What is Scientific Progress?

Abstract

The article examines the understanding of scientific progress by scientists and representatives of the philosophy of science, in particular, W. Whewell, E. Mach, M. Weber, logical positivism. It is noted that until the middle of the twentieth century, scientists and philosophers were convinced that science is constantly progressing, developing more and more complete and accurate knowledge of the world. Only in the second half of the twentieth century K. Popper and T. Kuhn questioned this belief, proposing their conceptions of the development of sci­ence. However, the belief in the progressive nature of the development of sci­ence received a new justification in a three layer model of the structure of sci­ence, which added an engineering level to the theoretical and empirical levels. By the end of the twentieth century it was realized that the experimental science of modern times initially saw its main task in the improvement of technology, the search for truth was 0nly a means of solving its main social task. In the sec­ond half of the twentieth century technoscience has fulfilled its historical mission, creating a technical basis for the formation of a consumer society. Ap­parently, its development is over. In place of science, occupied with the improve­ment of technology, there are sciences, the subject of which is man and his im­provement.

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