Philosophical Problems Research Articles

Psychological and Philosophical Problems of Tolerance

Purpose. The purpose of the article is to formulate the uncontroversial principle of tolerance, taking into account the internal philosophical and psychological difficulties associated with its implementation in practice. Theoretical basis. The author proceeds from the insoluble problem of the very concept of "tolerance" and its psychological implementation. Not classical, but post-metaphysical psycho-religious method of promoting the idea of tolerance is proposed. This method was stated in the works by J. Derrida, P. Ricker, J. Caputo, G. Vattimo, R. Kearney, A. Shepherd, E. Newman, M. Moyaert, and others. The historical Christian type of tolerance (implementation of the principle of love for one’s neighbour) retains a significant potential for hidden aggression. This can be traced in the texts of the Holy Scripture and the fathers of the church. The division into friends and strangers based on the principle of confession remains relevant to this day. In addition, the religious component of tolerance tends to present it as self-worth, and not just an important socio-psychological parameter. The author points out that the application of Christian post-metaphysical approaches to this problem is the most philosophically coherent and psychologically effective. Originality. The article examines the internal semantic paradox of the idea of tolerance and methods of its promotion. The promotion of tolerance gives a rise to the suspicion of intolerance, which, being inherently intolerant, turns out to be a necessary component of the spread of the idea of tolerance. Typology of methods of introduction and promotion of tolerance (authoritarian, passive, psychological and religious), their main disadvantages and advantages are given. The main problems arising only at the level of philosophy and psychology are indicated. Conclusions. Historical Christianity is ineffective in achieving tolerance for a number of reasons: it is not sufficiently attentive to the individual, as it preserves the reasoning about the person in the categories of social formations (chosen people, etc.). The reality of God in classical texts was manifested by His violence in the past or in the future. The metaphysical basis of the principle of tolerance and the post-metaphysical understanding of hospitality return tolerance to its natural origin and provide a relevant basis for both interreligious dialogue and the removal of psychological tension between different cultural codes. The former models, which are proposed in the UNESCO Declaration, have a number of internal contradictions and are not effective enough in practice.

Bastien Loukia’s “Crime and Punishment” as an example of a graphic novel adaptation

This article analyses the graphic novel adaptation “Crime and Punishment” (2019) written by a French writer and artist Bastien Loukia. This analysis has been conducted for the first time in Russian literary studies. The aim of the work is to identify the main features of modern graphic adaptation based on the book by B. Loukia. The relevance of our work lies in the study of one of the most currently popular genres – the genre of the graphic novel. It is also relevant to consider Loukia’s work as the most common subgenre of the graphic novel - a graphic novel adaptation. The study uses comparative and structural methods. We analyze the system of characters and compare them with the characters of Dostoevsky. We have come to the conclusion that in Loukia’s book the crime, committed by Raskolnikov, is connected with the dominance of violence in his reality. For this reason, the central character commits murder. The analysis of the spatial and temporal organization of the work proves that the events of Dostoevsky’s novel are being projected to B. Loukia’s contemporary reality. The article concludes that by referring to a famous work, the authors of graphic novel adaptations, in their books, comprehend philosophical and socio-psychological problems of their own time. We identify the following features among the main characteristics of the graphic novel adaptations of the last decade: remaking of the plot, character system and the chronotope of the precedent text in order to represent themes and problems relevant to the author of the 20th century and complicating the graphic component. The analysis of the graphic component allows presenting several possible interpretations of the graphic novel and its problematics.

On social and philosophical problems of technology. Review of the monograph-essay by N.M. Tverdynin "Man in the technoworld: book and reality"

The introductory part of the review provides a description of a new genre of research into the problems of the philosophy of technology. The main part of the review is devoted to examining the structure of the work, which includes an analysis of technical devices emerging in the history of human society and an assessment of their application through the prism of literature; excerpts from the story "After the Feat" about the liquidators of the Chernobyl accident; a study of the dilemma of technocracy and technophobia. It is important to consider three levels of technical creativity: rationalization, invention, scientific and technical creativity. Measures of social support for the revival of inventive and scientific and technical activities are proposed.

