This article aims to examine sociality’s multipolar and intentional structure beyond an inter-subjectivist perspective; beyond the view that the social world consists of only subjects and their interaction. The article is divided into four sections. First, I present Benoist’s critique of mainstream inter-subjectivist accounts of phenomenology. Second, I introduce Husserl’s concept of Gemeingeist and provide a preliminary definition of it as a “substrate of habits.” Third, I focus on the sociological and ontological sources of Benoist’s critique, specifically Descombes’ (...) reassessment of Hartmann’s distinction between objective and objectified mind. Finally, I revise my preliminary Husserlian definition of “common mind” drawing both from the distinction between objective and objectified mind and Benoist’s account of habituation as a two-sided correlative phenomenon. Although he often tends to phrase his account in intersubjectivist terms, Husserl’s phenomenology offers valuable tools to address the multipolar structure of sociality, which does not only consist of subjects in their interactions, but foremost, in the way the human mind is embedded in institutions and extended in a range of objects that bear social meaning and that guide and bind human life to an extent that is unique among social animals. (shrink)

This chapter introduces the edited volume and its 28 chapters. It discusses public perceptions of Central Asia which are often marked by prejudice, and briefly familiarizes readers with this region by providing some historical insights and by outlining key economic, political, and societal trends. The chapter moreover gives a short overview of the current scholarship and points out research gaps that the volume wishes to fill. It then depicts the structure of the book, which is based on an introductory (...) section, part I on the political systems of the five Central Asian states, part II on key themes such as democratization, corruption, and terrorism, part III on the roles of external actors and their bilateral relations with the five countries, part IV on regional cooperation in key policy fields, and lastly an outlook into the future. Finally, succinct overviews of the 28 chapters are provided. (shrink)

In his very interesting paper Harry Kunneman argues for an alternative view on voluntary work which not so much stresses the economic aspect but primarily its existentially meaningful aspect. To underpin this, Kunneman makes use of a broad range of hermeneutical, social-philosophical, complexity theoretical, biological and other ideas. This multipolar structure of the article might also prove to be its very weakness, because the rich train of thought remains highly abstract. This could be overcome by using examples and (...) casuistry to elucidate and specify the many distinctions in the article. (shrink)

In his very interesting paper Harry Kunneman argues for an alternative view on voluntary work which not so much stresses the economic aspect but primarily its existentially meaningful aspect. To underpin this, Kunneman makes use of a broad range of hermeneutical, social-philosophical, complexity theoretical, biological and other ideas. This multipolar structure of the article might also prove to be its very weakness, because the rich train of thought remains highly abstract. This could be overcome by using examples and (...) casuistry to elucidate and specify the many distinctions in the article. (shrink)

