The beginning and motivation of scientific knowledge. Reasoning about surprise. 3rd edition, stereotypical. Gutner G.B.

The book discusses the topic of the beginning of scientific knowledge, understood as a philosophical problem. The beginning is considered not as a purely historical process or a chronologically fixed source of science. We are talking about a special act of thought, which is committed whenever a person turns to scientific creativity. Without such an act, science runs the risk of developing into some other practice, stop being a science itself. The main content of the this act is surprise. Turning to the famous thesis of Plato from the Teetet dialogue repeated by Aristotle in Metaphysics, the author traces the topic of surprise in philosophical and scientific texts of different eras. Surprise itself is considered not as a psychological state, but as a way of thinking.

The essential moment of surprise is the constitution of an object, that is, the allocation of a “improvised” (M. Heidegger) subject of special interest, requiring a special study. The book discusses in detail two types of objectivity associated with the concepts of “object” and “tool”. Each type of objectivity is closely related to a certain use of language and ontology. In other words, the book proposes to consider the discourse of surprise, which makes up the necessary part of the scientific discourse. This discourse is opposed to the discourse of the instrumental, or utilitarian. At the same time, the complex interaction of both types of discourse is shown, the possible transformation of one into another.

The book is addressed to both philosophers and everyone whose interests are connected with the philosophy and history of science, the theory of knowledge, including scientists of different areas.