Logic, methodology and philosophy of science VIII proceedings of the eighth international congress of logic, methodology and philosophy of science, and philosophy of science proceedings) ( PDFDrive ) 30

PHILOSOPHY, SCIENCE AND MAN 11 that analysis The denial of the objective truth, in our view, weakens and undermines the positions of science and opposes the accelerating scientific progress This is why we attach great importance to the recognition of the objective truth as a condition of man’s adequate and ever more thorough knowledge about the macroworld and the microworld, as the moral stand of the scientist It should be noted that Western philosophers ever more often criticise antirealism and acknowledge that science deals with the objective reality Professor R Harre, for instance, writes that the antirealism which infiltrates society as antiscience is not only erroneous but also morally inc~nsistent.’~ He accepts the view of J Aronson who believes that theories are reflections of independent phenomena which are directly observed by the researcher, and of the objects which can be studied using only the necessary instruments and deductions by analogy, because they are linked with general ~ntology.’~ However, some philosophers of science who have discussed the scientific status of the various trends of irrationalism and relativism, have stated that rationality is a historical phenomenon having no real grounds.16 Scientific rationality is of course a relative and historically changing phenomenon like our entire scientific knowledge which develops from relative truths to a more exact and complete knowledge, but the fact is that even a relative truth reflects objective reality, and relative knowledge contains objective truth It is with the objective truth that we connect realism and rationalism in scientific knowledge, and reject, on that basis, all and sundry forms of antirealism, irrationalism, relativism and “methodological anarchism” The growing requirement for the integration of knowledge conditioned by the unity of the world calls for the broad development of comprehensive interdisciplinary, research The interaction of natural, technical and social sciences and humanities becomes closer and more intensive, and the general trend of scientific knowledge as a whole is to tackle the problems of man Research oriented to problems that change the traditional trends and forms of the activity of scientists has become increasingly important in I4 HARRE, R., 1986, Varieties of Realism A Rationale for the Natural Sciences (Oxford, New York), p Is ARONSON, J., 1984, A Realkt Philosophy of Science (London) 16 K., There even exists a committee of scientific studies of paranormal claims FRAZIER, 1984, From psychic and ESP beliefs to UFO’sand ancient quacks, Highlights of CSICOPs First International Conference (Buffalo), vol 8, No