Growth Of Scientific Knowledge Research Articles

Virtual Reality: Characteristics and application in anxiety disorders and other clinical settings

Virtual Reality (VR) technology places users in a computer-generated three-dimensional environment where they experience a variety of visual and auditory cues related to their clinical needs. Despite the considerable growth of scientific knowledge in this field, the application of this knowledge to clinical practice has been slow. The purpose of this paper is to synthesize the evidence related to the application of VRET interventions in the treatment of various disorders such as eating disorders, or even psychotic disorders and addictions, dwelling on anxiety disorders, in adults and in developmental age. VR technologies make it possible to create and replicate dangerous and impossible situations in the real world by allowing the precise acquisition of data, facilitating a more careful evaluation of rehabilitation progress; moreover, by exploiting the features of immersiveness and presence, it is possible to virtually recreate the perfect clinical setting for each intervention.

Identification of a Passionate Personality as a Subject of the Formation of an Intangible Resource for the Restoration of Communities

The paper analyses the process of identification of passionaries as an intangible resource for the recovery of communities. It is emphasized that finding the mechanisms to identify a passionarian has been a major and yet unresolved problem. The purpose of the study is to interpret the phenomenon of passionary identification, to explicate the concepts of "ways of identification" and "identification methods" in order to activate the passionarity potential in communities. Moreover, for the further growth of scientific knowledge, it is extremely necessary to explore the methods of passionary identification, the reasons for choosing a particular method of identification of a passionarian; the factors that contribute to the actualization of a particular identification mechanism, and the ones that, on the contrary, prevent it. The methods of personality identification have been analysed, according to the concepts developed by S. Freud, C.G. Jung, K. Horney, E. Fromm, J. Marcia, G. Meade et al. It has been proved that in the context of constructivist structuralism, identification is considered as an ambivalent path: on the one hand, it is aimed at transforming the world around the individual, and on the other hand, it is aimed at changing the personality itself, conditioned by the social system. G. Allport's cardinal disposition has been considered and it has been substantiated that its availability suggests the presence of passionary energy in a person. Based on the analysis of the identification of the main actors of the conflict in accordance with the conflictological paradigm, it has been substantiated that such interaction most often reveals extraordinary personalities, often with passionary dispositions or traits. It has been shown that there are two ways to identify a passionarian – an internal and external one. The internal way involves a rationally conscious formation of a person's own identity construction. The external method of identity construction is manifested under the influence of extrapersonal factors, while the constructed identity is irrational in most cases.

A History of Biology

A History of Biology

Factors affecting authors' manuscript submission behaviour: A systematic review

AbstractAs an important medium of science communication, academic journals promote the flow and growth of scientific knowledge. To examine the influence of factors on authors' choice of a journal, this paper reviews the literature on journal selection. A systematic review and critical interpretive synthesis methods were used in this study. A total of 132 articles were included and the content characteristics were extracted. Then, based on behavioural decision theory, the extracted data on journal selection factors were synthesized based on critical interpretive synthesis principles. Four synthetic constructs emerged: factors related to information acquisition, factors related to journal evaluation, factors related to submission outcome feedback, and factors related to the authors' backgrounds. The articles revealed that factors related to journal information acquisition and journal evaluation directly influenced authors' submission behaviour, while factors related to authors' backgrounds were moderating variables. Future research should focus on the processes of manuscript‐submission behaviour, to examine the relationships between the factors and identify the mechanisms.

