Exercises:

I. Comprehension Questions.

1. When was the Department of Logic founded?

2. Which prominent scholars worked at the Department?

3. What courses are offered by the teaching staff of the Department?

4. What research work is being carried out at the Department?

5. What divisions of logic do you know?

II. Word Study.

1. Translate into English:

1. временная логика

2. заведующий кафедрой

3. кибернетика

4. методологические проблемы

5. основы

6. отрицательность высказывания

7. понятие

8. преподавательский состав

9. проводить научные конференции

10. сборник задач

2. Translate into Russian:

calculation	deduction
eminent scholar	heuristic
in-depth training	participate
representative	scholarly instruction
to deliver lectures	under the guidance

III. Questions for Discussion:

a. Should instruction in logic be a part and parcel of compulsory curriculum for all university students? If so, why?

b. Should logic be taught at school? If so, starting in what year?

Department of Philosophy of Science and Engineering

Philosophy of science is a field of research, which deals with systematisation of scientific knowledge. It investigates and works out general principles of methodology, mathematical, social and technical knowledge, studies the phenomenon of science in terms of modern culture and axiological aspects of scientific activity. Within the framework of philosophy of science a considerable amount of research is done into issues of historiography of scientific knowledge. It should be emphasized that the area of problems is not limited to traditional philosophical and methodological trends only (e.g. positivism, pragmatism), but embraces such trends of contemporary philosophy as phenomenology, existentialism, and hermeneutics.

Philosophy of science is one of the newest fields of philosophical studies lying at the confluence of applied disciplines, anthropology, logic, engineering and art. It inquires into the structure of technology and essence of technical mastering of reality, general principles of technical development, and axiological aspects of engineering activities.

Nowadays the world abounds in all sorts of engines, tools, machines, apparatuses, and mechanisms. But all this does not cover the notion of engineering. Engineering as it is understood in contemporary philosophy is everything that surrounds us; even a human body may be called a special mechanism. Interpretation of the subject matter in such a wide sense enables students affiliated with this Department to choose from a huge variety of themes for scientific research. It should be added that the Department actively co-operates in the academic process with the Department of Logic and the Department of Ontology and Theory of Knowledge. This close interaction provides undergraduates with an easy choice of subjects for their yearly papers.

The Department was founded in 1991 with Professors V. P. Branskiy and Y. A. Shapovalov playing an inspiring and decisive role in this undertaking. However, philosophical and methodological issues of science and engineering were investigated earlier by such well-known scholars as Professors V. I. Sviderskiy, V. A. Shtoff, and A. M. Mostepanenko. Nowadays the teaching staff includes their disciples - V. I. Branskiy, B. T. Alexeyev, R. A. Zotov and others. Among prominent specialists in the sphere of philosophy of science mention must be made of Professor E. F. Karavayev (currently, Head of Department), B. I. Ivanov, E. I. Kolchinskiy.

The variety of optional courses offered by the Department strives to highlight the most topical issues of philosophy of science, e.g. “Semiotics and Methodology of Science”, “Philosophy and Hermeneutics”, “Art, Science and Philosophy”, “Physics and Philosophy”, “Man in the Mirror of Science”, “Philosophical Problems of Technical Knowledge”, “Introduction into Cybernetics”, “History and Philosophy of Biology”, “The Notion of Science from Fichte to Husserl”, “Phenomenology as Scientific Philosophy”.

The teaching staff of the Department is actively engaged in scholarship. Scientific research is carried out in co-operation with Problem Council on Philosophy of Science and Engineering under the aegis of the Ministry of General and Professional Education of Russian Federation. The Department organizes all-Russian seminars in social synergism (the supervisor is Professor V. P. Branskiy) uniting many outstanding specialists in the sphere of science and philosophy.

Speaking about monographs published by the Department’s staff one cannot but mention the works by Professor Branskiy (Philosophical Grounds of the Problem of Synthesis of Relativist and Quantum Principles, 1973; Theory of Elementary Particles as an Object of Methodological Inquiry, 1989; Art and Philosophy, 1999), which received general acknowledgement. Others belong to E. F. Karavayev (Fundamental and Temporal Logic, 1983), Y. A. Shapovalov (Society and Engineer, 1984), B. T. Alexeyev (Philosophical Issues of Knowledge Formulation, 1988), R. A. Zotov in co-authorship with V. N. Kelasyev (Myths of Russian Consciousness, 1995; Self-Organization: Psycho- and Sociogenesis, 1996).