bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
What Does It Mean to Be Rational?
Authors:   Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences, Argamakova Alexandra A.
Published: November 2023

The article provides a critical overview on the question of what does it means to be rational and what are the foundations of reasonable thinking, as well as how it is related to the history and current state of affairs in science and philosophy. Ra­tionality is understood as the correspondence of actions and thinking to epis­temic rules. Traditionally, the rules of correct thinking are formulated by logic. The search for other universal laws of knowledge originates from the logic of Aristotle. In the epistemology and logic of science, pluralism still prevails, and parallel conceptual lines are developing. The ideals of rationality either de­scribe thinking algorithms that are successfully implemented in research, or they are prescribed to practice like philosophical ideals. The matter is complicated by the fact that there are no ahistorical ideals of knowledge. Does it mean that the search for ideals of rationality is doomed in advance, and rationality itself is irrational? Both the foundations of scientific knowledge and the foundations of human culture are interconnected with rationality. Moreover, one is insepara­ble from the other in the real world, in which a person acts and makes decisions. Considering different points of view on rationality, we will try to comprehend it simultaneously from the standpoint of historical variability and the presence of mechanisms for continuity and stabilization of acquired cultural experience.
About Some Features of Rationality
Authors:   Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences, Maslanov Evgeniy V.
Published: November 2023

The article discusses some problems of the philosophical understanding of ratio­nality. When trying to answer the question about the specifics of rationality, we are faced with the need to define its criteria. Often, to identify them, they turn to the study of science as a normative form of rationality. Analysis of the history of science shows the existence of “crazy ideas” that can change the course of sci­entific research and contradict the previously accepted standards of scientific ra­tionality. This demonstrates that scientific rationality relies on existing para­digms and research programs. They are accepted by scientists due to their success. An important condition for considering a certain set of ideas as rational is that they have a history of successful application and use. This creates a con­ceptual space for the creation of “crazy ideas” that can “establish” new research worlds. It is shown that representatives of different cultures can follow different types of rationality, which conceptualize and “establish” the worlds of their own existence in different ways. They may be based on various intuitions and seem irrational to representatives of another culture. In this case, rationality should be considered as a mechanism for “establishing” and describing the world. It should allow solving problems related to existence in the world. This gives us reason to talk about the similarity of scientific rationality and other rationalities in the pos­sibility of “establishing” new worlds. As a result, there are many rationalities and the possibility of constructing projects for building communication between them.
Philosophical Problems in the Theoretical Heritage of K.D. Ushinsky (to the 200th Anniversary of the Birth)
Authors:   National Research University “Moscow Power Engineering Institute”, Andreev Andrei L. ,   Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology, Russian Academy of Scieces, Kuznetsova Tatiana V. ,   Lomonosov Moscow State University
Published: November 2023

The article provides a historical and philosophical analysis of the theoretical her­itage of one of the most significant figures of the “golden age” of Russian cul­ture, K.D. Ushinsky. Ushinsky entered intellectual history primarily as a “teacher of teachers”, the founder of scientific pedagogy and philosophy of education in Russia. At the same time, he paid great attention to the philosophical substan­tiation of his views on education, and a number of his works contain a fairly de­tailed exposition of general issues of philosophical anthropology, philosophy of history and philosophy of science. In philosophical terms, Ushinsky was sig­nificantly influenced by Hegel, the Russian Hegelians (P.G. Redkin), Feuerbach and the first positivism; however, as it is shown in the article, at the same time he freely combined and interpreted ideas coming from different sources, taking a generally independent theoretical position. The originality of Ushinsky’s philo­sophical thinking was especially clearly manifested in his development of the ca­tegory of “narodnost” (a concept that in the Russian intellectual tradition meant national identity, preserved in its pure form mainly in the lower social strata). Ushinsky significantly modified the meaning of this category which had a key importance for the Russian culture of the “golden age”, giving it not only an evaluative, but also an instrumental character. In addition, in Ushinsky’s works, this concept received a certain sociological meaning and interpretation within the framework of Ushinsky’s ideas about the stages of the socio-historical development of mankind and the modernization of post-reform Russian society, which was experiencing difficult collisions characteristic of the process of the for­mation of capitalism.
“Tales of the Titans” as a Realization of Yа.E. Golosovker’s Philosophical Project
Authors:   National Research University “Higher School of Economics” (HSE University), Morozov Daniil A.
Published: November 2023

