This article focuses on the relationship of the logic of scientific knowledge, the law of identity and its consequent application to the teaching and learning processes as an object of study. Within the laws of correct thought, formulated by Aristotle, a Greek thinker of 384 BC, the law of identity stands out, in our opinion, as a conditio sine qua non, not only in the production of scientific knowledge, but also in its organization. The fact that a constitutive variable of the definition of a concept cannot be different no matter how diverse the contexts in which it is used, allows the necessary approach to the strict use of it, regardless of whatever area of knowledge it is used. denotes it. However, the social sciences constitute the most propitious ground for the violation of this law,which also admits the epistemological gap in the construction of science. Hence the need to return again and again to the examination of logic, due to its relevant implication in sustaining the conceptual platform of science, in general, and the problem of its structuring, in particular.
Keywords: logic, scientific knowledge, law, identity law, essence.
Title: " Logic of scientific knowledge, law of identity and parameters essence of scientific concept "
Summary
This paper focuses the relationship of the logic of scientific knowledge, the law of identity and consequent to the processes of teaching and learning as a case study application. Within the laws of correct thinking, formulated by Aristotle, Greek philosopher of the year 384 BC, the law of identity excels, in our view, as a conditio sine qua non, not only in the production of scientific knowledge, but also your organization. The fact that one component variable definition of a concept cannot be different for diverse the contexts in which it is used, allows the approximation necessary to strict usage of that, regardless of being regardless of the area of knowledge that it denotes. However, the social sciences are the most suitable soil for violation of this law, which the epistemological gap is also supported in building science.Hence the need to return again and again to test logic, for his relevant in sustaining the conceptual platform sciences in general involvement, and the problems of structuring, in particular.
Keywords: logical, scientific knowledge, law, law of identity, essence.
Introduction
The peremptory ideas that must be put in the evaluative arena of this article revolve around the following working hypotheses.
First. That the law of the identity of Aristotelian logic could not be violated in any case of construction of scientific knowledge, as this would lead to the violation of its conceptual structure.
Second. That scientific knowledge stands out for its identity with the essence, whose parameters must be respected for the sake of ascending to the essence in the knowledge of the object of study.
Third. That the teaching and learning processes in higher education must inexorably aim at the formation and development of scientific knowledge, even when this seems to us today a truism.
In our view, the problem of the formation of knowledge, and in particular of scientific knowledge, acquires today a connoted importance, if we take as a basal idea the incidence of the latter in the relevant preparation of future professionals. «… A nation that wants to keep up with science, - expresses the German thinker F. Engels - cannot do without a theoretical thought«. And, in effect, the professionalism of the person depends on the formation and development of scientific thinking, sustained in their cognitive and instrumental structure, understanding by this last term all those executions - actions, operations, habits, skills, competences, methods- that allow knowing reality or transforming it.
We do not believe it is pertinent in this article to dwell on the definition of the concept of knowledge, or its typology, since what it is about is to focus the science of logic and one of its laws, in favor of its involvement in the teaching processes and learning.
We fully share with F. Engels that the need to systematically order the enormous positive material of knowledge, accumulated by empirical research in terms of its internal relationships, is simply irrefutable. And to its aid, logic flourishes, the science of contradictions, which deals predominantly with the structuring of scientific knowledge, with its organization.
That is why we cannot dispense with logic as a science, in particular, formal logic and the assessment of the laws that concern it, with the ultimate aim of showing that the methodological optimization of the teaching and learning processes depends on the strict respect of those. In this way, both the teacher and the student are obliged not only to master the categorical body of logic, but also its legal body, in which the law of identity is denoted, within the remaining laws, namely law of non-contradiction, the law of the excluded third party and the law of sufficient reason.
Let us take as a pivot that the term "logic", derived from the Greek word logos, is used to identify the rules to which the thinking process must be subordinated. Thus, the laws of correct thinking «… cannot be repealed, nor replaced by others. They have a universal human character: they are the same for individuals of all races, nations, classes and professions.
In the general structure of logic, the laws of correct thinking are approached from their formulation in the history of that science. Thus, the law of identity, the law of non-contradiction and the law of the excluded third appear, postulated by Aristotle, while the well-known German mathematician Leibniz and the seventeenth-century French thinker, Renato Descartes, formulated a fourth law: law of sufficient reason.
However, to be consistent with our object of study in this article, we will only stop this time on the law of identity, which cannot, under any circumstances, be violated by the sciences, as they do, say, the social, humanistic or human sciences. Hence, the appropriate questions must now revolve around the logical foundations of our educational management, namely, what is the applicability of logic as a science in the methodological activity of the person? How is the application of the Law of identity in the learning process and in its direction? What specifically should the teacher and student know about logic to make their management more effective?
