First positivism. Auguste Comte, John Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer. Philosophy should contribute to the progress of specific scientific disciplines
Positivism is one of the most influential trends in Western philosophy over the past two centuries. Positivism has gone through three main stages in its development. The first stage is associated with the teachings of Comte, Mill, and Spencer. The second stage is the empiriocriticism of Mach and Avenarius. The third is the logical positivism of the Vienna Circle (or the neopositivism of Schlick, Carnap, and others). Supporters of positivism are united by the conviction that it is impossible to construct a “true” metaphysics. From the point of view of positivism, statements about the substantial essence of things cannot be scientific. Rejecting ontology as an untenable pseudoscience, the positivists did not propose the abolition of philosophy as such. They believed that genuine (“positive”) philosophy should contribute to the progress of concrete scientific disciplines.
Marxism. Karl Marx. Friedrich Engels. Materialistic understanding of history
In the philosophical and social thought of the 19th and 20th centuries, a special and significant place is occupied by the concept created in the mid-19th century by Karl Marx and subsequently developed by many other Marxist theorists. Due to the fact that the provisions of Marxism served as an ideological platform for the communist movement and many revolutionary uprisings around the world, the most significant of which were undoubtedly the October Revolution of 1917 in Russia, which brought the Bolshevik Party led by Lenin to power, and the Chinese Revolution of 1949, carried out by the Chinese Communist Party under the leadership of Mao Zedong, Marxism in its various versions has had the most serious impact on the historical destinies of many countries, but with the collapse of the USSR this influence has been steadily declining. In theoretical terms, however, Marxism was and remains one of the leading social concepts, which in many ways determined the appearance of modern social science. In the history of philosophy, Marxism appears as the heir and at the same time the antipode of Hegel’s idealism, which turned Hegel’s thought “upside down”, i.e. gave philosophy a critical social orientation and transformed theoretical criticism into a tool serving the goals of revolutionary social transformations.
Hegelian philosophy. Herbert Bradley, Josiah Royce, Alexandre Kojève. The criterion of truth is the reality of knowledge
Hegelian philosophy underwent a very complex evolution during the 19th and 20th centuries. Few of Hegel’s followers fully agreed with the philosopher, and most Hegelians preferred an independent way of thinking, which is why we cannot equate Hegel’s philosophy with Hegelianism. An exception is the so-called Hegelian school, which arose during the philosopher’s lifetime and included mainly his students and friends who tried to create an orthodox image of Hegelian philosophy. It was thanks to their efforts that shortly after Hegel’s death a collection of his works was published, the so-called “edition of friends” (1832-1840), which included both works published during his lifetime and recordings of his lecture courses.
Soren Kierkegaard. Definition of faith through the concept of sin. Stages of human existence
Søren Kierkegaard was born in Copenhagen in 1813 to a wealthy wool merchant. At the age of 17, in 1830, in accordance with his father’s wishes, Kierkegaard began his studies at the theological faculty of the University of Copenhagen. Physically much weaker than his peers, Kierkegaard stood out against their background with his extraordinary intellectual abilities. In 1840, he passed the exam in theology, and in 1841 he successfully defended his master’s dissertation “On the Concept of Irony with a Constant Glance at Socrates.” Irony and humor, as two basic forms of the comic, play a far from accidental role in Kierkegaard’s teaching. Kierkegaard returns to these concepts in his subsequent works.
Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach. Anthropological principle. I think with feelings
Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach was born in 1804 in the Bavarian town of Landshut to a family of a famous criminologist. He studied theology at the University of Heidelberg, then philosophy at the University of Berlin, where he attended Hegel’s lectures for four years. It was to Hegel that he dedicated his dissertation “On the One, Universal, and Infinite Reason” in 1828. At the same time, he began his teaching career at the University of Erlangen. But after his authorship of the extremely bold work “Thoughts on Death and Immortality”, published anonymously in 1830, was revealed, Feuerbach was dismissed from the university. Then he concentrated on historical and philosophical research: “The History of Modern Philosophy from Bacon to Spinoza” (1833), “On Leibniz” (1837), “On Pierre Bayle” (1838), reviews of Hegel’s “History of Philosophy” and Stahl’s “Philosophy of Right”. At this time, his philosophical aphorisms “Writer and Man” (1834) were published. Having moved in 1837 for 25 years to the small village of Bruckberg in Thuringia, Feuerbach took an active part in the publication of the Young Hegelian “Hallische Jahrbucher”.
Arthur Schopenhauer. The world as a performance. Understanding the relationship between different ideas
Arthur Schopenhauer was born in Danzig (now Gdansk) in 1788, the son of a wealthy businessman and a future famous writer. Already at the age of 17, he recalled, “without any school education, I was as overcome by a feeling of world sorrow as Buddha was in his youth, when he saw illness, old age, suffering, death” (1:6, 222). Reflecting on the misfortunes of the world, Schopenhauer “came to the conclusion that this world could not be the work of some all-good being, but undoubtedly the work of some devil, who called the creature into existence in order to enjoy the contemplation of torment” (1:6, 222). This extremely pessimistic view was soon modified by Schopenhauer in that he began to assert that although various disasters are inextricably linked with the very existence of the world, this world itself is only a necessary means for achieving the “highest good.” The shift in emphasis also changed Schopenhauer’s interpretation of the deep essence of the world. From a devilish beginning, it turned into an irrational beginning, but unconsciously seeking self-knowledge. The sensory world lost its independent reality, appearing as a nightmare, revealing the irrationality of the world’s essence and pushing towards a “better consciousness.”
The Universe in One Atom: Science and Spirituality in the Service of the World. Tenzin Gyatso
In this book, the spiritual leader of Tibetan Buddhism, His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, outlines his views on the possibility of spiritual cooperation between modern science and religiosity to eliminate suffering in human life. Based on personal experience of many years of religious practice, as well as familiarity with the main provisions and discoveries of modern science, the author discusses the possibility of developing a single point of view regarding such seemingly incompatible ideas as, for example, evolution and karma, thereby creating the prerequisites for a holistic a view of the world in which science and religion become two equal approaches to the study of a single reality.
Quantum philosophy of monistic idealism by Amit Goswami (+ book)
There is too much quantum supernaturalism around, too many experiments showing that the objective world is a world that moves forward in time like a clock, which says that action at a distance, especially instantaneous action at a distance, is impossible, which says that a thing cannot be in two or more places at the same time, represents an illusion of our thinking.