of the world may differ from religious ideas about the world based on the authority of the prophets, religious tradition, sacred texts, etc. Therefore, religious ideas are more conservative in contrast to scientific ones, which change as a result of the discovery of new facts. In turn, religious concepts of the universe can change in order to get closer to the scientific views of their time. The basis for obtaining a scientific picture of the world is an experiment that allows you to confirm the reliability of certain judgments. The religious picture of the world is based on belief in the truth of certain judgments belonging to some authority. However, as a result of experiencing all kinds of esoteric states (not only those of religious or occult origin), a person can gain personal experience that confirms a certain picture of the world, but in most cases, attempts to build a scientific picture of the world on this relate to pseudoscience.
The scientific picture of the world also differs from the worldview characteristic of the everyday or artistic perception of the world, which uses everyday/artistic language to designate objects and phenomena of the world. For example, a person of art creates artistic images of the world based on the synthesis of his subjective (emotional perception) and objective (dispassionate) comprehension, while a person of science is focused exclusively on the objective and, with the help of critical thinking, eliminates subjectivity from the results of research.
The relationship between science and philosophy is a subject of debate. On the one hand, the history of philosophy is a humanities science, the main method of which is the interpretation and comparison of texts. On the other hand, philosophy claims to be something more than science, its beginning and result, the methodology of science and its generalization, a theory of a higher order, metascience. Science exists as a process of putting forward and refuting hypotheses; the role of philosophy in this case is to study the criteria of scientificity and rationality. At the same time, philosophy comprehends scientific discoveries, including them in the context of generated knowledge and thereby determining their meaning. Connected with this is the ancient idea of philosophy as the queen of sciences or the science of sciences.
All of the above ideas can be present in a person together and in various combinations. The scientific picture of the world, although it can constitute a significant part of the worldview, is never an adequate replacement for it, since in his individual existence a person needs both emotions and artistic or purely everyday perception of the surrounding reality, and ideas about what is beyond reliably known or on the border of the unknown, which must be overcome at one time or another in the process of cognition.
There are different opinions about how ideas about the world change in human history. Because science is relatively new, it can provide additional information about the world. However, some philosophers believe that over time the scientific picture of the world should completely supplant all others.
At the moment of the Big Bang, the Universe occupied microscopic, quantum dimensions.
Some physicists admit the possibility of a multiplicity of such processes, and therefore a multiplicity of universes with different properties. The fact that our Universe is adapted for the formation of life can be explained by chance - in “less adapted” universes there is simply no one to analyze this (see the Anthropic principle and the text of the lecture “Inflation, quantum cosmology and the anthropic principle”). A number of scientists have put forward the concept of a “boiling Multiverse”, in which new universes are continuously born and this process has no beginning or end.
It should be noted that the fact of the Big Bang itself can with a high degree of probability be considered proven, but explanations of its causes and detailed descriptions How this happened is still classified as a hypothesis.
The expansion and cooling of the Universe in the first moments of the existence of our world led to the next phase transition - the formation of physical forces and elementary particles in their modern form.
The dominant hypotheses are that for the first 300-400 thousand years the Universe was filled only with ionized hydrogen and helium. As the Universe expanded and cooled, they transitioned to a stable neutral state, forming ordinary gas. Presumably, after 500 million years, the first stars lit up, and clumps of matter formed in the early stages due to quantum fluctuations turned into galaxies.
Research shows recent years, planetary systems around stars are very common (at least in our Galaxy). There are several hundred billion stars in the Galaxy and, apparently, no less number of planets.
Modern physics is faced with the task of creating a general theory that unites quantum field theory and the theory of relativity. This would explain the processes occurring in black holes and, possibly, the Big Bang mechanism.
According to Newton, empty space is a real entity (this statement is illustrated by a thought experiment: if in an empty Universe we spin a plate of sand, the sand will begin to fly apart, as the plate will spin relative to empty space). According to the Leibniz-Mach interpretation, only material objects are real entities. It follows from this that the sand will not fly apart, since its position relative to the plate does not change (that is, nothing happens in the reference frame rotating with the plate). In this case, the contradiction with experience is explained by the fact that in reality the Universe is not empty, but the entire set of material objects forms a gravitational field, relative to which the plate rotates. Einstein initially believed that the Leibniz-Mach interpretation was correct, but in the second half of his life he was inclined to believe that space-time is a real entity.
