Social-Natural History as an Attempt to Implement the Strategy of Methodological Synthesis

In the article, the problem of methodological synthesis on the example of social-natural history is investigated. Social-natural history is a new scientific interdisciplinary direction which can be considered as one of the examples of implementation of strategies for methodological synthesis. The statement of the task of integrating the data of the natural sciences into the humanities, in particular, into history, is not new, many scientist have solved it in different ways: C.L. Montesquieu, J.J. Rousseau, J.G. Herder, I.I. Mechni-kov, A.L. Chizhevsky, L.N. Gumilyov. Eduard S. Kulpin, the most famous representative of the social-natural history school, one of its main ideologists, said that the path of science is the way of continuous refutation of its provisions and self-refutation of these provisions by their creators. Social-natural history, in the opinion of the authors of the article, tends to be more "objective", and therefore more "scientific" than traditional history; therefore it uses the rigorous data of natural science disciplines rather than narrative documents that are subjective in nature. If not to look for facts in narrative sources, they can be obtained differently: traditionally, as a result of archaeological excavations; less traditionally using data from the history of nature (climate, geology, etc.); quite unconventionally by a joint, complex use of data from natural and humanitarian sciences. But we must admit that such researchers are compelled to place their constructions, which they believe are made on the basis of exceptionally objective data, into the context of the very event-driven history created by historians using narratives on the basis of traditional historical sources. Kulpin's role in the formation of social-natural history is also determined. The authors note his ability to accept someone else's opinion, to react to shortcomings with humor. At the same time, it should be noted that Kulpin was a good leader. He showed it in 2015 when he needed to organize and hold a regular conference in the Crimea (Kulpin held an annual international conference (since 1992) "Man and Nature: Problems of Social-Natural History"). Then many of the colleagues condemned Kulpin. But he remained adamant. He understood the importance of collective efforts in the development of any scientific direction, especially a complex one.

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