Bakeeva Elena
Abstract: The article discusses the possibility of recreating the integrity of the meaning of the scientist's activity in the conditions of theoretical, methodological and value uncertainty. Successive
self-reflection is asserted as the main method of reinstatement of the notional integrity, which is carried out by the researcher individually. This process is characterized by paradoxical
regularity: the obtaining of the fullness of the meaning by the subject of the science is accompanied by limiting conditions of the applicability of scientific knowledge, or its «localization». The
revealing of the context of knowledge of some kind may have different «degree of reflexivity»: from clarification of inside scientific theoretical and methodological basis to pointing out the
fundamental existential problems, which are associated with the various phenomena of science. In the conditions of theoretical and ideological pluralism, this «degree of reflexivity» is not assigned for the researcher from outside, but is defined by himself (herself). In this context, the traditional picture of science as a tool of the expansion of human possibilities gets new interpretation. Thus, science is conceptualized not as a mean of mastering the outside (in rem) reality but as a factor, which contributes to the growth of internal (spiritual) human possibilities that are directly related to the ability of self-restraint.
Keywords: science, scientific rationality, essence, self-reflection, «localization».