The article is devoted to the memory of Vyacheslav Semenovich Stepin and Nikita Nikolaevich Moiseev, whose multifaceted work was integrally focused on philosophical, interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary research of the key ideas and principles of universal human-dimensional evolutionism. Other remarkable Russian scientists V.I. Vernadsky, S.P. Kurdyumov, S.P. Kapitsa, D.S. Chernavsky worked in the same tradition of universal evolutionism. While V.I. Vernadsky and N.N. Moiseev had been the originators of that scientific approach, V.S. Stepin provided philosophical foundations for the ideas of those (...) remarkable scientists and thinkers. The scientific legacy of V.S. Stepin and N.N. Moiseev maintained the formation of a new quality of research into the philosophy of science and technology as well as into the philosophy of culture. This new quality is multidimensional and it is difficult to define unambiguously, but we presume the formation of those areas of philosophical knowledge as constructively oriented languages of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary co-participation of philosophy in the convergent-evolutionary development of scientific knowledge in general. In this regard, attention is paid to V.S. Stepin’s affirmations about non-classical nature of modern social and humanitarian knowledge. Quantum mechanics teaches us that the reality revealed through it is a hybrid construct, or symbiosis, of both mean and object of cognition. Therefore, the very act of cognitive observation constructs quantum reality. Thus, it is very close to the process of cognition in modern sociology and psychology. V.S. Stepin insisted that these principles are applicable to all complex selfdeveloping systems, and such are all “human-dimensional” objects of modern humanities. In all the phases of homeostasis changes, or crises, there is necessarily a share of chaos, instability, uncertainty in the selection process of future development scenarios, which is ineliminably affected by our observation. Therefore, a cognitive observer in the humanities should be considered as a concept of post-non-classical rationality, that is as an observer of complexity. (shrink)

I found Shpet's article "A Work on Philosophy" [Rabota po filosofii], which we present to the reader's attention, in the Shpet archives stored in the Lenin State Library and passed it on to the editorial board of the journal Logos, where it was published by I. Chubarov. The small circulation of that journal makes it appropriate to republish this text, which is of major importance for an understanding of Shpet's philosophical position and provides a good clarification of the subsequent logic (...) of development of his conception. Although the article is unfinished, there is no reason to lament this fact, since all of its basic ideas and their logical development were realized by Shpet in subsequent publications. A whole series of his works is devoted to grounding and affirming so-called positive philosophy, the basic features of which I would like to clarify. (shrink)

Mathematical methods and physical ideas developed by Bogolubov are intensively used in the theory of the atomic nucleus. The variational Hartree-Fock-Bogolubov method and the self-consistent field method found wide application in calculating nuclear spectra and nucleus-nucleus interactions. The development of these methods led to the formulation of the quasiparticle-phonon nuclear model for calculating the properties of nuclear states at low, intermediate, and high excitation energies.

In the article art forms of utopian ideas embodiment in the novels of the Scottish writer I. Banks are considered. Utopian narratives are found both in the science-fiction cycle devoted to the civilization of Culture and in the novel "Business". Art modeling of the fundamental strategies of the society development characteristic for the New time, reveals their internal inconsistencies. Preindustrial, patriarchal living forms are offered instead. Novels by I. Banks visually demonstrate the feature of modern public consciousness and the absence (...) of ideal future representations. In the article fantastic and realistic I. Banks’ novels are compared from the point of this utopian ideal. (shrink)

