Religion and the Evolution of Science (in Memory of Piama Gaidenko)

Abstract

In 2022, the author of this article spoke at the conference “Breakthrough to the Transcendent” dedicated to the outstanding historian of philosophy and an original Russian thinker – Piama Pavlovna Gaidenko (1934–2021). The speech was expanded by him in the essay “Piama Gaidenko and the philosophers of the Sixties”, published in the Istoriko-Filisofskii Ezhegodnik (Iss. 37). In these texts however, the large-scale scientific work done by P.P. Gaidenko did not find proper coverage. In the current publication, the author is trying to fill this gap. The article is a detailed comparison of two editions: P.P. Gaidenko’s monography “The Evolution of the Concept of Science”, published in 1980, and the book “Philosophical and Religious Origins of Science” (1997), prepared under her sci­entific editorship and with her author’s participation. One of the main ideas de­fended in these works, first covertly, then directly, is the idea that historically the construction of scientific concepts is largely determined by the image of God that culture sets. The author supports this idea, equips it with new arguments and raises it to the interpretation of religious studies as an obligatory prerequisite for a thorough, qualified science. Special attention is paid to the stimulating influence of religion on science, which distinguished the Renaissance and Reformation; the phenomenon of Renaissance Titanism; the socio – cultural context of the scien­tific revolution of the XVI–XVII centuries. A special topic is the methodology of building a memorial narrative and preserving heritage as a living, creatively ef­fective tradition, discussed in the mode of responsible benevolent criticism.