According to experimental data, the (ordinary) space of our Universe is long distances has zero or very small positive curvature. This is explained by the rapid expansion of the Universe at the initial moment, as a result of which the elements of the curvature of space were leveled out (see Inflationary model of the Universe).
In our Universe, space has three dimensions (according to some theories, there are additional dimensions at microdistances), and time has one.
Time moves in only one direction (the "arrow of time"), although physical formulas are symmetrical with respect to the direction of time, with the exception of thermodynamics. One explanation for the unidirectionality of time is based on the second law of thermodynamics, according to which entropy can only increase and therefore determines the directionality of time. The increase in entropy is explained by probabilistic reasons: at the level of interaction of elementary particles, all physical processes are reversible, but the probability of a chain of events in the “forward” and “reverse” directions may be different. Thanks to this probabilistic difference, we can judge past events with greater confidence and certainty than future events. According to another hypothesis, the reduction of the wave function is irreversible and therefore determines the direction of time (however, many physicists doubt that reduction is a real physical process). Some scientists are trying to reconcile both approaches within the framework of the theory of decoherence: with decoherence, information about most previous quantum states is lost, therefore, this process is irreversible in time.
According to some theories, vacuum can exist in different states with different energy levels. According to one hypothesis, the vacuum is filled with the Higgs field (the “remnants” of the inflaton field preserved after the Big Bang), which is responsible for the manifestations of gravity and the presence of dark energy.
Modern science does not yet provide a satisfactory description of the structure and properties of vacuum.
All elementary particles are characterized by wave-particle dualism: on the one hand, particles are single, indivisible objects, on the other hand, the probability of detecting them is “smeared” across space (“smearing” is of a fundamental nature and is not just a mathematical abstraction, this fact is illustrated , for example, an experiment with the simultaneous passage of a photon through two slits at once). Under some conditions, such “smearing” can even take on macroscopic dimensions.
Quantum mechanics describes a particle using the so-called wave function, the physical meaning of which is still unclear, but the square of its modulus determines not where exactly the particle is, but where it could be and with what probability. Thus, the behavior of particles is fundamentally probabilistic in nature: due to the “smearedness” of the probability of detecting a particle in space, we cannot determine its location and momentum with absolute certainty (see the uncertainty principle). But in the macrocosm, dualism is insignificant.
When experimentally determined exact location particle, the wave function is reduced, that is, during the measurement process, a “smeared” particle turns at the time of measurement into a “non-smeared” one with one of the interaction parameters randomly distributed, this process is also called the “collapse” of the particle. Reduction is an instantaneous process, so many physicists consider it not a real process, but a mathematical method of description. A similar mechanism operates in experiments with entangled particles (see quantum entanglement). At the same time, experimental data allow many scientists to assert that these instantaneous processes (including the relationship between spatially separated entangled particles) are of a real nature. In this case, information is not transmitted and the theory of relativity is not violated.
The reasons why there is precisely such a set of particles, the reasons for the presence of mass in some of them and a number of other parameters are still unknown. Physics is faced with the task of constructing a theory in which the properties of particles would follow from the properties of the vacuum.
One of the attempts to build a universal theory was string theory, in which fundamental elementary particles are one-dimensional objects (strings), differing only in their geometry.
Many theoretical physicists believe that in reality there is only one interaction in nature, which can manifest itself in four forms (just as all the diversity chemical reactions there are different manifestations of the same quantum effects). Therefore, the task of fundamental physics is to develop a theory of “grand unification” of interactions. To date, only the theory of electroweak interaction has been developed, which combines weak and electromagnetic interactions.
It is assumed that at the moment of the Big Bang there was a single interaction, which was divided into four in the first moments of the existence of our world.
The substance we encounter in Everyday life, consists of atoms. Atoms include an atomic nucleus, consisting of protons and neutrons, as well as electrons that “flicker” around the nucleus (quantum mechanics uses the concept of “electron cloud”). Protons and neutrons are classified as hadrons (which are made up of quarks). It should be noted that in laboratory conditions it was possible to obtain “atoms” consisting of other elementary particles (for example, pionium and muonium, which include pion and muon.).
According to the definition of Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences E. Galimov, life is a phenomenon of increasing and inherited ordering materialized in organisms, inherent under certain conditions of the evolution of carbon compounds. All living organisms are characterized by isolation from the environment, the ability to self-reproduce, functioning through the exchange of matter and energy with the environment, the ability to change and adapt, the ability to perceive signals and the ability to respond to them.
