Context of Discovery — Context of Justification and the Problem of Psychologism

Abstract

As is generally known, the introduction of the discovery context vs justification context idea was grounded in a struggle against psychologism within the scientific knowledge theory. The idea has been adopted by all the epistemological conceptions that would assume antipsychologism (neopositivism and hypothetism, among others). When criticizing “traditional” epistemology, the contemporary philosophy of science makes efforts to undermine the discovery context vs justification context opposition. The reason is that it declares itself for extending the philosophical reflection on science over the context of discovery. It seems, prima facie, that this leads to the return of psychologistic thinking about the scientific knowledge and the process of reaching it. The paper considers the grounds for this assumption.