The article is devoted to the artistic work of Ya.E. Golosovker “Tales of the Ti­tans”, first published in Detgiz in 1955, and considered as a realization of the thinker’s philosophical project. The author of the article pays special attention to the “scaffolding” – key philosophical attitudes of the imaginative absolute con­cept. It allows to understand why Golosovker refers to Greek mythology. Based on the text of the “Tales”, author suggests considering two strategies for devel­oping imaginative logic: negative and positive. The negative one relates to the denial of formal logic and the struggle against ratio. Author shows how the vio­lation of formal logic principles is implemented in Golosovker’s text. The posi­tive strategy is addressed to the new cultural and philosophical method called “curve of meaning”. Possible problems associated with its use are identified, however author emphasizes its potential relevance for humanitarian research. The author of the article attempts to apply this philosophical method to the artis­tic work of the thinker, as a result a few “meaning-images” (Golosovker’s neolo­gism) were identified: immortality, madness, power, etc. The text of “Tales” ap­pears as an example of “philosophy-as-art” and as the realization of cognition by imagination. The conducted research opens prospects for further study of Golosovker’s philosophical heritage, which has not yet fully taken its place in the history of Russian thought.
Review of the Interdisciplinary Scientific Seminar Forced Communication: Existential Experience of Philosophers and Scientists of “Subcapital Siberia” (late 19th – early 20th centuries)
Authors:   Vologda State University, Yastreb Natalia A. , Avdunin Vasiliy A. ,   Vologda State University
Published: November 2023

The article is a review of an interdisciplinary scientific seminar dedicated to the communication of Russian philosophers and public figures during their exile in the city of Vologda in the late 19th – early 20th century. At that time, N.A. Berdyaev, A.V. Lunacharsky, A.A. Bogdanov, S.A. Suvorov, A.M. Remi­zov, P.E. Shchegolev. were exiled in Vologda. The seminar discussed the prob­lem of “forced interdisciplinarity”, which is understood as the influence of scien­tific and philosophical ideas in exile. Unlike ordinary philosophical or scientific communication carried out to solve some research problem, “forced communi­cation” in exile occurs in order to expand each other’s scientific interests. The “sphere of conversation” of political exiles, their philosophical interests and political preferences are considered. Abstracts and banquets were the main forms of organization of philosophical and scientific debates in exile. The main forms of organization of philosophical and scientific debates in exile were essays and banquets. The abstracts included reading the report with its subsequent discus­sion; banquets were built on the principle of a “round table”. The existential ex­perience of exile also included “forced communication with oneself”, which con­tributed to the concentration of creative activity. It is concluded that the living space of Vologda and the environment favorable for communication strongly in­fluenced the thinkers who were exiled here. A.V. Lunacharsky began to write scientific papers here. N.A. Berdyaev rethinks his views and begins to move from Marxism to idealism and A.A. Bogdanov on the one hand, significantly de­velops his theoretical positions in Marxism and on the other hand, finds itself in the literary field.
What Prevents Us from Creating Artificial General Intelligence? One Old Wall and One Old Dispute
Authors:   PJSC Sberbank, Efimov Albert R. , Dubrovsky David I. ,   Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences, Matveev Philipp M. ,   Lomonosov Moscow State University
Published: November 2023

The goal set by A. Turing – the creation of a thinking machine – is one of the most important scientific problems that has not yet been solved. The modern frontier in this area is the creation of Artificial General Intelligence (AGI). Modern researchers are looking for different ways to solve this challenging task. In their search, many scholars point out that attempts to use exclusive lin­guistic communication to solve this problem are not enough. The authors of this article analyze a wide range of research and compare it with well-known re­search in the field of language and consciousness, which became known as the “Zagorsky experiment”. Such a comparison of the latest achievements in the field of AI and an analysis of one of the most breakthrough achievements of neuroscience in the rehabilitation of deaf-blind-mute children is being done for the first time in the literature known to us. Based on the experience of the “Zagorsk experiment”, the article concludes that sensory interaction with the outside world is a necessary condition for the creation of AGI. A vision of vari­ous forms of interaction between the machine and the surrounding world is pro­posed: from verbal to non-verbal, from virtual to physical and otherwise. These forms become the basis for the introduction of a new concept of techno-umwelt. Machine transitions from various techno-umwelts can serve as the basis for cre­ating an AGI that has the ability to act as good or better than a human in a vari­ety of environments.
On the Issue of the Formation of Mathematical Ontology: Historical and Philosophical Aspect
Authors:   Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences, Sevalnikov Andrey
Published: November 2023

The article analyzes the possibilities of mathematics’ application to the physical reality from the historical-philosophical point of view. The undertaken analysis of the specific works of natural scientists of the past shows that the well-known thesis of Aristotle’s philosophy about the impossibility of applying mathematics in the “sublunary” world requires clarification. Most of the naturalists before Galileo’s time were undoubtedly Aristotelians. Accepting the qualitative variabil­ity of the “sublunary” world in Aristotle’s philosophy, when turning to physics they put into use, starting with Ptolemy, the possibility of a mathematical de­scription of the world. In this connection one of the main principles was the ad­justment of “projecting the law of heaven onto the earth”, which has been used in different ways. Aristotle’s philosophy forbade the application of mathematical laws in the world of physics, specifically in the so-called “sublunary world”. This was because in this area of being prevail four primary elements – fire, air, earth, and water, subject to continuous change, emergence, and destruction. From Aristotle’s point of view this could not be described within the framework of a mathematical approach. These changes are qualitative and this qualitative­ness should be reflected by corresponding physics. Such qualitative physics op­posed the Pythagorean and Platonic tradition, that allowed the use of mathe­matics in the physical world. In the course of history, however, exactly the philosophy of Aristotle held the dominant position. A thorough analysis of the natural scientists’ works who adhered to the Aristotelian point of view shows that all of them allowed the possibility of applying mathematics in the physical world
Philosophy Is Not the Ideology
Authors:   Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences, Neretinа Svetlana S.
Published: November 2023

