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Vol 35, No 4 (2024)
Articles
Guest Editor's Introduction
7-8
The philosophy of the himan being
The Future of Humanity in the Concept of Pierre Leroux
Abstract
The doctrine of Pierre Leroux, one of the leaders of Сhristian socialism, which had a significant impact on literature and philosophy of the industrial epoch, are analyzed. Following H. Saint-Simon, P. Leroux spoke of a golden age waiting for humanity in the future. The past of the Earth, according to Leroux, is filled with evil and suffering. The French thinker saw the reason for this in the division among people, dictated by privileges and delusions. Highlighting the family, property and the state as the main forms of social existence, he associated with distortions of their essence all the disasters of the human race. Humans are not inherently angry, but are influenced by stagnant social constraints. Leroux considered caste spirit as the most important source of political injustice and human suffering. In his desire to find a solution to the most acute social contradictions of the epoch, Leroux made a large-scale attempt to synthesize religion and philosophy. He regarded Christianity as a moral truth, but incomplete, more prophetic than finished. According to Leroux, religious and philosophical insights of the past should be combined with the idea of improving humanity. The idea of progress, therefore, takes on a system-forming meaning in his doctrine. The philosopher envisaged the peaceful transformation of the social system. Man must realize his own nature in its completeness, understand the inextricable connection linking him with his fellow men and the universe as a whole. Then, focusing on the achieved knowledge, he will be able to build the right relations about property. The family and the state will cease to serve as a means of oppressing people. In Leroux’s project it is easily traces the intention to combine all the spiritual conquests of mankind in the final system. But it is impossible to preserve equally all the achievements of the past. In addition, a significant drawback of Leroux’s project is its distracted, metaphysical nature. At the same time, the call itself to give great importance to mercy in human history can hardly be considered completely outdated.
9-25
The Formula of Man, or the Abstract Double of Phenomenology
Abstract
Contemporary thinkers believe that human individuality is defined by an inhuman, abstract, and anonymous beginning emancipated from human experience, transforming thinking into one of multiple forms of existence. Inhumanism requires describing the structure of subjects capable of connecting to space or reasons. This structure includes abilities manifested through a technolinguistic infrastructure and algorithmic intelligence that intertwine abstraction and materiality. This explanation of consciousness redefines individuality through objective laws, relegating phenomenological understanding to the background. This paper explores scenarios of inhuman thinking, emphasizing the distinction between the scientific image’s epistemological primacy and the manifest image’s genetic precedence. It considers inhumanism as an alternative to phenomenology that seeks abstraction and liberation from corporeality and analyzes Soviet cybernetics’ approaches to extracting the inhuman component from mental life. The paper analyzes the philosophical and psychological ideas of Vladimir Lefebvre, including the desire to encrust consciousness with cosmological processes, which distinguishes his approach from posthumanist philosophers. Lefebvre seeks to integrate human consciousness with the cosmos, while posthumanists see humans through the lens of artificial intelligence and intelligent machines, emphasizing abstraction and the absolutism of pure concept. Both approaches offer a vision of human beings that goes beyond conventional understandings, affirming their connection to more complex cosmic entities. Lefebvre emphasizes the similarity of reflexive processes to recursive functions, where consciousness, returning to itself and possessing invariance, forms an objectified structure that distinguishes mental objects. He introduces the notion of the demiurge, eidos-navigator, as the object’s constructor, objectifying the scheme in materiality and allowing the observer to use this scheme for systemic representation.
26-45
Scientific research
Common Sense and Science: One World or Two?
Abstract
The paper examines the problem of the vertical split in the philosophy of science —whether there is a continuous transition between scientific knowledge and common sense or a radical break. In the first part of the work, the problem is discussed through the French tradition in philosophy of science. Two main solutions are articulated: continualist (Meyerson) and discountinualist (Bachelard). At the same time, its main drawback is revealed — speculative nature of its concept of common sense. In the second part, an attempt is made to solve this problem by correcting this flaw. Thus, it is proposed to rely on data gathered in anthropology of science to develop an empirically grounded concept of common sense. It is connected to folk biology — universal ways of thinking about plants and animals. Main features of folk biology are highlighted and compared with scientific biology. As a result, it is concluded that there are two radical breaks between them. The first one, decontextualization of nature, consists in withdrawing an object of study from the totality of its cultural and environmental relations. The second, deessentialization of nature, implies a transition from essentialist to historicist thinking. A preliminary conclusion is made that there is a break between it and science in general.
