Transcendental Condition Research Articles

Transcendence and Nature in Chinese Philosophy: Man, Through the Eyes of Confucius, Laozi And Buddha

This article analyzes the concepts of transcendence and nature in Chinese philosophy based on the teachings of Confucius, Laozi, and Buddha. While Confucius sees man as a social being adapted to moral standards in society, Laozi considers him to be a natural being who must live in harmony with nature. In Buddhism, however, the central place is occupied by the attainment of spiritual maturation, deliverance from illusion, and reaching a transcendental state. This article provides a comparative analysis of the approaches of these three philosophical currents to human nature, its perception of the self and its spiritual and spiritual elevation. Through philosophical ideas, the relationship between man and nature is revealed, as well as the content of transcendence.

신라 內省私臣 설치배경에 대한 새로운 시각 - 部體制와 葛文王制의 終焉과 관련하여

Previous studies on the appointment of Samgungsashin in the 7th year of King Jinpyeong and the establishment of Naesungsashin in the 44th year have primarily focused on examining the roles and functions of these offices and positions. The appointment and establishment have largely been interpreted as part of King Jinpyeong's bureaucratic reforms and efforts to strengthen royal authority. However, considering that Yanggung and Saryanggung, two of the Samgung, were central among Silla's six Bu, the establishment of Daegung (Grand Palace) likely reflects an elevation of the king's transcendent status, while the establishment of Naesungsashin appears closely tied to the functional conclusion of the Bu system and the Galmunwang system. Most prior research assumes that all three palaces (Samgung) were King Jinpyeong's main palace and auxiliary palaces. Yet, there is a strong likelihood that Yanggung and Saryanggung were vestiges of the Bu system before the 44th year of King Jinpyeong’s reign. The appointment of Samgungsashin in the 7th year correlates with the installation of Galmunwang titles for Baekban and Gukban, while the establishment of Naesungsashin in the 44th year, which unified the Samgung under its control, may have been prompted by their deaths. Thus, the establishment of Naesungsashin is directly connected to the functional end of the Bu system and the Galmunwang system, which represented the heads of the Bu. While the primary focus of this study is to examine the background of the establishment of Naesungsashin, a unique governmental position in Silla, the fact that the first appointee was Kim Yong-su also provides a new perspective on why the lineage of Kim Yong-su and Kim Chun-chu did not retain Seonggol status but instead became Jingol. This study demonstrates that Kim Yong-su was Bihyeong by analyzing his marriage to Lady Cheonmyeong, the daughter of King Jinpyeong, as well as the relationship between Bihyeong and Gildal as depicted in the Samguk Yusa’s tale of Dohwanyeo and Bihyeongrang. Based on this, it is inferred that Kim Yong-su, being an illegitimate son, was unable to attain Seonggol status and was instead classified as Jingol. If this interpretation is accepted, it offers a clearer explanation for why Kim Yong-su and Kim Chun-chu were Jingol and sheds light on the process of the “decline of Seonggol males.” Furthermore, this study suggests that the incident in which Gildal, as a fox, was captured and killed by Bihyeong may have been a conflict arising during the process of unifying the Samgung. Additionally, based on the records in the Samguk Sagi of an incident involving officials of Saryanggung misappropriating state resources five years after the establishment of Naesungsashin, it is inferred that the control over Daegung and Saryanggung remained incomplete for some time following their unification under Naesungsashin in the 44th year of King Jinpyeong’s reign.

Necessity for finite rational minds– Kant on empirical nomic necessity and the conceptual purposiveness of nature

Kant claims that empirical laws of nature “carry with them an expression of necessity” (Kant, 1998; A159/B198). What precisely is this “expression of necessity” and what grounds it? The metaphysical necessitation approach asks “What are laws of nature for Kant?” It answers that, for Kant, empirical laws possess necessity and are grounded in the properties and causal powers essential to natural kinds. The epistemological systematization approach claims that empirical natures, kinds and causal laws are rightly viewed as necessitating in virtue of the place they ideally take within an ultimate systematic conception of nature. The paper defends a hybrid transcendental-idealist approach to empirical necessity. It argues that Kant offers a transcendental deduction of the a priori principle of the systematic conceptual purposiveness of nature. In contrast to the systematization approach, this builds necessity into our most fundamental, conceptually articulated experience of nature. The approach can furthermore complement metaphysical necessitation accounts by showing that the commitment to necessitation follows from the metaphysical doctrine of transcendental idealism and the critical project of articulating the a priori transcendental conditions of experience. Recognizing the transcendental status of the principle of the systematic conceptual purposiveness of nature thus allows us to merge valuable insights of both the epistemological systematization and the metaphysical necessitation views.

