New trends in modern Western methodology of science: A. Pickering (analytical review)

Abstract

The review is devoted to the analysis of the concept of one of the most famous Western rep­resentatives of the methodology of science of the XX–XXI centuries – A. Pickering. Taking a position close to the supporters of the STS (B. Latour, M. Kallon, etc.), Pickering empha­sizes that certain gestalt shifts take place in the history of science, in which the elements of the foreground and background are reversed. Such a shift is the product of a symbiotic as­sociation and mutual reinforcement of what was a set of different approaches: a whole range of ways to create theory and conduct experiments combined into a new self-reinforcing whole. According to Pickering’s concept, the sprouts of the “new science” should be sought in the non-dualistic outskirts of culture. Its origins may be in pre-modern traditions, in which man is part of nature, taking care of the environment instead of managing it. There is a certain contrast between the cybernetic ontology and the ontology of modern science with its dualistic vision of a fixed, cognizable and controlled world. In this sense, cybernetic art helps a person perceive the world differently. The sense of agency as “doing something” portends a complex ontological vision of how the world works, a vision quite different from that of the traditional sciences.