Epistemology: pathology as an norm’ indicator

Tetenov Nikolai Borisovich

The article discusses one of the conceptual issues of epistemology: the possibility of cognizing the norm through the pathology. The relevance of the research topic is due to the fact that in the modern philosophy the problem of “pathology”, as a way of cognizing the “norm”, is considered mainly within the framework of the classical approaches by O. Comte, J.F. Brusset, as well as by K. Bernard. At the same time, modern supporters of neo-positivism do not take into account the specifics of the ideas about the “pathology” and “norm” by the classics themselves, since the views of J.F. Brousset and K. Bernard have fundamental differences from the generalizations of O. Comte, who extrapolated the dichotomy “norm-pathology” to social processes. The purpose of the article is to more fully consider modern theses about “pathology” as a way of cognizing the “norm” within the epistemology framework. The article objectives are: to analyze modern scientific literature; to identify the main positions in classical approaches in relation to “norm” and “pathology” as epistemological categories, as well as in a critical analysis of some postulates by modern researchers. The article is debatable. The research methodology is based on a systematic approach and includes a group of general scientific methods (analysis, synthesis, deduction, induction); as well as a group of special methods: content analysis of scientific literature on the research topic, retrospective and epistemological analysis. The author of the article comes to the conclusion that philosophical constructions, regarding the possibilities of indicating the norm through pathology, have a number of logical and epistemological limitations that must be eliminated by analyzing the state of the subject of cognition.

Keywords:epistemology, norm, pathology, epistemological categories, neo-positivism.