Reflections on Teaching and Studying the Scientific Laws

Abstract

The article aims to discuss the problems of teaching and studying the scientific laws. It is dedicated to the anniversary of Dmitriy Mendeleev’s Periodic Law, but the author discusses the scientific laws in a broad epistemological and educational context. In the first section of the article, the author determines the purpose of education at a research university on the basis of Wilhelm von Humboldt’s ideas. She emphasizes that, in contrast to school education, which is focused on the transfer of ready-made knowledge, university education should generate critical thinking. In the context of such distinction between educational goals, a research question is formulated. How to make the practice of teaching a scientific law truly relevant to research university, and not only and not so much to school education? The answer to this question consistently considers two interrelated aspects of the possible education of future researchers. The author describes the historical aspect of teaching the scientific laws through two strategies of the history of science – antiquarianism and presentism. She demonstrates that antiquarianism can contribute to the formation of critical thinking. The author reveals the ontological aspect of teaching the scientific laws and relates it with the critic of objectivism in interpretation of scientific knowledge. In conclusion she argues that the proposed approach may contribute to the generation of scientific thinking aimed at finding new knowledge.