Voznyakevich, E. E. The Problem of the Disciplinary Unity of the History of Science

Abstract: The subject research of the present article is the balance between science studies, historical methodology of science and philosophy of the history of science when studying the genesis of scientific knowledge. Offering different approaches to the development of the research targets, each of these disciplines sets its own methodological framework for both researches and validation criteria and therefore several models of the development of scientific knowledge with different groups of factors are being implemented. Nevertheless, in order to perform pragmatic functions such as the creation and substantiation of scientific policy, it is necessary to develop a more comprehensive model. Conceptual analysis of the main approaches to the history of science allows to discover whether the interaction between these disciplines is actually possible and what conditions for such interaction are. It is concluded that the condition for the disciplinary unity of the history of science is the expansion of the definition of science as an activity aimed at production of knowledge in a particular socio-cultural community. While philosophical methods allow to define specific features of the process of knowledge production, methodology sets validation criteria and science studies oriented at socio-cultural group of factors define the key mechanisms of the development of such knowledge production.

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