Does the Historical Epistemology Make the Ontological Turn?

Abstract

The article deals with the problems of historical epistemology as a topical direc­tion of scientific knowledge research. It focuses on the relationship between his­torical epistemology and historical ontology, on historical event, and on the differ­ence between the work of a historian of science and a historical epistemologist. The author builds a dialogue with the publication of I.T. Kasavin “Knowledge and Reality in the Historical Epistemology”. She puts forward the thesis that epistemology is justifiably called historical if it not only performs the primary epistemological grasp of a historical-scientific event, but also makes an ontologi­cal turn. When interpreting the ontological turn, she uses its understanding in contemporary anthropological research. The essential elements of the ontolog­ical turn are the historical event that sets the direction of the ontological turn and the historical epistemologist as its actor. The author interprets the event as the beginning of more than one causal historical series, an inexhaustible source of scientific knowledge for cognition. The work of the historical epistemologist is revealed as problematization of one’s own position and the local coordination of emerging causal historical series. The author gives the examples of such work of contemporary historical epistemologists from the texts of L. Daston and P. Galison. It is concluded that the relationship between epistemology and onto­logy in historical research of science, as well as interaction between the historian of science and epistemologist, depends on whether these positions are interpreted as stable and rigidly differentiated or whether the movement between them is recognized as necessary.