In the final analysis, sustainable agriculture must derive from applied ecology, especially the principle of the regulation of the abundance and distribution of species (and, secondarily, their activities) in space and time. Interspecific competition in natural ecosystems has its counterparts in agriculture, designed to divert greater amounts of energy, nutrients, and water into crops. Whereas natural ecosystems select for a diversity of species in communities, recent agriculture has minimized diversity in favour of vulnerable monocultures. Such systems show intrinsically less stability (...) and resilience to perturbations. Some kinds of crop rotation resemble ecological succession in that one crop prepares the land for successive crop production. Such rotations enhance soil organic processes such as decomposition and material cycling, build a nutrient capital to sustain later crop growth, and reduce the intensity of pest buildup. Species in natural communities occur at discrete points along the r-K continuum of reproductive maturity. Clearing forested land for agriculture, rotational burning practices, and replacing perennial grassland communities by cereal monocultures moves the agricultural community towards the r extreme. Plant breeders select for varieties which yield at an earlier age and lower plant biomass, effectively moving a variety towards the r type. Features of more natural landscapes, such as hedgerows, may act as physical and biological adjuncts to agricultural production. They should exist as networks in agricultural lands to be most effective. Soil is of major importance in agroecosystems, and maintaining, deliberately, its vitality and resilience to agricultural perturbations is the very basis of sustainable land use. (shrink)

This little book is a collection of essays on the philosophy of mind and serves as a preview of a larger work to come. Writing from the point of view of naturalism, while not defending it, Langer is primarily concerned with the relation of the human mind to feeling, which is the subject of the first essay, "The Process of Feeling." Other contributions include speculations on the origin of speech, a new definition of symbol, the cultural importance of art, the (...) relation of the individual to society. Interesting and provocative.--V. G. P. (shrink)

This collection of essays is concerned with the present world struggle between totalitarianism and the western heritage of freedom. Its contributors are well-known economists, sociologists, philosophers and political scientists from the United States and Europe. It is dedicated "to the moral and intellectual struggle against communism and an analysis of our own democratic institutions." The purpose of the book is both clarification and inspiration. The essays cover such subjects as the nature of freedom in the West, the common patrimony of (...) America and Europe, the role of the masses in representative democracy, intellectualism and political impotence.--V. G. P. (shrink)

This small volume is one of the series entitled "Contemporary Perspectives in Philosophy." It contains eight essays which fall into two groups: 1) the first five deal with the Austin-Strawson debate revolving around Austin's modified "correspondence theory," 2) the last three, two of which are by Strawson, and the other by Dummett commenting on Strawson. The editor has provided a useful bibliography.--V. G. P.

The major portion of the book presents the biological facts, while the final chapter raises philosophical questions concerning 1) the antithesis between form and substance, 2) the relation of form to aesthetics, and 3) the origin of mind in the goal-seeking quality of life. The author does not pretend to solve the questions he raises; he merely wishes to draw attention to them "at a time when many people fail to recognize them, and when even some biologists have temporarily lost (...) sight of the fundamental importance of the fact of form for the science of life."--V. G. P. (shrink)

A short, not too technical introduction to the existentialist movement. The first half of the book presents five basic themes which existentialists treat in a distinctive way: the problems of knowledge, reality, existence, communication, and transcendence. The second half of the book gathers together five independent lectures on Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Jaspers, Sartre and Marcel. The book is useful for those unacquainted with the men and their ideas.--V. G. P.

This textbook of Thomistic metaphysics is based on the author's conviction that metaphysics is founded in sense experience. Fidelity to Aristotle and Aquinas on this point entails, according to the author, certain departures from the more usual presentation of systematized Thomism. This second edition is more readable, adds to the English bibliography, and amends the presentation of the doctrine of analogy, presenting it in a less rigid and over-refined way.--V. G. P.