Defining ideology as an interindividual system of stereotypes, which appears in the form of mimicry as a universal requirement of being, the author considers it to belong to people who show the ability to reason. A person, consciously car­rying out an act, at the same time does not realize all of himself in it, much of what he does, he does not consciously, does what is hidden from him. The es­sence of man and the essential things that are or are not realized in him are not explicitly represented in the consciousness of man. Often a person quite con­sciously applies certain given regulations in practice, without subjecting them to critical analysis. By carrying out this implicit, or not realizing what is accepted without reasoning and doubt, a person loses not only the philosophical pathos given to him by nature, but also his human nature, for he is called homo sapiens. Since “thinking” presupposes at the same time “acting”, then handing over an action to another person means a philosophical desertion committed by both those who act without thinking and those who think without acting. “Thinking” implies, at the same time “acting”. Refusal of action or its delegation to others (transferring the action to another person) destroys thinking. This is the destruc­tion of the thinking ability, this is a philosophical desertion committed by those whose thought flows only into action and by those who do not act and therefore do not think
“I gladly give my author’s consent…”: M.M. Bakhtin and the Structuralists in the Intellectual Space of the 1960s and Early 1970s
Authors:   M.E. Evsevyev Mordovia State Pedagogical University, Osovsky Oleg E. , Dubrovskaya Svetlana A. ,   National Research Ogarev Mordovia State University, Maslova Elizaveta G. ,   Plekhanov Russian State University of Economics
Published: November 2023

The article reconstructs one of the episodes of M.M. Bakhtin’s scientific bio­graphy, connected with the reception of the thinker’s personality and ideas by domestic and Western structuralism. As the authors point out, traditionally Bakhtin’s position on structuralism in the 1960s and early 1970s is interpreted as a continuation of his anti-formalist attitudes of the second half of the 1920s and early 1930s. The result was the image of Bakhtin as a staunch opponent and critic of structuralism, seeing the latter as a continuation of “material aes­thetics”. The archival documents presented in the article, especially fragments of Bakhtin’s correspondence with R. Barthes, L. Goldman, V.V. Ivanov, Yu. Lot­man, and V. Kozhinov, the Bakhtin marginalia on the pages of his personal li­brary journals, and books presented to Bakhtin by structuralist authors, provide grounds for a new perspective on this episode in Russian and European intellec­tual history. Despite the ambiguity of his attitude toward structuralism, Bakhtin perceived it with a sufficient degree of objectivity, which was expressed in his “Reply to the Question of the Editors of Novyi Mir” and in his working notes of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Bakhtin’s agreement to translate his article “Word in a Novel” in the French journal Langages in response to R. Barth’s proposal, his personal communication with Ivanov, Lotman, and others give the authors grounds to make a number of clarifications in Bakhtin’s scientific biography.
From the Philosophy of Culture to the Philosophy of History
Authors:   Russian State University for the Humanities, Kondakov Igor V.
Published: November 2023

Yu.M. Lotman’s creative path from philologist to philosopher was difficult and risky. The scientist resolutely moved away from the mossy traditions of Soviet vulgar sociological literary criticism and began to master modern methods of text analysis developed by structuralism and semiotics. Since structuralism and semi­otics were banned in Soviet science as products of bourgeois ideology, Lotman and his colleagues at the Tartu-Moscow School called the subject of their re­search “secondary modeling systems”, to which they referred not only literary texts, but also texts of art, texts of behavior, city, history, etc. Thus, a culturologi­cal turn took place in the methodology of Lotman and his associates, which was expressed in the fact that the philosophy of culture became the theoretical basis of structural analysis, and the philosophy of history became the historical and cultural approach. With his works in the field of humanities, Lotman showed that the key to understanding and predicting history is culture, and for building a phi­losophy of history is the philosophy of culture. Lotman actually acted as a pro­found theorist and philosopher of culture on a par with such domestic thinkers as A.F. Losev, M.M. Bakhtin, or foreign ones like O. Spengler, A. Toynbee, K. Levi-Strauss, R. Barth or U. Eco.
Humanitarian Discourse of Ju.M. Lotman: Semiotic Interpretation of Culture Dynamics
Authors:   Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration, Astafyeva Olga N.
Published: November 2023