46-61
The Evolution of Future Science: from the Art of Prediction to Sustainability Science
Abstract
The article shows how methods for studying the future developed, starting from ancient times, when seers and oracles were revered, through utopias, conjectures and projects of the future in the era of modern times and the Enlightenment, to the emergence and development of the modern Futures Studies and Foresight proper, starting from the middle of the 20th century to the present day. The instruments of futures studies have evolved from individually nuanced techniques and the art of guessing the future to science-based methods for assessing possible, multiple and preferable futures. The fundamental differences between prognostic science and foresight are revealed. While prognostic science deals with foreseeing the most likely and unambiguous future, foresight is based on methods of scenario planning and roadmaps building for strategic management and achieving preferred images of the future. Modern foresight instruments are based on their understanding of the fundamental openness of the future, the existence of development alternatives and the construction of scenarios for future development. The most promising and proven in practice basis for futures research and foresight is the modern science of complex systems, since it is on its basis that it is possible to recognize development trends, strategic vision of remote goals and develop methods for soft and effective management of complex technological and social systems. It is this that has become the evidence-based scientific foundation for the implementation of sustainable development goals and for creating sustainable futures.
62-80
Social practices
The Limits of Technological Determinism: The Anthropological Dimension of Automation in Discussions about the Future of Work
Abstract
At the beginning of the 21st century, humanity faces the problem of radical transformations of work relations under the influence of technological automation. The scientific community discusses the prospects of a post-work future in which work as employment will lose its importance in people’s lives. These discussions also raise questions about the predetermination of technological change, as well as about the criteria and values that guide the creation of technologies. The purpose of the article is to consider the controversy about automation and the future of work. With the help of theoretical reconstruction and comparison of the main provisions and arguments of the prevailing trends, the author of the article finds that they are united by similar conclusions about the deterministic nature of automation as a force beyond human control; a one-sided view of the role of work in human life; ignoring the problem of using technology to intensify non-automated work. An alternative to technological determinism in modern discussions is the critical theory of technology, which challenges the linear and unidirectional path of technology development. As a result of the analysis, the author comes to the conclusion that automation, guided by the goals of prosperity and development of mankind, reorientation from economic incentives to sources of non-economic motivation opens up a new future of work in its meaning-forming quality as a creative, socially oriented, and meaningful activity that satisfies the needs of the individual in creativity and social realization.
81-96
Automated Intelligent Systems: Technological Determinism and Substantivism
Abstract
Artificial Intelligence has become so firmly embedded in our lives that its direct influence on shaping the world of the future is inevitable. However, it has taken time for a constructive approach to risk prevention and regulation of technologies at all stages of their life cycle to gradually emerge alongside theoretical speculation about «machine uprising» and other threats to humanity. The subject of special attention is the so-called automated artificial systems, the regulation of which is still limited by normative and technical requirements. The peculiarity of this approach is the conviction of its proponents in the truth of technological determinism, for which “technology” is value neutral. The prevention of ethical risks from the perspective of this approach is practically impossible because regulatory issues are only concerned with the functional characteristics and operational violations of a particular system. This article contrasts technological determinism with technological substantivism, for which “technology” has an independent ethical value, regardless of its instrumental use. The ethical evaluation based on it consists in the procedure of regular correlation of social “good” and “reliability” of the system. The development of a methodology for such a correlation procedure requires special competences that distinguish a new professional field — ethics in the field of AI.
97-116
Symbols. Values. Ideals.
Utopia as the Futurization of History: Discourse Aspects
Abstract
In modern utopian studies, the distinction between utopia as an intention and utopia as a narrative is no longer in doubt. Beginning with Alexander Sventokhovsky and Ernst Bloch, utopia has been interpreted as a dream, a universal dimension of culture, a spiritual landmark, or a desire that is capable of giving meaning to human existence. The paper shows that although the traces of utopia as a dream for a better world are lost in the depths of history, it acquired its current outlines only in the modern era, when it received a stable conjunction with the future. The spiritual prerequisites were formed by Western secularization. As a result of the decomposition of the Christian vision of history, which placed paradise in a transcendent dimension, the entire symbolic worldview of medieval society was challenged, and the former eschatological expectations of salvation were embodied in new utopian forms. The essence of utopia is the earthly perfection of the world at the hands of man himself. The subsequent flourishing of utopia, associated with the inclusion of the time factor in it, was determined by large-scale socio-cultural transformations, fascination with the idea of progress, and the formation of historical consciousness. Hence, utopia turned from a “place that does not exist” into a “place that does not exist yet” (Ernst Bloch). The authors’ appeal to the concept of Karl Manheim made it possible to show that in various historical extensions and derivations of utopia, its relation to time developed in various ways – from the chiliastic dissolution of the future in the present to the socialist-communist subordination of the present to the future (futurization of history). Both forms have retained their vitality to the present day, although the futurization of history on a global scale has failed. Going through crisis, utopia continues to live in culture, because, with its (im)possibility, it gives history goals and ideals, as well nourishes hope for their achieving in the future.
