The Philosophical Reflection of 18th and 19th century on Science

Abstract

The paper demonstrates that, in the 18^th and 19^th centuries, philosophy was developed with reference to science viewed as the “science of knowledge” (Wissenschaftslehre). During this period, philosophers regarded the methods of science and scientific estimates as ultimate and unavoidable principles of all knowledge. For Kant and Fichte, e.g., the principle of experimental design became a kind of spiritual and practical action which assumed the role of the foundation of knowledge. In Hegel, the motion of substance expresses, among other things, the development of notion as the key element of the system of science. The logic of science had indisputable influence on philosophical logic, which manifested itself in the fact that the deductive trend of thought was regarded a chief factor, that scientific thought was deemed to progress from being towards notion, etc. Apart from this, the various forms of the “science of knowledge”, by virtue of their being essentially philosophical theories, transcended the boundaries of science to be employed to solve strictly philosophical problems of the foundations of being and conscience and the correlation of conscience with being.