The development of life on Earth, including the complication of living organisms, occurs as a result of unpredictable mutations and subsequent natural selection of the most successful of them (for the mechanisms of evolution, see the book “The Evolution of Life”).
The development of such complex devices as the eye as a result of “random” changes may seem incredible. However, analysis of primitive biological species and paleontological data shows that the evolution of even the most complex organs occurred through a chain of small changes, each of which individually does not represent anything unusual. Computer modeling of the development of the eye allowed us to conclude that its evolution could occur even faster than it happened in reality (see).
In general, evolution, change in systems, is a fundamental property of nature, reproduced in laboratory conditions. This does not contradict the law of increasing entropy, since it is true for open systems (if energy is passed through the system, then the entropy in it can decrease). The science of synergetics studies processes of spontaneous complication. One example of the evolution of inanimate systems is the formation of dozens of atoms based on only three particles and the formation of billions of complex chemical substances based on atoms.
Six main structural levels of life:
The divergence of the ancestors of modern apes and humans occurred about 15 million years ago. About 5 million years ago, the first hominids appeared - Australopithecus. It should be noted that the formation of “human” traits occurred simultaneously in several species of hominids (such parallelism has been observed more than once in the history of evolutionary changes).
About 2.5 million years ago, the first representative of the genus separated from Australopithecus Homo- a skilled person ( Homo habilis), who already knew how to make stone tools. 1.6 million years ago replaced Homo habilis man upright came ( Homo erectus, Pithecanthropus) with increased brain volume. Modern man (Cro-Magnon) appeared about 100 thousand years ago in Africa. About 60-40 thousand years ago, Cro-Magnons moved to Asia and gradually settled in all parts of the world with the exception of Antarctica, displacing another species of people - Neanderthals, who died out about 30 thousand years ago. All parts of the world, including Australia and the outlying islands of Oceania, South America were inhabited by people long before the Great geographical discoveries Columbus, Magellan and other European travelers from the 14th to 16th centuries AD.
Humans, to a much greater extent than other animals, have developed abstract thinking and the ability to generalize.
The most important achievement of modern man, which in many ways distinguishes him from other animals, is the development of information exchange using oral speech. This allowed people to accumulate cultural achievements, including improving methods of making and using tools, from generation to generation.
Invention of writing 3-4 thousand years BC. in the area between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers on the territory of modern Iraq and ancient Egypt, significantly accelerated technological progress, as it allowed the transfer of accumulated knowledge without direct contact.
SCIENTIFIC PICTURE OF THE WORLD– a holistic image of the subject of scientific research in its main system-structural characteristics, formed through the fundamental concepts, ideas and principles of science at each stage of its historical development.
There are main varieties (forms) of the scientific picture of the world: 1) general scientific as a generalized idea of the Universe, living nature, society and man, formed on the basis of a synthesis of knowledge obtained in various scientific disciplines; 2) social and natural scientific pictures of the world as ideas about society and nature, summarizing the achievements of social, humanitarian and natural sciences; 3) special scientific pictures of the world (disciplinary ontologies) - ideas about the subjects of individual sciences (physical, chemical, biological, etc. pictures of the world). In the latter case, the term “world” is used in a specific sense, denoting not the world as a whole, but subject area separate science (physical world, biological world, world chemical processes). To avoid terminological problems, the term “picture of the reality under study” is also used to denote disciplinary ontologies. Its most studied example is the physical picture of the world. But similar pictures exist in any science, as soon as it is constituted as an independent branch of scientific knowledge. A generalized systemic-structural image of the subject of research is introduced into a special scientific picture of the world through ideas of 1) fundamental objects from which all other objects studied by the corresponding science are assumed to be built; 2) about the typology of the objects being studied; 3) about general features their interactions; 4) about the spatio-temporal structure of reality. All these ideas can be described in a system of ontological principles, which serve as the basis of scientific theories of the corresponding discipline. For example, principles - the world consists of indivisible corpuscles; their interaction is strictly determined and occurs as an instantaneous transfer of forces in a straight line; corpuscles and bodies formed from them move in absolute space with the passage of absolute time - they describe the picture of the physical world that developed in the 2nd half. 17th century and subsequently received the name of the mechanical picture of the world.
The transition from a mechanical to an electrodynamic (in the late 19th century), and then a quantum-relativistic picture of physical reality (1st half of the 20th century) was accompanied by a change in the system of ontological principles of physics. It was most radical during the formation of quantum relativistic physics (revision of the principles of the indivisibility of atoms, the existence of absolute space-time, Laplace determination physical processes).