Conceptualization of the world of culture in the heritage of Yu.M. Lotman opened a new page in the humanities. The comprehension of culture as a highly complex system, the integrity of which is supported by a multitude of texts act­ing as an impulse for self-development, allowed Lotman to develop a dynamic model of culture that explains its ability to generate new texts and achieve syn­ergy of new meanings. The information and communicative essence of culture is revealed by scientists through the concept of “semiosphere”. The integrity of the semiosphere is provided by the memory and ability to abstract as episte­mological prerequisites for the creation of the world of culture. The textual activ­ity of the social subject, through which not only the code of culture is created and preserved, but also the person-in-culture is reproduced, is considered today as a theoretical and applied research problem. Culture forms a value-semantic at­tractor drawing ideas into the concept sphere, which become a starting point for the growth of its multi-layered space, which involves interpretation in order to reduce socio-cultural risks and distortions. Basing on the complication of forms of intellectual interaction, multidimensionality of the polycode cultural space of modern Russia, the search for a collective and individual semantic lan­guage as a dialogue basis is seen as relevant from the standpoint of philosophical knowledge and from the point of view of cultural-creative practical activity.
From Russian Marburg to the United States: New Wine into Old Wineskins
Authors:   From Russian Marburg to the United States: New Wine into Old Wineskins, Dmitrieva Nina A.
Published: November 2023

The conceptualization of ideological influences in philosophy is usually unidi­rectional: from tradition-source to tradition-recipient. The history of Russian neo-Kantianism demonstrates other possibilities for conceptualizing philosophi­cal reception: documenting the facts of reverse influence forces us to look for new ways of interpreting this philosophical movement. The uniqueness of the his­torical situation, which cannot be ignored when analyzing the fate of Russian Neo-Kantianism, makes it necessary for the historian of ideas to turn to the study of intellectual biographies, professional connections, and in general the “sphere of conversation” in which the transformation of the ideological horizon took place. The emigration of intellectuals from Russia in the late 1910s and early 1920s, termed the “philosophers’ ships”, not only provoked unprecedented exis­tential shifts in individual personal trajectories, but also gave rise to new intel­lectual phenomena, conceptual networks and cultural-institutional clusters. Re­constructing the intellectual biographies of two Russian thinkers, Simon Kaplan and Jacob Klein, whose philosophical development took place in the symbolic Marburg, we uncover difficult problems of self-identity, intellectual relevance, and creative fulfillment in emigration. Kaplan, fascinated by the philosophy of religion of Hermann Cohen, head of the Marburg School of Neo-Kantianism, found himself in demand in the United States in the innovative “Great Books” educational program as an expert on Kant and the Bible and as the translator of Cohen’s major work on the philosophy of religion into English. Klein brought to the New World a reputation as an expert in the history of ancient mathematics and Renaissance science, revealed himself as an expert in Plato’s philosophy and an excellent organizer of the educational process, and contemporary research in­terest turns to him as a phenomenologist.
Human as a Servomechanism: the Limits of Organ Projection
Authors:   Lomonosov Moscow State University, Bogomaz Anna V.
Published: November 2023

The article examines the principle of organ projection elaborated by E. Kapp. It expresses the philosopher’s attempt to carry out an anthropological reduction, which means considering technical achievements as projections of human essence. According to Kapp, the process of creating technology appears to be an act of unconscious self-creation and projection of the internal structure of hu­man organs outward. Despite the criticism of contemporaries, his ideas have proved their significance for the further development of philosophical thought. In this connection the author of this article proposes to trace how in the interpreta­tions of P. Florensky, M. McLuhan and modern researchers the concept of organ projection moved away from the original physiological approach, gradually ex­tending the field of possible applications to intelligent systems and artificial intelli­gence, which replace the most complicated human operations. Meanwhile, the ac­tual possibilities of the latest technologies are becoming a main theme not only for current scientific knowledge, but also for contemporary art. The article suggests that the idea of organ projection in its latest modifications can be used as a research optic to analyze technological art and digital reality. Practices of modern culture thus refute the thesis that the concept of organ projection can be applied only to some of the elemental tools, while for most of the more developed ones it proves difficulty of identification of their connection with organic prototypes.
Digitalization and Anthropocentrism
Authors:   Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences, Svirsky Yakov I.
Published: November 2023

