Ideas and Ideals

The article was written as a response to a previously published (Ideas and Ideals, 2018, No. 3) article by S. Yu. Kolomiytsev “About Unfalsifiable Scientific Statements and Ideas”. The author, agreeing with a number of positions of this article, discusses some of its ideas. Primarily, the criticism concerns the thesis that the criterion of falsifiability unjustifiably narrows the scope of knowledge identified with its help as scientific, and that there is such a type of knowledge that does not meet the criterion of falsifiability but it has a scientific status. According to the author of this article, for applying of the criterion of falsifiability, we must take into account some conditions. First, the required falsifiability of knowledge is potential, i.e. falsification does not have to be available just at this stage of the development of science. Secondly, this criterion is intended to solve the problem of demarcation of science and knowledge that lies outside of it, and may be less effective in other, even close cognitive situations. Thirdly, the qualification of a theory as non-scientific does not mean that it is certainly unacceptable or erroneous. From the point of view of the modern epistemological paradigm, not only the science but also other types of cognition may give reliable and useful knowledge. The article discusses the thesis of S. Yu. Kolomiytsev that some fundamental ideas (for example, the idea of ​​the atom) originally were not falsified but were already scientific. The author justifies an alternative assessment: these ideas were initially true, since they corresponded to the objective reality, but at the same time they were not scientific, since they could not be developed by means of scientific knowledge. The reality of some object does not mean that all judgments about it automatically fall into the category of scientific; after all, metaphysics is also a doctrine of reality, although, as a rule, deeper than directly observable reality. Thus, arguments aimed at limiting the criterion of falsifiability actually refer to attempts to expand it to a range of problems that it is not intended to solve. One of the normative directions for the application of the criterion of falsifiability is the demarcation of science and pseudo-scientific theories; pseudo-scientific knowledge often has a “built-in” protection against falsification. The article describes some techniques of such protection.

This article raises the problem of the constancy of philosophy, science, art, religion, and politics as forms of worldview that characterize the state of post-mythological consciousness. In this regard, two tasks are solved. First, we trace the genesis of worldview forms in German classical thought in the context of substantiating the idea of the historicity of the absolute (G. Hegel and F. Schelling). Second, the question is raised about the specifics of philosophy as a form of thinking. The authors compare classical and nonclassical approaches (A. Badiou) to solving problems, the conclusions, they have made, are the following. In modern theories, there is a blurring and loss of objectivity of philosophical knowledge. Despite this, philosophy is invariably given the role of a way of thinking about its time. The classical claims of philosophy to the universal content of truth are canceled. Based on the analysis of the concept of A. Badiou, the specificity of philosophy is revealed in the ability to quickly arrange science, art, religion and politics – as a way to create an ideal space in which access to the event of truth is provided. In this connection, it is proposed to define this concept as “operational” in relation to the nature of philosophical knowledge. Philosophy as a reflexive ability uses the operative time of our consciousness, which constitutes subjectivity. Destroying the mytho-ritual scheme of the unity of consciousness, philosophy sets the spiritual topos in which a person lives after leaving the myth.

