Publication Details

Abstract

The process of differentiation and integration of scientific knowledge is the core of the problem of the history of science and the classification of sciences. Its analysis is concentrated mostly on the sphere of natural sciences and their relation to philosophy. Two contradictory opinions on the rise of special (natural) sciences arose — the one believes they were separated from philosophy (B. M. KEDROV), the other says they were founded independently (A. POLIKAROV). Aesthetics originally belonged to philosophical sciences. It was made independent in the 18th century (A. G. Baumgarten) when its object — art — had been secluded both from handicraft and science. Integration, unification of knowledge in the sphere of aesthetics and sciences on art does not result in the so called border sciences but it demonstrates in the interdisciplinary cooperation, in the realization of complex research programs, going beyond the frontiers of one scientific discipline. The first efforts at synthetis (with psychology, sociology, biology, physiology) were made in the 19th century. The new synthesis which is strived for by the Marxist-Leninist aesthetics is based on the conception of aesthetics as a synthetic science. Several sciences on art integrate also the specific knowledge of exact sciences, e.g. the knowledge of optics and accousticsi from the sphere of physical sciences. Examples can be shown (EINSTEIN) that aesthetical principles may also influence (metaphorically) the ways of research in natural sciences.