Die Konvergenz von Intersubjektivität und Habitus in Husserls Untersuchungen zum Gemeingeist unterstreicht die konstitutive Relevanz der intentionalen Verbindung einer Vielheit von Subjekten. In diesem Kapitel zeige ich, wie diese Konvergenz nicht nur regionalontologische, sondern auch phänomenologische, epistemologische und metaphysische Folgen hat bezüglich: 1. der Erweiterung der egologischen Phänomenologie in eine soziologische Phänomenologie; 2. der Rolle von sozialen Strukturen für die Konstitution der Objektivität; und 3. der Wechselwirkung von Leben, Natur und Gemeingeist.Husserl erläutert die parallele Konstitution von geistigen Subjekten und Objekten (...) im Rahmen von sozialen Einheiten, die durch bleibende gemeinsame Meinungen gebunden sind. Allerdings ringt er mit der Unterscheidung zwischen intentionalem „Akt“ und intentionaler „Hexis“. Während er zunächst zögert, den Habitusbegriff zu verwenden, da er Vermengungen von psychologischen, durch Assoziation geregelten Dispositionen einerseits und personalen, aufgrund von rationaler Einsicht erworbenen Überzeugungen andererseits befürchtet, kommt er schließlich zu dem Schluss, dass bleibende Meinungen in der habituellen Einheit eines Satzes bestehen. Denn eine Person zu sein heißt, bleibende Überzeugungen, Wertungen und Entscheidungen zu bestätigen und sich somit zur Selbstkohärenz zu verpflichten. Wenn zwei oder mehr Personen sich gemeinsam verpflichten, dann verpflichten sie sich zur Kohärenz ihrer gemeinsamen Stellungnahme und bilden somit ein plurales, auf Einzelsubjekten wechselseitig fundiertes Subjekt. Mit anderen Worten: Der Gemeingeist ist keine egologische, sondern eine multipolare Struktur. Schließlich eröffnet die Erschließung der konstitutiven Rolle von Habitualitäten die Möglichkeit ihrer Neutralisierung durch die sogenannte „Abbaureduktion“, die eine intentionale Transformation der Lebenswelt natürlicher Einstellung in die reine Natur des naturalistischen Ansatzes leistet. Dank dieser Methode wird die Koordination der Seinsregionen Bewusstsein, Natur und Gemeingeist nicht mehr durch ein ideales Ego, sondern durch die phänomenologische Dekonstruktion der konkreten sozialisierten Lebenswelt gewährleistet.The convergence of intersubjectivity and habit in Husserl’s investigations on Common Mind stresses the constitutive relevance of the intentional connection between a plurality of subjects. In this chapter I argue that this convergence possesses not only regional-ontological consequences, but also phenomenological, epistemological and metaphysical ones regarding: 1. the enhancement of egological phenomenology into a sociological phenomenology; 2. the role of social structures for the constitution of objectivity; and 3. the interplay of Life, Nature and Common Mind.Husserl expounds on the parallel constitution of cultural subjects and objects within social unities, which are bound by enduring common opinions or beliefs. However, he struggles with the distinction between intentional ‘act’ and ‘hexis’. Initially reluctant to use the concept of habitus, fearing conflations between psychological dispositions ruled by association on the one hand, and personal convictions based on rational insights on the other, he finally concludes that enduring opinions persist in the habitual unity of a thesis (Satz). To be a person is to endorse enduring convictions, evaluations and decisions, thereby committing oneself to self-consistency. If two or more people jointly commit themselves, they commit themselves to consistency to their joint endorsement, thereby forming a plural subject, mutually founded on individuals. In other words, Common Mind is not an egological but a multipolar structure. Finally, the disclosure of the constitutive role of habits offers the possibility of their neutralization through ‘deconstructive reductions’ (Abbaureduktionen), which enable an intentional transformation of the lifeworld of the natural attitude into a pure nature of the naturalistic approach. Thanks to this method, the coordination of the regions Consciousness, Nature and Common Mind is no longer provided by an ideal ego, but by the phenomenological deconstruction of the concrete socialized lifeworld. (shrink)

The greatest global risk facing the twenty-first century is the transformation of strategic competition between the United States and China from economic rivalry into political confrontation, technological decoupling, and even military conflict. Traditional theories such as realism, liberalism, and hegemonic stability theory are no longer capable of fundamentally explaining or resolving current structural tensions, because their logic remains rooted in the industrial civilization assumptions of “state-centrism” and “expansion-driven development.” -/- This paper seeks to transcend the traditional geopolitical perspective by introducing (...) the Lao-Yang Genesis Cosmology as a new systemic analytical framework. It argues that the essence of U.S.–China conflict is not merely an ideological struggle, but rather a structural imbalance emerging from the evolution of industrial civilization into a high-entropy stage. -/- The paper first analyzes the limitations of hegemonic civilization under industrial modernity: the United States, due to excessive financialization, has experienced deindustrialization and social fragmentation, while the enormous maintenance costs of global military expansion have generated deep hegemonic anxiety. China, meanwhile, despite possessing strong state capacity and a powerful manufacturing system, also faces resource bottlenecks and systemic balancing challenges inherent within industrial logic. -/- Based on the generative sequence embedded in the Lao-Yang Genesis Cosmology — “Humanity follows Earth; Earth follows Heaven; Heaven follows Dao; Dao follows Nature” — this paper proposes the necessity of transitioning from hegemonic civilization toward a Generative Civilization. Within this framework, power is no longer understood as a vector of infinite expansion, but rather as the dynamic balancing potential within a system. -/- The paper innovatively proposes: -/- 1. At the political level: recognizing the “naturalness” of multipolarity and shifting from an order of conquest toward an order of cooperation; 2. At the economic level: transcending the model of infinite growth and establishing a “generative economic structure” under ecological and systemic constraints; 3. At the technological level: transforming AI from a mere force multiplier into Artificial Wisdom (AW) as a systemic resonator capable of constraining human greed; 4. At the military level: establishing a “Generative Security Paradigm,” in which security arises not from suppressing others, but from reducing the entropy of the overall system. -/- The conclusion argues that U.S.–China competition is not a historical accident, but the product of industrial civilization reaching systemic limits. Humanity’s highest wisdom lies not in destroying rivals, but in maintaining systemic stability within the cosmic chain of generative existence. Moving from geopolitics toward a “planetary civilization,” and realizing coexistence between the United States and China through “generative equilibrium,” constitutes the only viable path for mitigating conflict and sustaining human civilization. (shrink)

