Crisis in Fundamental Physics: Epistemological Consequences of Narrow Specialization and the Interdisciplinary Imperative

Abstract

Objective of this study is a comprehensive philosophical-methodological and pedagogical analysis of the current crisis in fundamental physics, viewed not as a local theoretical impasse but as a natural consequence of the systemic crisis in education, generated by the historical separation of sciences and hypertrophied narrow specialization of scientific personnel. Methods of research are based on the principles of the dialectical method, historicism, unity of the logical and historical, and systemic analysis of modern scientometric meta-studies (2021–2026) regarding the effectiveness of mono-disciplinary and interdisciplinary scientific collaborations. Furthermore, the conceptual apparatus of Hegelian dialectics (interrelation of absolute and relative truth) and philosophical-pedagogical ideas on polytechnic education are applied. Results demonstrate that the historical process of science separating from the unified body of natural philosophy, driven by the imperatives of material production, created a fundamental contradiction between the universal nature of scientific cognition and the rigid boundaries of the subject matter. It is shown that the current tendency of European and Ukrainian higher and secondary education institutions toward early profiling forms personnel incapable of a holistic, systemic vision of objective reality, leading to stagnation in fundamental physics. The analysis of scientometric meta-studies confirms that a "pure" specialized physicist objectively loses the ability to generate breakthrough ideas, while truly revolutionary discoveries are the exclusive prerogative of interdisciplinary teams that integrate diverse methodologies and knowledge from distant scientific fields. The thesis is substantiated that all sciences, including technical and natural sciences, are inherently humanistic, as they are forms of human social practice, returning scientific thought to the Renaissance understanding of studia humanitatis, necessary for holistic cognition. Conclusions assert the urgent necessity of a radical abandonment of early narrow specialization in favor of polytechnic education. Only the implementation of genuine polytechnism, which ensures the free change of activities and an understanding of the deep interconnections between all forms of matter in motion, can form a new type of scientist who will strive for absolute truth, without being limited to relative constructs and dogmas, which will help overcome the crisis of theoretical thinking.