Unification as a method of producing cognitive diversity

Abstract

The article analyzes the possibility of producing cognitive diversity through the unification of scientific knowledge. In the article under discussion, L.V. Shipovalova notes that the production of diversity is the most important task of science. It can be solved by constructing distributed cognition practices that can bridge the epistemic gap between scientists and lay people. In contrast to this position, it is shown that within the framework of modern technoscience, one of the mechanisms for the production of diversity can be the unification of scientific knowledge. Before the formation of technoscience, it was assumed that the search for fundamental laws was the key task of scientific research. At the same time, a special role was assigned to the disciplinary structure of science. Only within the framework of a particular scientific discipline could these laws be found. As a result, one of the main mechanisms of “unification” could become scientific imperialism, which implies a large-scale use of ontological assumptions, methods and metaphors of one discipline in another. In this case, the unification of knowledge reduces its diversity. In modern technoscience, the solution of applied problems and the design of research equipment plays a key role. The result can be achieved only in the process of complex interdisciplinary research involving the interaction of scientists from various disciplines and other actors interested in the scientific result. In the process of joint work, an interdisciplinary synthesis of knowledge can be formed. Such unification leads to an increase in cognitive diversity.