ANALYTICAL PHILOSOPHY, EPISTEMOLOGY AND PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE
The article considers lying as an epistemic attitude, analyzes its structural and substantive characteristics. In particular, it considers the pragmatic consequences of using false beliefs, primarily in scientific practice. It is shown that in a number of cases false epistemic attitudes can play a positive role, mainly as temporary hypothetical or counterfactual assumptions, as well as positive illusions. The paper also analyzes two alternative approaches towards false beliefs: “knowledge-first epistemology” of T. Williamson and “action-first epistemology” in line with epistemic pragmatism. It considers the potential of the latter approach and, in particular, the way of reconciling two seemingly conflicting normative frameworks – for beliefs and for actions. This, in turn, opens the way for building a complex normative system with different “directions of fit” between beliefs and actions on one side and the world on the other.
By the beginning of the twenty-first century essentialism is giving way to the constructivist paradigm in the field of social sciences and humanities. However, linguistic essentialism survived all the shocks and received a classical form in the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis of linguistic relativism. The application of this hypothesis to the analysis of linguistic communities puts majority and minority languages in different positions: it makes strong languages even stronger, and simply kills small ones. The task of preserving minority languages in programs built using this methodology turns out to be impossible. In our humble opinion, two research paradigms are more adequate for the purpose. One of them is associated with the pragmatic turn in the analytical philosophy of language and represents a transition from the analysis of the structure of the language itself to the analysis of the conditions of communication, taking into account all the sociocultural components of this process. The second methodology is Erving Goff man’s concept of social face and performative behavior.
The paper analyzes a complex of methodological problems associated with the visual turn in modern historical science, as well as the peculiarities of the perception of the historical past and the organization of history teaching in modern culture and in the system of historical education. The analysis evaluates the prospects of already existing approaches in philosophy in the development of problems of the visual. The ideas of Maurice Merleau-Ponty on the phenomenology of perception, with his emphasis on the “physical presence” of a body in the process of perception, are proposed as a significant source for the reflection on the visual. The involvement of visual elements in the historical narrative, as shown in the article, complicates the methodology and practice of source criticism, while at the same time allowing historical science to make its contribution to understanding the image as such.
SOCIAL PHILOSOPHY
There are a large number of different models of history acceleration. This article discusses the models proposed by S. P. Kapitsa, S. V. Tsirel and A. D. Panov. They are based on the prerequisites of a synergetic methodology, the concepts of Big History and singularity, as well as the interpretation of the acceleration of history as a consistent reduction in the duration of significant historical epochs. The purpose of the paper is to show the unconvincing nature of such an approach as a variant of substantiating the conception of history acceleration.
The article deals with the problem of institutionalization of evolutionary forms of socio-cultural development of local communities. The purpose of the study is to analyze the conditions and factors affecting the processes of institutionalization in the context of socio-cultural dynamics. Socio-cultural institutions are the most important structures, mechanisms for the formation of socio-cultural identity, act as regulators of the generation of value-normative complexes forming models of socio-cultural development. The main factors determining the institutional dynamics of socio-cultural evolution under the pressure of a globalized society are: the transformation of traditional industrial and economic relations; the conflict between local and global socio-cultural environments; the clash of formal and informal socio-cultural practices. In the process of interaction of globality and locality, conditions arise that determine instability, inconsistency, conflict, non-linearity of the development of socio-cultural development. The basic socio-cultural structures of the evolving local community are: tradition, innovations and the archaic. The unification of the socio-cultural environment becomes the dominant trend in the development of local communities, which determines the processes of institutionalization
The article is devoted to the changes in the conceptual understanding of the institution of local self-government that has been taking place in the last three decades. The submission to the State Duma of the Russian Federation of the Draft Federal Law «On the general principles of the organization of local self-government in the unified system of public authority», which took place at the end of 2021, allows analyzing the trajectory of the development of the institute of local self-government in post-Soviet Russia from the point of view of a more global time and conceptual perspective. The purpose of this work is to identify the trajectory of the development of the conception of local self-government in RF. Research attention is focused on identifying the conception of local self-government formulated in official documents, a gradual change in the conceptual interpretation of this institution. It is shown that the main shiftin the conceptual understanding of local self-government occurs along the axis of institutional independence / institutional dependence of local self-government on state authorities. The development of the conceptual understanding of local self-government in post-Soviet Russia proceeds along the trajectory from a public concept (local self-government as an independent activity) to a state one (local self-government as a form of exercising power) and to a hyperstate one (local self-government as a link in a unified system of exercising authority).
