Transformation of Scientific Objectivity and Scientific Self: Specificities of Ethical and Epistemological Regime of Digitalization

Abstract

The development in recent decades of empirical ways to investigate and describe science generates a change in the conceptual apparatus of epistemology, i.e. the content and functions of epistemic concepts, in particular, the concepts of ob­jectivity and self. Scientific objectivity ceases to be understood as an abstract epistemic concept in modern epistemology. It begins to refer to specific histori­cally varied practices, that a scientist must perform in order to be objective. The scientific self as a special kind of identity turns out to be historically prac­ticed along with the scientific objectivity. A certain type of scientific self devel­ops under the influence of certain scientific practices (in particular, practices of creating visual images) and practices of following a certain “epistemic virtue” (in particular, objectivity). There are, various visualization methods (use of dia­grams, maps, photographs, compilation of atlases) become one of the fundamen­tal and integral parts of building scientific argumentation in modern scientific practices. The purpose of our research is an attempt to explicate a possible an­swer to the question of what is the past, present and possible future of scientific objectivity and scientific self in the era of digitalization.