Glossary:

Agnosticism is the philosophical position rejecting knowability of the world in principle.

Gnoseology is the philosophical study, where a cognitive process is examined from the point of correlation of the subject and the object of cognition, the problem of truth and its criteria are analyzed, form and methods of a cognitive activity are studied. Traditionally, Gnoseology is defined as the theory of cognition.

Epistemology is the philosophical study about the constitution, structure, development and functioning of knowledge. The basic problems of epistemology are concentrated on the analysis of the opposition “object – knowledge”. Sometimes the term “epistemology” is identified with the term “gnoseology”.

Knowledge – socially meaningful information gained by any way or method, which is ordered and arranged according to some norms. It could be also the facts, feelings or experiences known by a person or group of people gained by experience or learning.

Truth is defined as an adequate reflection of an object by the knowing subject, which reproduces reality such as it is by itself, outside and independent of consciousness.

Method originates in a practical activity as a generalized device that conforms with the properties and laws of reality, with the objective logic of the things at the transformation of which human activity is directed. It is a totality of ways and schemes (an algorithm) of a theoretical and practical mastering of the reality. In science method means the way of a scientific investigation, which includes an entire system of operations, rules and norms of a scientific research.

Methodology is a study of researching methods, ways of organization of a theoretical and practical activity of a man. They differentiate a philosophical methodology, a general scientific methodology and a specific science methodology.

The object of cognition is seen as the real fragments of being that are subjected to study by the subject of cognition (man).

Mastering is a spiritual and theoretical, spiritual and practical, material and practical comprehension of the world, expressed in the form of myths, art, philosophy, science and so on.

Cognition is the process of gaining knowledge; the activity of the subject of cognition aimed at obtaining some error-free and precise information about the world; the process and the result of man’s reflection of the world; man’s realization of non-experience principles of consciousness organization manifesting uniqueness of human being.

Rational cognition is the highest stage of man’s comprehension of the world, where they make a transition from sensations and ideas to concepts, judgments and deductions as forms of abstract thinking.

Skepticism is the philosophical conception which doubts the possibility of a reliable cognition of the world and the existence of a reliable criterion of truth.

The subject of cognition is a bearer of an activity, consciousness and cognition. Usually the subject of cognition is a man.