G.H. Shingarov, Doctor of Philosophical Sciences, Professor, Leading Researcher
Modern University for Humanities, Lomonosov Moscow State University, N.A. Semashko National Research Institute of Public Health, Moscow (Russian Federation)

I.P. Pavlov studied and analyzed the epistemological and methodological foundations of physiology as a natural science, to which he applied the principle of unified results of scientific knowledge and the methods used to achieve these results, the principle of ascent from the abstract to the concrete, the dialectic of absolute and relative truth. Pavlov proved that the study of any self-developing system starts with some initial ideas and becomes a complex and rich system of scientific knowledge. He created synthetic physiology of the digestive system, treating it as a link in the integral megasystem of the living organism’s vital functions. Proof was provided that showed that the consistent development of the activities of the digestive organs is carried out on the principle according to which the result of the previous link is a factor that causes the activity of the next level. This pattern was seen as a phased development of the body’s principle functions. Synthesis of the system as a whole was based on certain ontological synthesizing factors. The determination of the digestive system’s functioning had an autopoietic character. Pavlov̓s synthetic physiology of digestion was a meaningful objective dialectical logic of self-developing systems, the Pavlovian reflex – a sign system sui generis, a natural-scientific model study of sign systems.
The function of the sign in the conditioned reflex carries the conditioned stimulus. It causes the same reaction, which prior to the formation of a conditioned reflex was caused by the unconditioned stimulus. The same type of character of actions of the conditioned and unconditioned reflexes testifies to the identity of the causes of this activity. The conditioned reflex is represented by a unique natural phenomenon of a scientific study of one of the most difficult problems in the theory of knowledge – the perfect appearance in the practical relationship between subject and object. The discovery of the phenomenon of reflex characterizes the physiologist Pavlov as a unique philosopher.

Keywords: synthetic physiology, metaphysical foundation, self-developing systems, a conditioned reflex, sign, value, autopoietic nature of organic systems

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Published in Vol. 2. №3, 2015