World philosophy and dialectic thinking: an analysis of institutional contexts and development prospects

Table of contents: The Kazakh-American Free University Academic Journal №10 - 2018

Author: Gusseva Nina, Doctor of Philosophy, Chair of the East Division of Kazakhstan Philosophical Congress, Head of the International Center for Methodological Research and Innovation Programs, Member of the Academy of Acmeology. The East Division of Kazakhstan Philosophical Congress, The International Center for Methodological Research and Innovation Programs, Kazakhstan

Modern world philosophy is represented by a wide variety of philosophical views, concepts and trends. Its field of interest includes consideration and study of various forms of human social and individual being and consciousness, which, firstly, have developed and function within the framework of certain civilizational processes and, secondly, are in a state of an ongoing progress in the development of culture.

Institutional consciousness always expresses and fixes the content and meanings of the civilizational functioning of a man in the society in the forms of language, logical schemes or results of completed processes. It differs significantly from the non-institutional consciousness, which expresses the living "fabric" of human activity, from which the culture is formed and the corresponding world views [3].

The schematics of institutional consciousness are convenient for any form of its use, including not only its preservation, transmission, replication, etc., but also its management. In this regard, the schematics of institutional consciousness is also a form present in such socio-civilizational realities as transformed, “matrix”, ideological, etc. formed on its basis forms of understanding of the world.

The leading direction of the development of philosophy is always essentially connected with the study of the processes of emergence and development of human social and individual being and consciousness. This orientation in the development of philosophy characterizes its classical branch. At the same time, the study of the functioning of established institutionalized forms testifies to the existence of the “ballast” part of philosophy, that is, the part that doesn’t reflect the real processes of cultural development, the quintessence of which, in fact, should be philosophy. This “ballast” part becomes a phenomenon of civilizational manipulations, uses, etc., in which they retain their identity as some kind of institutionally developed ready-made knowledge, matrices, norms, schemes, etc., which are not subject to any form of development, but available for general use with certain consumer goals, external to any processes of development and self-development of both a man and a society.

The development of dialectics from one historical stage to another: from the dialectics of the ancients to the dialectics of German classical philosophy and, further, to the materialistic dialectics of K. Marx and F. Engels can be called an example of the development of the classical branch of philosophy - philosophy as a cultural phenomenon. In this development, the philosophy is aimed to the disclosure of the fundamental foundations and laws of being, the disclosure of the essence, integrity, universality, inherent not only in being, but also in knowledge, human world-relations, and social development.

Philosophy as a civilizational phenomenon is represented by a wide variety of concepts, in which the choice of their bases is made externally, while formally organized systems of the concepts are built to reflect the interaction of these concepts in relation to the chosen base. The next step in such an image of “development” of philosophy is the introduction of a certain system of statements expressed in proclaimed concepts and dedicated to one or another institutionally dependent and certain problem and interest known in society that cause a wide public response and institutional support. Starting with the external choice of grounds and following the above mentioned stages of developing a philosophical concept of a “civilizational type”, the same process takes place. Its essence (logic) does not depend on the specifics of a particular concept.

Thus, for example, an external choice can result in the recognition as the basis of a “philosophical” concept of any of the visible, institutionally known, recognized, and even ordinary characteristics of the world in which a man exists, which is filled with his everyday being. Everyone, especially the professionals in the field of philosophy, is aware of such concepts, and the grounds on which they were built. For example, we can recall the concepts which are based on phenomena known to everyone and causing visible associations in each person: life, will, intuition, utility, consciousness, action, behavior, fear, existence, knowledge, text, language, etc. [12, 9, 10].

In this regard, we pay our attention to the following. Each of these phenomena as the basis of a certain concept in philosophy is essentially presented as a result of its abstraction from what characterizes a man’s world, his life in society. At the same time, the authors of these concepts either do not realize the abstract nature of their chosen foundation, or take this as their due. In the second case, in that of recognition of an abstract approach to the choice of the basis of a philosophical concept as due, there is a deliberate nihilism. With such an approach to understanding the foundations of philosophy, the general palette of philosophical knowledge turns out to be represented by unrelated parts, like a patchwork quilt. This has its consequences. One of such consequences is the notion of the irrelevance of philosophy, its senselessness and the need to further strengthening of the abstract approach, which requires choosing from one set of abstract bases all the same and thereby putting an end to the vast arrays of different interpretations regarding what philosophy is and what it should explore. Hence, there is an impossibility to solve the problem of incoherence by making choice, leading to the idea of the tragic fate of philosophy as such and even its uselessness.