Foucault’s failed “death of man”: its structure, problems and relevance

The article clarifies Foucault’s thesis on “the death of man”, identifies its weaknesses and relevance today. The background of this thesis and the misconceptions in its interpretation are briefly written out. It is not about human as a subject, a biological species or a biosocial being, but about Man as a historical a priori, or a modern episteme formed at the turn of the XVIII–XIX centuries. As a transcendental condition, it determines the nature of modern forms of knowledge and thinking, for example, German idealism, psychoanalysis, Marxism, and various kinds of naturalistic reductionisms. Human became possible thanks to the idea of transcendental finitude associated with Kant’s Copernican turn. However, his birth is associated with betrayal of the transcendental project — a mixture of the transcendental and empirical levels. The general structure of Man is a transcendence, defined on the basis of human sciences and their empirical objectivity. It is shown that, contrary to popular simplifying interpretations, the sciences of man are understood by Foucault specifically: they combine sciences (linguistics, social sciences, biology) with Man as a doubling. The stability and difficulty of overcoming a Person are set by the paradoxical nature of his structure, which mixes empirical and transcendental finiteness: empirical instances (language, labor, biological life) define a person in objective time, but are possible, like time, only thanks to the structure of cognition. A critique of Foucault’s idea of Man is given. Using the example of a cerebral subject identifying a personality with the brain, the relevance of a Person today is shown at least beyond philosophy in the concepts of subjects that rely on scientific knowledge and circulate in discourses and practices in the social space.

The Transcendental Status of Beauty: Evaluating the Debate among Neo-Thomistic Philosophers

Over the past 150 years, Thomists have been divided over whether or not St. Thomas Aquinas himself held to the transcendentality of beauty. Francis J. Kovach divides the Thomists into three groups: (1) the transcendentalists, (2) the anti-transcendentalists, and (3) the undecided. Some contemporary Thomist philosophers in the transcendentalist camp, such as Étienne Gilson, see beauty as the forgotten transcendental. We will briefly trace the historical context of the debate by mentioning how philosophers viewed the transcendentality of beauty in ancient and medieval times. Then, we will summarize a contemporary Thomistic transcendentalist view of the nature of beauty and its transcendental status, followed by a contemporary Thomistic anti-transcendentalist view of the nature of beauty and its transcendental status. After that, we will evaluate the nature of beauty according to St. Thomas, as well as the criteria which determines transcendentality. Finally, both the transcendentalist and anti-transcendentalist positions on beauty’s transcendental status will be evaluated to determine whether it is metaphysically consistent to regard beauty as a transcendental according to Thomistic thought.

Entrainment: Transcendental Condition that Affected with Musical

This research examines the phenomenon of entrainment, which is associated with atmospheric phenomenon in meteorology, and is now also used in a person’s psychological and neurological state that leads to a state of brainwave synchronization (neural entrainment). In the most extreme conditions, this neural oscillation process will make a person enter the transcendental phase. This research is examined through a qualitative method by conducting a literature study of a number of studies on the phenomenon of entrainment. The findings obtained by researchers and academics related to entrainment can be a source of evidence for this research. The results of the research conducted found that entrainment can be the most logical explanation to explain a number of transcendental phenomenon associated with traditional or modern music. Entrainment is also a scientific explanation for the phenomenon of being possessed by spirit in a number of traditional arts in Indonesia and entrainment also affects human behavior which can reach the most extreme phase when affected by music to the subconscious level. This article is not sufficient to provide a significant explanation for the phenomenon of trance in some traditional Indonesian arts. More proofs, experiments, and literature studies are needed to strengthen the explanation of the phenomenon scientifically.