The unfeasibility of onto-representationalism

Much effort has been devoted to explaining in what sense models represent their corresponding target systems. This has been considered a pivotal philosophical problem since representational models have been widely assumed to canalize our knowledge and understanding of reality. The aim of the paper is to analytically structure the framework commonly adopted to address the Scientific Representation Problem (SR-P), i.e., onto-representationalism, and to examine its main problems. Due to its very theoretical conditions, I conclude that onto-representationalism constitutes an inadequate meta-scientific platform to approach SR-P. I locate the problem in the semantic assumption. To materialize these analyses, I examine the main arguments proposed by the main variants of onto-representationalism: classical onto-representationalism and sophisticated onto-representationalism.

Against Pritchard's refutation of epistemic relativism

Much effort has been devoted to explaining in what sense models represent their corresponding target systems. This has been considered a pivotal philosophical problem since representational models have been widely assumed to canalize our knowledge and understanding of reality. The aim of the paper is to analytically structure the framework commonly adopted to address the Scientific Representation Problem (SR-P), i.e., onto-representationalism, and to examine its main problems. Due to its very theoretical conditions, I conclude that onto-representationalism constitutes an inadequate meta-scientific platform to approach SR-P. I locate the problem in the semantic assumption. To materialize these analyses, I examine the main arguments proposed by the main variants of onto-representationalism: classical onto-representationalism and sophisticated onto-representationalism.

The Civilizational Identity of Russia as a Philosophical and Law Problem

Introduction. The author interprets the civilizational identity of a nation as the dominant vector of collective self-determination in public consciousness when choosing the image of the country’s future and its place in the global world. Results. The article substantiates the thesis that Russia is a state with a powerful civilizational potential, but has not yet clearly defined its civilizational identity. The article substantiates the thesis that Russia has powerful civilizational potential, but has not yet clearly defined its civilizational identity. The author agrees with those who emphasize the Eastern European mentality of the Russian people with its inherent “equal attraction to European peaks and ancient Russian roots” and orientation towards the European vector of modernization. From this position, the task of Russia acquiring a civilizational identity is interpreted as a search for a synthesis of the spiritual principles of the West and the East in the direction of solving the essentially philosophical and legal problem of justice. In terms of these approach, we are talking about combining the Western understanding of justice as the equality of people in their freedom, which opens up prospects for an innovative and technological breakthrough, and Eastern ideas about the justice of social life based on the communal and fraternal nature of interaction between people, guaranteeing the stability of the social system in an era of increasing global competition. Discussion and Сonclusion. The significance of the search for such a synthesis in the context of the tasks of modernization is determined by the fact that it is regarding modernization in the public consciousness of Russians that discrepancies of such a scale are discovered that they are interpreted as a split. The existence of such a split means that the term “civilizational identity of Russia” does not yet have a clear semantic content. Overcoming this deep split, caused by the peculiarities of Russian historical development, must be connected with a legal (equally fair) solution to the problem of ownership of the means of production, which the country faced after the collapse of socialism.

Ki Hajar Dewantara's Critique of the 2022 Sisdiknas Bill: Implications for Islamic Education in Indonesia

This research is a critical text study of the Philosophical Foundations contained in the Academic Text of the National Education System Draft Law (Sisdiknas Bill) which was socialized in August 2022. This philosophical study was carried out considering that the text of the Philosophical Foundations has fundamental weaknesses in it when viewed from a logical perspective. as well as Islamic spirituality, and Ki Hajar Dewantara's educational views as the founder of the educational philosophy in Indonesia with a religious and humanist character. This study aimed to explore Ki Hadjar’s thought as critics on Sisdiknas Bill and its implication of Islamic Education in Indonesia. The research questions are twofold. Firstly, what are the basic errors contained in the 'Philosophical Foundations' of the academic text of the 2022’s National Education System Bill. Secondly, what are the implications of the critics toward Islamic education in Indonesia. By using Bernadib's language philosophical method, the fundamental problems found in the 'Philosophical Foundations' text in the academic text of the 2022 National Education System Bill are uncovered. The analysis is then continued with the formulation of implications for Islamic education in Indonesia which is of concern to the majority of the Indonesia Muslim population. This research concludes there are crucial philosophical problems in 2022’s Sisdiknas Bill that could be in conflict with Islamic Education in Indonesia.