Creating Conspiracy Beliefs: How Our Thoughts Are Shaped

Creating Conspiracy Beliefs: How Our Thoughts Are Shaped

Professor S.B. Bernstein and Slavic studies in the XX century

В статье прослежены жизненный, педагогический и научный путь советского и российского слависта С.Б. Бернштейна, роль выдающегося ученого в возрождении славяноведения в СССР. Актуальность ее обусловлена важностью оценки состояния славяноведения в советский период и роли профессора С.Б. Бернштейна в становлении славяноведения в XX в. Предметом исследования служит организационная, научная, педагогическая деятельность С.Б. Бернштейна, направленная на возрождение и развитие советской славистики. Цель статьи – в контексте истории отечественного славяноведения и определявших его тенденций показать роль организационной и научной деятельности выдающегося советского и российского слависта профессора С.Б. Бернштейна. В исследовании использованы системный, историко-культурный подходы; сравнительный и историографический методы. В статье в обобщенной форме прослежен исторический путь отечественного славяноведения. Автор обозначает состояние российской славистики XIX в., характерный для данного этапа рост научного знания в разных областях на основе широкого сравнительно-исторического осмысления текста культуры: в исследовании истории славянской письменности, славянской народной поэзии, русского литературного языка, русской паремиологии и т. д. Опираясь на воспоминания С.Б. Бернштейна и ученых Института славяноведения РАН, автор показывает состояние славистической науки в 20–30-е годы ХХ века, известное гонениями на славистов. В центре внимания в статье оказываются 40-е и последующие годы ХХ века, на которые приходится возрождение славистики при деятельном участии С.Б. Бернштейна. В обзоре представлена роль ученого в процессе возрождения славянского отделения МГУ, в организации кафедры славянской филологии МГУ, Института славяноведения, в развитии ряда научных направлений: советской болгаристики, кирилломефодиевистики, славянской диалектологии и лингвогеографии, сравнительной грамматики славянских языков, этнолингвистики и славянских древностей и др.

From Information Search to the Loss of Personality: The Phenomenon of Dataism

Purpose. The research is devoted to the analysis of the urgent problem of the information society: the overload of a person with information and, as a result, the impossibility of adequate formation and development of the personality; as well as the problem of "digitization" of human existence and the formation of a new reality of dataism. Theoretical basis. A lot of modern scientific works are devoted to the analysis of the information society, its problems and features. The information society is a logical continuation of the scientific and technological revolution, which led to the rapid growth of scientific knowledge and the technology development. In the 20th century, technologies have touched the sphere of knowledge and information, as a result of which the formation and development of the information society, or "knowledge society", takes place. Information becomes the main resource in it, and, one way or another, a person’s life is inextricably connected with the information space. With the information society formation, the problem of information search and processing becomes one of the most urgent. It turns out that despite the abundance and availability of information, it is very difficult to determine its relevance. A lot of effort is spent on developing information retrieval algorithms. Another problem is related to the person’s inability to process large amounts of data. This situation begins to influence not only the education process and professional activity, but also the formation of a person’s personality. A person is "lost" in the information space and gradually loses his/her "I". Algorithms for data analysis come to the rescue, but gradually, instead of giving a person material for thought, they begin to make decisions on their own, and therefore, live life instead of a person. With the advent of Big Data processing algorithms, a new ideological paradigm appears – dataism, which predicts the merger of a person with the general data flow. Originality. The authors make assumptions that the dataistic future is "natural". A lot of works, including in the framework of philosophy, are focused on the problem of "dissolving" a person in the information space and finding ways to overcome it. But, in our opinion, this process is a completely logical continuation of human evolution. Conclusions. Existence of a person as a data flow is not a problem and a threat, but a new dimension of his/her being, and, therefore, requires a careful study and formulation of the main principles of this form of existence.

Research of Comics in Modern Humanities

The growing popularity of comics in Ukraine and worldwide increases scientific attention to this type of information product. The article is devoted to generalising the leading tendencies in the Comics Study and researching comics in modern humanities. Based on the study devoted to comics professional publications, profile resources of world comics research centres and the current state of understanding the phenomenon of comics magazines and Internet resources, application of review-analytical, historical-chronological, dialectical, socio-communication, and content analysis methods has been detected that the syncretic nature of comics made them a research subject in various sciences and programme subject areas: literary studies, linguistics, cultural study, art history, history, political science, and others. Leading research centres of Comics Study are the International Comic Art Forum, the British Consortium of Comic Researchers, the Comics Research Hub of the University of the Arts, the Canadian Society for the Study of Comics, the Society for Comics Researchers (USA). The educational direction of Comics Studies has been represented by bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral (doctor of philosophy) educational programs in higher education institutions of different countries: the University of Florida, University of Toronto, University of California Santa Cruz, University of Portland, West University, University Dundee, Teesside University, Lancaster University (UK), Kyoto Seika University (Japan). The growth of scientific knowledge in Comics Study, on the one hand, and on the other hand - the predominance of interdisciplinary approach in the studies necessitated the establishment of special scientific journals dedicated to comics, such as the Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics, Studies in Comics, European Comic Art. In Ukraine, the study of comics at the dissertation level took place in the dimension of pedagogy and philology. However, some scientific research on comics is available in journalism, press studies, publishing, political science, literature, journalism, and social communications. It has been found that as a multifunctional and unique information product and object of library activity, comics have not yet become the subject of study for bibliologists and librarians. The prospects of separating the corresponding research direction in bibliology and library science are substantiated.