The correct construction of the arguments to confirm or challenge ideas of the person with whom we communicate, is possible, even without knowing the rules of logic or the style of idiomatic expression, whose grammar we can also ignore. But what it is about is to have the minimum knowledge of this science to make teaching and learning processes effective, in which nothing can be left to free will or exposed to spontaneity, since the teaching process itself as direction of learning is underlining the conscious, intentional and strictly premeditated character of the teacher's management, as well as the active character of the learner.With this we want to denote that the knowledge of logic not only allows us to realize the errors that we can make in the discourse in front of the student or those that he commits when asking or answering us through the spoken or written language, but, and what more importantly, it conditions precision, coherence and consistency in the demonstration of our ideas and in the evaluation of those of others.
As an introduction to our object of study, let us first analyze the relationship between logic and dialectics, motivated by the ideas set out in some texts, in which not only the reciprocal dependence of these sciences is denied as they are considered exclusive, but also sciences that aim to solve different problems.
Indeed, consider that "… formal logic constitutes the basis of empirical thought as a level of cognition, while dialectical logic enables the explanation of theoretical thought" and that "dialectical logic can explain the movement of nature, society and society. the thought, without necessarily considering the postulates of the formal logic »makes evident the dichotomy that in science is advocated. Complementation, the presupposition of opposites is not synonymous with fragmentation. It is appropriate to highlight the well-known Leninist idea about the complementary nature of logic and dialectics, which is made explicit in its expression about the meaning of these sciences and of the theory of knowledge, by valuing them as one and the same thing.Thus, Logic can be differentiated into Dialectical Logic and Formal Logic, depending on the forms of reflection of objective and / or subjective reality.
While the first requires that the object be examined in its development, in its self-movement, in its dynamics, in its functioning, the second reflects the existence of the same object under relative calm, as if abstracting from the change and the modifications that are happening. in it, in such a way that we can express our ideas correctly, leaving no room for ambiguity, ambivalence, vagueness, uncertainty, and the juxtaposition of arguments. This is, in our view, extremely important, because although the phenomenon can be and cease to be at the same time by virtue of its continuous and eternal movement, it is necessary that correct thought dictates what is or what is not in that instant, otherwise, the idea or conclusion that we want to express about the phenomenon being addressed will not be comprehensible,for correct thinking is characterized by non-tolerance for contradictions.
Hence, both complement each other and do not contradict each other. Dialectical logic, as an express form of scientific thought, together with formal logic, constitutes the Logic of scientific (theoretical) knowledge. Let us show such ideas under the following scheme:
Logic of Scientific Knowledge
Although in the scientific literature the application of logic to the knowledge process has been dealt with in some way, we propose, under the Cartesian analytical method, to examine the relationship of the aforementioned law with the teaching and learning processes, predominantly in terms of of the formation of scientific knowledge.
Law of identity and its relationship with the teaching and learning processes
Of a high methodological value we consider the law of identity applied to the teaching and learning processes. According to this Aristotelian law, every concept or judgment must be identical to itself. What are the implications of observation, or on the contrary, the violation of said law when directing learning or learning?
In accordance with the content of this law, the constituent elements of the definition of a concept cannot be different no matter how diverse the contexts in which they are used, since every concept subsumes indicators (of essence or not) that are necessary, if they are taken in isolation, and sufficient, when approached as a whole.
Respecting this premise, the concept will always be identical to itself and, therefore, a certain rigor and strict expression of the variables that are controlled as constituent concepts within the more general concept would be maintained. The investigation, an incontestable violation of this law, may well be seen in the educational sciences or in the humanistic sciences, which constitute a propitious ground to try to approach, each one from "their perspective", the study of the same object. We believe that, on the contrary, as noted in the writings of the English mathematician and philosopher Bertrand Russell on the theory of relativity of A. Einsten, it is necessary to exclude as much as possible, as far as methodologically developed personal performance allows,the relative character in the investigation of a phenomenon and to formulate laws that do not depend in any sense on the circumstances of the observer.
The non-solution to this problem inexorably leads us to the danger of theoretical "promiscuity" and, therefore, to the superposition of terms, thus hindering the determination of the orders of essence that must characterize the study of all phenomena. In our view, what happens in the social sciences in relation to the versatility of the terms used is alarming, specifically, for example, in the psychological and pedagogical sciences. Such is the case of the concepts of ability, habit and knowledge, whose multiplicity of definitions hampers, in a certain way, the teaching and learning processes, since logically, under different conceptions, different methods and the results obtained must be assumed they have to be, par excellence, different.
