Proceedings of the XXIII World Congress of Philosophy

A specific problem of progress in social science is the failure of certain cognitive achievements to garner substantial support to the detriment of less efficient research practices. The phenomenon can be conceptualized as a failure of diffusion of innovation, but because of the specific context, here the term of non-incorporation is preferred. The analysis of three concrete cases (the constructivist approach to ethnicity, a typology of intra-state conflicts, and the consequentiality of inequality for inter-group relations) shows that resistance from opposing paradigms cannot fully explain the neglect of these proposals. They rather seem to have fallen victim to an epistemology that places more premium on parsimony than on adequacy. In a final analysis, however, the value of simplicity has been boosted by three strong, influential paradigms, each fostering an emphatic self-consciousness of parsimony: the free-marketeer economics, rational choice theory, and (neo) realism in inter-national relations. Because of their concerted pressure toward simplifying, the simple warnings that deter abuse of Occam’s Razor in natural sciences are inefficient in some social science domains. Here, stronger measures are needed to assure fair chances to complex solutions, such as a serious appreciation of adequacy (accuracy and completeness) versus parsimony, and/or moral penalty on simplification.

The significant scientific advances made in recent decades in fields such as cognitive science, neuroscience, developmental psychology and biology oblige us to reconsider some of the basic assumptions of social science. However, the task of recategorization is a particularly difficult one as it calls into question some of the central metaconceptions on which our scientific and cultural tradition is based. Moreover, there are certain powerful metacategories that limit our ability to conceive of more realistic and more precise explanations. The systematic recategorization carried out over the last 150 years in disciplines such as physics, geology, biology or paleoanthropology provides an excellent philosophical and methodological starting point from which to undertake the necessary review of the historical, institutional, cognitive and developmental foundations of contemporary social science.

Sustainable development expresses a qualitatively new type of development present both in man’s understanding and action. This is the very type of development that is formed consciously on the basis of the grasp of objective and necessary laws of nature, in which man and human society are inseparable parts. Sustainable development resolves harmonically relationships between man and man (the relationship between the present and future generations).In Vietnam has talked about sustainable development since the 1980s of the last century and sustainable development has become the strategic objective in Vietnam. The contents of the concept of sustainable development has been changed, supplemented and renovated. Vietnam has intended to build and implement the strategy of fast and sustainable development, which should be suitable for the concrete conditions of Vietnam. The strategy of fast and sustainable development has been affirmed officially in the Documents of the Party’s 9th Congress and supplemented and further developed in the Documents of the Party’s 10th and 11th Congress. In the practice of Vietnam, the strategy of fast and sustainable development is the effective way to guarantee country’s socialistic-oriented development aiming at the goal of “wealthy people, strong country, just, democratic and civilized society”.

Historical legitimacy of hermeneutics has not exclusively depended on the encouragement made by philosophers. In accordance with its hope of universality, philosophical hermeneutics has spread its influence over other research fields, with which the dialogical principle that characterizes it has realized itself as praxis of comprehension. In a wide sense, with the development of hermeneutics, Human and Social Sciences have rethought their cognitive frameworks and their role in society. An example of this expansion can be found in the sociology developed by Zygmunt Bauman. The purpose of this paper is to present the fundamental features of the sociological realization of hermeneutics in the work of this contemporary society’s analyst. We will mainly focus on the following: sociology as critical mediation of the present, which means to understand, in moral and political perspectives, the operation of the consumer society, as well as the human consequences (biographical and collective) of the consumption-based way of life. In short, this means to understand the challenges that human condition faces nowadays.

I would like to examine three approaches to methodological status of the social sciences and humanities. The specificative approach continues a tradition inherent in philosophy of W. Dilthey, W. Windelband, and H. Rickert, who focused attention on the studying of the specific features of the humanities. The unificative, or unificatory, approach was developed under the influence of positivism. It aims at justifying of the humanities methodology due to working out general scientific standards based on the priority of empirical methods. In this respect, unification of the methodology of science consequently should re-sult in the social sciences and humanities assimilation to the natural sciences. The works of L. Wittgenstein, C. G. Hempel, P. Oppenheim, R. Carnap, E. Nagel contributed to the strengthening of this approach. Nowadays several factors and drivers promote the integrative approach. It seems essential to emphasize the possibility and necessity to combine the methods of various disciplines in trans- and cross-disciplinary research. It is argued that the integrative approach reveals intrinsic potential of the social sciences and humanities for complementing the natural sciences and enriching the scientific methodology.