Between 2022 and 2025, Russia’s leading far-right ideologue Alexander Dugin garnered notable attention in Chinese intellectual, media, and nationalist circles. Initially welcomed by some as a kindred civilizational thinker opposing Western liberal hegemony, Dugin’s image evolved from that of a respected foreign intellectual to a controversial figure. This paper traces the evolution of his reception across China’s tightly managed ideological ecosystem, drawing on a mixed-methods analysis of traditional media (Guancha; Cankao Xiaoxi, or Reference News; and the Global Times), digital platforms (...) (Weibo, Bilibili, Zhihu, Xiaohongshu), and think-tank publications. It argues that while Dugin’s early appeal lay in his critique of Western universalism and endorsement of multipolarity, the deeper metaphysical and hierarchical dimensions of his worldview ultimately clashed with China’s civilizational self-perception and strict norms of ideological sovereignty. By situating this episode within broader debates on ideological convergence and authoritarian narrative management, this paper highlights the structural constraints limiting the transnational diffusion of illiberal ideologies, even in regimes nominally aligned against the liberal international order. (shrink)

In line with a recent rise in anti-LGBTQ discourse within conservative Russian politics, Aleksandr Dugin has increasingly critiqued “postmodern” theories that allegedly underpin social diversity (sexual, gender, racial, etc.) within the West: queer theory, post-structuralism, and other theoretical accounts of identity and alterity. In Dugin’s argument for a political philosophy of Eurasianism, the Western endorsement of multiculturalism and pluralism is indicative of individualism and “Atlanticist” liberalism, therefore at odds with the traditional, nationalist collectivism of Eurasia. In this light, queer theory (...) is a Western imposition whose philosophical premises directly contradict native, Russian traditions. Dugin’s attack on queer theory, however, mark a departure from the philosopher’s earlier career within the National Bolshevik movement. Throughout the nineties, Dugin was relatively sympathetic with the nascent LGBT movement in Russia: specifically within the political and philosophical circles of National Bolshevism, in which such figures as Eduard Limonov and Slava Mogutin coalesced with fascists and communists around a broad critique of Western capitalism and openly embraced homoeroticism and countercultural, queer dissidence. Dugin’s links to the LGBT movement are even relatively mainstream: his first wife, Evgeniia Debrianskaia, was a prominent gay activist, and both Debrianskaia and Dugin for a time viewed the Eurasianism’s goals as aligned with that of LGBT activism in Russia. This article examines the development of Dugin’s political philosophy in the context of his reading of queer theory. It first discusses the link in historical terms, in the connections between Dugin’s early post-Soviet career and post-Soviet Russian gay activism. The article then focuses on Dugin’s philosophy of “multipolarity,” as a form of resistance to universalist, American hegemony, in order to illustrate how Dugin’s Eurasianist account of political “anti-normativity” both aligns and contradicts with his reading of queer theory. The article concludes with comments on the globalization of queer theory, cultural imperialism, and its relationship to Dugin’s geopolitics. (shrink)

The first volume in Peter Sloterdijk's monumental Spheres trilogy: an investigation of humanity's engagement with intimate spaces. An epic project in both size and purview, Peter Sloterdijk's three-volume, 2,500-page Spheres is the late-twentieth-century bookend to Heidegger's Being and Time. Rejecting the century's predominant philosophical focus on temporality, Sloterdijk, a self-described “student of the air,” reinterprets the history of Western metaphysics as an inherently spatial and immunological project, from the discovery of self to the exploration of world to the poetics of (...) plurality. Exploring macro- and micro-space from the Greek agora to the contemporary urban apartment, Sloterdijk is able to synthesize, with immense erudition, the spatial theories of Aristotle, René Descartes, Gaston Bachelard, Walter Benjamin, and Georges Bataille into a morphology of shared, or multipolar, dwelling—identifying the question of being as one bound up with the aerial technology of architectonics and anthropogenesis. Sloterdijk describes Bubbles, the first volume of Spheres, as a general theory of the structures that allow couplings—or as the book's original intended subtitle put it, an “archeology of the intimate.” Bubbles includes a wide array of images, not to illustrate Sloterdijk's discourse, but to offer a spatial and visual “parallel narrative” to his exploration of bubbles. Written over the course of a decade, the Spheres trilogy has waited another decade for its much-anticipated English translation from Semiotext. Volumes II, Globes, and III, Foam, will be published in the coming seasons. (shrink)