"There is no future without the past": the relationship between the past and the future as a philosophical problem

Abstract. The topic of the article – the relationship between the past and the future – is connected with an attempt to answer the question: why is it necessary and is it necessary to turn to one's own past? The rele vance of this topic is related to the radical changes that have occurred in recent years in the life of society, with the aggravation of the question of the future of mankind and, accordingly, the question of its past. According to the author, this necessity is not only a consequence of the moral choice of each of us, but, above all, has philo sophical and methodological foundations rooted in one's own being, on the one hand, and in the cognitive fea tures of the humanities, on the other hand. These grounds and features are revealed by the author using exam ples of three main theses. Firstly, based on the statement of the founder of the philosophy of the humanities, V. Dilthea, "the past acts as a moment of today's historical consciousness," the author tries to prove that the past is not only what it was, it is something that somehow continues to exist in our present and influence it. Second ly, reflecting on the phrase of G. G. Gadamer – "history does not belong to us, but we belong to history" – the author shows that turning to the past is an essential necessity of human existence, since man is his own history. Thirdly, it is shown that such an appeal to one's own past cannot be carried out with the help of an influential at the turn of the XIX–XX centuries "theories of feeling", but rather resembles "cognition of the known" – the fa mous slogan of the philological sciences of the XIX century. in the works of A. Beck and the twentieth century. in the works of G. O. Vinokur, which continue to maintain their relevance for the philosophy of the humanities as such today. Тема статьи – взаимосвязь прошлого и будущего – связана с попыткои ответить на вопрос: зачем нужно и нужно ли обращение к своему собственному прошлому? Актуальность даннои темы связана с радикальными изменениями, произошедшими за последние годы в жизни общества, с обострением вопроса о будущем человечества и, соответственно, вопроса о его прошлом. По мнению автора, эта необходимость является не только следствием морально-нравственного выбора каждого из нас, но, прежде всего, имеет философско-методологические основания, укорененные в собственном бы тии человека, с однои стороны, и в познавательных особенностях гуманитарных наук, с другои сторо ны. Эти основания и особенности раскрываются автором на примерах трех основных тезисов. Во-пер вых, опираясь на высказывание основателя философии гуманитарных наук В. Дильтея, «минувшее вы ступает как момент сегодняшнего исторического сознания», автор пытается доказать, что прошлое – это не только то, что было, это то, что так или иначе продолжает существовать в нашем настоящем и влиять на него. Во-вторых, размышляя над фразои Г. Г. Гадамера – «не история принадлежит нам, а мы принадлежим истории», – автор показывает, что обращение к прошлому является сущностнои необхо димостью человеческого бытия, так как человек – это и есть его собственная история. В-третьих, пока зано, что такое обращение к собственному прошлому не может быть осуществлено с помощью влия тельнои на рубеже XIX–XX вв. «теории вчувствования», а скорее напоминает «познание познанного» – знаменитыи лозунг филологических наук XIX в. в работах А. Бека и ХХ в. в работах Г. О. Винокура, про должающих сохранять свою актуальность и для философии гуманитарных наук как таковых сегодня.

¿Persona, “cuasi-persona” o “ser humano no persona”? El estatuto de la persona con discapacidad intelectual a través del argumento de los casos marginales

Through the argument of marginal cases or the argument of species superposition, the moral status of disabled people or people with intellectual disabilities has been addressed. The bioethical debate about the person has been built on the mentalist or actualist conception of the person, according to which a person is a person due to the possession of superior cognitive abilities or properties. It is in this way that the disabled or handicapped have been denied the consideration of persons, considering them under the category of quasi-persons. Furthermore, in this debate there is enormous terminological confusion about how to refer to them. This work addresses a brief history of the philosophical problem of the person and aims to shed light on the moral status of the intellectually disabled person within the debate on the defense of animals. The person with intellectual disabilities is also a person.