The purpose of this article is to analyze the content of Plotinus’s apophatic theology. The problem of the limit of human cognition has always been topical in the history of the human thought. The absolute reality acted as such a limit in Platonism. The apophatic aspect was the final step of its cognition. The founder of Neoplatonism systematized the Plato’s teaching about hypostases of the being and by doing so he transferred the center of the philosophical speculations in the sphere of the Unity of Oneness. Thus, his apophatics is more consequent than the Plato’s one. Narrating about the Unity of Oneness, Plotinus is sort of synthesizing certain peculiarities of the apophatic theology of his two great predecessors: Aristotle and Plato. One can say, Plotinus’s apophatic theology “vanished” in the description of the mystical blending to the Unity of Oneness of the first cause of being. However for a philosopher intuitive aspects of its cognition are as important in a certain context as logical ones. Plotinus’s philosophy is the way of antinomies, the way of upper-and-non-predicative apophatic darings. The first Unity of Oneness in his philosophy is uncertain and formless because the Unity of Oneness causes all things but doesn’t need them. The latter ones are incidental to It. In their incidental nature is the lack of Good what one can’t say about the Unity of Oneness Itself. It is neither anything qualitative nor quantitative, neither in the rest nor in the movement, neither in any place nor in any time. It is neither Intelligence nor Soul. Thus, the Unity of Oneness according to Plotinus is the energy without essence. Because it creates being transcendental to all things in existence. At the same time Plotinus has in the first place the proper experience of the ecstatic ascents to the exorbitant limit of all things in existence. Staying in It is for a thinker a happiness of the Soul, life of the gods and of the godlike happy people, “escape of the unity to the Unity of Oneness”. As a matter of fact apophatic for Plotinus is the first step taking aside from that experience to a random thought. However in the teaching of the founder of Neoplatonism the thought  and the mystical life are so connected to each other that it is practically impossible to separate them—they are the unified whole of existence.

The idea of reorganizing a German university was revealed in the correspondence of the young Martin Heidegger and his friend Karl Jaspers. Prominent thinkers critically analyze the contribution of contemporaries and representatives of the previous generation of scientists and philosophers. Ambitious and confident in their abilities, they hatched a plan, as it seemed to them, for the most important mission: the revival of the spirit of genuine philosophy within the walls of German universities. Repeatedly emphasized in their correspondence in the 1920s - such a high goal will require the reduction of professors of philosophy and "cleansing" of universities from the prospering mediocrity. Despite spiritual aspirations, these philosophers were aware of the need for career growth. Without a proper position, it was impossible to, at least, make any changes in the current system of higher German education and academic philosophy. The author of this article believes that the same thoughts of Heidegger lay at the basis of the ideas expressed in correspondence with Jaspers and in the decision to accept the post of the rector of the University of Freiburg, which played a fatal role in his biography. The period of the duties of the rector Martin Heidegger is covered by the so-called «Black Notebooks». The author of the article departs from the widely used biographical approach in favor of a historical and philosophical analysis of passages of that creation time. The main objective of this work is to identify the basic categories of the being-historical concept of M. Heidegger, manifested in criticism of the academic university philosophy of German universities at the beginning of the 20th century. The philosophy of being history is first touched upon in the aforementioned Black Notebooks. In the volumes of the collected works “Beiträge zur Philosophie”, “Das Ereignis”, “Die Geschichte des Seyns”, addressed by the author of the article, the main part of the being-historical concept is revealed. The leading research method is historical philosophical, which determines the relationship between the fundamental ontological intuitions of the German master and his analysis of factuality, in particular, criticism of German university philosophy. In the framework of this article, the historical philosophical method includes the hermeneutical method, which is necessary when working with the specific language of Heidegger's works, which requires a thorough interpretation.

Transhumanism is an actively developing form of the modern worldview, which regards the overcoming of the biological conditionality of a human being and the achievement of individual immortality as the main task facing humanity. The main disadvantage of transhumanism is not its ethical unacceptability, but rather its philosophical naivety - which is manifested in the uncritical acceptance of the naturalistic model of man as the only possible one and discarding without any sufficient justification and consideration of all the others, including alternative (non-natural) concepts, and religious - philosophical concepts of human nature. The article shows that naturalistic understanding of a person is confronted with very significant, essentially insurmountable problems concerning the nature of “the self” and the solution of the psychophysical problem, which makes it necessary to evaluate naturalism as a false model of understanding human nature. Next, the problems of transhumanism and immortality are viewed through the prism of the plot-game paradigm, the main feature of which is the proposal to add a third parameter to the space-time model of the world - an individual who in each instant perceives the first two aspects in his own way - space and time. In general, this gives a plot perception of reality to each creature at a given moment in a given place, while their perceptions and actions are somehow coordinated with all others, mutually complementing, “balancing” within the framework of a holistic Cosmic Game. From this point of view, each “the Self” is, first of all - the scenario according to which his body and a set of ready-made reactions to typical events are formed, and then a collection of the stories of his life from birth to the current moment is constantly rewritten. Thus, it makes no sense to make plans to achieve the immortality of the “the Self”, without having a clear answer to the question, what the “the Self” is. Only by studying what death really is we can decide if it is the enemy to us or the door to other worlds, behind which there are enormous opportunities for our spiritual evolution.

