Philosophical Sense Research Articles

The Logic of Common Prosperity in China

The notion of common prosperity in China is deeply rooted in its historical and cultural traditions and supported by a unique social system logic. As a social ideal, it reflects the enduring intellectual aspirations of the Chinese nation. Deep feelings for the family and country and universal kinship shape the Chinese spiritual worldview, emphasizing a strong sense of community and interconnectedness. As a fundamental principle, it ensures that the essence of the socialist system, defined by labor, is firmly implemented and practically realized in the context of socialism with Chinese characteristics. As a practical endeavor, it harmonizes with historical trends and proactive development, integrating the advanced nature of the political party with scientific policy strategies, thereby clarifying the roadmap for common prosperity. As a Chinese approach, it creates a genuine community amidst diversity and differentiation, fostering a scientific understanding of prosperity in the course of development and progress, and offering a national model for building new forms of human advancement during modernization. China’s historical efforts in promoting common prosperity not only expand the contemporary understanding of “common” in a philosophical sense but also elevate the notion of “prosperity” to new heights in a civilizational context.

Disagreement and Progress in Philosophy and in Empirical Sciences

ABSTRACT The fact that philosophy has not made much progress in finding answers to its big questions is often demonstrated with a comparison to natural sciences. Some have recently argued that the state of progress in philosophy is not so different than the sciences: there are many unresolved big questions in the sciences too, and philosophy has made progress on its smaller questions just like the sciences. I argue that this comparison is misleading: the situation in the two fields looks similar only if we focus on unresolved scientific questions that have philosophical import. The sciences have made progress on many questions that are significant but that are not ‘big’ in a philosophical sense, while philosophy has made less progress on its own significant questions. Moreover, ‘smaller’ questions in the sciences are significant in themselves, while smaller questions in philosophy do not have much significance beyond their contribution to the bigger debates. I conclude with brief remarks about what underlies the disparity between the two fields: to understand the slow pace of progress in philosophy we should pay attention to factors that are at the intersection of the nature of philosophical questions, current philosophical methodology and the sociology of academic philosophy.

Multiculturalism as the Main Philosophical Doctrine of Political and Cultural Development of Modern Society

The article entitled "Multiculturalism is the main philosophical concept of social and political development in modern society" is devoted to the analysis of cultural and political problems occurring in modern societies in the context of globalization from a socio-philosophical aspect. The necessity of approaching the issue from the point of view of the current needs of the time and era, respect for other cultural identities, non-actualization of acts of radicalism, terrorism, extremism, religious fundamentalism, and racism, which may cause imbalance in the system of ethnic-political relations of polyethnic societies in the era of globalization, and taking complex measures calculated for a safe future in relation to ethnic-political subjects is reflected in the article. In a philosophical sense, the term multiculturalism is a generalized expression of the cultures to which social subjects belong, having a broad meaning and incorporating different values.. It is known that culture and spirituality are historical philosophical systems, and depending on the rules of time and the form of the social structure at each stage of historical development, the culture and spirituality change and renew. Multiculturalism is a form of tolerance in which representatives of different national cultures coexist in conditions of equal rights and self-affirmation within a single country. The philosophical-theoretical basis of the multiculturalism paradigm is precisely the mutual understanding of parallel cultures in global society, joint activity, and even their equal dialogue. The article analyzes the concept of multiculturalism from a philosophical perspective and primarily explains it as a synthesis of communitarianism and liberalism. It was especially noted that multiculturalism, as a humanist ideology, reflects the equality promoted by communitarianism and respect for individuality and other cultures and religions, as liberals say. The article draws attention to the transformation of the multiculturalism paradigm into the main philosophical and political concept of modern societies against the background of globalization and the formation of the political doctrine of many developed countries, including the Republic of Azerbaijan, in the context of state policy.