Genuine versus bogus scientific controversies: the case of statins.

Science progresses through debate and disagreement, and scientific controversies play a crucial role in the growth of scientific knowledge. However, not all controversies and disagreements are progressive in science. Sometimes, controversies can be pseudoscientific; in fact, bogus controversies, and what seem like genuine scientific disagreements, can be a distortion of science set up by non-scientific actors (e.g., interest groups). Bogus controversies are detrimental to science because they can hinder scientific progress and eventually bias science-based decisions. The first goal of this paper is to elucidate the distinction between bogus and genuine scientific controversies and provide a qualitative methodology, based on the literature on expertise, for distinguishing between the two. We will illustrate six epistemic criteria for distinguishing bogus from genuine scientific debates in science and medicine. This heuristic strategy applies directly to scientific reports, and it relies mostly on the social structure of science. We will then apply the above criteria to a case study: the controversy over statins, which are widely prescribed drugs for reducing the level of cholesterol and preventing cardiovascular disease.

Richard Thomas Lowe (1802–1874) and his correspondence networks: botanical exchanges from Madeira

The growth of scientific knowledge in the natural sciences in the nineteenth century to a large extent depended on networking and communication between naturalists. Our case-study illustrates such forms of scientific communication using a social network analysis (SNA) approach for studying the relationships of the Reverend Richard Thomas Lowe, an English naturalist who lived in Madeira from 1826 to 1852, and continued to visit until his death in a shipwreck in 1874. During his lifetime, he established a network of contacts mainly in the United Kingdom and in Madeira, which enabled him to develop and publish his pioneering work on the local flora, including A manual flora of Madeira and the adjacent islands of Porto Santo and the Desertas.

Philosopher-erudite in the epoch of the French Revolution: Jacques Andre Naigeon

The article analyzes the doctrine of a friend and follower of Diderot, who sought to supplement and clarify the philosophical provisions of the famous editor of the “Encyclopedia”. Naigeon was also the publisher of the works of Montaigne, Rousseau, Diderot, he was the author of discussions about Lafontaine and Racine, focusing the reader on the moral content of the works of classics of French literature. The philosopher-erudite saw the meaning of his activity in enlightening contemporaries, in protecting the truth from attacks of adherents of fanaticism and superstition. He considered Diderot’s atheistic materialism as the philosophical peak of his epoch, regarding the doctrines of Rousseau and Condillac popular among his contemporaries as noticeably inferior in depth to the concept of a native of Langres. Hence the originality of his ideas about the future, excluding the deistic idea of civil religion, which found many supporters during the French Revolution. His works are marked by republican and anti-clerical beliefs. At the same time, he opposed the parallels between the doctrine of Diderot and the conspiracy of Babeuf. Seeing the connection between politics and the growth of scientific knowledge, Naigeon considered systematic, classifier cabinet work as an important condition for progress. However, he urged the National Assembly not to mention religion when discussing human rights. Among the principles of a truly thorough historical and philosophical study, Naigeon included the ability to identify the originality of different opinions of the past, without admixing modern ideas to them, refusing to follow slavish various authorities, principle of obtaining the conclusions of highest degree of reliability by comparing all available approaches. Of particular interest are Naigeon’s judgments about errors of historians of philosophy, about typical shortcomings inherent in even their famous and influential works.

