The Laboratory for studying ontology and epistemology of rationality, which is about to appear at the Philosophy Department, plans to study the rational basis of scientific knowledge and social activities.
The research will cover three main areas. The most topical demand is to study criteria of rationality and decision making under risk and uncertainty, which is a feature of modern social and political development. One more issue is the dynamics of different crises including comparative studies of revolutions, separatist revolts, ethnic and sectarian conflicts as well as transformation of political regimes. Scientific analysis of these issues will lead to some theories of crisis dynamics and political transformations. Not the least important is the specificity of the modern language of science and logical characteristics of formal or computerized systems presenting scientific knowledge, whose role in creating a scientific world view will also be analyzed in details.
The Laboratory will be headed by Aleksander Khlebalin, a candidate of sciences in Philosophy (Ph.D) and an associate professor of the Chair of Logic and Methodology of Science at the Philosophy Department NSU. The Lab is created under the Project 5-100
Reference: Ontology is the philosophical study of the nature of existence and reality as well as their basic categories and relations. Ontology deals with questions concerning what entities exist or may be said to exist, and how such entities may be grouped, related and subdivided according to similarities and differences. Epistemology is the study of the nature and scope of knowledge and justified belief. It analyzes the nature of knowledge and how it relates to similar notions such as truth, belief and justification. It also deals with the means of production of knowledge.