Perigos de uma Filosofia Única

The article deals with French-uspian structural historiography as an illustrative case of the dangers of a sole philosophy becoming a pedagogical program for teaching and producing philosophy. To this end, it begins by exposing the construction of the French-uspian historiographical curriculum. Next, we discuss the unilaterality of the structural method, since it encompasses the conception that all philosophies have a sole logic, the systemic one, even if a philosopher refuses to present an architecture of reasons. Finally, the production of the “system of inhibitions” is explained, summarized in the banishment of controversy and programmed alienation, as a domestication of thought, masked under the veil of modernizing exegetical techniques. The objective of the article is to show that one of the Brazilian philosophical problems is the coloniality of philosophical production, marked less by the philosophy of the structural method and more by the inhibiting intellectual and pedagogical dispositions that it favored. This disposition can be produced by other pedagogies based on unilateral philosophies. Hence the importance of considering the French-uspian case to encourage a review of the regional formations of the teaching and study of philosophy in Brazil and, thus, combat the forces of domestication of philosophy among us.

Law and Political Religion: the Theology of Soviet Law

That paper is one of my works, in which I try to apply the concept of political religion to Soviet law studies. Many political philosophers and scholars use this concept for describing the nature of totalitarian regimes, for which metapolitical goals (achieving communism, Nation defense etc.) and the tasks of their own legitimacy strengthening and increasing the control of society presuppose the usage of means which are religious by their nature. Political studies of political religion are quite developed, but legal theory pays almost no attention to such concept. So, in the paper I am trying to answer the question: if Soviet political regime can be defined as political religion, what does it means for law? In this paper I pay significant attention to Soviet law theology, that is the development of Marxism-Leninism dogmas in legal realm, which I call the “symbol of faith” of Soviet Law. I show how the “symbol of faith” guided Soviet legal studies, what philosophical and legal problems they raised and the ways Soviet scholars solved them. I mean such problems as connection between law and economics, law and state, law and factual social relations, the role of law in achieving communism. In 1920s there were different versions of Marxist legal theory (Evgeny Pashukanis, Mikhail Reysner, Pyotr Stuchka, and others), but at the beginning of 1930s the unification of approaches was being made (the 1938 narrow-normative definition of law by Andrey Vyshinsky became its). The Vyshinsky’s definition was partly rejected during post-Stalin era, the new attempts to substantiate the broader understanding of law by connecting it with legal conscience and legal relations appeared. Though these conceptions were formally substantiated as attempts to find “the right one” Marxist understanding of law, their authors were rather trying to reconcile their own vision of law with official ideology. In the paper I also delineate how Soviet law theology influenced Soviet law system. By using some examples, I argue that this theology was not just the set of ideas far from legal practice. For example, Soviet ideological dogmas determined the development of the socialistic legality doctrine as the key doctrine of Soviet legal order. At the same time Soviet legal system has never been developed exclusively under influence of Soviet political religion; it always was a mixture of influences, including Marxist-Leninist teachings, civil law tradition, political reasons etc.

The problems of the neoplatonic disclosure of the hypotheses of "Parmenides" and the solution of the "aporia of transcendence"

This article reveals the principle of deducing a set from Unity based on the hypotheses of "Parmenides". The authors establish a correlation between the Platonic and Neoplatonic conceptual presentation of the various stages (levels) of descent from the absolutely One to the absolutely Different. At the end of the article, some of the main problems of Platonic ontology and cosmology are systematized, such as the "aporia of transcendence" and its solution proposed by the authors. The article analyzes, in traditional theological language, the correlation of the "apophatic" and "cataphatic" aspects of the Platonic One and raises the problem of explaining the transition of the One from one ontological level to another. It is shown that this difficulty is fundamental for the Platonic tradition as such, among others, and suggests ways to solve it in the form of a mutual reflection of the superposition of states of "being-non-being". The Hegelian dialectic of contradiction, and the correlation of platonic ontology with some aspects of modern natural science knowledge (in particular, ideas about the superposition of quantum objects) The scientific novelty proposed by the authors in this publication consists in deducing being and the very One-being from the One by "negating negation", similar to the eponymous law of Hegel's dialectic. The model of negation of negation proposed by the authors through the double reflection of Oneself as One, in our opinion, makes up for the lack of Plato's explanation of the transition from the One to the One-being and solves the general philosophical ontological problem known as the aporia of transcendence. Moreover, being applied to all ontological levels without exception, except for the unclaimed lower level of chora, low-quality matter, it is able to explain transitions from higher to lower levels without the need for emanation as a self-propagation of Good, the causality of which, in our opinion, has not been correctly substantiated.