On the relationship between the General and Special parts Criminal Code of the Russian Federation

The General and Special Parts are paired structural components of the criminal law. It is more logical to consider the interaction of the General and Special parts in the context of such a scientific and philosophical category as correlation. This article examines the relationship between the General and Special parts of the criminal law in the philosophical, socio-legal and legal-technical senses. In a philosophical sense, the General and the Special, these parts are organically connected with each other according to the dialectic of the relationship between the “general and the particular”. From a socio-legal point of view, the unity of the General and Special parts of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation is manifested in the fact that both parts serve common tasks; the normative prescriptions of both parts are based on the same principles; properties of specific crimes and punishments for them are provided in both parts. From the legal and technical side, the unity of the General and Special parts of the criminal code lies in its systemic structure. The work identifies both similar and distinctive features between the two paired components of modern Russian criminal law. Prospects for further research into the relationship between the General and Special parts of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation are seen in the development and approval of the Concept for the construction of Russian criminal law.

The limits of knowledge

The definition of knowledge encompasses various meanings, from the process by which we have the perception of the outside world, through the stimuli that we receive from this, when that perception becomes part of our system of awareness and experience. When awareness of ourselves and the outside world is acquired and recorded, we can define it as learning. In the broader, philosophical sense, knowledge consists in learning and retaining in the mind a notion, an information. In use, however, it has a more concrete semantic value, and can indicate the various degrees of knowledge, from the initial perception of the existence of a thing to the full cognition of its being, its modes and qualities. Whatever the subject, cell, organism, neuronal network, and so on, the process always takes place by the use of specific receptor systems, adapted to the reception of different stimuli from the environment. Because they are calibrated only on the stimuli they receive, the receptor systems have limited sensitivity. This limitation is extended to all living beings, who therefore have partial and incomplete knowledge of the world. In this work we are going to examine these limitations and invite scholars to become aware of them.

Interconnectedness between Vedanta & Poetry of T.S. Eliot and W.B. Yeats’ Poetry

This paper studies the impact of Eastern philosophy on the writings of both T.S. Eliot and W.B. Yeats. The research demonstrates interconnectedness between the Vedic philosophy and the western writers particularly the thoughts pervasive in the writings of Eliot and Yeats. Eliot engaged deeply with Eastern philosophy in ways which significantly influenced his worldview and his poetry. Eliot’s PhD thesis was on the idealist metaphysics of F.H. Bradley, which he found appealing due to its affinities with Indian philosophical sensibilities. Eliot was influenced by both Hinduism and Buddhism, and especially by the Bhagavad Gītā, which he described as one of the greatest philosophical poems, and by the Mādhyamika or Middle Way Buddhist philosophy of Nāgārjuna. The references to Indian literature are particularly prominent in The Waste Land, several section titles of which they reference Indian imagery. For instance, ‘The Fire Sermon’ references the sermon of the same name delivered by the Buddha; ‘Death by Water’ engages with Indra’s slaying of Vṛtra to release the waters in the Rig Veda; ‘What the Thunder said’ references the eponymous episode from the Bṛhadāraṇyaka Upanishad.

Anthropology with a philosophical sensibility

AbstractWhile philosophy and anthropology have much to say to each other, they do not always mesh in productive ways. Critically reflecting on an edited volume that seeks to bring insights from philosophy to anthropological analysis, I consider how the volume's form, while didactic, may contribute to the reproduction of power dynamics that both anthropologists and philosophers have denounced. More broadly, however, I argue that reading and engaging with philosophy can broaden anthropologists’ theoretical imagination and perception in the field, just as having an anthropological sensibility can expand the philosophical imagination and open new avenues of philosophical inquiry.

Verbum Interius

Thomas Aquinas, in one or another way, inherits from Augustine of Hippo a philosophical and theological patrimony that has a great impact on the doctrine of the church. The influence of Augustine on Aquinas which is in turn called Aquinas’s Augustinianism is informed by Aristotle’s thought. One of the Augustinian theological heritage that developed by Aquinas is the teaching of the Word that is the second person in the Trinity. Althought full of controversy, Aquinas stands confirmed in using Aristotle’s epistemology as lens for reading Augustine’s teaching; and, in turn, he sets up an insightful theological synthesis. This article is traying to show how far even how good Aquinas works on the concept of word both in theological and philosophical sense.

