Epistemological Layers: Analysis of Changes in Cultural Paradigms on the Example of the Mid-18th Century European Culture

Abstract

Before this study, the author was tasked with identifying general tendencies of changes in values and dominant ideas in all spheres of cognition. During the study different branches of knowledge of one period and one civili-zation area are compared. The author analyzes the tendencies developed in them. He chooses the example of the mid-18th century European culture. The article considers changes in scientific paradigms of philosophy, economics, lin-guistics, and natural sciences. Thus, in all areas of scientific knowledge, there is a tendency of interest in nature. In particular, in the philosophy, the idea of the value of the man’s natural state advocated Rousseau in his "ode to human na-ture," in the economics of this period, a significant contribution belongs to Quesnay and Turgot, the founders of the physiocratic school, who changed the concept of capital and showed the value of nature. Linguists Dumarsais, de Condillac and de Gebelin made a significant breakthrough in language learning, namely by the interest in natural languages. In the natural sciences, scientists also actively studied nature; in particular, it refers to the discovery of the Lavoi-sier’s theory of combustion, and the redefinition of the Linnaeus’s classification of animals and plants.