Three Philosophical Disenchantments in Man

The article discusses the key issues of contemporary philosophical anthropology and highlights three basic questions, through the answers to which the features of different philosophical currents are revealed. In particular, in light of these questions, the author shows the position of the Moscow Anthropological School (MAS). The first question is related to the definition of a human. Classical thought, fascinated by reason, understood man as a rational being, but today, along with disappointment in the possibilities of reason, the uniqueness of man’s status in the world is also being threatened. The MAS questions the understanding of a human as a rational animal and offers its own view, presenting a human as a hallucinating being, as this strategy, on the one hand, has a large explanatory potential, solving the question of the possibility of secondary senses (sense of reality, sense of time, sense of self), and, on the other hand, preserves the singularity of man, distinguishing him both from animals and from artificial technical systems. The next question, revealed by the author in the article, is dedicated to the problem of freedom. Contemporary thinking predominantly identifies freedom with the variability of choice (in the consumption of economic goods, in the transformation of one’s own corporeality, etc.). In contrast, the MAS presents a distinct interpretation of freedom, centered on a subject endowed with subjectivity and the capacity for self-determination. Additionally, the openness of a human and their ability to transcend boundaries in modern philosophy is construed as the potential to experience the non-human or transhumanistic. Within the MAS framework, the concept of a human of reverse perspective is developed, signifying a human whose internal experience supersedes the external. Lastly, the third question addresses the under-standing of nature and ecology. The “green” agenda advocates for radical technological and social solutions, promoting the equality of humans and animals. An alternative approach is the conceptualization of Sophia, which suggests the unity of all creations, as opposed to the integration of the human with various non-human forms.

1. Bennett D. (2018) Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things. Perm: Hyle Press (Russian translation).

2. DeLanda M. (1997) Thousand Years of Nonlinear History. New York: Zone. Descartes R. (1989) The Search for Truth by Natural Light. In: Descartes R. Works. in 2 Vols. (Vol. 1, pp. 154–178). Moscow: Mysl’ (Russian translation).

3. Descola P. (2012) Beyond Nature and Culture. Moscow: Novoe literaturnoe obozrenie (Russian translation).

4. Dostoevsky F.M. (1973) Notes from Underground. In: Dostoevsky F.M. Complete Works (Vol. 5, pp. 99–179). Leningrad: Nauka (in Russian).

5. Foucault M. (1994) The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences. Saint Petersburg: A-cad (Russian translation).

6. Hegel G.W.F. (1977) Philosophy of Spirit. In: Hegel G.W.F. Encyclopedia of Philosophical Sciences (Vol. 3). Moscow: Mysl’ (in Russian).

7. Girenok F.I. (2022) The Theory of Two Sensoria and the Problem of Autism. Tomsk State University Journal. No. 479, pp. 58–62 (In Russian).

8. Haraway D. (2017) A Cyborg Manifesto: Science, Technology, and Socialist-Feminism in the Late Twentieth Century. Moscow: Ad Marginem Press (Russian translation).

9. Heidegger M. (2013) What is Metaphysics? Moscow: Akademicheskiy proekt (Russian translation).

10. Kant I. (1966) Anthropology from a Pragmatic Point of View. In: Kant I. Collected Works (Vol. 6, pp. 349–588). Moscow: Mysl’ (Russian translation).

11. Kozyreva M. (2021) Shift of Philosophical Perspectives: “Animal Turn” in New Anthropology. Filosofskaya antropologiya. Vol 7, no. 1, pp. 64–80 (in Russian).

12. Latour B. (2018) Politics of Nature. Moscow: Ad Marginem Press (Russian translation).

13. Leskov N.S. (1957) The Beast. In: Leskov N.S. Collected Works in 11 Vol. (Vol. 7, 260–279). Moscow: Khudozhestvennaya literatura (in Russian).

14. Lévi-Strauss C. (1994) Three Kinds of Humanism. In: Lévi-Strauss C. Primitive Thought (pp. 15–18). Moscow: Respublika (in Russian).

15. Massumi B. (2019) What Animals Teach Us about Politics? Perm: Hyle Press (Russian translation).

16. Pearce D. (1995) The Hedonistic Imperative. In: Hedweb. Retrieved from https://www.hedweb.com/hedethic/hedonist.htm

17. Plato (1986) Alcibiades I. In: Plato. Dialogues (pp. 175–222). Moscow: Mysl’ (in Russian).

18. Prigogine I. & Stengers I. (1986) Order Out of Chaos: Man’s New Dialogue with Nature. Moscow: Progress (Russian translation).

19. Rostova N.I. (2010) The Man of Reverse Perspective: An Experience of Philosophical Understanding of the Phenomenon of Holy Foolishness for Christ’s Sake. Moscow: MGIU Publishing (in Russian).

20. Thacker E. (2017) Horror of Philosophy. Vol. 1: In the Dust of This Planet. Perm: Hyle Press (Russian translation).

21. Trigg D. (2017) The Thing: A Phenomenology of Horror. Perm: Hyle Press (Russian translation).

22. Woodard B. (2022) Thinking against Nature: Nature, Ideation, and Realism between Lovecraft and Schelling. Logos. Vol. 32, no. 1, pp. 43–64 (Russian translation).

23. Žižek S. (2011) On Ecology in the Film “The Tree of Life.” The BurevestnikTV. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/gFDZYQKyM_c (Russian translation).