In The Concept of the Political, Carl Schmitt excludes the possibility of a World State from the perspective of the structure of the political. As a fundamental category in which all political phenomena can be resolved, at its core stands friend-enemy antagonism. The concept implies a decision regarding the enemy, and therefore, about the state of exception and sovereignty. A world State, according to Schmitt, not only excludes the enemy, which in its human form is included in the planetary (...) ordering of humanity, but it eradicates the political as political. Nevertheless, in The Nomos of the Earth, the changing global spaces and political orders determine the end of the classical concept of the enemy and, as a result, the modern State. Keeping current global events in mind, the paper aims to evaluate Carl Schmitt's thought on the possibility of a politically unified world in geopolitical dynamics that appear to announce a new nomos of the Earth as a multipolarity of superpowers. Faced with the political future of humanity, which manifests itself as a pluriverse, an inquiry into the concept of the political might help us grasp the orderings and localizations of contemporary nomos. (shrink)

This review examines the main problems of the XX International Likhachev Scientific Readings held in June 2022 at the St. Petersburg Humanitarian University of Trade Unions. The readings took place after a two-year break and their problems shifted from the traditional question of the dialogue of cultures to the question of modern conflict tension in the world. Within the framework of the Readings, a number of breakout sessions were held on various aspects of humanitarian knowledge in the context of the (...) current political situation. The subject of the study is the discussion held during the plenary session, as well as the topic of the section, in which ethical and cultural issues were analyzed. The author of the review paid special attention to the opinions expressed by foreign participants of the conference regarding the conflict situation in the world and their assumptions about the ways to resolve it. The general idea of these reports is the idea of a desirable political multipolarity of the global space and criticism of changes in the structure of understanding of liberal values in the modern Western world. The topics of the reports of domestic researchers, humanities scientists dealing with these value transformations were also described. The author made critical remarks about the general tone of the discussion and the conclusions drawn by the speakers, since, criticizing the Western "cancellation culture", the participants mostly tended to the idea of a mirror response - and thus also to the idea of "cancellation", which makes this answer indistinguishable from what he criticizes, and only contributing to the escalation of tension. (shrink)

Supranationalism is a model of international integration in which states transfer part of their sovereignty to common institutions. The contemporary global order is undergoing a transformation toward a multipolar system, in which three types of supranational entities play a key role: regional (the EU), global (the UN), and hybrid (BRICS). The EU remains the most advanced regional structure, although it is constrained by internal divisions and a lack of a coherent strategy. The UN, as the main global actor, (...) struggles with decision-making gridlock and declining effectiveness. BRICS, on the other hand, as a hybrid format, is gaining importance due to its flexibility, economic complementarity, and the growing influence of the Global South. The analysis suggests that hybrid structures like BRICS + have the greatest adaptive potential to the changing international environment and are playing an increasingly significant role in shaping the new world order, providing an alternative to traditional Western institutions. (shrink)

Kyrgyzstan, once described as an “island of democracy” in Central Asia, has undergone major political changes in recent years. A constitutional reform that followed the ousting of former president Sooronbay Jeenbekov has significantly strengthened the presidential powers of his successor, Sadyr Japarov, and possibly placed Kyrgyzstan on a trajectory toward authoritarianism. To better understand current developments in Kyrgyzstan, this chapter provides an overview of the country’s political transformations after 1991, an assessment of its economic situation, and comprehensive insights into various (...) aspects of Kyrgyzstan’s political system, the changes brought by the constitutional reform, and its role in the region. Moreover, the chapter highlights current structural problems and provides an outlook for policy areas that demand close observation in the future. (shrink)

Uzbekistan’s change in political leadership at the dawn of 2017 pushed it to begin a dynamic process of liberalization in the economic and social spheres. Without denying the importance of these transformations, this chapter argues that the basic structural features of the country’s political and social life have not meaningfully changed. Uzbekistan remains a weak state with a weak society, a “super-presidential” system of government with no rule of law, and a model of “state capitalism.” These factors contribute to the (...) fragility of the ongoing transformations, as they are perceived by some interest groups as a threat and therefore create difficulties for the country’s governance and transformation. There is a genuine danger that the assurance of stability and of the status quo of the ruling elites will override sustainable liberalization when the two are in conflict. (shrink)

This chapter provides an overview of terrorism in Central Asia. In recent years, the Central Asian region has experienced a relatively low level of terrorist incidents in comparison to the 1990s, a period characterized by the frequency and severity of attacks. The Central Asian states—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan—have implemented heightened security measures to counter terrorism. These measures are underpinned by a framework of national legislation, policies, and strategies, as well as international agreements. Participation in regional counterterrorism structures also (...) reinforces these efforts for the majority of states. The tendency toward adopting a more robust security-oriented approach in combating terrorism has been the subject of critical scrutiny, particularly regarding its implications for human rights. However, the recent flow of Central Asian “foreign fighters” to conflict zones in Syria and Iraq and the increasing involvement of Central Asians in terrorist attacks outside the region have raised genuine security concerns. (shrink)

