The Hierarchy of Values in the Contemporary Science

The author follows the philosophical conception of the contemporary science that presents it as “post-non-classical”—as an emerging paradigm of dialectical comprehension of scientific knowledge that resolves the contradiction between classical monism and non-classical plurality by enabling the approach to considering the reality as unity in plurality. In the light of that conception, scientific values and goals constitute an elaborate hierarchical system, its highest level being presented by the ideal as the embodiment of both the final goal of the whole activity and the fundamental value that defines the goal-setting on lower hierarchy levels. The current crisis of science, as well as crises visible in many other spheres of human activity, could in fact be traced to the crisis of values—particularly, to the latency of the higher levels of values, and especially that of the ideal, that forces lower “means” to serve as quasi-values while profaning the whole enterprise. That is, instead of searching for the truth, scientific community is engaged only in mundane activities like supporting its own institutional existence and providing profit for its members. The proposed solution to the current crisis could be presented in the form of asserting human personality as the autonomous subject of moral judgment and philosophical recognition of the ideal level as the ultimate determinant of scientific activity.