117-131
The Changing Utopia of Ivan Efremov: From Prometheanism to Ecologism
Abstract
Russian paleontologist and science fiction writer Ivan Antonovich Yefremov (1908–1972) in his novels “Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale” and “The Hour of the Bull” presented a picture of the distant future of the Earth. But there are a number of differences between the utopian societies depicted in two novels (although the future of Earth is shown in “The Hour of the Bull” briefly). The article analyzes what exactly Yefremov changed in his utopia, and suggests why he did it. The novel “Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale” depicts an egalitarian and anti-authoritarian society, consisting of physically and intellectually developed people, similar to the heroes and demigods of antiquity, actively transforming nature. The attitude towards nature as an object of man’s application of his forces and a resource is called рrometheanism, which is opposed to ecologism, which declares the exhaustibility of resources and the need for humanity to be in harmony with nature. The prometheanistic features of the utopian society in “Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale”, however, are accompanied by important reservations that make one doubt the author’s prometheanism. In “The Hour of the Bull” Efremov firmly stands on the position of environmentalism, unequivocally warns about the dangers of prometheanism, and his strong and free heroes are convinced of the need for self-restraint, based on an ethical and, possibly, religious basis. Thus, I.A. Efremov’s novels “Andromeda: A Space-Age Tale” and “The Hour of the Bull” show us a utopia in progress (which is due to both a change in the socio-political context and the movement of the author’s thought), stimulating today the emergence of new ideas in discussions about posthumanity, рrometheanism and ecophilosophy.
132-148
Times. Morals. Characters
Bruno’s Strange New Worlds and the Orphics
Abstract
Images of the future in Plato’s philosophy are in one way or another associated with the past. Such are the myth of Atlantis, the Cretan laws or the reformed polis religion. Neoplatonists up to the Renaissance followed the same path, as beautifully shown as early as Frances Yates (1964) in the mid-twentieth century, who, however, preferred to perceive Platonism as part of the widely understood Renaissance Hermeticism. This approach has now been considerably revised (cf., e.g. Gatti 2011 and 2017) and, as far as Giordano Bruno is concerned, it is interesting to compare his perception of “ancient theology” with Orphicism. Indeed, in his “Cena de le ceneri” and “De l’infinito, universo et mondi” Bruno develops a cosmology of multiple worlds, in many ways similar to Orphic, while in Lo spaccio della bestia trionfante and Cabala del cavallo Pegaseo he explicitly uses the methodology of reinterpretation of polis religion inherited by Platonists from Orphic commentators. I am not claiming that all these literary parallels with Orphicism influenced Bruno directly, but the observations made in this article seem likely to contribute to a better understanding of the genesis of his philosophy.
149-168
Future Narratives in Contemporary Fiction and Film: Challenging the Multiplicity of Alternative Possible Worlds
Abstract
In the 21st century narrative complexity is widespread in fiction and film, and some of these narratives can be understood within the framework of “future narratives”, as proposed by several researchers (K. Bode, F. Meifert-Menhard, S. Domsch, K. Singles). They differ from past narratives in that they problematize the fabula, the event, the concept of narration itself, and make the relationship between the actual and virtual worlds in the narrative more complex. They bet on the possibility of multiple alternative worlds, whose relations seem to be challenged and uncertain. The reader/viewer’s experience that such narratives aim to model is also specified: they problematize the image of the future narratively (not thematically), but also communicate this temporal experience to the viewer. The creation of this experience and its dynamic can be researched, among other methods, in the enactivist perspective applied by narratologists in the past decade. Future narratives produce a bodily effect that imitates non-mediation, thereby challenging the experiential dimension of the narrative. They also endow the viewer with the agency associated with the possibility/impossibility of making a choice within the narrative: interactive forms provide such a choice to the viewer directly, while non-interactive forms activate his optional and counterfactual thinking. Future narratives in fiction and film can be understood within a broader cultural context, as they are influenced by digital media. Future narratives are characterized by nonlinearity, discontinuity, and excessiveness, as well as paradoxical temporality. This results in an attempt to present a multi-faceted and uncertain future to the viewer, as well as the experience of not being able to fully realize various possibilities. At the same time, the narratives immerse the viewer in the ongoing and unfinished present, creating an experience that is both present and future-oriented.
169-185