Comprehending Discourse: Challenges of Time, Search, Construction (Book review: G.L. Tulchinskii & M.N. Epstein. (Eds.) <i>Philosophical Projective Dictionary. New Terms and Concepts</i> (Issue 2). Saint Petersburg: Aletheia, 2020)

Abstract

The review discusses the recently published second issue of the Philosophical Projective Dictionary (edited by Mikhail Epstein and Grigorii Tulchinskii). Having encountered difficulties in understanding the articles of the dictionary, I turn to the explanations of the motives of the dictionary’s authors and editors Epstein notes that the entries in the dictionary are not intended to generalize the already existing use of terms and concepts, but to kind of projecting and anticipating the meanings of concepts and texts that may be created in the future. Tulchinskii writes more modest, asserting the performative nature of the concepts and ideas presented in the dictionary. I discuss these explanations of the compilers of the dictionary, problematizing and testing the strength of their arguments. In particular, I doubt that Epstein is right when speaking of the projection of terms and texts. From my point of view, Epstein uses the concept of projection in a very broad sense, which does not allow to accept his statement. In turn, citing a case from personal practice, I expresses my own version of introducing terms and constructing new concepts. Agreeing with Tulchinskii’s opinion that the articles in the dictionary and the dictionary itself are a unique vision of their authors, I raise the question of the existence of projective dictionary as a specific genre. I note that the dictionary’s entries that are devoted to already known concepts, offer an up-to-date modern interpretation of these concepts. To demonstrate that, I consider the concept of man in an article by Yulia Shichanina. At the end of the review, the importance of the work done by the authors of the dictionary is emphasized and an example of the use of two terms from the dictionary in my practice is given.