Metaphysics and Realism

The article deals with the problem of the return of metaphysics within the framework of the ontological turn of philosophy and the situation of post-metaphysical thinking. The conditions for the possibility of modern metaphysical discourse in the projects of empirical metaphysics and historical ontology are revealed. Historical ontology as a meta-reflexion of philosophy over its own historical foundations is able to bridge the gap between the epistemological static nature of transcendental subjectivity and the ontological dynamism of the growth of scientific knowledge about reality by comprehending the conditions of interaction between science and metaphysics in conditions of post-metaphysical thinking and realistic reversal of ontology. Philosophical knowledge in the context of the ontological turn and the associated return of metaphysics becomes focused not so much on the sharp demarcation of science and metaphysics and postulating the incommensurability of their ontologies, but on identifying mutually enriching areas of research that could give a new impetus to their development.

For citation: Gapontsev V. L., Fedorov V. A., Dorozhkin Ye. M. A look at the global educational crisis through the lens of experience of the history of science. Part 1.The scientific knowledge structure

Introduction. The issue of the global educational crisis was outlined by Ch. P. Snow and denoted by Ph. H. Coombs more than sixty years ago. The viewpoints on this problem outspoken ever since are diversified, but it did not lead to blunting of acuteness thereof. It gives the evidence of the necessity to go on revealing and studying the reasons creating the global educational crisis, of which the rapid growth of scientific knowledge and its accelerated differentiation are outlined by researchers as primary ones. It determines the topicality of researching the structure of scientific knowledge, which is a determinant of the basic education content through the lens of the history of science.The aim of the present study is substantiating of the idea that the basic reason of the world educational crisis is a result of strengthening of scientific knowledge differentiation due to acceleration of its volume growth and developing the approach to overcome the crisis.Methodology and research methods. The methodology of the study is based on the ideology of F. Klein (the Erlangen programme) and the ideas of E. Wigner about the levels of division of the scientific knowledge field (the totality of these ideas allows using them as a tool for description of the scientific knowledge structure and, consequently, of the structure of the education content, the determinant whereof it is); on the personal-activity approach developed by V. S. Lednev for the analysis of the structure of the education content, and on the approaches to description of the behaviour of complex systems on the base of regular laws established by synergetics.Results. Examining the history of development of the scientific knowledge structure within the ideology of F. Klein’s Erlangen programme allowed coming to the conclusion that in general it should be described as a result of the non-completed process of formation of the pattern of dividing the entire scientific knowledge field into three areas constituting three levels: phenomena of nature, laws of nature and the field of symmetry principles. In proportion to growing, each next level provides the previous one with its structure. The currently accepted classification of sciences is a horizontal section of the three-level pattern of dividing the scientific knowledge in the field of laws of nature.Scientific novelty. The paper evidences that the three-level pattern of dividing the scientific knowledge is formed in the course of the history of science as a basis of integration of the scientific knowledge, equalising the process of its differentiation, which shall allow optimising the content of general education with strengthening the integration of its disciplines.Practical significance. The ideas of the scientific knowledge structure, inherent to the three-level pattern of dividing the scientific knowledge, will be utilised as the basis for the formation of a new variant of the general education content structure, which will allow optimising it and mitigating the acuteness of the global educational crisis related to the progressing differentiation of scientific knowledge.

Ages of cited references and growth of scientific knowledge: an explication of the gamma distribution in business and management disciplines

The purpose of this study was to assess the gamma distribution as a model of the distribution of ages of cited references in corpora of scientific literature, and to derive inferences from the parameters of the distributions. The ages of cited references in 2867 articles published in 40 distinguished journals in the fields of accounting, economics, finance, management, marketing, operations and information systems, organisation behaviour and human resources were analysed. The distributions of ages of cited references in each subject area were fitted to gamma distributions with the parameters estimated using minimum distance estimation. In contrast to extant literature, it is shown for all subject areas in the study that the goodness-of-fit statistics for gamma distributions were superior to those for lognormal distributions. The rate of growth of knowledge and the temporal profile of the growth of knowledge are derived from the parameters of the gamma distributions and differentiate the subject areas. Longitudinal analysis demonstrates that the gamma distribution models are stable but illustrate the evolution of specific corpora of literature over time. The gamma distribution parameters and derived metrics can be applied diagnostically and descriptively to characterise corpora of literature, or prospectively to set norms, expectations and criteria for new research. The results have implications for future bibliometric studies, authors, editors, reviewers, and knowledge researchers. Opportunities for further research and verification of prior research are created from this novel bibliometric approach.