Impact of philosophical workshops on the prison population: a qualitative and quantitative evaluation

ABSTRACT Background Prison creates philosophical needs due to the exceptionality of the situation. This study explores how philosophy can meet these needs by focusing on three aspects: critical thinking, personal relationships and the government of passions. It builds on similar interventions in several countries and is proposed as a research that bypasses some limitations of previous projects in prisons. Method Following the participation of 81 inmates in 22 philosophical sessions over six months, the results of both interventions were analyzed using mixed methods, as well as a pretest posttest design with a control group. Specifically, Webster’s Self Assessed Wisdom Scale, a questionnaire and an interview with four participants were used. These methods were triangulated in order to obtain data from the various methodologies and to improve the validity and reliability of the results. Results It was demonstrated that the experimental group showed significant progress in relation to the categories “openness”, “humor” and “emotion regulation”. Participants also showed a progression in categories related to the project’s goals. These results allow for a description of the categories that explain in what sense philosophy can act in the context of imprisonment. Conclusions This study demonstrates, on the one hand, how philosophy workshops involve outcomes linked to cognitive, affective and relational aspects. Furthermore, it provides evidence to confirm previous studies and interventions that are more modest in their results and use less rigorous scientific methodologies.

К ВОПРОСУ О ГАСТРОНОМИЧЕСКОЙ РЕФЛЕКСИИ

The article is devoted to culturological gastronomic reflection, which is considered as a state of consciousness in relation to a specific sphere of cognition. The author studies the periodization of the development of reflection, in accordance with the periods of development of cognition methods. Thus, highlighting the stages, starting from the scholastic period and ending with activism, the author agrees with some authors in the naming and content of these periods. However, it is worth pointing out that this is dialectical-materialistic activism, which is based on the corresponding philosophical principles. As a result of the study of the concept and essence of reflection, the author concludes that the present stage of the development of reflection is based on an activity-based approach to the study of the cognition system, which means the implementation of activities for the formation of a certain knowledge. Since scientific reflection at the present stage is increasingly connected with social development and penetrates into its spheres, it is noted that the combination of reflection and dialectical-materialistic approach and worldview makes it possible to reflect not only in the general philosophical sense, but also within the practical application of reflection, in private scientific and everyday consciousness. The result of the application of cultural reflection in the field of gastronomy is the identification of categories of problems of science ("gastrosophy" is a term proposed by some scientists for the name of science) and its content: historical–descriptive, analytical, state and a number of others, which have their own range of private issues involving research and, of course, reflection.

Книга художников Павла и Натальи Мартыненко «Рукопашный танец»: опыт рецептивной эстетики

A book of an artist is a specific object of art presenting an authorial utterance overcoming the bounds of book-printing, in which either a text or a picture can be present. At the center of attention in the article is the book Rukopashnyi tanets. Istoriya lyubvi i sopernichestva, ob"ektivno otrazhennaya v dokumentakh i skhemakh, gde prichudlivo splelis' dva iskusstva: muzykal'no-khoreograficheskoe i voenno-rukopashnoe [Hand-to-Hand Dance. The Story of Love and Rivalry, Objectively Reflected in Documents and Schemes, in which Two Arts Have Fancifully Entwined: The Musical-Choreographic and the Hand-to-Hand-Military] (2010) created by Russian artists Pavel and Natalia Martynenko, which is examined in the angle of receptive aesthetics. The edition includes archival documents, photographs, drawings and schemes. On the basis of studies of this material, the author of the article interprets the artistic conception of the book in a philosophical sense. In the present art-object the notion is realized according to which life is a dance. Meanwhile, the process of the self-development of a personality involved in such a life appears in a ceaseless struggle with itself, as well as with the circumstances of life, which makes it possible to understand the title of the composition better. The book is begun and completed by music pages copied by hand by an anonymous music lover in the early 20th century. Such an artistic solution leads to the understanding of music by the ancient Greek sages. In particular, for the Pythagoreans music demonstrated itself as a sort of “Ariadne’s thread,” which determined the path towards the mysteries of existence, initiating the human being into universal harmony and thereby providing the opportunity of acting in unison with cosmic vibrations. Appealing to the opinion of Boris Asafiev, who asserted that gesture, along with mimic and dance, serves as a reference point in the creation of musical speech, the author arrives at the conclusion that the protagonists who become alive on the pages of the artist’s book, are led through life by music.

