MODERN PARADIGMS OF SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH METHODOLOGY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE TRANSFORMATION OF SCIENCE IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Abstract

Introduction. In the twenty-first century, the development of science has been accompanied by large-scale transformational processes caused by the digitalization of society, globalization of the scientific space, rapid advancement of information technologies, artificial intelligence, and network communications. Under such conditions, traditional approaches to scientific cognition formed within the framework of classical disciplinary science are increasingly insufficient for studying complex socio-economic, technological, and humanitarian processes. Modern science is gradually shifting from narrowly specialized models toward integrated interdisciplinary systems of knowledge, which necessitates the reconsideration of methodological foundations of scientific research and the transformation of scientific paradigms.

This issue is especially relevant for economic science, which operates in conditions of high dynamism of the global environment, digital economy development, crisis phenomena, uncertainty, and growing interdependence between economic, social, and technological processes. The formation of contemporary economic thought is increasingly based on the synthesis of various fields of knowledge, the application of digital analytical tools, Big Data, system modeling, and interdisciplinary approaches. Consequently, not only the research instruments but also the very logic of scientific knowledge construction are changing, which actualizes the development of modern scientific methodology.

Purpose. The purpose of the study is to generalize and develop theoretical provisions regarding the transformation of modern scientific paradigms in the context of the development of the methodology of scientific research in the twenty-first century, as well as to determine the role of interdisciplinarity, digitalization, and synergistic approaches in the formation of modern economic science.

Materials and methods. The research materials include scientific works of domestic and foreign scholars in the fields of philosophy of science, methodology of scientific research, theory of scientific paradigms, interdisciplinarity, and transformation of modern science. The informational basis of the study consists of monographs, scientific articles, works on economic theory and methodology of science, as well as international scientometric electronic resources and databases.

The methodological basis of the research is formed by a combination of general scientific and special methods of scientific cognition, including the historical method for studying the evolution of scientific paradigms; system analysis for identifying interrelations between modern scientific approaches; comparative analysis for examining national and international concepts of scientific paradigms; the synergistic approach for studying interdisciplinary interaction among sciences; the method of generalization for developing the author’s interpretation of the essence of the modern scientific paradigm; and the interdisciplinary approach for integrating economic, philosophical, and digital aspects of scientific cognition.

Results. The article investigates the transformation of scientific paradigms in the context of the development of the methodology of scientific research in the twenty-first century. The evolution of the concept of “scientific paradigm” in domestic and international scientific thought is analyzed on the basis of the classical provisions of Thomas Samuel Kuhn’s theory of scientific revolutions and modern interdisciplinary approaches. It has been established that modern science is shifting from a disciplinary model toward an open network-based system of knowledge grounded in interdisciplinarity, digitalization, synergetics, and global integration of scientific communications.

The study substantiates the formation of a systemic megaparadigm of twenty-first century science and proposes an authorial approach to the periodization of the development of scientific paradigms. The practical value of the obtained results lies in the possibility of their application in teaching the discipline “Methodology of Scientific Research,” preparing master’s and doctoral theses, and developing contemporary interdisciplinary studies.

Discussion. Prospects for further research should be focused on the development of methodological tools for the functioning of network science, the determination of criteria for integrating interdisciplinary knowledge, and the assessment of the impact of digital technologies and artificial intelligence on the transformation of scientific cognition.