The basis of such "tragic" conclusions is not the analysis, as would be expected, of the insufficiency of the abstract approach, but the analysis of the alleged insufficiency of the ontological status of each of the many phenomena that are viewed as the foundations of philosophical concepts. The substitution of the analysis of deficiencies in thinking by the conclusion that the ontological status of each of the selected phenomena is insufficient as grounds ultimately leads ever new turns of absolutization and sublimation of subjectivism, striving to impose its position, in fact, by extra-philosophical methods.

The origins of using extra-philosophical methods and conclusions in such cases are also known. They characterize the social state of the society, the strength of certain social institutions that are interested in taking advantage of certain mental configurations and preferences to justify their positions. So, it is not by chance, for example, that the position expressed by Nietzsche in his philosophy of life turned out to be quite usable and highly demanded for Hitler. Such a link between the “civilizational” image of philosophy and the needs of social institutions can be traced by referring to each of the existing philosophical concepts focused on civilizational choice.

Dialectical thinking [4] as a problem manifests itself when philosophy as a cultural phenomenon turns out to be in the same line of evaluation with philosophy as a civilizational phenomenon. Under the conditions of a civilized choice in the field of philosophical research of reality, dialectical thinking appears as alien, becomes unclaimed, incomprehensible, unnecessarily divorced from immediate situations. The positivist ideal of direct empirical research becomes the principle of assessing whether it is needed or not of what is called “philosophy”, implying its “civilizational” image. At the same time, it is not noticed that the most important thing would disappear from such an investigation: revealing the essence, integrity, and method of forming what is being considered.

A long-term fascination with such a method of “philosophizing” ultimately leads to a situation in philosophy when the question of the state of the world as a whole, of its laws, is generally closed. Instead, chaos, text, language, etc. become the subject of its consideration as independent entities that dictate to a man his positions and ways of understanding the world, understanding oneself, his own historical value and cognitive orientations, while thinking which treats dialectics as its logic [1, 6, 8], as a tool to discover the laws of development of the world and the man in this case becomes an excessive phenomenon. This basic orientation, is replaced by the popular rejection of such concepts as morality, truth, beauty, etc., which have always constituted the image of man and human being. The “civilizational” image of philosophy, for example, allows considering empirical verification sufficient for the determination of the scientific nature of knowledge, considering ugliness as a form of beauty, considering chaos as a manifestation of a certain kind of harmony, etc.

The only way out of the deadlock in modern philosophy is the return to the fold of dialectics [1. 7]. On this path, the classical tradition of philosophizing opens up new possibilities for the development of the man, the society, and philosophy itself [1, 4, 5, 11]. This is the ways to discover new forms of development, not those of decline. This is the way of elevating the human spirit [2] and understanding its purpose. This is the way in which a man does not allow himself to be identified with a thing among other things inside the world chaos. This is the path to new dimensions of human life, the path of creativity and creation.

REFERENCES

1. Abdildin, Zh.M., Gusseva, N.V. (eds.) (2017). Logika Tvorcheskogo Mysh-leniya [The Logic of Creative Thinking]. Monograph. Ust-Kamenogorsk: International Center for Methodological Research and Innovation Programs (ICM & I), 271 p.

2. Voznyak, V.S., Gusseva, N.V. (ed.) (2016). Dialektika Dukhovnoi Realnosi. Filosofsko-Metodologicheskie Issledovaniya Vospominaniya kak Tochki Dukhovnykh Perspectiv [The dialectics of spiritual reality. Philosophical and methodological research of memories as points of spiritual perspectives]. Monograph. Ust-Kamenogorsk: International Center for Methodological Research and Innovation Programs (ICMR&IP), 372 p.

