The Concept of Scientific Worldview in the Russian Philosophy of the First Quarter of the 20th Century (Based on the Works by V.I. Vernadsky and L.M. Lopatin)

Abstract

This article analyses the concept of scientific worldview in the Russian philosophical journalism of the first quarter of the 20th century. It examines and compares the interpretations of scientific worldview in the works by V.I. Vernadsky and L.M. Lopatin. Both philosophers distanced themselves from the positivist model of scientific knowledge; however, Lopatin was able to identify certain elements of positivism in Vernadsky’s ideas on the relationship between philosophy and science. It should be noted that Lopatin left unchanged the juxtaposition of metaphysics and positivism. The definitions of scientific worldview given by the two Russian philosophers are tautological, being reduced to the   following: scientific worldview is a set of ideas about the world shared by the majority of scientists of a particular era. Vernadsky and Lopatin used the term scientific worldview as a synonym for the concepts of science, scientific knowledge, scientific thinking, and scientific way of comprehending the world, without attributing any additional meaning to it. The dispute over scientific worldview is actually a dispute about the metaphysical origins, foundations and prerequisites of scientific knowledge as such. The expression scientific worldview (when it implies an organized conceptual unity and not just a set of conclusions in special sciences) indicates no more than one or another metaphysical system and the principle (or set of principles) of thinking that determines it. Thus, the concept of scientific worldview in the works by Vernadsky and Lopatin expresses a vain pursuit to preserve the conceptual unity of philosophical and scientific knowledge, without dissolving philosophy in the theory and methodology of science.
For citation: Demin I.V. The Concept of Scientific Worldview in the Russian Philosophy of the First Quarter of the 20th Century (Based on the Works by V.I. Vernadsky and L.M. Lopatin). Vestnik Severnogo (Arkticheskogo) federal’nogo universiteta. Ser.: Gumanitarnye i sotsial’nye nauki, 2021, no. 1, pp. 101–113. DOI: 10.37482/2687-1505-V079