Human-Sizedness in Contemporary Science

The ideas of well-known domestic philosophers of science from the second half of the 20th century find effective methodological application in the sphere of contemporary epistemological issues. Their philosophical-methodological de­velopments, in one way or another connected with the ideas of the human-sized­ness of scientific cognition, of the “whole cognizing human,” of “social relays,” and of cultural-historical and systemic analyses of science, makes it possible to identify the positive (non-relativizing and therefore non-fragmenting of know­ledge into merely applied tasks) cognitively effective role of socio-humanitarian factors in the formation of scientific knowledge. The cultural-historical interpre­tation of the idea of human-sizedness opens up prospects for understanding the methodological contexts of contemporary interdisciplinary research pro­grams in socially oriented science. The article traces the development of the idea of the human-sizedness of cognition, connected with its “capacity” and historical continuity. The authors show that in Petrov’s works, the idea of human-sizedness is directly tied to the notion of capacity and is interpreted as subjective – i.e., as the mental (psychic) and physical ability of a human being to “contain” within themselves a non-human-sized, objective world. V.S. Stepin defines such an interpretation of human-sizedness as an “informational capacity,” linked to the physical and mental limitations of the individual human being. At the same time, in Stepin’s works – where he turns to Hegel – there is also another under­standing of human-sizedness, associated with the intersubjective (arising in com­munication) nature of human consciousness and cognition. The human being be­comes aware of the cultural-historical aims of scientific-cognitive activity and, as it were, joins into the reality being studied as its immanent meaning-bearing component. This endows scientific research with an intersubjective character and the knowledge obtained – with cultural-historical value. The necessity is also substantiated of further philosophical-methodological development of this idea for contemporary experimentally oriented and interdisciplinary (requiring colla­boration) research programs

Consciousness · Contemporary society · Hegelianism · Human being · Human science · Interpretation (philosophy) · Phenomenon · Digital Education and Society · Educational Innovations and Challenges · Psychology of Development and Education