On Multi-Flow Model of the Development in Natural Sciences

Abstract

A model of the knowledge development in natural sciences named "multi-flow model” is analyzed, and two examples of this model are examined. One of them has been formulated in the article of two domestic physicists M. I. Podgoretsky and Ya. A. Smorodinsky, who have explored the applicability of the axiomatic method in physics and concluded that the construction of such axiomatic structures as in mathematics is impossible in natural sciences because, unlike mathematical theories, physical theories are incomplete. The concepts of «meeting» and «contradictions of the meeting» are formulated. It is shown how in the process of analyzing the capabilities of the axiomatic method, the authors develop the mechanism of creating a new model. This mechanism consists of building a hierarchical series of "directions", which are the vertically stacked layers of knowledge. One could hope that the emergence of such directions would enrich modern natural sciences with new opportunities and results. However, the second example developed by a prominent physicist and brilliant methodologist Carl Rovelli, reveals that everything is not so simple. In some cases, newly created non-linear models may lead to a misinterpretation of the development of scientific cognition. It is shown that the terminology used by the authors of the first example is not quite adequate to the content of the model: the main term used by them — "direction" — is not sufficiently defined. In addition, the term changes the meaning of the analysis that has been done. In this regard, it is proposed to introduce a new term "flow" and call the model itself a "multi-flow model". Not multi-directional model, but multi-flow model. In the second example of the multi-flow model, C. Rovelli uses this model to restore the unity and integrity of scientific knowledge that has been destroyed in the post-classical period of science development. This attempt to implement the new synthesis has been made by Rovelli within the framework of the quantum gravity theory.