3. Gusseva, N. V. (2017). K Voprosu o Spetsifike Myslitelnykh Protsessov v Kontekste Kultury b Tsivilzatsionnogo Vybora (Pdkhody, Tendentsii, Programmy) [On the Specifics of Mental Processes in the Context of Culture and Civilization Choice (Approaches, Trends, Programs)] in Modern problems of the development of civilization and culture. Collection of scientific articles. Ust-Kamenogorsk: International Center for Methodological Research and Innovation Programs (ICM & IT), pp.38-57.

4. Gusseva, N.V. (2017). Dialekticheskoye Myshleniye I Fenomen Metodolgicheskikh Issledovaniy v Razvitii Nauki. [Dialectical Thinking and the Phenomenon of Methodological Research in the Development of Science]. Monograph. Ust-Kamenogorsk: International Center for Methodological Research and Innovation Programs (ICMR&IP), 273 p.

5. Gusseva, N.V. (2016). Kultura I Problema Tsivilizatsionnogo Vybora. Sovre-mennye Problemy I Varianty Osmysleniya. [Culture and the Challenge of Civilization Choice. Current Issues and Comprehension Options] Ust-Kame-nogorsk: International Center for Methodological Research and Innovation Programs (ICMR & IP), 280 p.

6. Lobastov, G.V.(2017) Vvedenie v Ponyatiye Dialekticheskoi Logiki [Introduction into the Concept of Dialectical Logic] in Gusseva, N.V. (ed.) Dialectics and problems of the development of science. Monograph. (Part 1). Ust-Kamenogorsk: International Center for Methodological Research and Innovation Programs (ICMR & IP), p.11-23.

7. Lobastov, G.V., Gusseva, N.V. (ed.) Filosofiya v Prostranstve Nauki i Kultury. [Philosophy in the Context of Science and Culture]. Monograph. Ust-Kamenogorsk: International Center for Methodological Research and Innovation Programs (ICMR&IP), 282 p.

8. Mareev, S.N., Mareeva. E.V. (2017) O Prakticheskikh Osnovaniyakh Perekhoda ot Empericheskogo k Teoreticheskomu v Nauchnom Poznanii [On the Practical Basis of the Transition from the Empirical to the Theoretical in Scientific Cognition] in Gusseva, N.V. (ed.) Dialectics and problems of the development of science. Monograph. Part 1. Ust-Kamenogorsk: International Center for Methodological Research and Innovation Programs (ICMR & IP), p. 80-104.

9. Khamidov, A.A. (2017). Nepriyatiye Dialektiki Naukoi kak Problema (Razmyshleniye ob Osnovaniyakh) [Rejection of Dialectics by Science as a Problem (Reflection on the Reasons)] in Gusseva, N.V. (ed.) Dialectics and Problems of the Development of Science. Monograph. (Part 2). Ust-Kamenogorsk: International Center for Methodological Research and Innovation Programs (ICMR & IP), pp.261-322.

10. Khamidov, A.A. Obshchestvo Znaniy kak Problema [Knowledge Society as a Problem] in Gusseva, N.V. (ed.) Dialectics and Problems of the Development of Science. Monograph. (Part 1). Ust-Kamenogorsk: International Center for Methodological Research and Innovation Programs (ICMR & IP), pp.159-187.

11. Gusseva, N.V. (ed.) (2016) Chelovek v Kontekste Bytiya: Sovremennye Sos-toyaniya, Problemy i Podkhody [A Man in the Context of Being: current States, Problems and Approaches] Monograph. Ust-Kamenogorsk: International Center for Methodological Research and Innovation Programs (ICMR & IP), 329 p.

12. Gusseva, N.V. (2016). K Voprosu ob Osnovaniyakh Zapadnykh kontseptsiy Yazyka: Filosofsk-Metodologicheskiy Aspect. [On the Foundations of Western Concepts of Language: Philosophical and Methodological Aspect] in Bulletin of the Kazakhstan-American Free University. Ust-Kamenogorsk, pp.57-64.



Table of contents: The Kazakh-American Free University Academic Journal №10 - 2018

  
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