The current situation in society is largely constituted by that wave of computeri­zation, or, as someone say, digitalization, which has covered, in fact, the entire society and sets certain behavioral frameworks at all levels of social communica­tion. Computers organized in a network are coordinated today with the many bodily and mental acts that once constituted the characteristic features of the be­ing called human. What makes a person a special being if the computer network surpasses him in many ways? How much does the concept of “human” change if we consider the latter as one of the agents of a vast digital network? How much do we understand those operations that take place in such a network it­self, as well as those that are implemented between a person and a computer? At the same time, it should be taken into account that computers not only trans­form society. They produce and provoke special recursive connections, both among themselves and with a person, giving rise to a special sensitivity in the lat­ter – sensitivity to the virtual. Virtual reality is not only in the network, it is also updated in the physicality of the individual and in his mentality. So, an individ­ual could integrate with computers and use the advantages that they give: upload themselves to the digital world and be one with computers, choice of communi­cation strategies. However, this question can be somewhat redefined. The ape turned man and Kafka’s “Report to the Academy” says: “No, I didn’t want free­dom. All I wanted was an exit… I had to move forward!”. It seems that today it is worth talking not so much about freedom (no matter in what sense of the word), but about finding a way out of a seemingly dangerous, if not cata­strophic, situation.
The Cultural Horizon of the Works of P.P. Gaidenko
Authors:   HSE University, School of Philosophy and Cultural Studies, Makarova Irina V.
Published: November 2023

Piama Pavlovna Gaidenko’s research program is recognized as one of the most important foundations of historical and philosophical thought in Russia. None of the modern Russian philosophers or historians of philosophy can say that Gaidenko’s works did not have any influence on them. For beginners in philoso­phy Gaidenko’s articles and books serve as a key and a reliable source of ap­proaching philosophical problems. For those who, with the help of Gaidenko, have already acquired the first guidelines in philosophy, her style of writing – clear, logical and concise – becomes a model of academic ductus. For the rest of the researchers the texts of P.P. Gaidenko create space for a conversation with a competent interlocutor. In this article I draw attention to the features of the his­torical and philosophical approach of P.P. Gaidenko, among which the most im­portant are: 1) the importance of cultural context, which, according to Gaidenko, is the basis of any spiritual action of a person; 2) Gaidenko’s characteristic inter­est in ontological problems and those philosophers for whom these questions were of prime importance; 3) the serious influence of Heidegger’s “history of Being” on the formation of Gaidenko’s concept of the types of rationality that successively replace each other. The clarification of these features will make it possible to understand why Gaidenko sees a way out of the scientific and ideo­logical crisis of modernity in turning to the ancient type of thinking, focused on the contemplation of physis.
The Problem of Self-consciousness and the Place of “Social Chapters” in the Composition of Hegel’s “Phenomenology of Spirit”
Authors:   Bunin Yelets State University, Korotkikh Vyacheslav I.
Published: November 2023

The article analyzes the relationship between the two topics of “Phenomenology of Spirit” – the search for a way to reveal the content of self-consciousness and the study of the place of socio-historical subject area in the structure of the work. The unity of thought and language makes “inner speech” a necessary element of “experience of consciousness”, that’s why it is impossible to recognize the “in­tellectual intuition” as a method of comprehending self-consciousness. On the other hand, the shape of “infinity” reveals the insufficiency of the mental model of self-consciousness. In this crisis phase of the development of the plot, Hegel turns to the consideration of socio-historical subject area. The speculative structure of “infinity” acts as the basis for the constitution of “modes of self-consciousness” as subjects of social action, and the content of self-consciousness expresses itself in their relations, which are available for observation and description. In the “social chapters” Hegel shows that the evolution of forms of social relations is able to re­veal the content of self-consciousness. The “recollection-inwardizing” of Spirit demonstrates the possibility of a “perfect understanding” of historical epochs and cultures and leads to Absolute knowledge as “concrete self-consciousness”. Based on the study of the problem, the article concludes about the fundamental impor­tance of the method of socio-historical understanding of self-consciousness for substantiating the rational-conceptual form of philosophical knowledge.
The Principles of Metaphysics as the Foundations of Physics
Authors:   Faculty of Physics, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Vladimirov Yuri S. ,   Institute of Gravity and Cosmology, Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University)
Published: November 2023

The author’s generation was taught a negative attitude towards metaphysics, which was interpreted as an idealistic, outdated, even harmful teaching. At pre­sent, the attitude towards metaphysics is changing significantly. Moreover, the modern development of fundamental physics forces metaphysics to return a key role in the understanding of the world. The article presents arguments in­dicating the relevance of the revision of ideas about the foundations of funda­mental physics. The solution to this problem corresponds to a topic that has long been attributed to metaphysics. Nowadays there is little recognition of the importance of metaphysics – the time has come to formulate the key principles of metaphysics on the basis of the achievements of physics (and not only) and follow them in the formation of new foundations of fundamental physics. The text of this article provides a justification for this statement in connection with the urgent problem of revising the foundations of physics according to an “unusual plan for many”. The analysis of the current state of physics made it possible to identify key metaphysical principles, and also forced us to ad­dress the problem within the framework of a relational approach to physics, the ideas of which were laid down in the works of G. Leibniz and E. Mach. It is noted that by now a mathematical apparatus has already been developed, which made it possible to begin solving the problem on the basis of a rela­tional-metaphysical approach to physical reality. The main features of this ap­paratus are briefly characterized and the results of a fundamental nature al­ready obtained are shown.
Pushkin’s Non-Handmade Monument as a Poetic Temple of Freedom in the Context of the Ideology of Russian Imperial Statehood and Religious Philosophy of Freemasonry
Authors:   Institute of Philosophy, St. Petersburg State University, Tantlevskij Igor R.
Published: November 2023