Let's do the following exercise, without fear of confirming the hypothesis that the nature of the definitions of the concepts discussed below - pneumonia and ability - is immeasurably incomparable when it comes to scientific conception.
This investigative exercise, in which the sample selection was of an intentional, non-probabilistic nature, we first carried out in the classrooms of the Agrarian University of Havana in 2007 and we repeated it at the Metropolitan University of Ecuador, Guayaquil headquarters and in the University of Santiago de Guayaquil in 2015. On this occasion, 24 students from the Metropolitan University of Ecuador were surveyed who receive the subject of “Critical Thinking” from the Law (7), Business Management (5), Authorized Public Accountant (9), Education (1) and Foreign Trade (2); and 30 students who receive the subject "Scientific Research Methodology" from the careers of Traditional Health Culture (4), Graphic Design (2), Education (3), Maritime Transport (2), Information Systems (3),Law (9), Business Management (5) and Certified Public Accountant (2). At the University of Guayaquil we apply it in 8th grade classrooms. Semester of the School of Sociology, with a total of 31 students. A total of 85 students participated in the research, representing 100% of the students enrolled in these subjects.
The controlled variable or the criterion for inclusion in the sample had to be that none of the students studied in pedagogical, psychological or medical science careers, regardless of the semester or cycle enrolled. Thus, none of the respondents was a student of these majors, which could have “contaminated” the exercise by the previous underlying conceptual platform.
The questions asked were: what is pneumonia? and what is skill?
| Most frequent responses of surveyed students | |
| Students of the 1st. semester of the Metropolitan University of Ecuador. Guayaquil Headquarters | Students of the 8th. cycle
from the University of Guayaquil |
| What is pneumonia? | |
| Empirical concept: | Empirical concept: |
| - Lung disease,
- Respiratory disease. |
- Lung disease,
- Respiratory disease, - Infection of the respiratory system. |
| What is skill? | |
| Empirical concept: | Empirical concept: |
| - Dexterity,
- ease of doing something, knowing how to do something, - aptitude, - Don, - experience, - way to solve a problem, - talent, - ability to perform an action, - successful performance in a profession, - success, - knowledge, etc. |
- Dexterity,
- ease of doing something, - aptitude, - Don, - experience, - way to solve a problem, - talent, - ability to perform an action, - successful performance in a profession, - success, - flexibility, - knowledge, - action, - expertise, - competition, - something that one handles, - have criteria to do something and solve it, etc. |
Table No.1.- "Comparison of empirical concepts of pneumonia and ability"
Source: self made.
The reading and interpretation of the projected results is not difficult.
While the definition of the concept of pneumonia constructed by the generality of the participants was restricted to the same indicator-concepts, namely, disease or infection in the lungs, that of ability was reviled in any epistemological direction. But the most surprising thing about this did not lie in the very definition of the concept of ability, but in the terms that were used to define it. In other words, not only was the definition of the concept of ability unclear and imprecise, but the very concepts that made up this definition were also unknown. In other words, when questioning the participants some of the terms used by them, such as aptitude, to identify the ability, they were also unable to define or superimpose them on a given field of knowledge.
What law of bivalent logic are we talking about if neither empirical concepts, by definition, hold?
By defining the concept itself as a generalization, we are facing one of the most important problems for the teaching and learning processes, since it depends not only on the formulations of the theoretical conceptions that underlie the process itself, but also on the own methodological activity of the person who teaches or learns.
In the pedagogical and psychological sciences, the research on the types of generalization is well known, carried out by the Russian researcher VVDavidov and collaborators, in which empirical and theoretical generalization are highlighted, by virtue of which the empirical and empirical concepts are configured. theoretical, respectively. Now, what is the substantial difference between them? What is the implication of the taxonomy examined in the direction of learning? What are the meeting points and divergence between VVDavidov's theses and ours? relationship between inductive and deductive pathways with the formation of the types of concepts mentioned?
To answer these questions, first it seems essential to analyze the parameters that indicate the essence of an object of study or those that, on the contrary, emphasize the empirical in it.
It might seem that this problem has been sufficiently dealt with to assume new theoretical conceptions and methodological instrumentation in this regard. But face to face we find ourselves just asking the question of rigor: what to understand by essence? How to penetrate it, how to discover it, after the multiple phenomenal manifestations of the object of study, within which the flap also appears?