Contemporary architecture is increasingly grounded in science and mathematics. Architectural discourse has shifted radically from the sometimes disorienting Derridean deconstruction, to engaging scientific terms such as fractals, chaos, complexity, nonlinearity, and evolving systems. That's where the architectural action is -- at least for cutting-edge architects and thinkers -- and every practicing architect and student needs to become conversant with these terms and know what they mean. Unfortunately, the vast majority of architecture faculty are unprepared to explain them to students, not (...) having had a scientific education themselves. Here is an architecture book by an architect/scientist, just in time to help architects in the new millennium. Alexander discusses many of the scientific terms arising in cutting-edge architecture, and explains them to those who don't have scientific training or advanced mathematical knowledge. We find discussions of the evolution of forms; the importance of process in design; iteration; genetic algorithms; sequences of transformations; different levels of scale (i.e. fractals); etc. They are explained here by an architect who is also a scientist, because he wants to change the way architects think and build. Alexander is not merely popularizing other scientists' results and making them accessible to architects: he is in fact presenting new and original scientific work that ties many of these concepts together in a way that will be useful to architects. (shrink)

The increasing pace of global connectivity is transforming our sense of place. Traditionally our cultural and religious practices created our connections with place, but today with our increasing reliance on information, artificial intelligence, and online media, we are increasingly distanced from these older practices and as a result uprooted. Some see this as a kind of liberation from older hierarchical forms of control and see the breaking of older hierarchies - such as religious and national identifications - as a return (...) to a more genuine connection with local places. But this idea of freedom from our old idols also leads to certain dangers. One paradox is that the liberation from local state control gives way to cybernetic control, where human beings are becoming more easily individually shaped and manipulated from afar. This presentation will consider how to navigate a global situation of overlapping places, of the tension between physical and virtual spaces, and of the geopolitical competitions for place. The presentation will approach these problems through reference to various writers like Benedict Anderson, Michel Serres, Deleuze and Guattari, Michel de Certeau and Friedrich Nietzsche. (shrink)

El Tratado de Amistad y Cooperación hispanoportugués implementa la reactivación económica de ambos países y los fondos europeos Next Generation EU impulsan las iniciativas tecnológicas de estos. Permitiendo la puesta en marcha de un proyecto que establecerá una red espacial compuesta por 16 satélites, que proporcionarán diversas y sustanciosas informaciones para prever emergencias, mejorar la calidad de vida, adaptar la transición ecológica, generar empleo de calidad, fomentar el crecimiento empresarial con capital público o privado y simultáneamente la obtención de datos (...) e informes requeridos por las agencias de inteligencia estatales, de la UE, o los miembros de la OTAN. (shrink)

El Tratado de Amistad y Cooperación hispanoportugués implementa la reactivación económica de ambos países y los fondos europeos Next Generation EU impulsan las iniciativas tecnológicas de estos. Permitiendo la puesta en marcha de un proyecto que establecerá una red espacial compuesta por 16 satélites, que proporcionarán diversas y sustanciosas informaciones para prever emergencias, mejorar la calidad de vida, adaptar la transición ecológica, generar empleo de calidad, fomentar el crecimiento empresarial con capital público o privado y simultáneamente la obtención de datos (...) e informes requeridos por las agencias de inteligencia estatales, de la UE, o los miembros de la OTAN. (shrink)

This article examines how emerging technologies – particularly artificial intelligence – disrupt the moral and institutional foundations of contemporary military practice. While strategic documents from the United States, NATO, and other major actors anticipate profound institutional transformation driven by AI, their treatment of ethics largely confines itself to legal compliance and technical safeguards, leaving the ethical role of military leadership in managing disruptive change underexamined. Drawing on Seumas Miller’s distinction between social institutions that are merely instrumental to collective goods and (...) those whose defining ends are constitutive of such goods, the article argues that the military belongs to the latter category. Because the military’s core function – defending the sovereignty of a polity – is itself morally significant, technological disruption of its organizational structures simultaneously constitutes ethical disruption. The article thus reconceives change management during periods of technological transition as calling for a specific kind of military prudence, a practical wisdom exercised within and through the institution’s role-mediated ethical practices. By analyzing three concrete modes of techno-moral disruption, the article shows how AI may reshape ethical standards, redistribute professional knowledge, and alter organizational ethos, and why navigating these transformations responsibly is a central task of military virtue. (shrink)