Tradition and Discontinuity: Interrogating the Notions of Normal Science and Revolution in Thomas Kuhn

The present paper is a representation of a systematic inquiry as well as an application of the main thrust in Thomas Kuhn’s discourse concerning the growth of human knowledge represented in philosophy of science. The paper begins by stating the points of tradition and normal science in Thomas Kuhn’s analysis of the growth of scientific knowledge. This is juxtaposed with the notions of discontinuity and revolution. A fundamental point in the paper is that Thomas Kuhn presents an analysis that bring to the fore a tradition of continuous discontinuity. This he expounded in the philosophy of paradigm shifts brought about by crisis and revolution, resulting in the overthrow of an existing hegemony and the birth of a new one. In all, Thomas Kuhn believes that science does not represent a paradigm of rationality because going through the history of science; we are not able to discover a particular paradigm or rationality that runs through the entirety of the history of science. If anything at all, science is made up of different paradigms of rationality, models of knowledge systems of method such that, the change from one scientific epoch to another cannot be a lineal rational or methodic one. Rather, it is a shift from one model to an opposing one; what he calls a gestalt switch which is a change in ‘form of life’, ‘language game’ or ‘conceptual scheme’. The paper however, presents the thesis that even if there is no outstanding form of rationality the history of science is seen to contain a certain continuous tradition. This has to do with the aim of any science. And so, be it the science of Ptolemy, Copernicus or Galileo, Einstein or Newton, there is the aim of human interest transcending all the epochs. To this extent, the paper argues a rationality of any scientific epoch or paradigm must derive from the quality of human interest it potent. Any science be it religion, mysticism or positivism that does not aim at human flourishing is not rational. The paper employs the method of text-analysis, conceptual clarification, constructive criticism and reconstructivism to bring forth its central argument.

Citation concept analysis (CCA): a new form of citation analysis revealing the usefulness of concepts for other researchers illustrated by exemplary case studies including classic books by Thomas S. Kuhn and Karl R. Popper

In recent years, the full text of papers are increasingly available electronically which opens up the possibility of quantitatively investigating citation contexts in more detail. In this study, we introduce a new form of citation analysis, which we call citation concept analysis (CCA). CCA is intended to reveal the cognitive impact certain concepts—published in a highly-cited landmark publication—have on the citing authors. It counts the number of times the concepts are mentioned (cited) in the citation context of citing publications. We demonstrate the method using three classical highly cited books: (1) The structure of scientific revolutions by Thomas S. Kuhn, (2) The logic of scientific discovery—Logik der Forschung: Zur Erkenntnistheorie der modernen Naturwissenschaft in German—, and (3) Conjectures and refutations: the growth of scientific knowledge by Karl R. Popper. It is not surprising—as our results show—that Kuhn’s “paradigm” concept seems to have had a significant impact. What is surprising is that our results indicate a much larger impact of the concept “paradigm” than Kuhn’s other concepts, e.g., “scientific revolution”. The paradigm concept accounts for about 40% of the concept-related citations to Kuhn’s work, and its impact is resilient across all disciplines and over time. With respect to Popper, “falsification” is the most used concept derived from his books. Falsification is the cornerstone of Popper’s critical rationalism.

Corridor of migration, navigation, and innovation: The New York State Canal System

T he rivers and canals of the northeastern United States were early transportation networks that settled interior “wildlands” and opened the subsistence farm economy to eastern markets. Industries and cities grew along these water courses, and although canals were replaced by railroads, it was the canal-river infrastructure of the early 1800s that transformed occupations, markets, and settlement patterns of the new country (Kalabon et al. 2013). Growing urbanization modified rivers and their watersheds to achieve new uses and goals. The processes of population growth and settlement create massive changes in the social-ecological dynamics of river uses, habitats, and landscapes (Grove 2009). About 3% of the world population in the 1800s lived in urban areas; by the 1900s urban populations grew to 14% (Grove 2009), and today over half (55%) of the world population lives in urban environments with a United Nations projection of 68% by 2050. The spatial changes in settlement patterns and spider-like intrusions into “wildlands” along river landscapes are historic and modern, and are present and future challenges to water conservation and management at the rural-urban interface. These changes are concurrent with the growth in scientific knowledge about water ecologies and shifts in human perspectives and values about the…