The article analyses the gradual development of the narrative and the change in its main features. Initially, the narrative was considered as an authentic reproduction of past experience that is meaningful for the narrator. Later, the definition and study of such attributes of the narrative as sequence, plot, the narrator’s value attitude, and time began. Contemporary research focuses on temporality, causality, the context of narrative formation, certainty (uncertainty) of narrative scenarios, and narrative control. There has been a shift away from viewing the narrative as a finished product towards understanding it as a process of meaning-making from the narrator’s present. Narrative formation is rooted in social or personally meaningful context.
The categories of health and disease/illness are conceptualized from the perspective of the philosophy of medicine. Philosophical contradictions are revealed, which, fueling the debate between naturalism and normativism, prevent biomedicine from developing a single satisfactory understanding of these categories. The theoretical and practical consequences of such biomedicine features as pathocentrism, identification of health with complete well-being, dichotomy of health and disease in the absence of a clear criterion for their differentiation are analyzed. The role of humanistic approaches to the medicine rehumanization is investigated with a focus on their balanced view of health and disease/illness, attentive to the fundamental vulnerability of human nature.
Deconstruction of the Soviet in paraphrases of precedent cultural signs is for the first time considered from a socio-philosophical position: the socio-cultural and socio-psychological reasons for this phenomenon are analyzed, and its influence on the reception of the Soviet theme by modern public consciousness is theorized. It has been established that the tendency of ironic paraphrasing of Soviet precedents is predetermined by the morphology of Soviet culture and by a number of factors associated with the properties of social psychology as well. The author points out that paraphrases are capable of creating an alternative thesaurus of Soviet culture and broadcasting specific values.
HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY
The reconstruction of the teachings of Аnaximander about the origin of the world is based on the analysis of his practical attempts to simulate some natural phenomena and invent devices or scientific instruments that explain and predict some meteorological events. The Earth rests in equilibrium not only because of its location in the center of the Universe, but also because it is «supported» by the «shell» of «ἀήρ». In the formation of the world, due to the eternal circular motion, from a mixture of hot and cold stood out «ἀήρ» and «αἰθήρ», constituting the contradictory essence of «apeiron». Pairs of opposites: hot and cold; wet and dry – the energy component of the material principle. Due to the eternal irreversible fatal cyclic process of interaction of these pairs of opposites there is a constant renewal in nature. «Apeiron» in accordance with the immanently inherent property of purposive authority of the law of global processes taking place in it, a fatal impersonal force and unavoidable response for its violation, provides a just balance of forces in the Universe as a whole.
The article is aimed at comprehending the perception of J. Wahl’s philosophy in Russia. The central role is assigned to the notion of “unhappy consciousness” in Hegel’s “The Phenomenology of Spirit” and to the interpretation of this notion in J. Wahl’s philosophy. The analysis of Russian–language studies dealing with his philosophy allows to outline two primary strands of engagement with it: within the framework of “French Neo–Hegelianism”, and within the framework of existentialism. Th e need to renounce this established characteristic of his philosophy is shown. Two arguments are stated in favour of this, conceptual and substantial. As for the former, the restriction of J. Wahl’s philosophy to the two aforementioned frameworks narrows the real horizons of his research. For the latter, the “unhappy consciousness” in J. Wahl’s philosophy besides the tragic–religious interpretation of Hegel’s ideas also contains pluralistic criticism of Hegel’s “monism” as a part of J. Wahl’s own philosophical project of “metaphysical empiricism”. It is argued that treating the entire corpus of J. Wahl’s writings will allow for a more thorough insight into the history of 20th century French philosophy, in particular “French Neo–Hegelianism” and the Franco-German debates concerning phenomenology and existentialism.