As two important fields of the human academic activities, the humanities and social science are both different and inherently unified. The differences between the humanities and social science mainly include the following three aspects: first, the objectives of the humanities and social science are different. Second, the thinking orientations of humanities and social science are different. Third, humanities and social science are thinking in different ways. For the unity of the humanities and social science, we can understand it from the following three aspects: first of all, humanities and social science are internally correlated in the research object. Secondly, humanities and social science restrict and guide each other in the process and results of exploration. Furthermore, humanities and social science dialectically complement each other in the spiritual ethos.

Uno de los mitos bastante difundido en nuestra época es la separación de las ciencias y la tecnología respecto a otras dimensiones de la cultura. Cabe señalar, sin embargo, que dicha presunción podemos rastrearla en muchos testimonios históricos, ya desde la misma antigüedad griega. Ahora bien, ¿cuáles son las razones que apoyarían a cada una de estas afirmaciones? ¿Son los desarrollos científico/tecnológicos los que con el tiempo nos proveerán de los recursos suficientes para subsanar los efectos indeseables del crecimiento desigual entre naciones, o bien la resolución del problema es de otra índole, ya que dependerá de decisiones político/económicas que se tomarán a nivel mundial y en la que lo científico/tecnológico ocupa el papel de mero instrumento? ¿Desde qué lugar se deberían discutir las intrincadas implicancias de un problema de estas características? Para indagar alrededor de este asunto me serviré de algunos desarrollos teóricos llevados a cabo por pensadores como Serres, Descola y en especial los de Latour, en relación a su concepto de humanidades científicas.

El presente trabajo se propone reflexionar acerca del modo en que algunas corrientes de pensamiento latinoamericano, más allá de sus matices y diferencias, se han replanteado tempranamente sus posturas epistemológicas a la luz de la articulación de los aportes de la fenomenología, la hermenéutica y la teoría crítica, desafiando con ello la lógica bipolar que opone “comprensión del sujeto social” a “transformación del mundo social”. En esta alternativa integradora, cuyos antecedentes se remontan a los años 70, ha tenido vital importancia la capacidad y la creatividad para articular dos categorías acuñadas como antagónicas en el marco de la Teoría Social: “Agencia” y “Emancipación”, entendiendo el primero como el énfasis en la capacidad de los sujetos para conocer y decidir sobre su vida social, y el último como la conciencia de que esos mismos sujetos requieren, para su desarrollo, de la construcción de una identidad aliviada de coacciones. Aun cuando este modelo epistemológico presenta aun desafíos a superar, al menos en tres frentes: Institucional, económico y político, invita en la actualidad a la reflexión científica tanto del rol de los científicos sociales como de los sujetos, en el proceso participado y recursivo de construcción del conocimiento social.

1. Рассмотренная в рамках социокультурного подхода, миграция предстает как инструмент и процесс формирования новой социокультурной реальности, характеризируемой постоянным «столкновением культур». 2. Используемые в современном обществе модели социокультурной интеграции поликультурного иммигрантского общества либо не адекватны демократическому обществу (унификация этнокультурного пространства), либо не эффективны, разрушают этнокультурный баланс, способствуют этнокультурному разобщению (мультикультурализм). 3. Мультикультурализм не является образцовой моделью интеграции для изначально полиэтнического российского общества. 4. Специфика миграционной ситуации южнороссийского региона определяется его изначальной полиэтничностью, локализацией основных перемещений в рамках региона, высоким потенциалом конфликтности. 5. Эмпирические исследования показали усиление интеграционного компонента этнических культур народов Северного Кавказа, который проявляется в стремлении к преодолению социальных и культурных дистанций, усилению межэтнического взаимодействия. 6. Изоляционный компонент этнических культур проявляется в акцентированной противоположности этнических авто- и гетеростереотипов, формировании этно- и мигрантофобий. 7. Формирование региональной идентичности и различные компоненты кросскультурных новообразований являются показателями складывающейся сложнокультурной общности. Механизм этнокультурной интеграции проявляется в формировании элементов кросскультурного регулирования сложнокультурного общества. 8. Содействие интеграции иммигрантского или поликультурного общества, образованного внутренними миграциями, представляет собой один из важнейших компонентов миграционной политики. Процессы интеграции, рассмотренные в рамках социокультурного подхода, позволяют обосновать изменении вектора политики этнокультурной интеграции: от проектирования состояния общества, толерантного многим культурам, к организации пространства этнокультурного, и шире, социокультурного, социального, политического диалогов.

