COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE PRINCIPLE OF EVOLUTION OF CLASSICAL AND NON-CLASSICAL SCIENCE

The relevance of the study of the mechanism of evolution is determined by the fact that the understanding of scientific laws is changing in modern science. From the microworld to the megaworld, the historical nature of the processes occurring in them is recognized, which should be reflected in the interpretation of laws. The author sets out to reveal the prerequisites of the idea of self-organization, which is a distinctive feature of evolutionary processes in the synergetic picture of the world of post-non-classical science. The idea of self-organization grows out of the concepts of evolution developed in the classical and non-classical periods of the development of modern science. The article is devoted to a comparative analysis of the concepts of the evolution of these periods. The dominant approach in the modern philosophy of science is the history of science, so the author is guided by the methodology of historical and scientific research, when comparative analysis is implemented through finding out the similarities and differences of the stages of interest. The article substantiates the thesis that at this stage the concept of evolutionism is based on the recognition of the time parameter either in the form of an infinite sequence of events embodied in the present («external time»), or in the form of the principle of historicity («internal time»). The classical concept of evolution was a hypothesis. In non-classical science, the concept of evolution receives a scientific — empirical and theoretical — justification. To specify the principle of evolution in this period, the material from astrophysics, biology and historical science is given. The novelty of the obtained results is connected with the recognition of the hypothetical nature of the idea of evolution in the non-major non-rationalist branch of descriptive natural science of classical stage, the acquisition of scientific justification by it (the idea of evolution) at the non-classical stage, as well as with the transition from the concept of «external» to «internal» time. «Internal» time is the essence of the new concept of historicism, where evolution is interpreted as self-organization. A new concept of evolution and a new type of scientific laws set the prospect for further research. Key words: the concept of evolution, classical / non-classical science, time, the principle of historicism, V. I. Vernadsky, M. Foucault, sciences of inorganic / organic nature, historical science.