The author of the book is a well-known specialist in the history and methodology of science, professor of physics and history of science at Harvard University (USA). J. Holton's research is a notable phenomenon among anti-positivist works in the Anglo-American philosophy of science. He contrasts formal linguistic reductionism with positivism with a meaningful analysis of the essence and development of cognition. The area of ​ ​ science research developed by J. Holton, which he calls thematic analysis, is certainly of significant interest to both natural scientists. and for philosophers and historians of science. Readers will also be attracted by the position of the author, who recognizes, on the one hand, the social conditioning of science, and on the other, the practical significance of research in the field of philosophy and history of science for the general cultural development of society.