Epistemological ideas in the conceptualization of the history of science (on the example of physical community) in the XX century

This article reveals the specificity of historical and methodological reflection of the physical disciplinary community of the XX century and its influence on the formation of the image of science. The historical and methodological reflection of physicists of that period was stimulated by the emergence of quantum mechanics and the theory of relativity, so significantly different in their basic methodological and philosophical and ideological principles from classical mechanics. It is revealed that the result of scientific reflection of scientists was the construction of their own image of science, which reflected some periods of the history of physics. The paper shows how the image of science allows to carry out a systematic approach to the history of science and to consider it in the unity of the historical development of science, personal characteristics of scientists, rules and procedures of scientific communities. Using the idea of propositional and socio-cultural strategies in the representation of the philosophy of science the author analyzes how the choice of a strategy is associated with the adoption of classical or quantum physics, and the representation of the history of physics. The author concludes that the image of the science of supporters of the propositional approach has an empirical picture of the view expressed, while the image of the science of supporters of the sociocultural approach is scientistic. It is concluded that the scientist’s belonging to classical or new physics influences the idea of the logic of history development of physics and the development and evaluation of scientific ideas.