This paper develops a theory of analog representation. We first argue that the mark of the analog is to be found in the nature of a representational system’s interpretation function, rather than in its vehicles or contents alone. We then develop the rulebound structure theory of analog representation, according to which analog systems are those that use interpretive rules to map syntactic structural features onto semantic structural features. The theory involves three degree-theoretic measures that capture three independent ways in (...) which a system can be more or less analog. We explain how our theory improves upon prior accounts of analog representation, provides plausible diagnoses for novel challenge cases, extends to hybrid systems that are partially analog and partially symbolic, and accounts for some of the advantages and disadvantages of representing analogically versus symbolically. (shrink)

The Structure of Emotions argues that emotion concepts should have a much more important role in the social and behavioural sciences than they now enjoy, and shows that certain influential psychological theories of emotions overlook the explanatory power of our emotion concepts. Professor Gordon also outlines a new account of the nature of commonsense (or ‘folk’) psychology in general.

Predictive processing is an ambitious neurocomputational framework, offering an unified explanation of all cognitive processes in terms of a single computational operation, namely prediction error minimization. Whilst this ambitious unificatory claim has been thoroughly analyzed, less attention has been paid to what predictive processing entails for structure–function mappings in cognitive neuroscience. We argue that, taken at face value, predictive processing entails an all-to-one structure–function mapping, wherein each individual neural structure is assigned the same function, namely minimizing prediction (...) error. Such a structure–function mapping, we show, is highly problematic. For, barring few, rare occasions, such a structure–function mapping fails to play the predictive, explanatory and heuristic roles structure–function mappings are expected to play in cognitive neuroscience. Worse still, it offers a picture of the brain that we know is wrong. For, it depicts the brain as an equipotential organ; an organ wherein structural differences do not correspond to any appreciable functional difference, and wherein each component can substitute for any other component without causing any loss or degradation of functionality. Somewhat ironically, the very neuroscientific roots of predictive processing motivate a form of skepticism concerning the framework’s most ambitious unificatory claims. Do these problems force us to abandon predictive processing? Not necessarily. For, once the assumption that all cognition can be accounted for exclusively in terms of prediction error minimization is relaxed, the problems we diagnosed lose their bite. (shrink)

The objects we encounter in ordinary life and scientific practice - cars, trees, people, houses, molecules, galaxies, and the like - have long been a fruitful source of perplexity for metaphysicians. The Structure of Objects gives an original analysis of those material objects to which we take ourselves to be committed in our ordinary, scientifically informed discourse. Koslicki focuses on material objects in particular, or, as metaphysicians like to call them "concrete particulars", i.e., objects which occupy a single region (...) of space-time at each time at which they exist and which have a certain range of properties that go along with space-occupancy, such as weight, shape, color, texture, and temperature. The Structure of Objects focuses in particular on the question of how the parts of such objects, assuming that they have parts, are related to the wholes which they compose. (shrink)

In this article, readers are presented with an analysis of some of the problems that became the center of discussion at the XXI International Likhachev Scientific Readings held in May 2023 at the St. Petersburg Humanitarian University of Trade Unions. The readings were held under the general title "Dialogues and conflicts of cultures in a changing world", combining the traditional theme of dialogue with the problems of conflict that have arisen in recent years. This review focuses on two significant issues, (...) one of which determined the course of the plenary discussion, and the other became the main one for the breakout session devoted to the values and trends of the modern world. The main issue of the plenary session was the consideration of the conflict between the unipolar and multipolar world. Both domestic and foreign participants actively spoke out on this issue. The speakers who spoke at the Readings adhered to the idea of prioritizing the values of a multipolar world, pointing to the undemocratic nature of unipolarity. Analyzing this aspect of the discussion, the author of the review notes that in modern society the same value attitudes develop to the limits where they lead to opposite conclusions. The idea of unipolarity implies the uniqueness of the democratic model. From the idea of multipolarity, there are many different development scenarios, which looks like a more democratic position. It can be concluded that the value attitude coincides, but the basis of the ideological conflict is a political conflict. Nevertheless, the final value discrepancy is very acute. The philosophical and cultural section of the conference was devoted to this. Noting the sharpness of the criticism expressed by the speakers to the "new ethics" and the "culture of cancellation", the author of the review points out that in this criticism there is a desire to "cancel" the criticized, which again unites both positions, but does not provide grounds for a constructive dialogue. To overcome the contradiction, a rational analysis of the ideological and historical foundations, as well as the dynamics of the development of opposing value positions, is necessary. (shrink)

