Results found: 2

Search results

Sort By:

Limit search:

Dostoyevsky Extended: Aldous Huxley On The Grand Inquisitor, Specialisation and The Future of Science.

100%

Lewicki G.

Kultura i Polityka

2008

issue 2-3

210-233

The paper, a part of MA dissertation, shows that Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World stemmed from his desire to take a stand in the debate on science, technology and society in inter-war Britain. It utilises both literary and historical analyses to elaborate Huxley’s message through the metaphor of two inequations (a mathematical term): the First Inequation, a key to understanding his ideas on science and society, is suggested to have been derived from Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s works and is de facto a radical opposition between the ideal of happiness and the triad of ancient supreme values (truth, goodness, beauty); the Second Inequation dwells on the friction between pure science and applied science (Huxley’s term for technology). The paper also recreates Huxley’s close social network that helps to relate his image of science to the ideas popularised at the time by the prominent British intellectuals (e.g. Julian Huxley, J.B.S Haldane, Bertrand Russell). Huxley’s concern with the growing specialisation of sciences is also elaborated and at the end the actuality of his philosophical standpoint is presented in the context of contemporary scientific pessimism and optimism.

Esej, będący częścią pracy magisterskiej, wykazuje, że Nowy Wspaniały Świat Aldousa Huxleya był wynikiem jego potrzeby odniesienia się do debaty na temat nauki i technologii w międzywojennej Wielkiej Brytanii. Używając analizy historycznej i literackiej wyjaśnia idee Huxleya poprzez metaforę dwóch nierówności: Pierwsza Nierówność, klucz do zrozumienia jego poglądu na naukę i społeczeństwo, ma najprawdopodobniej – twierdzi autor – korzenie w pracach Fiodora Dostojewskiego i jest de facto radykalnym przeciwstawieniem ideału szczęśliwości triadzie trzech wartości starożytnych (prawda, szczęście, dobro); Druga Nierówność opiera się na przeciwstawieniu sobie nieskrępowanych badań naukowaych i nauki stosowanej (czyli technologii). Praca odtwarza także sieć relacji osobistych Huxleya, co umożliwia skojarzenie jego obrazu nauki z ideami popularyzowanymi przez ówczesnych intelektualistów brytyjskich (m. in. Julian Huxley, J.B.S Haldane, Bertrand Russell), a także ukazuje jego stosunek do rosnącej specjalizacji w nauce. Na koniec zaprezentowane są wciąż aktualne wątki filozoficzne myśli Huxleya w zestawieniu ze współczesnym optymizmem i pesymizmem co do przyszłego wpływu nauki na społeczeństwo.

THE SINOSOID OF CULTURE. ORTEGA Y GASSET - THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY (Sinusoida kultury. Ortega y Gasset - filozofia historii)

100%

Lewicki G.

Kwartalnik Filozoficzny

2009

vol. 37

issue 2

29-51

The essay broadens the understanding of Ortega's thought by elaborating his historiosophy, which is crucial to fully comprehend his popular work, 'The Revolt of the Masses'. The author argues that Ortega's famous sociological framework (based on the interplay between the elites and the masses) is very often trivialized due to the lack of knowledge about his anthropological assumptions, upon which the model of the evolution of culture is constructed. Utilizing the already existing literature (inter alia a synthetic work by K. Polit), the essay reconstructs three philosophical crises in European thought that can be ultimately depicted as a suggestive sinusoid of social attitudes operating throughout the history of Western Civilization between the two boundary lines of the primary 'belief'. The belief is in fact a trust in the first data people have to adopt before they start to think philosophically: the priority of the object or the subject (historically: fides or ratio). The sinusoid shows the cyclical change of the first data people tended to accept and reveals a certain cultural mechanism: every culture is first developed by the inspired generation of individuals who structure reality in some way and then fight for the dissemination of their framework. After they prevail and the culture is accepted on a mass level, a process of degradation starts - this is because the culture gradually looses its link with the vivid circumstances that once constituted the stimulus for the founding generation. As a result, the culture becomes gradually more formal and distant from 'real life' - the elites do not innovate anymore, perceiving their world view as well-established and the masses are able only to renovate what is inherited. In the long run this leads to 'vital disorientation', which must force the next great generation of individuals to structure reality anew. 'The Revolt...' perceived in this way receives another layer of understanding. The popular interpretation of the book is that mass men, knowing their inherent rights (thanks to democracy) and having leisure time (technological advance) enter the public stage and want to be ruled by somebody of their sort. The author highlights that, apart from these two, a third factor is present: the long-term socialization of the culture of 'pure rationalism'. The mass man already feels that it does not correspond fully to his daily experience and becomes disoriented as a result. In consequence, the time of mass movements has come (that will be organized in accordance with the radicalized principle of either rationalism or irrationalism), until the elites harness the revolted masses again. The final part of the essay suggests the possible Eastern European dimension of Ortega's predictions about postmodern Europe and indicates that his intuitions were sufficiently accurate to foresee the emergence of some main currents in the contemporary humanities and sciences.

Refine search results

1 Kultura i Polityka

1 Kwartalnik Filozoficzny

1 2009

1 2008

2 Lewicki G.

Search results

Dostoyevsky Extended: Aldous Huxley On The Grand Inquisitor, Specialisation and The Future of Science.

THE SINOSOID OF CULTURE. ORTEGA Y GASSET - THE PHILOSOPHY OF HISTORY (Sinusoida kultury. Ortega y Gasset - filozofia historii)