The article analyses the concept of “Alexandria column” in Pushkin’s Monu­ment as a symbol of Russian imperial statehood and ideology edifice (“Alexan­dria” of Alexander I – by analogy with the pseudo-historical “Alexandria” of Alexander the Great) in opposition to the “non-handmade monument” cre­ated by Pushkin, which in light of religious philosophy of Russian Masonry and in correlation with Mk. 14:58 and 2Cor. 5:1 could be considered as a poetic temple of Freedom – “Alexandria” of Alexander Pushkin. In parallel to this, the article interprets the ideological and philosophical peculiarities of Pushkin’s in­terpretation of Peter the Great’s mission as the founder of the Russian Empire and St. Petersburg as the Fourth Rome, reflected in “The Bronze Horseman”. Particular attention is paid to the identification of certain aspects of the se­mantic field of Pushkin’s concept of “non-handmade” (hapax legomenon of the poet’s language) in comparison with its meanings in the sources, from which the term can be borrowed. The author also analyses Pushkin’s concept of freedom in correlation with the corresponding Russian Masonic views on free­dom and the spiritual temple of freedom – world/universal and inner/individual. The author also considers the peculiarities of evolution of Pushkin’s idea of the inspiration of God in his works, first of all, in the comparison of his poems “The Prophet” and “The Monument”. The author concludes that Pushkin’s no­tion of true freedom, in correlation with his belief in the divine inspiration, is close to the corresponding concept of Joseph de Maistre, whose works were well known to the poet.
On the Positive Meaning of Negative Ethics (In Response and Gratitude to Professor Ma Yinmao)
Authors:   Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences, Guseinov Abdusalam A.
Published: November 2023

The article was written in response and gratutude to Chinese Professor Ma Yin­mao in connection with his article ‘On the Academician Abdusalam A. Gu­seynov’s “negative ethics” and its borders’. It consists of three parts. In the first part, the author examines the question of why negative ethics is at the same time the beginning of a positive moral program of human activity. Proceeding from the belief that philosophy is an ethical project and an act is its first principle, he shows that the path of man as a living rational individual to being lies through denial. The act is deployed in two opposite directions: as a fact, it goes into the individual and is in the zone of his exclusive responsibility, and by its content it is included in the social being, its rationally organized cultural space. The con­tradictory integrity of the act is considered in the context of the concept of non-al­ibi in being introduced by M.M. Bakhtin. The second part is devoted to two main arguments against an expansive understanding of negative ethics. The first is that it does not take into account the existence of people with pure moral intentions. According to the second, the positive normative content of public morality falls out of the field of negative ethics. The third part discusses the moral paradoxes that the consciousness of one’s own moral imperfection is an indicator of one’s perfection and that good deeds should be done in secret.
Prāmāṇya’s Interpretation Question
Authors:   The Patrice Lumumba Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia (RUDN University), Roman Liliya G.
Published: November 2023

This work is devoted to the problems of true knowledge in Indian philosophy. As a starting point of the study, the author analyzes the article of the American philosopher and indologist Karl Potter (1927–2022) “Does Indian Epistemology Concern Justified True Belief?” The author of the introductory article briefly outlines the main problematics of Potter’s work concerning the problem of the truth of knowledge in the Indian philosophical tradition, which is built around the Sanskrit term prāmāṇya and the classical controversy between the theories of svataḥ-prāmāṇya and parataḥ-prāmāṇya, and also the author analyzes the interpretation of the term prāmāṇya proposed by Potter from the point of view of a pragmatic attitude, expressed by the concept of workabil­ity, borrowed from representatives of American pragmatism.
The Ethical Meaning of the “Inexpressible” of Wittgenstein and Benjamin
Authors:   Federal Center of Theoretical and Applied Sociology of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Sociological Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Kriukova Ekaterina B. , Koval Oxana A. ,   Russian Christian Humanitarian Academy
Published: November 2023

