The key mechanisms for integrating scientific knowledge with the aid of sociology

Abstract

This article analyzes various mechanisms for integrating scientific knowledge with the aid of sociology. The author aims to show the integrative potential of sociological science, the correlation of subject and methodology in the processes of scientific synthesis, the significance of metaparadigmal dialogue and synthesis for the formation of an integral system of socio-humanitarian knowledge. The main research methods include the analysis of real integration processes involving sociology, as well as the comparison of various mechanisms and results of scientific integration. The results show that the main mechanisms of integrative interaction of sociology with social sciences and humanities are the formation of industry-specific sociologies (e. g., economic and political sociology) and sociological paradigms. Special attention is paid to the inclusion of sociology in the processes of scientific synthesis, which involve interaction with complex areas of knowledge, the structural elements of which are natural science, social sciences, humanities, and technical components, as well as the elements that go beyond the actual scientific knowledge. Ecology and anthropology are considered as examples of such synthetic fields of knowledge. The author shows that in the process of forming social ecology (with the participation of sociological science), its complex character (subject-methodological “Trinity”) becomes more pronounced. The most significant and methodologically interesting aspect of the interaction between sociology and social anthropology (as a section of anthropology — a comprehensive study of man) can be considered the combination of their efforts to create an optimal model of theoretical humanitarian knowledge. The main conclusion, which has a certain degree of novelty, is the position that sociology, being included in various mechanisms of integration of scientific knowledge, contributes not only to the meaningful convergence of social sciences and humanities, but also to their adequate, deeper theoretical, and methodological self-determination.