WILLIAM WHEWELL’S PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE AND IMMANUEL KANT’S APRIORISM

Abstract

The article is the introduction to the Russian translation of the preface and Book I of William Whewell’s classic work “Novum Organon Renovatum”. In his theory for the philosophy of science, Whewell offers a conception, which radically differs from a positivist or an inductivist models of science – the most influential doctrines of his time. Presupposing that the scientific activity is impossible without acceptance of a metaphysical doctrine, Whewell goes against the contemporary tendencies in philosophy. Nevertheless, eclecticism of his views on certain issues does not allow us to classify him as a representative of any particular philosophical “camp”. In the article, the author analyzes the “a priori” component in the system of the philosophy of science by William Whewell and the influence of Immanuel Kant’s conception of a priori on it.