Giving an Account: When, Where, for Whom, and Why?

In this essay, Judith Butler considers a series of critical engagements with their work, examining not only what it means to give an account of oneself but to whom and about what. Several of the authors in the collection Unaccountably Queer draw attention to how the generalized philosophical problem, can I give an account of myself ?, changes once we ask what prompts the question, to whom the answer is addressed, and in what time and space the “account” becomes an instrument or illumination of power. If any such account assumes a language saturated with social norms, then how is it possible to avoid becoming trapped in categories, or effaced by them, if they function to discredit the speaking I? Considering the racial politics of account giving, transphobic and diasporic narratives, complaints, colonial trajectories, and humanitarian whiteness, the question takes on new dimensions by virtue of its specific conditions of enunciation. Along the way, giving an account of oneself is distinguished from memoir and autobiography, and the existential stakes of theoretical reflection are defended.

Unveiling the nature of philosophical problems: Formal and conceptual aspects

AbstractThis paper approximates an intensional definitional distinction between philosophical problems and non‐philosophical problems. It contends that a philosophical problem consists of an inconsistent set M of propositions that satisfies certain characteristics. Among these are its minimality, the plausibility of its individual propositions, the non‐empirical character of some of these propositions, and the fact that a discursive context exists within which some of M's non‐mathematical non‐empirical propositions are challenged by argument. The extrinsic and pragmatic criterion marks the key novelty of the presented definition. Building on the analysed concept of a philosophical problem, the paper explores the question of how the definition relates to philosophy as a discipline, whether it should be interpreted as descriptively adequate and exclusive, and whether there is space for genuine philosophical research that does not deal with philosophical problems in the presented sense.

A Panpsychist Interpretation of Evolutionary Theory

If there were to be a questionable element about the theory of evolution, it would probably be the randomness of mutations that can be seen as the fuel of evolution. The idea that errors in DNA sequences are the source of species change does not seem acceptable to many scientists and philosophers. According to them, adaptive evolution, which suggests that some mutations occur purposefully, is possible. Both views seem scientifically supportable. However, science typically excludes purposes, especially due to their implications of the supernatural. So, the philosophical problem here concerns which metaphysical framework would better explain a natural world in which purposes are at work, assuming that adaptive evolution is real. In this article, I propose panpsychism as a candidate. Although panpsychism is a well-known metaphysical view, it has rarely been associated with evolution. Panpsychism simply states that all actual natural entities possess some form of mentality that is intrinsic to matter. Mentality must be present at the most fundamental level of existence to manifest in any higher-level form. This idea of panpsychism that mentality develops gradually is already compatible with the traditional view of evolution that species change slowly and incrementally by small steps. Nevertheless the adaptive evolution hypothesis demands more. The idea that organisms can alter their own DNA in response to environmental conditions implies that this process occurs voluntarily in a controlled manner. However, adaptation does not always occur voluntarily, and such an understanding becomes difficult to accept as it attributes higher-level cognitive functions, such as choosing, will, and decision-making, to cells and molecules. Thus, a more naturalistic approach is needed. Panpsychism can take many forms such as dualistic panpsychism or idealistic panpsychism. I suggest dual-aspect panpsychism as a wholly naturalistic version of this concept. Accordingly, mentality and physicality are two aspects of the same thing or stuff. Just as there is no mental causation from the mental to the physical, there is no physical causation from the physical to the mental. There are processes or events that manifest as physical happenings when observed from the outside and as mental happenings when experienced from the inside. Along with an interpretation of dual-aspect panpsychism that is compatible with physicalism, when we accept that the most plausible way to extend mentality to all actual entities is to think of it as intentionality, it may become even more easier to situate adaptive evolution within a naturalistic framework. Non-random mutations do not occur as mental acts of choice, but arise from the organism's behavior being about or directed towards selective environmental conditions for the purpose of ensuring survival. The article consists of two main parts. The first part seeks to establish the possibility that some mutations may not be random on a scientific-philosophical basis. The second part aims to show the compatibility of this possibility with dual-aspect panpsychism. As a result, it is hoped that an acceptable interpretation of evolutionary theory, combined with a naturalistic interpretation of panpsychism, will result in a fruitful synthesis that explains the seemingly purposeful actions of cells and organisms.

