Essence and development of a socially-based approach to philosophical inquiries into science

The article substantiates the necessity and describes the history of the transition from internalism to externalism as a social orientation in the development of the philosophy of science. Internalism is an approach that construes cognition as a relatively autonomous activity for the production of knowledge, and externalism is an approach that considers the development of cognition in a socio-cultural context. At present, externalism in Russian philosophy is viewed as a promising research program; at the same time, the transition to it is largely conditioned by the re-orientation of foreign philosophy. The article substantiates the thesis that in the domestic philosophical tradition externalism has its own prerequisites, and they are associated with the very moment of the development of the domestic philosophy of science. In this regard, we have analyzed B. M. Gessen’s report on the socio-economic roots of I. Newton's mechanics at the International Congress of the History of Science and Technology in 1931. Early studies of the sociocultural foundations of science in Russian philosophy turned out to be overly sociologized, and methodological changes were required for their effective development. The article presents the principles of modern socially-based philosophical inquiries into science.