Has science got a basic principle?

Abstract

The subject of this paper will be the attempts to find a basic principle of science from different philosophers of science. These resulted into novelties as well as new problems of perception, interpretation and approach to science, and its development.

Although the science which constitutes the most obvious evidence of increased human knowledge, turned out to be a very complex phenomenon with many different challenges to be understood and explained, which is expressed through different theories of philosophy of science, which also express different approaches, but at the same time reflect its evolution.

The novelties as well as epistemological problems, roughly speaking, can be summarized as follows:

(i) the formulation of the basic principle of science – the principle of verifiability,

(ii) the falsification as a guiding principle of science,

(iii) the paradigms and their shift as main principle of development of science; and

(iv) the controversial developments after Kuhn

Yet, despite the success, there is still no epistemological theory, which would give answers to questions: whether there is any rational explanation of how the community of scientists sets, culminating in moments of scientific development, to change the paradigms.