Fine, Lowe and Hale accept the view that necessity is to be explained by essences: Necessarily p iff, and because, there is some x whose essence ensures that p. Hale, however, believes that this strategy is not universally applicable; he argues that the necessity of essentialist truths cannot itself be explained by once again appealing to essentialist truths. As a consequence, Hale holds that there are basic necessities that cannot be explained. Thus, Hale style essentialism falls short of what Wilsch (...) calls the explanation-challenge (EC) for the metaphysics of necessity. Without endorsing the EC, I argue that Hale’s argument for basic, unexplained necessities fails due to a misunderstanding of the structure of essentialist explanations. Getting clear about the structure of essentialist explanations of necessity leads to a re-evaluation of crucial circularity- and regress-arguments that have been discussed in the debate about essentialism. (shrink)

More often than not, recently popular structuralist interpretations of physical theories leave the central concept of a structure insufficiently precisified. The incipient causal sets approach to quantum gravity offers a paradigmatic case of a physical theory predestined to be interpreted in structuralist terms. It is shown how employing structuralism lends itself to a natural interpretation of the physical meaning of causal set theory. Conversely, the conceptually exceptionally clear case of causal sets is used as a foil to illustrate how (...) a mathematically informed rigorous conceptualization of structure serves to identify structures in physical theories. Furthermore, a number of technical issues infesting structuralist interpretations of physical theories such as difficulties with grounding the identity of the places of highly symmetrical physical structures in their relational profile and what may resolve these difficulties can be vividly illustrated with causal sets. (shrink)

Time underlies many interesting human behaviors. Thus, the question of how to represent time in connectionist models is very important. One approach is to represent time implicitly by its effects on processing rather than explicitly (as in a spatial representation). The current report develops a proposal along these lines first described by Jordan (1986) which involves the use of recurrent links in order to provide networks with a dynamic memory. In this approach, hidden unit patterns are fed back to themselves: (...) the internal representations which develop thus reflect task demands in the context of prior internal states. A set of simulations is reported which range from relatively simple problems (temporal version of XOR) to discovering syntactic/semantic features for words. The networks are able to learn interesting internal representations which incorporate task demands with memory demands: indeed, in this approach the notion of memory is inextricably bound up with task processing. These representations reveal a rich structure, which allows them to be highly context‐dependent, while also expressing generalizations across classes of items. These representations suggest a method for representing lexical categories and the type/token distinction. (shrink)

This study explains why conflict often appears delayed and then escalates abruptly by redefining its core mechanism. Conflict is not the direct result of misalignment, but the cumulative outcome of transition failure. Existing approaches—focusing on conflict avoidance, communication deficits, or emotion regulation—do not sufficiently explain why individuals recognize misalignment yet fail to translate it into action. This study introduces transition as an independent process between recognition and action. Transition refers to the process by which recognized misalignment is converted into an (...) actionable form within a relational context. It does not occur automatically, but only when specific conditions are satisfied. This study models transition as a multi-variable gating structure, in which relational cost, emotional overload, the meta–expression gap, and social inhibition determine whether transition is enabled or blocked. When transition repeatedly fails, misalignment is not resolved but maintained in a suppression state and accumulates over time. This accumulation is not linear, but evolves qualitatively through memory reactivation and the reinforcement of interpretive structures. Once a threshold is exceeded, a state transition occurs. At this point, conflict does not gradually intensify, but emerges through nonlinear activation, shifting from a suppressed state to an unstable activation state. Furthermore, repeated transition failure leads to a disengagement state in which attempts at transition are no longer initiated. This state does not indicate the absence of conflict, but rather its structural delay. Under certain conditions, accumulated misalignment is activated simultaneously, producing abrupt and intensified conflict. This study reconceptualizes conflict as the result of accumulated transition failure rather than immediate misalignment. It shifts the analytical focus from post-expression outcomes to the pre-transition structure, providing a condition-based state transition framework for understanding the emergence of conflict. (shrink)

I argue that moral skill is limited and precarious. It is limited because global moral skill—the capacity for morally excellent behaviour within an über action domain, such as the domain of living, or of all-things-considered decisions, or the same kind of capacity applied across a superset of more specific action domains—is not to be found in humans. It is precarious because relatively local moral skill, while possible, is prone to misfire. My arguments depend upon the diversity of practical structures confronting (...) human agents, the limitations of human skill learning and reason-sensitivity, and the failure of moral considerations to respect the social and institutional boundaries we develop to structure our practical lives. (shrink)

