VEDECKÝ ZÁKON: K HISTÓRII JEDNÉHO POJMU

The aim of this paper is to show the incompleteness of the exclusively logico-syntactical and logico-semantical approaches to one of the core issues of philosophy of science, namely, scientific laws and scientific explanation in C. G. Hempel works. The author starts with a brief exposition of the main characteristics of Hempel approach (labeled 'the D-N model') to the deductive explanations based on the universal scientific laws and then analyzes the problems and paradoxes inherent in this approach. Next, he traces these characteristics back to the Hempel and Carnap attempts to ground the concepts of scientific law and explanation exclusively on logic (i.e. logical syntax and/or logical semantics), which led to a highly normative approach alienated from the practice of real science.