Concepts of the Fundamental and Applied and Their Application in Science

The article consists of two parts. The first part discusses the concepts of the Fundamental (F) and Applied (A) as constants used variously in specific cases in epistemology, science or education. The second part discusses how these concepts can be used in application to science. In contrast to a classic naturalistic perspective, which views F and A as essentialist and rigidly assigns these characteristics to specific areas of knowledge and science, the authors advocate the activity/action approach, where these concepts are viewed as a way of thinking, i.e. as functional, which is further demonstrated in the models «right-left» or «up-down» The authors argue that qualifying certain types of knowledge (tasks, research problems, scholarly or educational disciplines) as F or A is not determined by «the nature of things» rather it is defined by historical and situational contexts in which the concepts are used: issues viewed yesterday as fundamental today may be viewed as applied, and vice versa. Choosing between these two approaches has a direct effect on prioritizing certain policies and strategies (in politics, science or education). The authors state that the concepts F and A are used as a «switch» channeling thinking in the required direction. The collective article is followed by a short article by O. Matyash, who suggests a slightly different approach to the conceptualization of F and A. While sharing the notion of the F and A as functional intellectual tools, which application and interpretation may vary depending on situational contexts, she builds her argument from the viewpoint of sociocultural tradition, in which knowledge is viewed as constructed through social interactions and meaning-making, that is primarily through human communication.