Say Her Name: Remembering Anarcha, Betsey, and Lucy in Thinking About Algorithmic Finitude and Digital Sufficiency with Foucault and Laruelle

In The Order of Things, Michel Foucault first articulates what he calls the empirico-transcendental doublet, a circular logic according to which the subject, unlike other objects, can at once be an empirical object in experience and the transcendental conditions that make experience of the empirical possible. This doublet structure is tied, moreover, to what Foucault calls the analytic of finitude, a circinate pattern vacillating between a psychology of represented needs and an anthropology of the finitude of human life. Foucault’s argument is that it is this paradoxical structure which forms the historical a priori of knowledge in the modern episteme and, we may surmise, undergirds the enclosing logics of disciplinary societies. In time, Foucault’s contemporary, Gilles Deleuze, will describe the emergence of novel ambient and modulatory conditions that provoke a partial remaking of the boundaries of the subject into the dividual, or data-individual. This transformation, while unparalleled in some ways, relies on many extractive and surveilling methods and technologies developed in the previous episteme. Similarly, the somatechnical facialisation capabilities of digital technologies – described variously as digital epidermalisation, digital phrenology, and recursive redlining – are, I hold, prefigured by plantation logics. But while these are important historical contextualisations, the new algorithmic architectures we are embedded in have occasioned a veritable structural reorganisation of the circularity of the empirico-transcendental doublet. This new recursive epistemological arrangement – or algorithmic-transcendental doublet – causes dividuals to continually be assimilated into computerised temporalities that elicit financialised closed-loop epistemologies and grant the digital illegitimate authority over the radical immanence of life as lived. In addressing the interrelated theses presented here, I invoke François Laruelle’s project on non-standard philosophy to propose an alternative posture – one which refuses the violence of sufficiency: a knowledge that doubles the world via a transcendental synthesis by which the structure of possibility is precipitated always as a doublet.

Средневековый московский миф о государстве и его смысловые актуализации в современности

The medieval state in Rus’ was constituted and symbolized as a Christian institution, and its quintessence was the image of the sovereign. To fill the significant image with meaning, the mythological motif of serpent fighting, the struggle of the Hero with the Enemy, was used. This was demonstrated both by visual representations (icons, seals, coat of arms) and by the official nomination “tsar”, which acquired a special Orthodox mystical meaning. The sacralization of the image of the Russian sovereign and state was based on the Byzantine model of a universal empire, in which the tsar was the vicar of Christ on earth, being his “living” incarnation. As a result, the role of Moscow, this already transcendental state, called by virtue of symbolic continuity the “Third Rome”, and the tsar were associated with the extension of the life of the fourth world Christian kingdom in the context of the coming end of the world. This last kingdom, it was believed in medieval Moscow, was already an established Orthodox power, united in the universe, headed by a truly Orthodox tsar, hence the main political function of the tsar was to protect Orthodoxy from enemies. Thus, on the basis of the construction of the heroic myth, a complete and all-encompassing world of meaning was built, and the political order was legitimized in its ultimate meaning, in its correlation with the divine cosmic order. The ideas of Russian Orthodox theology of the 18th–20th centuries concerning what should be done in the construction of Russian statehood are based on ideas about the God’s chosenness of the Russian people, the religious mission of Rus’ and its tsar, formed during the period of the Principality of Moscow. Meanwhile, the theology of this period also has its own specifics. The new political reality, characterized by the fact that Russia, with the beginning of the church reform of Peter the Great, took the path of state secularization, gives a special tone to discussions about the nature of Russian statehood. The theological thought of this period is distinguished by an attempt to substantiate the need for a return to traditional values, which, according to the authors, constitute the basis of Russian statehood. Particular hope for a return to the “old models” rests with the Russian people, who are assigned a heroic role – to be the savior of the state. Ideas about the mystical nature of the Russian state are updated today through speeches and statements of political and religious leaders, in which political power is represented in mythical-heroic motifs, and Russia appears as a defender of traditional values and world Orthodoxy, a state with a messianic role in the modern world.

Reconceiving the Conceivability Argument for Dualism in the Philosophy of Mind

U filozofskoj literaturi o svijesti i problemu odnosa uma i tijela, argument pojmljivosti protiv fizikalizma obično se uzima kao podrška obliku dualizma između fizikalnosti i fenomenalnosti. Obično se rasprava usredotočuje na kvalitativni karakter iskustva, što je fenomenalni osjećaj određenog iskustva. Nasuprot tome, subjektivni karakter iskustva – tj. njegova individuacija danom subjektu u prvom licu – nastoji se ostaviti po strani. Cilj je ovog rada predstaviti novu i snažniju verziju argumenta pojmljivosti za dualizam koji se poziva na subjektivni karakter iskustva. Oslanjajući se na uvide filozofa u fenomenološkoj tradiciji, konceptualiziram subjektivni karakter iskustva u prvom licu kao transcendentalni uvjet mogućnosti fenomenalnosti koji se ne može svesti na činjenice trećeg lica o fizičkom svijetu. S obzirom na to, problem uma i tijela koji se odnosi na svijest ne tiče se samo nemogućnosti skupa fizičkih činjenica o stanju mozga da uhvati kvalitativni karakter iskustva nego i egzistencijalnog pitanja o tome zašto je to stanje mozga uopće popraćeno subjektivnošću prvog lica. To nam omogućuje da ponovno zamislimo argument pojmljivosti na način koji predstavlja jaču argumentaciju za dualizam od tradicionalne verzije argumenta.

