Methods of theoretical knowledge

Man learns the world in various forms - in the form of everyday cognition, knowledge of religious, artistic, and also scientific. The first three forms are considered as extra-scientific, and although scientific knowledge has grown out of everyday, everyday, it differs significantly from all non-scientific forms. Scientific knowledge has its own structure, in which two levels are distinguished: empirical and theoretical. During the XVII-XVIII centuries, science was mainly on the empirical stage, and theories began to speak only in the XIX century. The methods of theoretical cognition, by which the methods of a comprehensive study of reality in its essential laws and relationships were understood, began to gradually be built on empirical ones. But even in spite of this, the empirical and theoretical studies were in close interaction, suggesting thereby the integral structure of scientific knowledge. In this connection, even general scientific methods of theoretical cognition appeared, which were equally characteristic of the empirical method of cognition. At the same time, some methods of empirical cognition were also used by the theoretical stage.

The basic scientific methods of the theoretical level of cognition

Abstraction is a method that boils down to abstracting from some properties of an object during cognition with the aim of more in-depth research of one of its sides. Abstraction in the final result must work out abstract concepts that characterize objects from different sides.

Analogy is a mental conclusion about the similarity of objects, which is expressed in a certain relation, based on their similarity in somewhat different ways.

Modeling is a method based on the principle of similarity. Its essence lies in the fact that the research is not subjected to the object itself, but its analogue (substitute, model), after which the data are transferred according to certain rules to the object itself.

Idealization is the mental construction (construction) of theories about objects, concepts that do not really exist in reality and can not incarnate in it, but those for which in reality there is an analog or a close prototype.

Analysis is the method of dividing one whole into parts in order to know each part separately.

Synthesis is a procedure that is inverse to analysis, consisting in the combination of individual elements in one system for the purpose of further cognition.

Induction is a method in which the final conclusion is made from knowledge obtained to a lesser degree of generality. Simply put, induction is a movement from the particular to the general.

Deduction is the opposite method of induction, which has a theoretical focus.

Formalization is a method of displaying meaningful knowledge in the form of signs and symbols. The formalization basis is the discrimination of artificial and natural languages.

All these methods of theoretical cognition can be inherent in one degree or another to empirical cognition. The historical and logical methods of theoretical cognition are also no exception. The historical method is the reproduction in detail of the history of the object. Especially it finds wide application in historical sciences, where the specificity of events is of great importance. The logical method also reproduces history, but only in the main, the main and essential, without paying attention to those events and facts that are caused by accidental circumstances.

This is not all methods of theoretical knowledge. Speaking generally, in scientific cognition all methods can manifest simultaneously, being in close interaction with each other. The concrete use of individual methods is determined by the level of scientific knowledge, as well as the features of the object, the process.