The article aims to present the study of Aristotle’s teaching on consciousness and soul conducted by the well-known contemporary scholar of ancient philosophy, Jonathan Barnes, as an example of a certain historical-philosophical style that emerged within British analytic philosophy as a whole and within the Aristotelian Society in particular during 1970-1980s. It is shown that the development of the historical-philosophical style within the Aristotelian Society at this time continues the tradition of slow reception of ideas from continental philosophy, which was noted already in the early period of Society emergence and development. This is explained by certain theoretical isolation that had developed by this time in British philosophy, which had its imprint on historical-philosophical studies and is expressed in the application of conceptual analysis and the inclusion of its results into the modern philosophical context. Although Barnes considers Aristotle’s teaching on consciousness and soul through the prism of contemporary versions of physicalism and dualism, the question of what role the Aristotelian teaching plays for them remains unanswered. The author puts forward the thesis that in this case, J. Barnes’s analysis of the Aristotelian problem of consciousness and soul appears less productive than the previously developed approaches in scholasticism and phenomenology in the continental history of philosophy.
SCIENTIFIC LIFE, POLEMIC AND DISCUSSIONS
The article discusses in a broader historical context the well-known thesis of V. I. Lenin that capitalism was formed as a result of a change in the behavior of large merchants, who, after the state achieves political unity and forms a unified market, switch from trade to the organization of production. Researchers of the 17th century Siberia do not find historical confirmation of Lenin’s scheme, however, it is quite applicable to other countries of the early modern period and to the mechanism of the early stage of the colonial expansion of European powers (I. R. Sokolovsky, 2019). At the same time, J. Diamond’ research pointed out the boundary between “normal” human behavior in the new lands and the behavior of the colonizers of the early modern period. This boundary is a rational or quasi-rational accounting of one’s actions. M. Heidegger calls this approach Gestell. Gestell considers the surrounding world as a calculated resource for self-increasing profit. Using the example of a Swiss wine merchant who died in North America in 1736, the Italian micro-historian K. Ginzburg showed how the merchants and “capitalists” actually acted and what the Gestell that determined their actions looked like in everyday life: predatory appropriation of material and labor resources is gradually getting a solid base of rational calculation.
On the 3rd of April, 2023, the Doctor of Philosophy, Larisa Viktorovna Anzhiganova celebrated her anniversary. She is the first and currently the only woman in the region with a degree of the Doctor of Philosophy. Her research interests are related to the study of ethnocultural problems of Khakassia, in particular, the philosophy of ethnos, ethnic culture, interethnic relations, gender studies. Her scientific activity was conducted within the walls of the N. F. Katanov Khakass State University (since 1980), Khakass Research Institute for Language, Literature, and History (1994–1998). It is of particular interest due to the relevance of the topic of the doctoral dissertation “The evolution of the worldview of an ethnic group (by the example of the Khakass people)” (1999, Moscow) and other works that cover the value problems of the ethnic group, including women’s family values. The researcher pays significant attention to the issues of the Khakass’ ethnocultural foundations. An important stage in the development of scientific and organizational activities of L.V. Anzhiganova was the holding of the Interregional Сonference “Ethnic Capital: Resources and Institutional Forms”, which promises to become regular. The philosopher’s ideas played an important role in the formation of the ethnic culture of the Khakass people.
In order to improve the quality of teaching social sciences, since 2022, a number of conferences and seminars have been held in leading universities. The discussion centered on the teaching methodology and content of the newly introduced course “Fundamentals of Russian Statehood”. The deepest and most open involvement of teaching and research community in this work will be able to contribute to the development of Russian socio-political knowledge, domestic scientific schools and research centers.