This paper proposes an integrated-structure notion of interlevel emergence, from a dynamic relational ontological perspective. First, I will argue that only the individualist essentialism of atomistic metaphysics can block the possibility of interlevel emergence. Then I will show that we can make sense of emergence by recognizing the formation of structures of transformative and interdependent causal relations in the generation and development of a particular class of mereological complexes called integrated systems. Finally, I shall argue that even though the (...) emergent structural attributes of such systems are not micro-determined nor micro-reducible, they can still be accounted for by an interlevel integrative neo-mechanistic form of explanation. (shrink)

Conformity is an often criticized feature of human belief formation. Although generally regarded as a negative influence on reliability, it has not been widely studied. This paper attempts to determine the epistemic effects of conformity by analyzing a mathematical model of this behavior. In addition to investigating the effect of conformity on the reliability of individuals and groups, this paper attempts to determine the optimal structure for conformity. That is, supposing that conformity is inevitable, what is the best way (...) for conformity effects to occur? The paper finds that in some contexts conformity effects are reliability inducing and, more surprisingly even when it is counterproductive, not all methods for reducing its effect are helpful. These conclusions contribute to a larger discussion in social epistemology regarding the effect of social behavior on individual reliability. (shrink)

Philosophers have often debated the truth of microstructural essentialism about chemical substances: whether or not the structure of a chemical substance at the molecular scale is what makes it the substance it is. Oddly they have tended to pursue this debate without identifying what a structure is, and with some confusion and about what a chemical substance is. In this paper I draw on chemistry to rectify those omissions, providing a pluralist account of structure, clarifying what (according (...) to chemistry) a chemical substance is and defending microstructural essentialism, as I understand that position. I then give an account of the existence of composite substances and objects in chemistry, an issue that goes back to Aristotle. (shrink)

I argue that the ability to compute phrase structure grammars is indicative of a particular kind of thought. This type of thought that is only available to cognitive systems that have access to the computations that allow the generation and interpretation of the structural descriptions of phrase structure grammars. The study of phrase structure grammars, and formal language theory in general, is thus indispensable to studies of human cognition, for it makes explicit both the unique type of (...) human thought and the underlying mechanisms in virtue of which this thought is made possible. (shrink)

Why do speakers of all languages use different grammatical structures under different communicative circumstances to express the same idea? In this comprehensive study, Professor Lambrecht explores the relationship between the structure of sentences and the linguistic and extra-linguistic contexts in which they are used. His analysis is based on the observation that the structure of a sentence reflects a speaker's assumptions about the hearer's state of knowledge and consciousness at the time of the utterance. This relationship between speaker (...) assumptions and formal sentence structure is governed by rules and conventions of grammar, in a component called 'information structure'. Four independent but interrelated categories are analysed: presupposition and assertion, identifiability and activation, topic, and focus. (shrink)

Stephen Jay Gould’s monumental The Structure of Evolutionary Theory ‘‘attempts to expand and alter the premises of Darwinism, in order to build an enlarged and distinctive evolutionary theory... while remaining within the tradition, and under the logic, of Darwinian argument.’’ The three branches or ‘‘fundamental principles of Darwinian logic’’ are, according to Gould: agency (natural selection acting on individual organisms), efficacy (producing new species adapted to their environments), and scope (accumulation of changes that through geological time yield the living (...) world’s panoply of diversity and morphological complexity). Gould’s efforts to contribute something important to each of these three fundamental components of Darwinian Theory are far from successful. (shrink)

Alexander Dugin's The Theory of a Multipolar World is a cheerful and optimistic view of a future in which humanity will reach its highest development. However, it will not be the uniform humanity pictured by the globalizing and leveling schemers and manipulators. Instead, old artificial borders will be dissolved and new natural divisions installed. Mankind will blossom in its manifold manifestations, namely the distinct civilizations and the ethnoses that breathe their souls into them. Drawing from a variety of philosophies (...) from both the Right and Left, Dugin maps out the immediate goals and ultimate vision of this theory, and what is required to implement it. Multipolarity is the tapestry that creates a myriad of colorful potentialities rather than a single dead-end passage, whither an anonymous human mass is herded to languish till the end of days. According to Dugin, the Westphalian system of the sovereignty of nation-states has long since become obsolete and ceased to function. In its place will be erected a continental system of "large spaces" (in the Schmittian sense), where individuals are integrated in the social whole based on the insoluble bond of kinship and common tradition. It will be a time of high adventure, boundless curiosity and the rediscovery of what it truly means to be different and therefore able to think of unique solutions in lieu of standardized ones. (shrink)