If we promote the same exercise again, but now focusing on the concept of essence, we will notice that no matter what students are surveyed, the results in general will be the same. Let's analyze the table that we immediately present.
| Most frequent responses of surveyed students | |
| Students of the 1st. semester (basic subjects) of the Metropolitan University of Ecuador. Guayaquil Headquarters | Students of the 8th. semester
from the School of Sociology of the University of Guayaquil |
| What is the essence? | |
| Empirical concept: | Empirical concept: |
| - What can not be missing,
- what makes one thing she and not another, - the core, - basically, - the main thing, - nuclear, - what characterizes a phenomenon, - the intrinsic to a phenomenon, - the innermost part of the phenomenon, - What is not seen with the eyes, etc. |
- What can not be missing,
- what makes one thing she and not another, - the purest, - what does not change, - the result of a study, - the most important, - the basis of any study, - the transcendental, - the substantial, - the most abstract, - the core, - basically, - the main thing, - nuclear, - what characterizes a phenomenon, - the intrinsic to a phenomenon, - the innermost part of the phenomenon, etc. |
Table No.2.- "Concept of essence, according to student opinion"
Source: self made.
As can well be observed, not because it is about the essence or it is assumed that it is a concept that concerns science, since, par excellence, we are before a scientific concept. Not at all.
The essence is a theoretical construct and therefore does not exist in the phenomenon. It is implicit in the object, but it will never be explicit, since scientific thought is the only one capable of constructing it. The essence is not in the object itself, but at the same time it is in it. This is because the essence is a theoretical generalization, subtracted from the object by scientific thought and only by it.
The reflection of the objective and / or subjective reality can be configured by the acting person in a predominantly descriptive knowledge about that (his) reality as an object of knowledge or in a predominantly explanatory knowledge. In both cases, the subject must, based on obtaining her knowledge, structure the relevant relationships between the constituent parts of the object that addresses or establish the relationships between said object and others that are necessarily linked to it. Thus, the resulting knowledge (concept) can be characterized by the reflection or not of the essence of the object.
When characterizing the knowledge obtained as scientific (theoretical, essential) we are assuming that this knowledge is configured by virtue of the parameters that we present below and that indicate its essence.
- Determining properties of the object of study Causes of the emergence of the object of study Laws of its behavior Inherent contradictions Trends in its development
It should be noted that, when enumerating them, we have not used bullet points, because the order that we have granted to each one in relation to the others must be strictly observed when theoretically defining a concept. Let's say, it is not possible to address the development trends of an object of study if we cannot first explain the laws that govern its behavior.
1 - Determining properties of the object of study
The determining properties of the object being investigated reflect one of the essential signs of the knowledge acquired about it. The properties or qualities that characterize all phenomena can be determining or conditioning factors of its existence and operation. Being clear about this thesis implies being able to discriminate what is superfluous from what is not, when penetrating the object. Hence, in our opinion, the descriptive procedure in the methodological instrumentation of the teacher or the learner is only to direct the formation of the empirical concept or act according to the learning of the latter, respectively. It should be noted that this is the only parameter that, when reflecting the essence, does so through perceptual reflection, since these properties can be empirically observable.
In the proposals and methodological orientations of different syllabus for different levels of education, concepts that are not theoretical are assumed as theoretical. Such is the case, say, of the concept of bacteria, defined by the biological sciences as a unicellular, prokaryotic and microscopic organism. If we start from the fact that the essentiality conditions that we are suggesting are not reflected in said definition, then this concept does not become scientific, regardless of the fact that some properties that determine it appear in it, as is the case. In other words, the fact of defining the concept of bacteria based on those characteristics is to leave an insurmountable gap to the following question of rigor: are there other unicellular organisms,prokaryotic and microscopic and that might not be bacteria? A summation of more or less abstract features does not detract from the scientific concept.
2 - Causes of the emergence of the object of study
This parameter acquires a notorious methodological value for highlighting in the knowledge the cause-effect relationships, which is nothing other than the existing, and unobservable, relationship between the phenomenon and its essence. Being able to deduce the root causes that promote the appearance of a phenomenon is, in principle, a determining factor in the effectiveness of interventional management or, to be more precise, in the transforming work of the object under study. In fact, the quality of this intervention is predetermined by the correctness of the diagnosis, the fundamental element of which is represented by the original causes of the empirically observable: the phenomenal nature of the object. The idea developed previously can be summarized in the timely expression of the renowned Cuban philosopher, Father priest Félix Varela y Morales:«… Observe effects and deduce causes, this is a science”.