The article suggests the author's concept of Christian reflection of religious liberty through a number of stable paradigms. The author considers briefly the following paradigms: the paradigm of apologists, the paradigm of Augustine, Evangelical paradigm, the paradigm of Christian modernism and the Second Vatican Council. The author considers the paradigms proposed in the article to be suitable for the description of the complex phenomenon of freedom of religion, as it excludes the existence of a single model of reflection within the Christian confessional worldview. Each paradigm has its own unique set of principles that distinguish one paradigm from the others. The paradigm of apologists is connected with the New Testament biblical tradition, based on the “defensive” tactics of the church, excluding coercion in religious affairs. At the same time there is an idea of the church as a community separated from the world and the separate coexistence of the two kingdoms: the secular and the church. It later formed the basis of the doctrine of separation between church and state. At the heart of the paradigm of Augustine or the paradigm of the dominant church was the doctrine of Aurelius Augustine on the close relationship of state and church. It had various historical forms: Byzantine, papal, Synodal, Anglican, etc., which used various degrees of violence in matters of faith. In contrast to the previous one, there appeared an Evangelical paradigm that provided mutual independence of the church and the state. In its development, it destroyed the framework of previous forms of state-confessional relations, relying not on the authority of tradition, but on the principle of free interpretation of the Bible. Within its framework, the concept of a Free Church as an autonomous religious organization independent of the state was formulated. The paradigm of Christian modernism was formed under the influence of philosophy and liberal approach to the Bible. It was expressed in the high ethical pathos and primacy of Christian ethics over dogma, the perception of the Christian church in itself outside the confessional framework and the acceptance of universal Christianity, the primacy of each personal experience over the tradition of the church, the denial of the framework of knowledge of God. The paradigm of the Second Vatican Council is an example of renewal and modernization within a large and authoritative confession. After the Council, the Catholic Church made Christian humanism its official ideology, proclaimed a tolerant approach to representatives of other Christian and non-Christian religions, and took a step towards a more open understanding of Christian values and ideas.

The tradition of studying John Locke's philosophy in Russia is more than 200 years old, but the religious component of his system has often fallen out of the interests of domestic researchers. Locke's main theological works are still not translated into Russian, while in Western tradition J. Locke is considered one of the key thinkers of Protestantism. John Locke's theological treatise “The Reasonableness of Christianity” led to Protestant discussions. Locke reconsiders the bases of theological systems according to his own experience of understanding the Bible. J. Locke supposed that theological systems of different denominations were not satisfactory. J. Locke believed that in order to bring the opinions of the various churches and communities to agreement, it was necessary to highlight the only necessary doctrine stating that Jesus is the Messiah. The book was published anonymously by J. Locke in 1695. J. Locke was accused of sympathy for deism, socinianism and atheism after publication of the book. The treatise defined the direction of discussions in the XVII – XVIII centuries. J. Locke proposed the authentic method for studying the Bible derived from the epistemological bases set forth in “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding”. Offering a sensualistic way of interpreting the Holy Scripture, Locke goes beyond ecclesiastical orthodoxy.