Nietzschean Gift Model as an Alternative to Potlatch Culture in Turkish Cinema: The Movie Kosmos

Potlatch defines the ceremonies where pre-market economy societies come together for celebration and exchange gifts. This universal culture based on giving-accepting and giving back more than enough, aims to destroy the surplus value and spend to the furthest extent. Although gift carries traces of potlatch culture today, it has evolved into gifting consumer products as an expression of love on specific days that have become a ritual of capitalism. This study analyzes the “gift” not with its function in the potlatch or consumer culture but with the dimension of transcendence of humans in a philosophical sense. Therefore, the focus of this study is not Mauss and the anthropologists or sociologists who are in this line, but Nietzsche, who defines the gift as giving oneself rather than giving what one has and interprets that gifting type as one of the key concepts in the transition from human to superhuman. This research claims that in Turkish cinema, the gift is included with the functions and meaning systems in potlatch culture. However, the movie Kosmos deconstructs these systems and leads the audience to Nietzschean thoughts about gifts. In conclusion, an alternative gift model to potlatch culture is presented in Kosmos.

Discourses about Miracle: Spectrum of Positions

The study is devoted to construct a typology of discourses about a miracle. Discourses are interpreted in this case not in a linguistic, but in a philosophical sense, as a certain “way of talking” about a chosen phenomenon. This includes the ontological and ideological position of the speaker (writer), emotional and value pathos, a communicative attitude or lack thereof, a message to the listener (reader) of specific views and beliefs. The author distinguishes three groups of discourses on the ideological basis: 1) a miracle, understood as supernatural, but accessible for communication; 2) a miracle understood as a man-made, purely human phenomenon; 3) a miracle as the result of a “dual determination” coming from both the transcendent and the person himself. The miracle is initially interpreted in the article as a positive phenomenon that can be described and expressed in speech without directly naming the word itself. Within the first group of discourses, the following are considered: religious (Christian), mythological and fairy-tale discourse, and the fate-providentialist discourse is also highlighted. The second approach, connected with the denial of the supernatural, speaks of a miracle in the context of its scientific and technical creation, as well as hopes for a miracle within the framework of progressive and utopian concepts. The third type of discourses, combining the view of a miracle as coming from above and from the person himself, includes mystical-magical, existential and creativistic discourses - interpreting the theme of creativity. The mystical-magical discourse describes a miracle as the result of illumination and as a consequence of persistent spiritual searches. In the existential discourse, represented by fiction, there is also a place for describing a miracle as a magical nature and a magical fate. In creative discourse, the miracle is the very act of the birth of a new one. Summing up what has been said, the author emphasizes that he presents readers with nothing more than a sketch that requires further work and thematic disclosure.

Generation of non-functional architectonic spatial forms with geometric transformations

In the academic progression of architectural attitude and design competence it is important to give particular attention to the exploration and creative experimentation with spatial forms. In addition to the analysis of historical and contemporary architectural examples, significant role is given to modelling exercises which guide design students in a tentative way to the planar and spatial operation of compositional principles. During this process, a series of personal experiences develop the recognition and confident application of planar and spatial compositional tools and the ability to create tension or to maintain balance. These tools - albeit exerting their effects during subjective experience - are largely based on physical laws and operate according to the principles of visual (possibly tactile) perception, so their understanding and conscious application is a rational goal. In the analysis of architectural compositions, the relationship, location, size, juxtaposition or overlapping of forms - in other words their geometric relationship - is perhaps the primary factor, nevertheless the effects of materials, colours and textures cannot be ignored either. One of the distinctive characteristics of architectonic models is their ability to highlight certain pre-defined properties; in the case of forms made of homogenous materials for example, an enhanced attention to geometry, plasticity, and the impact of light and shadow. The focus of this paper is form-evolution generated through geometric transformations; a process during which a simple plane figure and subsequently a body is transformed (sliced, dragged, distorted, added or subtracted, etc.) resulting in architectonic compositions featuring architectural proportions and characteristics. These form-experiments are intentionally aimed at the generation of "non-functional" spaces, so the goal of the creation is not actual buildings, but rather the composition of pure spatial and volumetric relations in a philosophical sense, which, nevertheless, can provide the conceptual basis (in terms of form, mass, and spatial structure) for subsequent architectural outputs.