Kantian Motives in Work of Ludwig Wittgenstein

It is proved that the basic framework of the premises and reasoning of Wittgenstein's “Tractatus Logico-philosophicus” corresponds quite well to the transcendental method (as formulated by H. Cohen). Whereas Kant’s philosophy proceeds from the fact of existence of mathematics and mathematised natural science and investigates their conditions of possibility, Wittgenstein proceeds from the fact that propositions of language describe reality and reveals the conditions of possibility of such descriptions. Kant, answering the question about the conditions of possibility of the named sciences, comes to the idea of the transcendental subject and the distinction between the world of phenomena and the thing in itself. Wittgenstein's investigation of the conditions of possibility that the world is described by propositions leads to the assertion that both the world and language are together in logical space. The latter constitutes the a priori and transcendental condition of the possibility that language “reaches out” to reality. For both the theories - in the “Critique of Pure Reason” and in the “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus” - the idea of the boundary is important. In the “Critique of Pure Reason” it is the boundary of possible experience and cognition, while in the “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus” it is the boundary of what can be thought and expressed by meaningful propositions. Related to the different definitions of the boundary is the difference in the treatment of mathematised natural science. For “The Critique of Pure Reason” was created in the era of unconditional acceptance of Newtonian mechanics. And the “Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus” was created at the time of the crisis of the Newtonian paradigm and its replacement by other notions of time and space. However, the idea of boundary, which is present in both doctrines, determines closeness in the attitude towards metaphysics between the author of “The Critique of Pure Reason” and the author of “The Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus”. The study also shows that Wittgenstein did not follow logicism in his philosophy of mathematics. For him, both mathematical objects and propositions of logic are constructions. The conviction about the constructive character of mathematical and logical objects shows an affinity with the Kantian tradition in the philosophy of mathematics.

Kant’s Transcendentalism as Metaphysics of Possible Experience and its Realistic Interpretation in Analytical Philosophy

In the “Critique of Pure Reason” and subsequent “Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics...”, “Metaphysical Principles of Natural Science”, “Opus Postumum” Kant develops one of the modes of his transcendentalism, the metaphysics of possible experience, whose task is to study the transcendental conditions for the possibility of our (cognition), which, according to Kant, has a priori character. P. Strawson calls this mode of metaphysics ‘ descriptive metaphysics ’ and connects it with the analyzing the ‘conceptual structure’ of our thinking about the world. The contemporary realistic trend (primarily within the framework of the analytical philosophical tradition) in the interpretation of Kant’s transcendental philosophy is associated with the modern theory of “two aspects” (80s of the 20th century), which replaced the classical theory of “two objects/worlds” (compare also with the opposition “ theory of appearance vs. theory of appearances ”). Within the framework of this theory, the Kantian ‘appearance’ receives an objectified status, it is not our mental representation, but corresponds (as its signs) to really existing things, or Kantian ‘objects of experience’. The article traces the formation of the historical and conceptual background of the ‘ metaphysics of experience ’ (H. Paton's original expression). Historically, the metaphysics of experience inherits the neo-Kantian approach to interpreting Kant's transcendentalism as a ‘theory of experience’ (H. Cohen, E. Cassirer), then it develops in logical positivism/empiricism (H. Reichenbach, R. Carnap; further in post-posivivism: the theory of I. Lakatos and T. Kuhn), analytical philosophy of science (W. Sellars, G. Buchdal, H. Putnam), and at present the metaphysics of experience is developing in a number of contemporary works of an analytical orientation (P. Strawson, K. Ameriks, L. Allais and etc.).

