Nº 5 (2025)
Articles
Formulation of the problem and definition of approaches to building semantic knowledge models for artificial intelligence.
Resumo
The article examines the issues related to the creation of semantic models of knowledge that can be used to endow artificial intelligence systems with the ability to understand the meaning of text in natural or any other language. Possible means for constructing semantic models of knowledge include the mechanism of multi-system integration of knowledge developed by the authors earlier, formal ontologies, and techniques of understanding meaning that have emerged within the framework of philological hermeneutics. Significant components of the presented study include an examination of the currently used language models of artificial intelligence, a new approach to the conceptualization of knowledge through its generalization in the form of open models, an assessment of the genesis and prospects of teleological and axiological interpretations of meaning for natural and artificial cognitive systems. The methodological basis of the presented study consists of the authors’ developments in the field of systems analysis, well-known analytical methods adopted within hermeneutics, structuralism, classical epistemology, formal ontology theory, and linguistic and language modeling. The scientific novelty of this research lies in the determination of the necessary tools for creating semantic models that generalize knowledge. The mentioned tools include: multi-system integration of knowledge based on the integration of the subject of cognition into multiple systems with subsequent generalization of the patterns identified in these systems and their translation for solving tasks of understanding and creativity; formal ontologies that implement the description of knowledge from a specific domain in the form of conceptual schemes, taking into account existing rules and relationships between elements, allowing automatic extraction of knowledge; and a wide variety of hermeneutic techniques for understanding meanings. Objective limitations of use for artificial cognitive systems that lack subjectivity and value prioritization in understanding meanings are noted. Some limitations in the use for artificial cognitive systems are also found in hermeneutic techniques for understanding the meaning of text. This is related to the impossibility of full reflection without feelings, emotions, and desires generated by needs that also initiate subjectivity.
Philosophical thought. 2025;(5):1-13
1-13
The (un)possibility of theodicy: the impact of the Lisbon earthquake on Enlightenment philosophical anthropology
Resumo
The article analyzes the influence of the Lisbon earthquake of 1755 on the transformation of philosophical and anthropological ideas of the Enlightenment. The main attention of the study is paid to the criticism of the Leibnizian project of theodicy and its axiological provisions, as well as the formation of the ideological categories of "optimism" and "pessimism" on the basis of this criticism. It examines how the catastrophe became a catalyst for rethinking the ontological, epistemological and ethical aspects of philosophical anthropology: the place of man in the "indifferent" cosmos, the limits of the rationalistic interpretation of the world, the problem of moral foundations in the conditions of structural injustice of the physical world. Particular emphasis is placed on the criticism of providentialism from the deistic positions of Voltaire and from the atheistic positions of the philosophers of French materialism. The role of the Lisbon earthquake in the development of Kant's pre-critical philosophy is examined in detail, with the intuitions of his early works being explicated in the theoretical structure of the critical period, on the basis of which the provisions of critical "optimism" are formed. The research methodology combines the historical and philosophical reconstruction of the discussion of Leibniz, Voltaire and Rousseau on providentialism, the discourse analysis of philosophical works that interpret the event of the Lisbon earthquake (Voltaire's "Candide, or Optimism", D. Diderot's "Jacques the Fatalist and His Master", and I. Kant's "pre-critical" works), and the interpretation of the concepts of "optimism" and "pessimism" in the optics of philosophical anthropology. The work demonstrates how intellectual receptions of the Lisbon earthquake not only explicated the "optimistic" crisis of Leibnizian theodicy, but also contributed to a rethinking of the historical and physical aspects of human existence. The author reveals that the materialistic optics in the philosophy of the French Enlightenment (D. Diderot, P.-A. Holbach, D. de Sade) interpreted human existence in the register of existential risks. The main conclusion is the thesis on the transformation of philosophical and anthropological ideas: man is defined as a finite being forced to seek ways to reconcile reason with nature in a post-catastrophic world. The study shows that Kant's synthesis, combining the epistemological "pessimism" of knowledge with the rationalistic "optimism" of the autonomy of reason, proposed a constructive model for modern philosophical anthropology, relevant in the context of new global challenges.
Philosophical thought. 2025;(5):14-38
14-38
Historical individuation in the light of speculative ontology and new materialism in Manuel DeLanda.
