Abstract

Philosophy of science has arisen as alternative to epistemology, because scientific development wanted another kind of explanation than traditional epistemological one. The latter kind of explanation is theoretically loaded and based on latent ontological assumptions. Epistemology offers science a “road map” for researcher’s thinking. Thus epistemology knows what science should be, and philosophy of science take science for granted—existing as an empirical fact. Philosophy of science had always been a reflective and critical discipline that didn’t want any a-priory knowledge. The main distinction between these fields of knowledge is as follows: epistemology is theoretical and projective kind of knowledge whereas philosophy of science is a non-theoretical, or better, a “post-theoretical” discipline. All facts and statements arising from philosophy of science lie within the heterogeneous space, where there is continuous transit of pre-theoretical, theoretical and post-theoretical versions of knowledge. The inevitability of conservation and utilization of human thought products is recognized, which is supplemented by the need to study the impact of theoretical thinking upon social practices.