The Justification of the Science of Science in the European and Soviet Philosophy of Science in the 1920s (to the Prehistory of the Naukovedenie)

Abstract

The article deals with the comparative analysis of the projects of the science of science (Naukovedenie/Naukoznanie) proposed by the Soviet philosopher I. A. Borichesky and by the Polish-American philosopher and sociologist F. Znaniecki . The author points out that both projects with similar tasks arose almost simultaneously in the 1920s in different socio-economic and political contexts. To analyze the projects, the author uses the concept of social and cognitive institutionalization proposed by R. Whitley. To consider the social institutionalization of science about science, the author gives the information about Polish and Soviet/Russian organizations for the science studies created at the beginning of the XXth century. The author gives an analysis of cognitive institutionalization based on the reconstruction of F. Znaniecki's and I. A. Borichevsky's projects. The article concludes that Znaniecki and Borichevsky proposed projects of a completely new science, the subject of which should be science itself. In these projects, science Naukovedenie/Naukoznanie were understood as an independent science, irreducible to any other field of scientific research. It was assumed that Naukovedenie/Naukoznanie consider science in all its diversity. The author shows that what is important in the projects of Znaniecki and Borichevsky is the idea of the practical application of science of science. The author for the first time in the research literature analyzes the little - known project proposed by F. Znaniecki, linking it with the general intellectual context of the epoche when it appeared. The novelty of the article also includes a comparison of the ideas of I. A. Borichevsky and F. Znaniecki.