The "scientific ethos": addition to the image of a scientist

The article reviews the ideas of "scientific ethos" - a concept introduced by R. Merton. When studying the actual activities of a scientist, the sociologist came to the problem of the "pathology" of science - competition, suspicion, jealousy, hidden plagiarism. The "pathology" of science affects the motivation of a scientist, because it involves "ambivalence". The idea of "sociological ambivalence" consists in the fact that scientists constantly experience the tense choice between polar imperatives of appropriate behaviour in their daily professional activities. Merton considered nine imperatives. The article proposes an additional imperative: a scientist must rely on the scientific thinking, but rather that be limited to its scope, he / she should combine scientific and religious ideologies. The author discusses such combination exemplified by both Western and Russian scientists.