Understanding is understood as a combination of processes, methods and procedures for acquiring knowledge about various phenomena and objects. The goal of cognition, according to various researchers, is to master the forces of nature, improve man, and also search for truth.
Cognition is divided into scientific and unscientific. In the latter, in turn, emit ordinary, artistic, mythological and religious knowledge. Scientific knowledge differs from other forms. It is a process of acquiring knowledge, albeit to some extent subjective and relative, but aimed at reflecting the laws associated with objective reality, which can be called reality. The challenge facing scientific knowledge is the description, explanation and prediction of processes and phenomena that occur in reality.
The structure of scientific knowledge implies dividing it into levels in which forms and methods of cognition are distinguished. The structure of scientific knowledge has two levels - in the form of empirical and theoretical methods. Some researchers identify another third level - the metatheoretical method of cognition.
At the empirical level, there is a collection of factual material, empirical experience, as well as their primary generalization.
The main methods of empirical knowledge are two basic points: observations and experiments. Observation is a method consisting in a focused, deliberate, organized perception of the objects of the surrounding world, based on a sensual knowledge of the world, during which knowledge is acquired about the nature and properties of the object. An experiment implies, in contrast to observation, the possibility of active influence on the studied phenomena and processes.
On a theoretical level, data and facts obtained empirically are processed, and internal relationships between different phenomena are revealed. At this level, the structure of scientific knowledge is represented by hypotheses and theories. A hypothesis is a scientific hypothesis that explains any phenomena and requires experimental verification and theoretical justification. Theory is a system of interconnected statements and evidence that explains and predicts phenomena in a particular area. The theory should reflect the objective laws of the development of nature, as well as society.
The structure of scientific knowledge in philosophy suggests another level - metatheoretical. Here are philosophical attitudes, as well as methods, ideals, standards, norms, regulations, etc. At a metatheoretical level, a scientific picture of the world is taking shape.
The structure of scientific knowledge involves interconnection. This means that the two main ways of cognition in the form of empirical and theoretical are necessarily connected with each other. Empirical knowledge through observations and experiments collects new data, stimulating theoretical knowledge, setting new tasks for it, and theoretical knowledge, in turn, generalizes and explains the phenomena obtained empirically, and also puts forward hypotheses and theories that require empirical confirmation.
The structure of scientific knowledge in philosophy repeats the structure of unscientific knowledge.
The development of scientific knowledge led to the division of science into disciplines. The disciplinary structure of science has a dual character. On the one hand, the division of science into disciplines, industries, sections allows a specific person to specialize in a particular problem and study it more deeply. But, on the other hand, this specialization breaks up universal knowledge, leading to the loss of its integrity. That is why in the last century the process of integration of sciences began, the result of which was the emergence of new sciences at the junction of existing ones. So, at the intersection of biology and technology, bionics appeared, using the structures of living organisms to solve engineering problems