Paradoks slobode – Što je sloboda i gdje ju tražiti?

The subtitle of the essay “The paradox of freedom”, means to say: “What is freedom, and where to search for it?” That subtitle actually speaks about the content of the essay. The title, however, speaks about freedom – being looked at from a deeper, philosophical sense - revealing itself as paradoxical. Freedom is conceived of as agency in accordance with freedom of will, and that means that the field of freedom can only be that domain which man may find at the very limits of natural determinism. The only domain in which things depend on it is the domain of morality. Only in that domain, the human, is the one who establishes the chain of cause and effect, the human is the cause of moral good and moral evil. As a subject, he is not the cause according to natural determinism, but according to freedom of will. Man’s freedom is a freedom that chooses to be a cause for good or a cause for evil. The paradoxicality of that freedom lays in the fact that it governs the human, and that the human must comply to it. The best example is Socrates, who, complying to freedom in the sphere of morality, decided to go against his own life. Exactly because of this, Thomas Aquinas calls freedom dominium supra se ipsum, i.e., submission (dominium supra) of the self (se ipsum) - because of something. That something to which we must submit ourselves, is always an ideal: Socrates taught that in order for man to be the bearer of virtue, he must primarily recognize virtue for what it is, in its highest – ideal – aspect. Man’s freedom, therefore, finds its foundation in the moral law so much so that man may choose to comply to that law, or to not comply to it. Since moral law, like every other legislative means is a type of coercion, in action we always have the inseparable couple of freedom and necessity. Key words: Freedom, natural determinism, necessity, man as a willing cause, good and evil, submission, coercion, ideal.

Technologies of Augmented Reality in the Opera: Application Analysis

The author showed interest in scientific research on how extended reality technologies are applied in modern opera art. This study identified and characterized the types of technologies, including extended, virtual, and mixed reality. Examples of the use of such technologies by opera companies are given. The author of the article, while working on the "NocturneVR" project based on M. Lysenko's chamber opera "Nocturne", was able to analyze the above technologies based on personal practice. He discovered the practical and theoretical possibilities of development and transformation of individual components of opera art, which can be provoked by the progress of technology and public demand. In this context, there is a need to analyze opera from the point of view of an interdisciplinary approach that involves the practical application of technology. The adaptability of opera art in the context of the development of technology has been studied. The concept of opera is presented from the point of view of the audience experience, which takes into account the specific type of attention of the viewer. This concept is justified as a methodology of conscious work with time in a philosophical sense. The thesis is put forward that similar interdisciplinary studies on the analysis of both opera art and the phenomenon of extended reality technologies are useful and necessary for the practical implementation of digital theater projects. In this understanding, there is a rationale for the consistent development and mutual enrichment of both creative and technical tools of practicing artists. The directions of possible further scientific investigations are outlined with an emphasis on their usefulness in the practical implementation of artistic projects.

Monster Duels in Byzantine Polemological Tradition of X-XIV Centuries

The article is dedicated to a common theme in Byzantine literature, with a particular focus on descriptions of battles between warriors and monsters. According to the authors, the reworking of stories about hunting large predators from ancient mythology is characteristic of the Byzantine and partially Western European military traditions from the 10th to 14th centuries. The authors argue that the ideas of rational warfare permeated not only strict military manuals but also hagiographical literature, historical chronicles, heroic epics, and other narratives. Therefore, the incorporation of the archetypal plot of ‘fighting monsters’ into military settings is at the center of this study. The authors demonstrate that ancient battle stories had no place in the strict orders of real actions by regular armies. The article introduces materials from M. Y. Suzyumov’s personal archive into scientific circulation and draws on sigillography data. The article shows that in medieval texts, such short but intense clashes between two opponents are interpreted not only as entertainment or instruction but also in a philosophical sense as an embodiment of the eternal struggle between good and evil.