Only Words Apart? Talking About “The World” in Pragmatist Philosophy of Religion

Abstract In his well-known critique of conceptual relativism, Donald Davidson declared that we are not worlds but “only words apart.” His interpretive principle of charity asserts that the transcendental condition of disagreement is agreement. Pragmatist philosophers of religion have relied upon the principle of charity to argue against a framework theory of religion. They use the notion of a scale of observationality to illustrate where broad-scale agreement lies and place disagreement (and specifically convictional difference qualifying as “religious”) at the higher reaches, considering it interpretively parasitic. In this article, I problematize the ontological premises of construing difference in this way (specifically insofar as they betray traces of positivism) and the uses of ethnography to substantiate it. I draw on the work of contemporary anthropologists who identify with the so-called ontological turn in ethnography to help think differently about difference—about what it means to be “only words apart.”

CALCULATION MODEL OF A MULTI-STOREY REINFORCED CONCRETE FRAME WITH COMPLEXLY STRESSED BEAMS UNDER ACCIDENTAL IMPACT

A computational model is presented for determining deformations in complexly stressed beams of a structurally non-linear reinforced concrete frame in a transcendental state caused by a special emergency action in the form of a sudden removal of one of the structural elements. The determination of the stress-strain state after the formation of spatial cracks in the reinforced concrete elements of the frame was carried out using the calculated spatial section. At the same time, dynamic additional loads in the design section of the reinforced concrete frame element from a special impact are determined on an energy basis using the “bending moment-curvature” and “torque-angle of rotation” diagrams. The considered calculation algorithm includes the determination of forces in compressed concrete, longitudinal and transverse reinforcement for primary and secondary design schemes and verification of special limit state criteria. The results of a numerical analysis of the effect of cracking, the ratio of torque and bending moment on the stress state in transverse and longitudinal reinforcement and on the dissipative properties of a frame structural system are presented

Telling Feminist Philosophy Stories

This introduction reflects on practices of telling stories about works by influential contemporary feminist philosophers, interrogating what is considered impactful feminist philosophy. I frame this edition through a particular kind of re-citational engagement with Heyes’s work—through her own previous writings and my first-personal experiences with the text and her role in my intellectual formation as my dissertation supervisor. I draw on Clare Hemmings’s (2011) work on the grammar of feminist intellectual storytelling, offering brush strokes through embodied and relational stories that help me make sense of Anaesthetics, in order to tell alternative stories to frame the work, specifically Heyes’s methods, impacts, and the relations amongst her previous works. In reflecting on the embodied realities and feminist intellectual networks that inform our framing practices, I consider how we are relationally and affectively invested in figures and thinkers, our schools of thought, our style of philosophy, and our forms of participation in the discipline. Through these reflections, I trace Heyes’s work as grasping life examples with rich opportunities to grapple with stubborn philosophical ambivalences in conceptualizing embodied freedom and agency, while developing adaptive methods that probe their transcendental conditions.

The Metaphysical Contention of Political Theology

Abstract The question of the exact role of theology in Schmitt’s political theology remains undecided. Several authors have raised this question and distinct answers have been given. In order to reach an accurate representation of the political–theological dimension in Schmitt’s work, I will attempt an interpretation which takes into account not only Schmitt’s more widely known theses, but also the perceived esoteric and unsaid aspects of his work. Against Heinrich Meier’s prominent thesis, in his The Lesson of Carl Schmitt, of the strict theological nature of political theology, my thesis is that Schmitt gives precedence to the political over theology and that political theology is a theology and metaphysics of the political. Starting from Peterson’s theological objections, centered on Trinitarian dogma and eschatology, I will reconstruct the trail of political theology throughout Schmitt’s work in view of its epitome in the notion of a Trinitarian stasiology and in the figure of the katechon. It is the connection between these two themes which defines Schmitt’s positive and polemical political theology, which can be designated as a katechontic and metastatic political theology. The katechon itself will be defined as the metapolitical and transcendental condition of possibility of the political. The Nomos of the Earth will also be a necessary reference point for the correct understanding of the connection between theology and politics, given the theme of “detheologization,” as well as Schmitt’s lifelong engagement with the problem of the state in the work of Thomas Hobbes.

The Unicity, Infinity and Unity of Space

Abstract The article proposes an interpretation of Kant’s notions of form of, and formal intuition of space to explain and justify the claim that representing space as object requires a synthesis. This involves identifying the transcendental conditions of the analytic unity of consciousness of this formal intuition and distinguishing between it and its content. On this reading which builds upon recent proposals, footnote B160–1n. involves no revision of the Transcendental Aesthetic: space is essentially characterized by non-conceptual features. The article also addresses worries about the infinite magnitude and the unicity of space, by considering the characteristics and requirements of geometric constructions.

