“Cartesian Theatre” in American Analytic Philosophy and in Orthodox Anthropology and Culturology

Abstract

The article is devoted to the analysis of American analytic philosophy – the science mostly focused on the problem of the philosophy of conscience since the end of the 20th century, - in the perspective of the Orthodox anthropology and culturology. The author studies the key concepts of analytic philosophy, first of all qualia and the so-called difficult problem of conscience related to it. The author analyzes how and why the physicalism (materialism) of analytic philosophy took the form of illusionism, - the concept of the illusionary character of conscience, free will, human subjectivity and of mental in general. The article develops a new approach to these problems from the point of view of the Orthodox anthropology. In the perspective of Orthodox anthropology and considering the achievements of analytical philosophy the author analyzes the key concepts of the last, including its main stumbling block – the problem of homunculus as “a character” of the so-called Cartesian theatre, that involves the presence of an “observer” in the human mind, which controls the processes of perception and thinking and constitutes the basis of human subjectivity. And finally, the author analyzes the consequences of the Orthodox approach to the problem of conscience for the theory of culture.