The conception on which the affirmative philosophy of G.G. Shpet rests can be called hermeneutic phenomenology. The choice of this term demands explanation. Shpet's basic hermeneutic work, Hermeneutics and Its Problems [Germenevtika i ee problemy], was completed in 1918. At the time hermeneutics was understood usually as the art of grasping the meaning of a text. It is worth noting that this art was quite specific. It consisted mostly of a set of psychological techniques for "penetrating" into the internal world (...) of the text's author. The techniques were empathy, sympathy, immersion in a historico-cultural world, and imaginative penetration into the author's creative "workshop." Understood in this way, hermeneutics was a psychologically loaded research method. And if it is treated only in that way, the recently coined term "hermeneutic phenomenology" is in respect to content internally contradictory. As I see it, Shpet fully realized what conclusions could follow from this. Nevertheless his fundamental aspirations are connected precisely with the idea of unifying hermeneutics and phenomenology. This is possible because words have a complex structure . The sense of a word is objective and can be known by nonpsychological methods. The art of comprehending the sense of a text must inevitably include semiotic methods as well as logical and phenomenological techniques. They are aimed at comprehending (studying, researching, but not "grasping" or "sympathizing with" the objective, internal sense of the text. All the other elements of the sensible structure of the text are overlaid with the psychological peculiarities of the author and historical and social conditions. They are external factors that influence the sense of the text in a distinctive way and, without question, must be taken into account and included in the investigation of texts under the general heading "conditions of understanding," which are comprehended by the historical method. The psychological and historical methods in hermeneutics were historically conditioned research techniques, scientific means of comprehending sense under conditions when semiotic means were not yet developed, contemporary logico-semantic techniques were not available, and the phenomenological method was not yet invented. For this reason hermeneutics is reducible conceptually to a mere psychological art: it was only forced into being this by the lack of technical instrumentation. Moreover, the psychological hermeneutics of the nineteenth century may be called without any exaggeration the historical variant of hermeneutics in general. (shrink)

Study on Śrīmadbhagavadgītātparya, exposition of Bhagavadgītā, Hindu philosophical text, by D.V. Gundappa.

This work of vast erudition, which according to the author is substantially the same as the original Swedish edition, attempts to show how the young Augustine integrated certain key concepts of ancient philosophy into Christian thought. Holte limits himself to the philosophical issues and so does not consider the young Augustine as theologian. Parts I and II develop the historical background of the concept telos in the ancient philosophers and in the early Fathers. Part III presents the central thesis: that (...) Augustine tried to link the contemplative life to the commandment of love which requires total abandonment to God of every form of human life. The Telos is to be found in the contemplative life, although Augustine never separates it from the active. Telos is to be realized in the study of Christian philosophy and scripture. Part IV treats of this realization as a sort of Christian gnosis which can be briefly characterized from the point of view of systematic theology as fides quaerens intellectum.--V. G. P., S.J. (shrink)

Solitons, i.e. solitary localized waves with particle-like behaviour, and multi-solitons occur virtually everywhere. There is a good reason for that in that there is a solid, albeit somewhat heuristic argument which says that for wave-like phenomena the 'soliton approximation' is the next one after the linear one. It is also not too difficult via some searching in the voluminous literature - many hundreds of papers on solitons each year - to write down a long list of equations which admit soliton (...) solutions and which model phenomena ranging over all the physical, biological, chemical and geological sciences as well as engineering. Yet, when lecturing on (mathematical) aspects of solitons I have found it not so easy to go beyond listing these equations. Largely because of lack of a book like this, which discusses where and how solitons arise, how they behave, whether or not they are stable and in what sense, which discusses approximate solitons and solitons in multidimensional spaces (which in a first simple natural formulation cannot exist), which discusses soliton (computer) experiments; all this for a wide range of phenomena especially in connection with solid state physics. There is a great deal of analytic material as well as there is especially a considerable collection of challenges for theoretical understanding. A great deal of the material covered in this book has not appeared in the monographic literature before. The phenomenology of solitons is very rich indeed. (shrink)

The Book Reinterprets Some Basic Concepts Of Paramanu (Atom), Samanya (Universal), Ahamkara (The Ego-Principle) And Karma As Understood By The Classical Indian Philosophical Systems The Nyaya-Vaishesikas, Samkhyas And The Buddhists. The Articles Explore The Study Of Aristotle'S Mean (Mesotes) And Buddha'S Middle Path (Majjhima Patipada).