Οι σχέσεις φιλοσοφίας και κοινωνιολογίας συνδέονται με τις διαφορές του αντικειμένου και της μεθόδου, οι οποίες καθορίζονται κατ’ ανάγκην από τις θεωρήσεις των κοινωνιολόγων. Συνεπώς η μόνη οδός για να προσδιορισθούν οι σχέσεις τους είναι η κατάρτιση μιας τυπολογίας με βάση την σχηματική ταξινόμηση των κοινωνιολογικών θεωρήσεων, ατομικών ή συλλογικών (σχολών). Λόγω της τεράστιας ποικιλίας των τελευταίων, μόνον ως απόπειρα μιας μερικής τυπολογίας μπορεί να νοηθεί η παρούσα εισήγηση. Με αυτό το δεδομένο μπορούν ενδεικτικά να κατηγοριοποιηθούν οι σχέσεις σε πέντε ομάδες: 1) σύμπτωση (συνύπαρξη) κοινωνιολογίας και φιλοσοφίας στο ίδιο πρόσωπο (G. Simmel, σχολή της Φρανκφούρτης), 2) αβαθής φιλοσοφική βάση στην πρώιμη εξελικτική κοινωνιολογία (A. Comte, H. Spencer), 3) συγκεκριμένες αλλά διαφοροποιημένες επιδράσεις της φιλοσοφίας στην κοινωνιολογία (επιλεκτική αναφορά: F. Tönnies, M. Weber), 4) επαμφοτερίζουσα και προβληματική σχέση του θετικιστικού εμπειρισμού με τη φιλοσοφία· εν προκειμένω μπορούν να διακριθούν σχηματικά οι εξής εκφάνσεις: α) αίτημα ανεξαρτησίας από τη φιλοσοφία (E. Durkheim, V. Pareto), β) απόπειρα σύνθεσης των αντιθετικών κατευθύνσεων, ιδεαλιστικής–θετικιστικής (T. Parsons), γ) πραγματιστικές και ψυχολογικές καταβολές του αμερικανικού συμπεριφορισμού – και συναφώς του δομολειτουργισμού – και ακραίος εμπειρισμός (κοινωνιολογισμός), τέλος 5) η κατά βάση νιτσεϊκής επίδρασης άρνηση της κοινωνιολογίας στο μεταμοντερνισμό (J. F. Lyotard, J. Baudrillard, κ.ά.).

Ethology developed as an objectivistic approach presuming that the animal mind should be excluded from scientific consideration. Konrad Lorenz was a proponent of an objectivistic line of research; however, he was deeply interested in the inner subjective world of animals and in the mind-body problem. At the initial stage of elaborating ethological theory, his consideration of subjective phenomena helped him understand the specific character of instinctive animal behavior. Lorenz was interested in some interrelated issues concerning animal mind: the validity of analogies between animal and human mind, the possibility of scientific examination of animal mind and of its content. He appreciated the value of the analogies, but his attitude towards these problems varied during his life. Lorenz maintained that the barrier between psychological and physiological domains is insuperable for rational thought. Holding the monistic worldview, he was convinced that subjective and physiological phenomena are, in reality, one and the same, which we recognize by means of two incommensurable cognitive capacities.

In medicine, a subtle but very significant distinction is made between etiology and pathogenesis. Often, to be aware of this difference is crucial for a correct diagnosis, successful treatment, as well as for a realistic and accurate prognosis. Philosophy can provide some methodological suggestions how to distinguish one from the other and how more successfully to make the transition between them. J.S. Mill’s inductive methods could serve as a model for the etiological approach to causation in medicine, while G. B. Vico’s verum-factum principle embodies the main elements and elucidates the very ground of pathogenesis. Mill’s strategy could be likened to a black-box method when certain events produce some results but we do not, cannot, and, perhaps, do not want to know why and how. Vico’s intention is opposite to Mill’s: his verum-factum dictum aims exactly at discovering and explaining why and how something happens.

In line with the perspective provided by the intentional paradigm which claims that the measures of subjective well-being (SWB), whether cognitive or affective, should refer to life itself, the Ontological Well-Being Scale (OWBS) has been operationalized. The research reported herein was aimed at developing and validating this psychometric tool in the assessment of individuals’ affective evaluations of their life within a three-time perspective. Five studies were conducted to confirm the factor structure of the OWBS and to assess its construct validity. Four factors were derived and validated, which were shown to relate to mental health indicators and personality in expected ways. It was found that this new construct, in contrast with the current measures, did not tap into the personality factors of extraversion and neuroticism. Incremental validity results showed that the OWBS explained additional variance in mental health indicators already captured by the current measures of SWB.