The article is devoted to the Renaissance medicine, the origins of its formation as scientific experimental discipline. Economic, social and scientific processes that have direct and indirect influence on formation of the Renaissance scientific environment are taken into account. Among them: pilgrimage routes, fairs, including book fairs, wars, geographical discoveries, religious missions establishment, invention of printing, scientists’ correspondence from different countries. The Renaissance era has given many prominent personalities in different fields: Copernicus in physics, Luther in theology, Titian in painting, Michelangelo in architecture and many others. One of the brightest personalities in medicine was Paracelsus, a doctor who combined “high” university therapy with “low” craft surgical practices that were previously considered unworthy occupations for nobles, and also introduced chemistry into medical practice. Paracelsus’ merit also is systematization of previous eras knowledge and inclusion of this knowledge in his own medical system, based on interaction of three types of knowledge emitted by Paracelsus: science (theoria, scientia) – experience (erfahrenheit, experientia) – experiment (experimentum), while Paracelsus emphasizes the importance of experience (experientia), which a doctor gains in wanderings, contrasting it with theoretical, speculative training at medical faculties.

Explanation of the interactions of three types of knowledge is comparable with modern approaches to experiment’s definition, which different scientists explain differently. Definitions of the “experiment” by Galileo, Niels Bohr, and Ian Hacking were chosen as examples for comparison.

The article also focuses on Paracelsus laboratory as a kind of space that combines various factors: natural, social, technical and economic, where the living (doctors, patients, other people, animals, plants and mushrooms) and non-living entities (signs, texts, teachings) interact. When these entities communicate with each other, new knowledge arises.

The article analyzes the complexity of the formation of the psychological concept of “will”. The author concludes that this concept is still more philosophical than scientific. The author considers the need of the concept of “will” for psychology as well as various approaches to its definition. For the first time, the focus is placed on the ability to measure the will that opens up in the study of the history of such attempts. The article analyzes the methods that are used to measure various aspects of the phenomenon of will. So, according to the measurement theory, various experiments are considered, which cause and fix physiological changes during the volitional effort or the time it is held. The author analyzes the application of test methods and order scales. The author also examines the possibility of such a measurement from the perspective of measurement theory and experimental psychology, analyzing possible errors and difficulties. The article states that for practical purposes at least one can apply the method of expert evaluation and the formation of a scale of names, allowing to distinguish groups of people with and without strong will. This implies consideration of the will not so much as a volitional action, but as a characteristic of a person. The author comes to the conclusion that further studies of psychological traits will make it possible to specify the content of the concept of will and to clarify its structure.

The article presents the analysis of remembering process in the concept of time that was introduced by E. Husserl. Research is based on the following thesis: Husserl gets an opportunity to build a new concept of mind by the virtue of such properties as temporality and intentionality. Consequently, Husserl is able to show how the time is flowing in the mind. That kind of concept allots memory a particular mode of existence in the consciousness that is being intended towards temporal lasting objects. The mind finds itself in an unbroken lasting flow of temporality. The subject of the article lies in the mode of existence of the memory in the human mind, it is therefore necessary to answer the question of how the mind may get access to the memory. In order to get a multi-faceted view of the problem, the article considers works of the philosophers (M. Merleau-Ponty, P. Ricoeur) who were influenced by Husserl’s method and concept to a great extent. They both use the concept in their studies and raise their own questions, giving interpretation of his work. The work of remembering process is discussed as exemplified in the following Husserl’s works: ‘Ideas I’, ‘Lectures on the Phenomenology of Internal Time Consciousness’, ‘Logical Investigations’. The article highlights the idea, that the specifics of the remembering process resides in distinguishing the content of the perceiving of the past and the reproduction of the consciousness of the past that was perceiving that content. Ultimately, considering remembering as a process of ceaselessly changing reproduction of the consciousness of the past makes us be positive about conceiving remembering as an incessant lasting process, but not  as a quiescent print that is receding with time. The remembering process is interworking with contstantly changing mind, that is herein addressed as a lasting act. Substantiation of the above listed points clarifies why constantly lasting interworking of mind and remembering is only possible in the absolute flow dimension.