A clear, concise and well-organized textbook in Thomistic metaphysics which incorporates recent developments in "Thomistic Existentialism," while retaining the best of the traditional content. Each chapter concludes with a summary and a list of supplementary readings. As a textbook, it succeeds in stressing the essentials and, at the same time, by judicious use of footnotes, indicates what are still issues among Thomists. The book represents the position of that group of Neo-Thomist thinkers who emphasize the primacy of existence and the (...) actual over essence and the possible as the object of metaphysics. A good introduction to the subject.--V. G. P. (shrink)

Methodology and ethics: these two terms have only recently begun to be linked organically in scientific thought, especially when the discussion is about man as the subject and object of knowledge. It is not as if this situation had not been anticipated in the history of thought. Suffice it to mention Kant's perspicuity: his analysis of "the conditions of the thinkability" of an object of knowledge is combined with ideas about man as an end in itself, as self-sufficient, and about (...) man's freedom, his ability to set goals in general. Crudely put, for Kant ethics is primary, it "anticipates" direct knowledge. (shrink)

An impressive book whose purpose is to "relate the outstanding events of contemporary life and thought to the accumulated wisdom of the past." Forming part of the series The Great Books of the Western World, its contributors are among the most qualified in their fields: Alfred Kazin, George Gamow, Irving Kristol, Karl Ubell, and James Collins, not to mention the editors themselves. Five parts make up the book: in Part I, The Great Debate of the Year: "Does America's best hope (...) for the future lie in political conservatism?", Barry Goldwater speaks for the affirmative and Jacob Javits for the negative; Part II, The Editors' Review of the Year, analyzes three problems as yet unsolved: the divided world, automation, and television; Part III, the largest portion of the work, reviews the contemporary scene in literature, physical science and technology, social sciences and law, biology and medicine, and philosophy and religion ; Part IV offers four important additions to the Great Books Library: M. Luther's The Freedom of a Christian, R. H. Tawney's The Acquisitive Society, Max Planck's The Universe in the Light of Modern Physics, and James Joyce's The Dead; finally, Part V gives a bibliography of significant books published in the last ten years.--V. G. P., S. J. (shrink)

Collaborative research and development (R&D) activities between public universities and industry are of importance for the sustainable development of the innovation ecosystem. However, policymakers especially in developing countries show little knowledge on the issues. In this paper, we analyse the level of university–industry collaboration in Malaysia. We further examine the fundamental conditions that hinder university–industry collaboration despite the government’s initiatives to improve such linkages. We show that the low collaboration is a result of an R&D gap between the entities. While (...) the universities engage in basic and fundamental R&D, the private sectors involved in incremental innovation that requires less R&D investments. The different nature of the industries’ R&D requires closer cooperation between firms namely buyers, suppliers and technical service providers and not the universities. Among others, the lack of an intermediary role, absorptive capacity and collaborative initiative by the industry also contribute to the problem. The study suggests that the collaborative activities can benefit both if deliberate and effective efforts on reducing the R&D mismatch are made between the universities and industry. Likewise, proper institutional arrangements in coordinating these activities are required. This result seems to reflect the nature of many developing countries’ national innovation systems, and therefore, lessons from Malaysia may serve as a good case study. (shrink)

While today an often stated concern of development planning in the Third World is the participation of people in the decision-making process, in many cases the nature of popular participation in the planning process is generally limited in its jurisdictional scope and restricted in its application. This article explores perceptions of development professionals and local citizens regarding barriers and willingness to participate in decision making, local leadership, and local institutionalization processes across three types (state agricultural universities, central research institutes, and (...) nongovernmental organizations) of Farm Science Centers in eleven or ganizations in India. Findings suggest that willingness to participate may turn on reconciling competing institutional beliefs and working relationships. A strategy emphasizing cultural sensitively for enhancing local action relevant to agricultural and rural development practitioners is presented. (shrink)