Transcultural Sublation of Concepts and Objects through the Lens of Adorno and Gongsun Long

Abstract The purpose of this chapter is to demonstrate a new approach to transcultural postcomparative philosophy, which may be tentatively called “the method of sublation,” using the example of Adorno and Gong Sunlong’s respective views on the relationship between concepts and objects. The term sublation is a neologism commonly used to translate Hegel’s idea of Aufhebung. It is derived from the Latin term sublatio, for its original meaning covered all three crucial connotations of Hegel’s Aufhebung – to lift up, to preserve and to eliminate. The method thus encompasses all three of these three notions that are crucial to any process of creating something new from the interactions between two or more distinct discourses. In this philosophical sense, it has the three meanings of producing, eliminating, and preserving arguments, propositions, or ideas. Moreover, unlike “synthesis” the term “sublation” refers to a process rather than a stage. The sublation method aims to develop new forms of transcultural philosophizing and to overcome the impasses of traditional comparative approaches through procedures of “conceptual comparison” rather than relying only on the “comparison of concepts”. It starts from similarities and differences identified in the basic paradigms of different culturally and semantically defined frames of reference, and uses the method of discursive translation to transfer meanings across different languages and ideational traditions. Through a contrastive analysis of the similarities and differences between Adorno’s and Gongsun Longs conceptions of concepts and objects (or names and realities, respectively), the paper demonstrates the importance of considering different culturally conditioned paradigms and frames of reference in order to gain new, more complex, and more pluralistic philosophical insights.

Tapping into the unimpossible: Philosophical health in lives with spinal cord injury.

We investigated the personal philosophies of eightpersons with a tetraplegic condition (fourmale, fourfemale), all living in Sweden with a chronic spinal cord injury (SCI) and all reporting a good life. Our purpose was to discover if there is a philosophical mindset that may play a role in living a good life with a traumatic SCI. Two rounds of in-depth qualitative interviews were performed by the same interviewer, a philosophical practitioner by training (de Miranda). The second round systematically covered the following elements: bodily sense, sense of self, sense of belonging, sense of the possible, sense of purpose and philosophical sense. This six-step method developed by de Miranda is called SMILE_PH, an acronym for Sense-Making Interviews Looking at Elements of Philosophical Health. All the interviewees, as a consequence of their trauma, reported having gone through a reinvention of themselves which implied questioning the meaning and purpose of their life in particular and life in general. A philosophical rather than realistic sense of the possible was abstracted towardteleological growth. All interviewees developed a sense of purpose based on self-interested altruism and solidarity with disabled peers. To reinvent a good life with SCI, in addition to physical training and willpower, one needs to consider philosophical questions about the self and life, what Kant called the cosmic interests of reason: What may I hope? What must I do? What can I know? Our results indicate that we should, in the future, explore what the philosophical health approach may bring to rehabilitation processes in the months or years that follow the trauma.

Introducing the SMILE_PH method: Sense-making interviews looking at elements of philosophical health

The present article is a primary introduction to the semi-structured interviewing method SMILE_PH, an acronym for Sense-Making Interviews Looking at Elements of Philosophical Health. Beyond grounding this new methodology theoretically (a work that is started here but will in the future necessitate several developments), the main motivation here is pragmatic: to provide the recent philosophical health movement with a testable method and show that philosophically-oriented interviews are possible in a manner that can be reproduced, compared, tested and used systematically with a population that has received no training in philosophy. The SMILE_PH approach was conceived by the author during an ethically approved pilot study focused on the philosophy of life of persons living with spinal cord injury (SCI), with the intention of rectifying the epistemic obstacles generated by rationalist, Socratic or unstructured ways of in-depth interviewing. The six-step structure of the method is also inspired by hundreds of individual dialogue sessions with philosophical counselees, led by the author between 2018 and 2022: the SMILE_PH method progressively gathers phenomenological data about 1 – our bodily sense, 2 – our sense of self, 3 – our sense of belonging, 4 – our sense of the possible, 5 – our sense of purpose and 6 – our philosophical sense.