"Subject - object" Relations in Humanities

Specific character of subject-object relations in humanities is analysed. The article gives the critique of naturalist approaches, which demand to determine social events on the basis of external observational features. It is proved that it is impossible to fix social events without taking into account agents’ motives and without references to the meaning which events has to them. Meaning is the most important concept in humanities, so it is impossible to describe social reality ignoring the world of meanings. Social reality is not independent from our ways of understanding and interpreting meanings. Moreover, our representations of social reality are the most important part of this reality. From the other side, man as a subject of humanities is formed by society and culture which he tries to study. He cannot regard them from outside as an usual external object. We cannot exactly calculate in what degree our thought is determined by socio-cultural factors in order to deactivate those determinations on the way to objective knowledge. Socio-humanitarian knowledge has transcendental status. Discussing how socio-class interests or language effect our knowledge we concern fundamental conditions of cognitive experience as such. Because of that natural sciences’ (technological) model of knowledge cannot be applied in humanities. Here we do not investigate some outer object for the sake of manipulation. We make our self-understanding deeper. Double mutual penetration of subject and object in humanities constitutes its fundamental difference from natural sciences.

DETERMINATION OF DYNAMIC FORCES
 IN COMPLEXLY STRESSED ELEMENTS OF REINFORCED
 CONCRETE FRAMES UNDER SPECIAL IMPACT

On an energy basis, without involving the apparatus of dynamics of
 structures, an analytical solution of the problem was obtained to determine the dynamic
 additional loads in complexly stressed reinforced concrete elements of multi-storey frames
 in a transcendental state caused by special emergency effects. The stress state, crack
 patterns and fracture patterns in the crossbars of the considered frame structures are
 determined by the complex stress state of the frame elements caused by the combined action
 of torsional and bending moments. The assessment of the bearing capacity of such
 structures was carried out by the diagram method based on the use of energy ratios in the
 structural elements before and after a special impact, which makes it possible to determine
 the maximum dynamic deformations, curvatures and forces in the first half-wave of
 vibrations using the results of nonlinear static calculations according to the primary and
 secondary design schemes.

Forzare i limiti dell’esprimibile. Il pensiero di Damascio dal limite dialettico alla dialettica del limite

This study aims to extract and put in evidence the possible senses of ‘limit’ (πέρας) in Damascius’ thought. First, I focus on the meaning of limit as boundary within which the dialectic is functional. Next, I consider a second meaning of limit as forbidding to explore ungraspable matters due to their transcendent status. A third meaning of ‘limit’ is analysed in the light of the possible connection of Damascian speculation with Kant’s Criticism and transcendental reflection. Subsequently, I explore the concept of ‘rashness’ (προπέτεια) that Damascius opposes to the self‑limiting faculty of the λόγος. The excursus on the term προπέτεια starts from Aristotelian observations on the object and then concentrates on the hypothesis of the sceptical derivation of this concept to criticise dogmatising metaphysics. The second part of the paper reflects on Damascus’ ‘philosophy of the limit’ in relation to some issues extracted from Marilena Vlad’s volume Damascius et l’Ineffable. Particular attention is directed at the paradiscursive forms presented by the author, insofar as they express an attempt to overcome the extreme limit of logical‑propositional thinking. In this context, I discuss the suggestiveness of intelligence that is connected to the formulation of endeictic metaphysics as a dialectical mode of surpassing the limit. In conclusion, I suggest that one can speak of crossing the limit not only in terms of exceeding, but rather of transcending the restrictive dynamics of ordinary knowledge.

How is reflection of a sense possible?

The purpose of the paper is to investigate into the peculiarities of the reflection of sense as the main idea of modern European philosophy. This idea refers to self-consciousness, about which modern empirical philosophy speaks in the language of reflection (J. Locke), and rationalism - in the language of Cogito (R. Descartes). For Kant, Cogito is a transcendental condition for the formation of concepts, and therefore reflection should be transcendental. According to Husserl, the main task of phenomenological reflection was to obtain essences of processes, to build things from the acts of Cogito. In Husserl's words, reflection "carries the world as a meaningful sense". Such a sense (smysl) becomes a problem escaping both from analysis and interpretation. Its peculiarity lies in the deontological status of sense: the phrase "a sense should be" connects the sense with a realm of duty, and duty provides a correlation between Ego and integrity of the world, language and culture. Reflection of sense (smysl) becomes the process of comprehension, the mechanism of formation of the whole set of meanings in the culture.