The article draws parallels between the linguistic theories of Ludwig Wittgen­stein and Walter Benjamin’s ideas about the origin of language and its transfor­mations in our world today. Wittgenstein shows in the “Tractatus Logico-Phi­losophicus” the world as a whole, which is ordered in accordance with the grammatical structures of language. At the same time, it allows him to draw a certain border, beyond which is the “inexpressible”, namely, the sphere of ethi­cal values inaccessible to language. Benjamin’s approach to understanding lan­guage, on the contrary, seems completely illogical and irrational. The initial im­pulse here is the biblical myth of the creation of the world by the Word and the idea of language as a God-given gift to human. In the course of historical de­velopment, the power of language is gradually running out and moves further away from its sacred source. However, even in current language practices, it is still possible to recognize this prototype, which is present in speech in the form of the inexpressible. The religious connotations of the “inexpressible” don’t pre­vent Benjamin from associating it with the same area of moral reference that Wittgenstein characterized with the term “mystical”. The comparative analysis of the theories of Benjamin and Wittgenstein demonstrates that behind the dif­ferent strategies of philosophical understanding there is a common intention to catch the sphere of ethics that escapes direct expression. During the recon­struction of the teachings of two iconic figures of Western thought, important points of intersection are revealed: the tendency to ontologize language, the in­ability to express value meanings in normative statements, the incorporation of an ethical dimension into everyday practices of speech.
Tacit Knowledge in Digital Humanitaristics
Authors:   Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences, Filipenok Stanislava A.
Published: November 2023

It has been demonstrated that human corporality specifies tacit knowledge, which belongs to natural intelligence, by contrast to artificial intelligence. Cor­poral experience endows a person with creative potential that technical devices lack. It has been revealed that a computer cannot have the material basis that a human being as a biological organism possesses. This imposes limitations on artificial intelligence cognitive capabilities. The objectification of the tacit components of corporal experience in language can be considered as an impor­tant factor of creativity and cognition. It is the meaningful connections between implicit components of the subjective inner world that specify new knowledge content and underlie individual creativity. The use of natural language by a per­son differs from the use of sign systems by artificial intelligence. The difference is that natural language is meaningful in the subjective experience context. It would be more correct to speak of sign structure transformation by a computer as information processing rather than knowledge production. AI information be­comes knowledge by virtue of interpretation, endowing it with human meaning. Unlike digital devices, human intelligence is analogue since it expresses a con­tinuous stream of consciousness, an ongoing process of subjective meanings modification. The modern 4E-Cognition approach elicited the specifics of artifi­cial intelligence and its cognitive limitations. It has been demonstrated that cha­racteristics described within this approach are only partially applicable to artifi­cial intelligence.
A priori in Language and Linguistics: Word and Its Basic Unit
Authors:   Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences, Smirnov Andrey V. ,   Patrice Lumumba Peoples’ Friendship University of Russia
Published: November 2023

Language displays, first and foremost, the core ability of human consciousness to develop svyaznost’ (coherence and linkage). To approach language as a sign system means to concentrate on its insignificant and third-rate characteristics that are not essential for it (like featherlessness for humans). Using language we can develop svyaznost’ at the levels of text, phrase, word, and a unit less than a word. This article discusses the last level, since the other levels had been or will be investigated in other works. When developing svyaznost’, human con­sciousness is subject to a priori laws of sense positing. They differ in European and Arab-Muslim big cultures based (accordingly) on substance and process log­ics. The Arabic literary language (fuṣḥā) is analyzed in theoretical perspective of traditional Arabic linguistics (naḥw wa ṣarf), while the European languages are discussed from the standpoint of contemporary Western linguistic thought. As a result, differing a priori regularities were discovered in what regards the minimum (atomic and irreducible) unit of speech and possibility of its ar­ticulation, as well as a correlation between this basic unit and a whole word. The human language is an utterly important vehicle for developing svyaznost’ in the overall cognitive architecture, therefore any universal language science should necessarily give account of, firstly, the fact of language a priori regulari­ties, and, secondly, of their variance in languages based on different logics of sense positing. The discovered a priori laws that define our ability to single out and to pronounce the basic (atomic) unit of speech in European languages and in Arabic literary language confirm the universality of the laws of sense positing that set up a priori laws for not only theoretical thinking but for sense perception as well.
Philosophical Disintegration and a Chance of Practical Philosophy
Authors:   Institute of Philosophy, Russian Academy of Sciences, Shokhin Vladimir K. ,   Saint Tikhon’s Orthodox University of the Humanities
Published: November 2023

The author interprets such an important regularity that while “philosophies of whatever one likes” (up to philosophies of work and recreation, dance and sport, sex and covenants, etc.) are acquiring unlimited “legalization”, self-re­flexi­on of philosophy survives the profoundest crisis these days. He calls it the paradox of the obstinate growth of trees as simultaneous with felling. Incre­mental deterioration of the very interest for mapping philosophy which had been regarded as a very important vocation of a philosopher from Antiquity up to later Moderniy is regarded as the mostly brute indication on this state of affairs, and various modes of irrationality in its division into the main fields (both in analytic and continental milieux) are demonstrated. While acknowledging that it is al­ready impossible to offer a good general classification of philosophical disci­plines whose overall scope of subjects approaches to infinity the author believes it possible to escape at least practical philosophy (the correlate of theoretical philosophy) which has had a sufficienty concentrated list of the main disci­plines from Aristotle’s epoch. He suggests a renovation of its list as well as also the substitution of the Aristotelean “governing science” (ἀρχιτεκτονική) as prac­tical judiciousness (φρόνησις πρακτική) by agathological teleology whose sub­ject could be human goal-setting in the context of good-setting. As a support from the outside the author attaches Indian scheme of human goals (pu­ruşārthāḥ) and an opinion of the Dharmaśāstras that human goals themselves can be justified by their participation in the good.
Transformation of Identity and Rehabilitation of Ideology in the Conditions of Growing Global Crisis
Authors:   Russian Orthodox University of Saint John the Divine, Shchipkov Aleksandr V.
Published: November 2023

