Аннотация
The article analyzes the opinions of thinkers of the past about the forms of artistic and historical thinking. This problem is considered in close connection with the definition of the cognitive essence of the heroic epic. Folklore studies of the twentieth century, fascinated by the artistic and poetic structure of the epic, did not deal much with historical and ethnic features. The problem rested on the correlation between the scientific postulates of the former historical school and the methodological guidelines of the comparative typological method in folklore studies. Folklore researchers have addressed this problem before. However, the study of the heroic epic in the framework of literary and poetic analysis did not lead to significant results. Almost half a century of folklore history is characterized by trampling on the same level of scientific knowledge. The article notes that the heroic epic is an empirical source from which you can draw very valuable information of a cognitive nature. It is subjected to an analytical study of the thoughts and judgments of ancient encyclopedic scientists about the primacy of matter and the secondary nature of ideas. A certain place is given to the conclusions of the Russian thinkers of the XIX century, who unanimously repeated the primacy of matter. The research that ignores the historical principle of research in folklore studies is subjected to an analytical review. Based on the above, it is concluded that the main value of the heroic epic is not only in the artistic and poetic system, in historicism, but also in the informative and cognitive essence.