From philosophy to science and back: Dennett and the relation of science to philosophy

ABSTRACT One of the characteristic aspects of Daniel Dennett’s thought is his belief in the explanatory power of science. For Dennett, in order to make progress with certain philosophical problems, e.g. questions about the nature of consciousness, philosophers need to engage with the findings of empirical science. In this paper, I will take up the question of the relation between science and philosophy and I will start by giving a general overview of Dennett’s view of this relation while also addressing the question of whether he can properly be said to embrace scientism. In the second part of this paper, I will argue that philosophical thinking is continuous with science and that, though at the level of theoretical frameworks the intension of the words “philosophy” and “science” are the same, there is a distinction that can be made in practice if we look at the extensions of the terms.

Moral and philosophical problems in the novel by Z. Hakim "How many moments are there in one hour?"

Moral and philosophical problems in the novel by Z. Hakim "How many moments are there in one hour?"

The Determinacy Problem in Quantum Mechanics

Of the many ways of getting at the core of the weirdnesses in quantum mechanics, there’s one which traces back to Schrödinger’s seminal 1935 paper, and has to do with the apparent fuzzy nature of the reality described by the formalism through the wavefunction ψ. This issue, which I will be calling the Determinacy Problem, is distinct from the standard measurement problem of quantum mechanics, despite Schrödinger himself ends up conflating the two. I will argue that the Determinacy Problem is an exquisitely philosophical problem, for as it is standard when facing any phenomenon which appears to have indeterminate or fuzzy characteristics, the solutions available are to either blame the deficiencies of our language, or our lack of knowledge, or to blame the world itself. These three attitudes can already be found in the literature on quantum mechanics, either explicitly or implicitly, and they appear to motivate three very distinct research programs: high-dimensional realism, primitive ontology, and quantum indeterminacy.

From imagery to revelation: interpretation of the apocalypse in the novel The Idiot by F. M. Dostoevsky and in the film Stalker by A. A. Tarkovsky

In the literature dedicated to Andrei Tarkovsky, parallels between the protagonist of the film Stalker and the main character of Fyodor Dostoevsky’s novel The Idiot, Prince Myshkin, have been repeatedly drawn. The aim of this study, based on the analysis of the novel and the film, is to show how Tarkovsky attempted to rethink the main philosophical and religious problems of The Idiot in Stalker, centred on the image, and the meaning of the Apocalypse. The starting point of our study is Hans Holbein the Younger’s painting The Body of the Dead Christ in the Tomb, which appears in both works: as an ekphrasis in the novel and as a visual quotation in the film. The painting and its interpretation play an important role in the formation of apocalyptic images in the inner world of the characters.

Philosophies of being in India I: Pluralism, nihilism, and monism

AbstractIs Being a mere sum of separate things variously re‐combined over time? Or is it not there at all, arising from nothing more than the projection of a fevered metaphysical imagination? Or might it be the intrawoven phenomenon of all we experience, grounded in a single underlying all‐determining nature? This is the first of a pair of articles on the ontological issues that prompted a philosophical fork between pluralism, nihilism, and monism in India. The present article will focus on Indian critiques of metaphysical pluralism based on the apparent incoherence of ultimately individuating reality's building blocks. The second article will focus on debates about grounding of the causal powers that shape the world and fix it modally. I trace critiques of pluralism (the view found in Vaiśeṣika and Abhidharma that Being is composed of plural fundamental ‘bits’) through to the competing conclusions of the Madhyamaka ‘emptiness’ view, and Vedānta's idea that there is a single ground of all Being. For the nihilists, commonsense realism about Being must be repudiated in such a way as to destroy the notion of Being itself. For the monists, the philosophical problems with a pluralistic ontology show that Being is a complex yet holistic medium, and the ground of a cosmos‐defining modal inheritance. Thus in each article I tell the story of how debates about individuation, relation, causation, recombination and modal inheritance blossomed into some of history's most radical philosophies of Being—and in each I set out some prospects for the monistic view's core ontological claims that Being is, and is one.