By analogy with the physical picture of the world, pictures of the reality under study are distinguished in other sciences (chemistry, astronomy, biology, etc.). Among them there are also historically successive types of pictures of the world. For example, in the history of biology - the transition from pre-Darwinian ideas about living things to the picture of the biological world proposed by Darwin, to the subsequent inclusion in the picture of living nature of ideas about genes as carriers of heredity, to modern ideas about the levels of systemic organization of living things - populations, biogeocenosis, biosphere and their evolution.
Each of the specific historical forms of a special scientific picture of the world can be realized in a number of modifications. Among them there are lines of continuity (for example, the development of Newtonian ideas about the physical world by Euler, the development of the electrodynamic picture of the world by Faraday, Maxwell, Hertz, Lorentz, each of whom introduced new elements into this picture). But situations are possible when the same type of picture of the world is realized in the form of competing and alternative ideas about the reality under study (for example, the struggle between Newtonian and Cartesian concepts of nature as alternative options mechanical picture of the world; competition between two main directions in the development of the electrodynamic picture of the world - the Ampere-Weber program, on the one hand, and the Faraday-Maxwell program, on the other).
The picture of the world is a special type of theoretical knowledge. It can be considered as a certain theoretical model of the reality under study, different from the models (theoretical schemes) that underlie specific theories. First, they differ in the degree of generality. Many theories can be based on the same picture of the world, incl. and fundamental. For example, the mechanics of Newton–Euler, thermodynamics and electrodynamics of Ampere–Weber were associated with the mechanical picture of the world. Not only the foundations of Maxwellian electrodynamics, but also the foundations of Hertzian mechanics are associated with the electrodynamic picture of the world. Secondly, a special picture of the world can be distinguished from theoretical schemes by analyzing the abstractions that form them (ideal objects). Thus, in the mechanical picture of the world, natural processes were characterized through abstractions - “indivisible corpuscle”, “body”, “interaction of bodies, transmitted instantly in a straight line and changing the state of motion of bodies”, “absolute space” and “absolute time”. As for the theoretical scheme underlying Newtonian mechanics(taken in its Euler presentation), then in it the essence mechanical processes characterized by other abstractions – “ material point", "force", "inertial space-time reference frame".
Ideal objects that form a picture of the world, in contrast to the idealization of specific theoretical models, always have an ontological status. Any physicist understands that a “material point” does not exist in nature itself, because in nature there are no bodies without dimensions. But Newton’s follower, who accepted the mechanical picture of the world, considered indivisible atoms to be the really existing “first bricks” of matter. He identified with nature the abstractions that simplify and schematize it, in the system of which a physical picture of the world is created. In what ways these abstractions do not correspond to reality is something that a researcher most often finds out only when his science enters the period of breaking down the old picture of the world and replacing it with a new one. Being different from the picture of the world, the theoretical schemes that form the core of the theory are always connected with it. Establishing this connection is one of mandatory conditions theory building. The procedure for mapping theoretical models (schemes) onto a picture of the world provides that type of interpretation of equations expressing theoretical laws, which in logic is called conceptual (or semantic) interpretation and which is required for constructing a theory. Outside the picture of the world, a theory cannot be constructed in a complete form.
Scientific pictures of the world perform three main interrelated functions in the research process: 1) systematize scientific knowledge, combining it into complex entities; 2) act as research programs that determine the strategy of scientific knowledge; 3) ensure the objectification of scientific knowledge, its attribution to the object under study and its inclusion in culture.
A special scientific picture of the world integrates knowledge within individual scientific disciplines. The natural scientific and social pictures of the world, and then the general scientific picture of the world, set broader horizons for the systematization of knowledge. They integrate the achievements of various disciplines, highlighting stable empirically and theoretically grounded content in disciplinary ontologies. For example, the ideas of the modern general scientific picture of the world about the non-stationary Universe and the Big Bang, about quarks and synergetic processes, about genes, ecosystems and the biosphere, about society as an integral system, about formations and civilizations, etc. were developed within the framework of the corresponding disciplinary ontologies of physics, biology, social sciences and then included in the general scientific picture of the world.