As an example, let's assess the following situation.
We all have personal experience that not just any medical practitioner can determine the causes that are determining a given clinical picture. From this it can be inferred that a wrong diagnosis conditions, par excellence, an inadequate treatment, putting the restoration of health or the patient's own life at risk. In other words, determining with the greatest possible certainty what is causing a disease, that is, its causes, is nothing more than establishing relationships between the observable and directly verifiable symptoms that the patient presents.
The same can happen in one of our everyday classrooms. The most accurate approximation to the success of teaching management is the knowledgeable performance of the teacher. Knowing our group of students is knowing each of its members psychologically and the latter means knowing the reason for their performance, their potentialities and cognitive and instrumental limitations, which may favor the development of teaching strategies in order to modify behavior of those.
3 -Laws of the behavior of the object of study
This parameter stops at the necessary, essential and relatively stable relationships on which the continuous movement of the existence of the object of study is sustained. This is just the law. To penetrate the laws of the behavior of an object is also to act on it deliberately, considering the possible variables that may affect it. This justifies the study of the laws of formal logic applied to the teaching and learning processes, which means that teaching and learning are, as modes of action of people, subject to certain relationships of which the object of study can not do without.
4 -Contradictions that are inherent to the object of study
Formulating the contradictions inherent to the object of study is to bear in mind the driving forces of its development and, with this, establish the relationships between it and its universe, depending on the solution of the former. To examine the contradictions inherent to a phenomenon is to necessarily insert it into a system of generality relations, which conditions the study of relations internal to the phenomenon or external to it, which obviously imply determining its place within everything that exists. The formulation of contradictions also presupposes the determination of the opposites that configure them and the stages through which they occur, namely, the unity of the opposites, their differentiation, their opposition, and the actual contradiction between them.which can be solved according to the corresponding strategies.
5 -Trends of the development of the object of study
In our opinion, if the determination of the causes of the appearance of the object constitutes the diagnostic stage in the knowledge of it, knowing the trends of its development implies anticipating its behavior under certain conditions. The importance we assign to this parameter lies precisely in the fact that the teacher, as a researcher, can know in advance how a certain group or subject will act, by virtue of the knowledge of the changes that with relative stability take place in it, of the orientation or direction that regularly he takes over in his self-movement. Anticipating the fact is having, at least, the minimum possible spectrum of alternatives that can be applied in a timely manner if necessary.
In our view, this parameter is extremely important due to its high predictive value, a function that distinguishes science as a productive force.
As a result of all that has been said, we can find concepts whose definitions are formulated according to their structure and not according to their operation, which makes them denote them as empirical. The fact of defining the concept of personality, for example, as "a system of psychological formations of varying degrees of complexity that constitutes the highest regulatory level of the individual's activity", does not explain the original causes of personality, nor the laws of its behavior, nor the contradictions inherent to it, nor the tendencies of its development as an object of study of psychology as a science.
However, a proposal for a theoretical definition in relation to this concept, in our view, could be the psychological configuration of the person's self-regulation that arises as a result of the interaction between the natural and the social in the individual and that is It manifests itself in a determined style of action based on the structuring of relationships between the motivational-affective and cognitive-instrumental functions, between the external and internal planes and the conscious and unconscious levels.
It is important not to lose sight of the fact that every concept can be defined both empirically and theoretically; which only depends on the degree of generality or the degree of ascension from abstraction to essence. In other words, all essence is abstraction, but not all abstraction denotes the essence of an object of study. Any concept as a generalization can reflect essential and non-essential indicators, but which have not been related to each other in a causal way, but by chance, spontaneously, by descriptive way. That is the case with the empirical concept. For example, if we stop in the field of Physics, the edge could be understood as the contour of something, as the line that limits the outer part or furthest from the center of a thing or as that area in which a sudden change in the intensity of light waves,reflected by a surface. Thus, regardless of whether the second conception could be considered the most abstract, that still does not satisfy the essence of that concept.
Whether we like it or not, this law is strictly enforced in the pedagogical process, depending on its optimization, its high effectiveness.
Only in light of the parameters addressed, we think, can we demonstrate the scientific character of a concept.
Conclusions
- The problem addressed in relation to the law of identity of Aristotelian logic is relevant in the direction of the learning process, since its observance does not leave room for juxtaposition or ambiguity of the concepts that can be learned by the student, by virtue of its empirical or theoretical nature. It is incontestable that the parameters of essence have to be specified for scientific research, since otherwise the probability of assuming empirical -preconceptual, unfinished knowledge as scientific is high.
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