Students’ views of uncertainty in formal and personal science

ABSTRACT Background: Uncertainty is a crucial element of scientific knowledge growth. Students should have some understanding of how science knowledge is developed and why scientific conclusions are considered more or less certain than others. A component of the nature of science, it is considered an important aspect of science education and allows students to recognize the limitations of scientific research. Purpose: This study examined Grades 5 and 9 students’ views of uncertainty in their personal scientific research and the formal scientific research of professionals. Sample: This study included 33 students in Grade 5 (n = 17) and Grade 9 (n = 16). The students were recruited from a charter school that emphasised inquiry instruction. Design and methods: Data were collected through interviews. Students were asked their views of their inquiry-based projects and their views of professional science. Results: Interview data and statistical analyses indicated that students recognized uncertainty in personal science, which varied across elements of the scientific process. Additionally, their views of uncertainty in formal science tended to change across grades and knowledge of uncertainty in personal and formal science were positively correlated. Conclusion: These findings offer insights into the processes by which students come to understand uncertainty in science and point to ways of fostering such knowledge through teaching practices.

Philosophy of Science and Ethics

The issue whether science can be correctly submitted to ethical judgment has been widely debated especially in the 1960s. Those who denied the legitimacy of such a judgment stressed that this would entail an undue limitation of the freedom of science; those who defended such a limitation laid stress on the great dangers that an uncontrolled growth of scientific knowledge has already produced and would continue to produce against humankind. This sterile debate can be settled by recognizing that scientific knowledge can and must be evaluated, as far as its validity is concerned, exclusively through the methodological criteria admitted by the professionals of the single scientific disciplines concerned, and no ethical judgment is pertinent from this point of view. Nevertheless, if we consider science as a particular system of social activities, entailing concrete procedures, conditions and applications, the ethical evaluation of these actions is pertinent and correct. A second question is whether or not the inclusion of these ethical investigations in the specific domain of philosophy of science is correct. If one conceives philosophy of science simply as an epistemology of science consisting in a logical-methodological investigation about the language of scientific theories, this broadening would appear spurious. This view, however, is too narrow and dated: a fully fledged philosophical investigation on the complex phenomenon of science cannot prevent important outlooks and instruments of the philosophical inqujiry (in particular ethics) from legitimately pertaining to the philosophy of science.

Kuhn’s philosophy of science of early and transitional period: Paradigms and incommensurability

Even though Thomas Kuhn was a physicist by formal education, he is better known for his achievements in philosophy of science than in science itself. He was primarily concerned with history of science and subjects such as development of science, growth of scientific knowledge, changes in science and others. In that sense Kuhn was focused on giving the correct description of scientific reality in human history, that is, on giving the description of the most relevant elements of scientific research. Kuhn claims that scientists base their research on paradigms which are the key factor in scientific practice overall. All other concepts of Kuhn?s philosophy - such as, for instance, normal science, revolutionary science, incommensurability of paradigms - gain their meaning in relation to the concept of a paradigm. However, the concept of a paradigm in its original definition was very problematic, which, later on, led Kuhn to make its meaning more precise. Hence, the task of this paper is to illuminate the nature of that central concept i.e. to determine the essential features of a paradigm in relation to the rest of the conceptual network of Kuhn?s theory, and therefore its role in science and in that conceptual network. At the same time, the meaning of all those elements of Kuhnian science which are in direct relation to the paradigm will be illuminated. I will restrict my research on early and transitional period of Kuhn?s creatorship, and I base this distinction on Sankey?s analysis. The difference between these two periods is determined by Kuhn?s thinking about the formulation of the thesis of incommensurability of paradigms. Accordingly, it is necessary to deal with definition of incommensurability, its division to types and Kuhn?s view on implications of incommensurability for science and its progress.