The article is devoted to the problems of identity and “narratives of self-determi­nation” in the modern intellectual field. According to the author of the article, modern identity politics generates new and actualizes old narratives of cultural, civilizational, national and confessional self-determination. The article states the crisis of Euro-identity, which is developing under the influence of posthu­manism and aggressive transatlanticism, as well as the general crisis of Western values responsible for ensuring “social interactions” in Durkheim’s sense of this term. This may indicate a change in the development model and norms of self-identification in the Western world in the next decade. The author also points to the crisis of post-Soviet identity, which is gradually being overcome through the cultural synthesis of pre-Soviet and Soviet, “white” and “red” models of self-identification. It is stated that a society that does not develop its historical iden­tity has to accept the globalist quasi-identity imposed on it, as evidenced by the post-Soviet period in Russia. The author explains the struggle between differ­ent norms for describing identity through the rivalry of socio-political groups in the course of the restoration of the basic Russian identity. The article points to the connection of the external, superficial semantics of identity with the influ­ence of political ideologies, and emphasizes the difference between optimal ideo­logies and doctrinal super-ideologies, such as Marxist-Leninist and neoliberal. In contrast to the stable core of identity, ideology often changes under the influ­ence of new historical conditions.. At the same time, the core of identity (“who we are”) and the “zone” of ideology (“what we are striving for”) refer to each other and explain each other, because without an understanding of its long-term goals, it would be problematic for society to develop a complete self-characteri­zation.
Political Agency of Science as a Theme of Philosophy of Science
Authors:   Interregional Public Organization “Russian Society for the History and Philosophy of Science”, Porus Vladimir N.
Published: November 2023

Is the science capable to act as the subject of political action? This question is considered as one of themes of the modern philosophy of science. It could not be posed within the framework of the philosophy of science concentrated only on the analysis of logical structures of scientific knowledge or on problems of its dynamics defined by procedures of rational reconstruction of history of science. In this framework, influence of factors of a sociо-cultural context on the formal and substantive aspects of scientific processes was not a subject of the philosophical analysis. However, the internal logic in development of philosophy of science led to expansion of a circle of its interests. This circle included processes of interfluence of science and the cultural environment in its historical development. It affected sense of the major epistemic values: truth, objectivity, rationality. Their interpretation as variable dependent on a sociо-cultural context led to relativism which, in fact, devaluated the philosophical analysis of science. In attempts to counteract relativism the idea of political agency of science had to be rejected, which contradicted the obvious realities. The philosophy of science became in need of reform. Its initiator was historical and socio-cultural epistemology. The central thesis of reform is recognition of equal rights, continuity and interdependence of the principles of truth, ob­jectivity and historicism forming triple complementarity (by analogy with the well-known principle of N. Bohr). In the reformed philosophy of science political agency of science is a fact and a factor in the development of both the science itself, and the socio-cultural context.
Novel Use of Microbial Hydrocarbon Detection Technology in Reducing the Risk of Nonhydrocarbon Exploration in Oil and Gas Exploration in the South China Sea
Authors: Li Ding
Published: November 2023

As the exploration of the South China Sea continues into deeper water, the chances of encountering nonhydrocarbon gas (CO2, N2, etc.) reservoirs rise. The question of how to avoid the risks associated with the discovery of nonhydrocarbon gas reservoirs becomes an issue for deepwater (DW) oil and gas exploration. Geomicrobial hydrocarbon detection (GMHD) is a nonseismic hydrocarbon detection technology that is able to predict the hydrocarbon potential of a prospective area at depth. This is accomplished via the detection of specific hydrocarbon-oxidizing bacteria in both onshore soils and offshore sea bottom sediment samples. The effectiveness of this method has been proved repeatedly in DW explorations of the northern South China Sea. It documents a possible solution to nonhydrocarbon gas risk prediction by combining the oil and gas prediction results of geomicrobial hydrocarbon detection with results from geological and geophysical studies to analyze the different microbial responses above nonhydrocarbon gas and hydrocarbon gas reservoirs. This was verified in the DW exploration practices undertaken in the Pearl River Mouth Basin and Qiongdongnan Basin of South China Sea.