Carrying out a systematizing function, scientific pictures of the world at the same time perform the role of research programs. Special scientific pictures of the world set the strategy for empirical and theoretical research within the relevant fields of science. In relation to empirical research, the purposeful role of special pictures of the world is most clearly manifested when science begins to study objects for which a theory has not yet been created and which are studied by empirical methods (typical examples are the role of the electrodynamic picture of the world in the experimental study of cathode and X-rays). Ideas about the reality under study, introduced in the picture of the world, provide hypotheses about the nature of phenomena discovered in experience. In accordance with these hypotheses, experimental tasks are formulated and experimental plans are developed, through which new characteristics of experimentally studied objects are discovered.
In theoretical research, the role of a special scientific picture of the world as a research program is manifested in the fact that it determines the range of permissible tasks and the formulation of problems on initial stage theoretical search, as well as the choice of theoretical means for solving them. For example, during the period of construction of generalizing theories of electromagnetism, two physical pictures of the world and, accordingly, two research programs competed: Ampere-Weber, on the one hand, and Faraday-Maxwell, on the other. They set different tasks and determined different means construction of a general theory of electromagnetism. The Ampere–Weber program was based on the principle of long-range action and focused on the application mathematical tools point mechanics, the Faraday–Maxwell program was based on the principle of short-range action and borrowed mathematical structures from continuum mechanics.
In interdisciplinary interactions based on the transfer of ideas from one field of knowledge to another, the role of the research program is played by the general scientific picture of the world. It reveals similar features of disciplinary ontologies, thereby forming the basis for the translation of ideas, concepts and methods from one science to another. The exchange processes between quantum physics and chemistry, biology and cybernetics, which gave rise to a number of discoveries of the 20th century, were targeted and regulated by the general scientific picture of the world.
Facts and theories created under the purposeful influence of a special scientific picture of the world are again correlated with it, which leads to two options for its changes. If the representations of the picture of the world express the essential characteristics of the objects under study, clarification and concretization of these representations occurs. But if research comes across fundamentally new types of objects, a radical restructuring of the picture of the world occurs. Such a restructuring is a necessary component of scientific revolutions. It involves active use philosophical ideas and substantiation of new ideas by accumulated empirical and theoretical material. Initially new picture the reality under study is put forward as a hypothesis. Its empirical and theoretical justification may take a long period when it competes as a new research program with a previously accepted special scientific picture of the world. The approval of new ideas about reality as a disciplinary ontology is ensured not only by the fact that they are confirmed by experience and serve as the basis for new fundamental theories, but also their philosophical and ideological justification (see. Philosophical foundations of science ).
Ideas about the world, which are introduced in pictures of the reality under study, always experience a certain influence of analogies and associations drawn from various spheres of cultural creativity, including everyday consciousness and production experience of a certain historical era. For example, ideas about electrical fluid and caloric, included in the mechanical picture of the world in the 18th century, were formed largely under the influence of objective images drawn from the sphere of everyday experience and technology of the corresponding era. common sense 18th century it was easier to agree with the existence of non-mechanical forces, representing them in the image and likeness of mechanical ones, for example. representing the flow of heat as a flow of weightless liquid - caloric, falling like a water jet from one level to another and thereby producing work in the same way as water does this work in hydraulic devices. But at the same time, the introduction into the mechanical picture of the world of ideas about various substances - carriers of forces - also contained a moment of objective knowledge. The idea of quality various types forces was the first step towards recognizing the irreducibility of all types of interaction to mechanical. It contributed to the formation of special, different from mechanical, ideas about the structure of each of these types of interactions.
The ontological status of scientific pictures of the world is a necessary condition for the objectification of specific empirical and theoretical knowledge scientific discipline and their inclusion in culture.
