Тонкие химические технологии (Jun 2013)
Problems of scientific selfconsciousness in the creative work of V.I. Vernadsky
Abstract
It was a key idea of Vernadsky that scientific progress is an objective phenomenon and for that reason cannot be resisted. He believed that it was important to understand this objectivity in order to regulate and control the scientific progress. He believed that his conclusions that the mankind changes the whole biosphere by means of the scientific progress were of great value. According to Vernadsky, this change is taking place as a natural process, but science should get involved in this process and regulate and influence it. In this case the influence of Reason and, therefore, of science, on the evolution of the planet itself becomes a powerful geological process. Moreover, the very process itself acquires a direction, which can be influenced, by trying to predict and avoid the negative consequences, accompanying the progress of science. Many arguments of Vernadsky not only remain valid today, but become more and more significant. Vernadsky wrote about the role of state support of fundamental research, that it would have been erroneous and even illiterate to consider only the applied aspects of science, to see science as an immediate response to the everyday problems. He emphasized that both the fundamental and applied scientific knowledge are naturally connected and form a whole science. Vernadsky insisted that the Academy of Sciences should grow and develop. He emphasized the role of higher education, representing the level of development of science and knowledge in the country. In our time those countries are the winners which have science and knowledge on their side. He was convinced that without independently developing science no country has real prospects.
