TO THE QUESTION OF THE SCIENTIFIC NATURE OF PHILOSOPHY

Pavel A. Romanov¹, Larisa G. Smirnova², Nadezhda Y. Serkina³* and Irina A. Dedova^4
1As. Prof., Mari State University, Russia, pavel.rmnv@gmail.com
²As. Prof., Mari State University, Russia, slg1923@mai.ru
³As. Prof., Mari State University, Russia, nserkina@mai.ru
⁴As. Prof., Mari State University, Russia, iraira0906@mai.ru
*Corresponding author 

Abstract
The article is devoted to the actual issue of the relation of philosophy and science as independent forms of social consciousness. The purpose of this work is to give qualitative characteristics of the generality and difference of philosophy and science, to demarcate between these forms of social consciousness and to determine their interconnection within the framework of a single spiritual culture of mankind.

The article deals with the dialectics of the interaction of scientific knowledge and the philosophical interpretation of objective reality in a historical retrospective, analyzes the relationship between philosophy and science by identifying the criteria for their generality and difference. The signs of similarity imply the application of universally recognized criteria for the scientific nature of knowledge: objectivity, rationality, the pursuit of truth, the use of general scientific methods of research, connection with practical activities. At the same time, there are a number of differences, according to which philosophical knowledge is a unique phenomenon in spiritual culture.

Firstly, this is the attitude to objectivity, which is inseparable from the subject of cognition, his world outlook and the concrete personality of the philosopher. Secondly, it is a special philosophical rationality that manifests itself not only in the great philosophical systems, but also in other forms of philosophical thought: aphorisms, literary works, etc., and finally, this is the attitude to truth, which within the framework of philosophy can be accessible exclusively by the method of philosophical reflection, as well as the specific nature of the methods of cognition used by philosophy and the indirect connection with practice through science and ideology. It is against these criteria that the article demarcates the scientific and unscientific philosophy.

Science and philosophy are considered as the ratio of the part and the whole. This means that any science is philosophical, since it relies on a number of general philosophical postulates and is genetically related to it, but not every philosophy is scientific, for the criteria of the scientific nature are not fully suitable for the evaluating of philosophical knowledge. On the basis of the detailed analysis, the conclusion is made about the non-identity of philosophy and science and, at the same time, their inseparable connection, which opens up the possibility of the appearance of a qualitatively new scientific philosophy.

Keywords: philosophy, science, objectivity, rationality, truth, practice.