Difference between scientific conflict and other types of dispute

The article analyzes the meaningful gradations of the following concepts: conflict, collision, argument, discussion, debate, contention, polemic, dispute. Due to the fact that these words had been usually used as synonyms, it became necessary to determine the nature of a scientific conflict among them. The evolution of the relations of these words is shown. The classification of concepts on various grounds is offered. Different dictionaries are studied: Oxford, Latin, Russian dictionary of synonyms and similar expressions on sense, a thesaurus and others. The hierarchy of these words is studied. The main term in the article is found out. The types of the main term are offered: discussion, debate, contention, polemic and dispute. The author offers to change philological analysis into philosophical understanding of problem. On the historical examples the article considers the scientific conflict which led to the scientific collision between the scientists B. M. Behterev and I. P. Pavlov working in the field of physiology. Another example of the conflict is between "the teacher" and "the pupil" - N. A. Lyubimov (Russian physicist, publicist, one of the founders of Moscow Mathematics Community) and A. G. Stoletov (an outstanding Russian physicist, one of the founders of the contemporary electric engineering).