Two American distinguished philosophers of biology, Lindley Darden and C. Kenneth Waters, respectively proposed a way to emphasize the significance of scientific practice in constructing new biological theories for more than a decade. Darden’s strategy is the mechanism-based one towards discovery of new mechanisms (hereafter MD) while Waters’ approach is phenomenon-based towards the investigation of new phenomena (hereafter PI). Though both of MD and PI pay attention to the heuristic role of new phenomena in the laboratory, they explore it from different approaches. MD pursues new mechanisms, but it is still partial to theory instead of practical work. PI emphasizes the investigative utility of new phenomena, but it doesn’t illustrate the detailed process about how to integrate new phenomena with original data. Either MD or PI refers to one part of the significance, but neither of them is complete. We try to make up the shortage by “Experimental Discovery” (hereafter ED). ED offers the way including three steps: organizing new phenomena into the data model; producing the need and motivation to discover mechanisms; and constraining the direction for the construction of a new theory. With ED, we could and should see the discovery of new mechanisms, the investigation of new phenomena and the construction of new theories with attendant data models become a new three-in-one approach, MD-PI-ED, as the whole process of scientific practice in biology.

Depuis la «fondation du monde», l’humanisme a toujours considéré l’homme comme un «être à part», en tout cas, différent du reste du vivant. Le propos consiste ici à décrire la portée réelle de la révolution darwinienne, qui l’a précipité dans la nature, à partir d’une lecture imprédictible de l’histoire du vivant, encouragée par Gould en particulier, dont les conséquences sont autant logiques qu’éthiques.

Формирующаяся ныне, под воздействием биологических идей, современная научная картина мира – это не только синтетическое систематизированное и целостное представление о мире на данном этапе развития научного познания в его логической форме отображения действительности, но и результат синтеза всех фундаментальных составляющих философского знания нашего исторического периода, включающих онтологические, методологические, аксиологические и праксиологические аспекты.

By the close of the century the body had become the key site of political, social, economic and cultural intervention. For large part it has happen due to the topicality of the body in philosophical debates in the 20th century. In my paper I deal with Henry Bergson’s conception of body, its origins and its later reception in phenomenology (Merleau-Ponty, Barbaras). Bergson occupies dual position in the history of philosophy – on the one hand he revaluates the heritage of modern philosophy, on the other hand his thinking and method kick start completely different approach to classical philosophical issues, including the conception of the body. Bergsonian treatment of the body in terms of durée is one of his many innovations. I focus on the notion of my body in Bergson’s philosophy to show that despite criticism of phenomenological philosophy, Bergson offers radically new perspective on mind/body relation due to the understanding of the body.

The paper is devoted to a problem of the human embodiment analysis from a systematic point of view. An understanding of three different levels of a human embodiment organization is proposed. It is shown that each of them has its own needs and capabilities of operating and problem-solving. It is argued that the human embodiment as no equilibrium and opened system generates different types of a complex behavior in the course of its natural development. And it is just the quality of a system’s complexity that lies in a basis of the forming of such emergent properties as a conscious capacity. From this point of view, the mind and the body represent two different kinds of displays of a common fundamental capacity of the system to demonstrate a complex behavior, leading to emergence of a new qualities and new forms of orderings. At the level of embodiment organization this capacity will be manifested in the born of a new level of structural organization: relatively independent uniqueness, acting in the outer space as a self-dependent entity, – from the one side; and capacity of consciousness, – from the other side.

An archive is an integral part of literate life and is in the custody of political institutions for their historical value. It is a place and a reflection of social and institutional authority. It is first argued that societies who lack the faculty of recording histories contribute to the archive-making process in a different context. To advance this, the work of anthropologists on the Igorots, more specifically the Kalingas, of the Philippine Cordilleras and their tattooing practices are considered. It is claimed that in these societies, whose concept of the Western archive is absent, the body becomes a repository of significant life events and rituals concretized by tattoos. Tatooing becomes a form of memory on how bodies remember and create narratives. To better understand this point, Derrida’s two-fold understanding of the archive is discussed. The archive, on the one hand, as a commencement that evokes the writing of the archive and, on the other hand, the understanding of the tattoos as disjointed and incomplete allows us to understand tattoos as a trace.

Within the frame of complexity paradigm the possibility of the psychophysical mind-body problem reconsideration is regarded, as well as elimination of its duality. The body is considered through the prism of embodied mind theory and the embodied cognition approach as the unity of five interconnected dimensions of a person’s embodiment. Corporal and mental is one and the same thing, appearing in different guises on a perception surface. The careful consideration is also given to the wholism of a body-consciousness, a body-environment, a body-brain. The idea of embodied cognition and linguistic processes is established. Corporal and linguistic determination of cognitive processes gains a foothold.