Through inclusion in the scientific picture of the world, special achievements of science acquire a general cultural meaning and ideological significance. For example, the basic physical idea of the general theory of relativity, taken in its special theoretical form (the components of the fundamental metric tensor that determines the metric of four-dimensional space-time, at the same time act as potentials gravitational field), is poorly understood by those who are not involved in theoretical physics. But when this idea is formulated in the language of the picture of the world (the nature of the geometry of space-time is mutually determined by the nature of the gravitational field), it gives it the status of a scientific truth that has ideological meaning, understandable to non-specialists. This truth modifies the ideas about homogeneous Euclidean space and quasi-Euclidean time, which, through the system of training and education since the times of Galileo and Newton, have become a worldview postulate of everyday consciousness. This is the case with many scientific discoveries that were included in the scientific picture of the world and through it influence the ideological guidelines of human life. Historical development the scientific picture of the world is expressed not only in changes in its content. Its very forms are historical. In the 17th century, during the era of the emergence of natural science, the mechanical picture of the world was simultaneously a physical, natural and general scientific picture of the world. With the advent of disciplinary organized science (late 18th century – 1st half of the 19th century), a spectrum of special scientific pictures of the world emerged. They become special, autonomous forms of knowledge, organizing the facts and theories of each scientific discipline into a system of observation. Problems arise in constructing a general scientific picture of the world that synthesizes the achievements of individual sciences. Unity of scientific knowledge becomes key philosophical problem science 19 – 1st half. 20th century Strengthening interdisciplinary interactions in science of the 20th century. leads to a decrease in the level of autonomy of special scientific pictures of the world. They are integrated into special blocks of the natural scientific and social pictures of the world, the basic ideas of which are included in the general scientific picture of the world. In the 2nd half. 20th century the general scientific picture of the world begins to develop on the basis of the ideas of universal (global) evolutionism, combining the principles of evolution and the systems approach. Are revealed genetic connections between the inorganic world, living nature and society, as a result, the sharp opposition between the natural scientific and social scientific pictures of the world is eliminated. Accordingly, the integrative connections of disciplinary ontologies are strengthening, which increasingly act as fragments or aspects of a single general scientific picture of the world.
Literature:
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The scientific picture of the world (SPW) includes the most important achievements of science that create a certain understanding of the world and man’s place in it. It does not include more specific information about the properties of various natural systems, or about the details of the cognitive process itself.
Unlike strict theories, the scientific picture of the world has the necessary clarity.
The scientific picture of the world is a special form of systematization of knowledge, mainly its qualitative generalization, ideological synthesis of various scientific theories.
In the history of science, scientific pictures of the world did not remain unchanged, but replaced each other, thus we can talk about evolution scientific pictures of the world. The most obvious evolution seems to be physical pictures peace: natural philosophy - until the 16th - 17th centuries, mechanistic - until the second half of the 19th century, thermodynamic (within the framework of mechanistic theory) in the 19th century, relativistic and quantum mechanical in the 20th century. The figure schematically shows the development and change of scientific pictures of the world in physics.
Physical pictures of the World
There are general scientific pictures of the world and pictures of the world from the point of view of individual sciences, for example, physical, biological, etc.
Primitive culture is syncretic - undivided. It closely intertwines cognitive, aesthetic, objective-practical and other types of activities. The following story is interesting. A group of European travelers got lost in the Central Australian desert. The situation in those conditions is tragic. The guide, an aborigine, reassured the travelers: “I have never been to this area before, but I know its… song.” Following the words of the song, he led the travelers to the source. This example clearly illustrates the unity of science, art and everyday experience.
In the primitive era, individual aspects and aspects of the world were generalized not in concepts, but in sensory, concrete, visual images. The set of interconnected similar visual images represented a mythological picture of the world.
Myth is a way of generalizing the world in the form of visual images.
Myth carries within itself not only a certain generalization and understanding of the world, but also an experience of the world, a certain attitude.
The primitive myth was not only told, but also reproduced through ritual actions: dances, rituals, sacrifices. By performing ritual actions, a person maintained contact with those forces (beings) that created the world.
Mythological consciousness was gradually transformed by rational forms. The transition to scientific knowledge of the world required the emergence of qualitatively new, in comparison with mythological, ideas about the world. In such a non-mythological world, there are not anthropomorphic, but processes independent of people and Gods.
Natural science begins when the question is formulated: is there a certain unified principle behind the diversity of things? The emergence of European science is usually associated with the Milesian school. Its historical merit consisted in posing the first and most important natural scientific problem - the problem of origin. Representatives of the Milesian school - Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes - were both the first natural scientists and the first philosophers.
Thales of Miletus entered the history of science both as a philosopher and as a mathematician who put forward the idea of mathematical proof. The idea of mathematical proof is the greatest achievement of ancient Greek thinkers.
Plato
Plato proposed the existence of two realities, two worlds. The first world is a world of many individual, changing, moving things, a material world that is reflected by human feelings. The second world is the world of eternal, general and unchanging entities, the world of general ideas, which is comprehended by the mind.
An idea is what is seen by the mind in a thing. This is a kind of constructive beginning, a generative model. These are the old mythological Gods translated into philosophical language. An idea is something general concept, some generalization.
None of the Gods and heroes lived in the world of ideas. The world of ideas is primary in relation to the world of sensory things. The material world is derived from the ideal.