Resumo
This work examines the concept of individuation as a historical process, developed by the representative of speculative ontology and new materialism, Manuel DeLanda. The aim of this article is not only to rethink the problem of the formation of individual entities (individuals, institutions, cities, and nation-states), but also to consider it within the context of the concept of "assemblage." In other words, historical individuation in DeLanda's work is a concept that describes the process of formation and stabilization of social, cultural, and material entities through the interaction of heterogeneous elements within social assemblages. DeLanda borrows the term "individuation" from Gilbert Simondon, but reinterprets it in the framework of his speculative ontology, which unites nonlinear material processes, contingency, and emergence. Hence, it follows that all entities—from molecules to cities, from bacteria to algorithms—exist in one plane, without hierarchy. The interdisciplinary analysis of historical individuation in DeLanda's framework requires a rejection of reductionism, consideration of the multiplicity of levels, and an emphasis on processuality, as well as a combination of comparative-historical, systemic, and network approaches. A key task is to capture the dynamics of interactions in assemblages, taking into account the role of contingency and emergence. This allows for a departure from simplified models of history in favor of a multidimensional analysis, where the material and social intertwine in unpredictable patterns. Furthermore, DeLanda's concept of individuation as a historical process enables the analysis of history as a multitude of intertwining processes, where "material" and "social" are interdependent, and contingency and emergence coexist. In this case, the achievement of the concept of "assemblage" is the description of relationships as external, that is, multiple and qualitatively diverse. Through the parameterization of philosophical concepts, DeLanda is capable of describing phenomena as simulations, tracking their changes through chains of relationships rather than through cause-and-effect links. This ability to quantitatively represent previously unique events makes the concept of "assemblages" promising for analyzing correlations found in large volumes of information. Nevertheless, this transformation leads to a loss of emphasis on individual existence, which falls outside of DeLanda's consideration. As a metaphysics of multiplicity, also utilizing scientific concepts but retaining a focus on individual existence, one can reference the concept of "individuation" by Gilbert Simondon.
Philosophical thought. 2025;(5):39-57
39-57
Rhetoric of Science: On the Conceptual Origins of One Oxymoron and the Possibilities to Overcome It
Resumo
Despite the obviousness of the rhetorical basis of scientific discourse, the idea of the rhetoric of science is one of the most controversial and paradoxical - the combination of "rhetoric of science" is often perceived as an oxymoron. In the article, using hermeneutic reflection, as well as logical and analytical methods developed within the framework of modern epistemology of the humanities, the conceptual sources of this perception are analyzed and the possibilities for overcoming it are identified. The idea is developed according to which the negative attitude to rhetorical elements in scientific reflection has an ancient history, rooted in various layers of the philosophical theoretical array. Particular attention is paid to the objectivist criticism of semantic ambiguity, its connection with the negative philosophical assessment of rhetoric and the idea of philosophical reform of natural language is traced. It is shown that one of the reasons for the philosophical criticism of rhetoric is the introduction of subjectivity and ambiguity into scientific research - epistemic elements that do not fit into the framework of objectivist scientific idealization. The origins of this epistemological optics are found in ancient philosophical thought — in the dispute between the Socratic-Platonic and rhetorical-sophistic traditions of understanding truth and the role of the connection between language and thinking in achieving it. An analysis of the conceptual foundations of philosophical criticism of eloquence is carried out, as a result of which it is concluded that rhetoric, acting as an instrument of communicative practices, becomes hostage to the confrontation of philosophy and politics as intellectual foundations of the existing order of things. The author associates the possibilities of overcoming the perception of the rhetoric of science as an oxymoron with the importance of considering the interaction of the epistemological and epistemic levels of scientific knowledge and explicating its (interaction) rhetorical design.
Philosophical thought. 2025;(5):58-67
58-67
Meaning as a category of social sciences and humanities
Resumo
W. Dilthey argued that the main categories of humanities ("Geisteswissenschaften") are not cause and effect, but purpose, value and meaning. Indeed, we usually give teleological, rather than causal, explanations for human actions. Actions are from the beginning perceived as intentional. Intentions cannot be considered as the causes of human actions and historical events in the natural sciences’ sense. In intentional actions, we react not to objects and situations as such, but to their meaning. Meaning is a new side of phenomena that appears in the world of purposefully acting beings. Objects and phenomena acquire meaning in relation to our goals. Supporters of the naturalistic approach in social sciences and humanities strive to get rid of meanings, to reduce the material of humanitarian knowledge to what is accessible to external observation. Philosophical grounds for such an approach were given by logical positivism. And in sociology – by E. Durkheim and behaviorism. However, it is not possible to perform such an approach consistently. Each culture is a world of meanings. The ways of understanding meanings accepted in a given culture are assimilated by us in the process of socialization. Meanings are fixed and realized in language. But the world of meanings is internalized practically – in the course of the development of a child's activity and his mastery of the forms of activity characteristic of a given culture. The central character of the concept of meaning in humanitarian knowledge prevents the transfer of natural scientific methods into it. The scientistic interpretation of psychoanalysis is criticized, because it works entirely in the field of meanings. It is proved that it is impossible to analyze social and human life, ignoring the world of meanings.
Philosophical thought. 2025;(5):68-80
68-80