Михайловский А.В. Вернер Зомбарт как критик техники // Социологическое обозрение. 2024. Т.23. №2. С. 260–282. , 2024
The article provides an analysis of W. Sombart’s conception of modern capitalism in the aspect of... more The article provides an analysis of W. Sombart’s conception of modern capitalism in the aspect of cultural critique. The first hypothesis is that Sombart’s critique of technology is a critique of modern capitalism. The ideal type of critique of technology is defined by the instrumental interpretation of technology and the belief that mechanization and massification of modern society, alienation of labor, psychological degradation, etc. are consequences of the inversion of the Zweck-Mittel-relationship (this views technology as basically a means to an end). The second hypothesis is that Sombart proposes a version of the “other modernity,” which means an attempt to put technology in the service of the bourgeois order through its subordination to ethical principles. Acceptance of technological advances is accompanied by concerns about its negative impact on the public and private spheres. The report “Technology and Culture” (1910) poses the problem of the “cultural value of technology”. The third hypothesis deals with the explanation of this version of the “other modernity” by a compensatory interest (it does not reject industrialization as such, but points to defects in the late capitalist development that require correction). The study identifies two different diachronic paradigms in the conservative thought in Germany before WWI and, accordingly, in the interwar period: 1) a paradigm of compensation and 2) a proactive paradigm of contributing to the national renewal, setting new guidelines in understanding the fundamental conditions of modernity. In the 1920s and 30s, Sombart goes beyond the critique of culture and demonstrates the attitude of proactive modernism (“German socialism” with planned economy and technocratic management that favor the common good over individual profit).
Philosophy. Journal of the Higher School of Economics
The central purpose of this study is to contextualize Hans Blumenberg's early essay The Relat... more The central purpose of this study is to contextualize Hans Blumenberg's early essay The Relationship between Nature and Technology as a Philosophical Problem (1951), not to reconstruct the complex views of the German philosopher concerning technology. The following translation of Blumenberg's essay is also of interest since it can be seen as a part of an unfinished project called “Geistesgeschichte der Technik”. The study deals with Blumenberg's rootedness in discussions around technology in Germany (philosophical anthropology, pessimistic cultural criticism). The article shows how the young philosopher reacted to the issues presented by Husserl, Heidegger, Gehlen and other authors. The philosophy of technology in Scheler's Problems of the Sociology of Knowledge (1926) presumably had a decisive influence on the formulation of the question concerning technology in Blumenberg, which is one of the main theses of my article. Namely, the broader significance of Scheler fo...
Михайловский А. В. На пути к «духовной истории техники» : фрагмент одного проекта Ханса Блюменберга // Философия. Журнал Высшей школы экономики. — 2022. — Т. 6, № 3. — С. 315–333.
The central purpose of this study is to contextualize Hans Blumenberg’s early essay The Relations... more The central purpose of this study is to contextualize Hans Blumenberg’s early essay The Relationship between Nature and Technology as a Philosophical Problem (1951), not to reconstruct the complex views of the German philosopher concerning technology. The following translation of Blumenberg’s essay is also of interest since it can be seen as a part of an unfinished project called “Geistesgeschichte der Technik”. The study deals with Blumenberg’s rootedness in discussions around technology in Germany (philosophical anthropology, pessimistic cultural criticism). The article shows how the young philosopher reacted to the issues presented by Husserl, Heidegger, Gehlen and other authors. The philosophy of technology in Scheler’s Problems of the Sociology of Knowledge (1926) presumably had a decisive influence on the formulation of the question concerning technology in Blumenberg, which is one of the main theses of my article. Namely, the broader significance of Scheler for discussing technology in Germany before and after World War II boils down to three points: (1) at the heart of the process of technicization of the Modern Age lies a certain instinct of power (Machtantrieb); (2) only a break with the culture of the Middle Ages makes it possible to genetically explain
the world in which science and technology, in their mutual influence, are a consequence, not a cause; (3) philosophy as metaphysics allows us to see and name the ethical “guilt” of the New European society. The second thesis of this article is that Hans Blumenberg is the author who ultimately did not create the “philosophy of technology”; Blumenberg’s writings on this topic are found on the periphery of his texts on the genesis of the Modern Age, which at the same time does not detract from the significance of his present statement.
История философии в разных ракурсах: идеи, концепции, методы. К 70-летию Алексея Михайловича Руткевича / Под ред. И.И. Блауберг. – М.; СПб.: Центр гуманитарных инициатив, 2022. C. 95-109., 2022
The article develops an approach to Oswald Spengler’s philosophy of technology in the light of th... more The article develops an approach to Oswald Spengler’s philosophy of technology in the light of the metaphysics of “Urfragen”, proposed by A.M. Rutkevich. The concept of flame (Flamme), denoting the flow of life, self-affirmation, struggle, is associated in the article with the myth of Prometheus, the titanic creator of the fire technique, which bears the entire human culture. At the same time, the tragedy of Prometheus (hubris and nemesis) anticipates the tragedy of Faustian thinking. The author of the article shows that Spengler’s apology for technology and engineers as “priests of the machine” does not contradict the forecasts about the decline of the West and the triumph of civilization. Constantly asserting his “heroic realism”, Spengler criticizes money and the mercantile spirit, not technology as such, and the real problem of technical civilization seems to be an alienation of Faustian man from his own technology as his existential form.
Seubert H., Neugebauer K., Massa M. (Hg.). »… wo aber Gefahr ist …«. Heidegger und die Philosophie der planetarischen Technik. Freiburg/München: Verlag Karl Alber, 2021. (Schriftenreihe der Martin-Heidegger-Gesellschaft, Bd. 13). S. 150–169., 2021
Heideggers Frage nach dem Wesen der planetarischen Technik ist mehr und anderes als eine reine Te... more Heideggers Frage nach dem Wesen der planetarischen Technik ist mehr und anderes als eine reine Technikkritik. Sie erfasst die Formationen der alles umfassenden Technik als Grundform der Seinsverlassenheit und eines veränderten Weltverhältnisses nach dem Ende der Metaphysik. Der Band zeichnet Heideggers Technikphilosophie in ihren immanenten Verweisungszusammenhängen nach. Er befragt Heideggers Technikbegriff auch vor dem Horizont der ungeahnten Perspektiven, die Anthropotechniken und Digitalisierung seither eröffnen.
Как современному человеку найти баланс в своих отношениях с технологическим миром, чтобы не потер... more Как современному человеку найти баланс в своих отношениях с технологическим миром, чтобы не потерять в нем себя? Об этом «Культура» поговорила с философом Александром МИХАЙЛОВСКИМ, доцентом НИУ ВШЭ, известным специалистом в области интеллектуальной истории и философии техники, руководителем «Герменевтического кружка» и переводчиком.
Философия. Журнал Высшей школы экономики. — 2022. — Т. 6 № 1. — С. 281–301., 2022
В этой статье автор рассматривает концепцию истины М. Хайдеггера в свете социально-эпистемологиче... more В этой статье автор рассматривает концепцию истины М. Хайдеггера в свете социально-эпистемологической проблематики. Он полагает, что «истина как несокрытость» представляет собой более продуктивный подход, чем теория корреспонденции или когеренции, поскольку позволяет ухватить ряд социогуманитарных концептов, где верификации осложнены. Автор считает, что хайдеггеровская бытийно-историческая мысль о «существе истины» получает логическое продолжение в «эзотерической инициативе», или «сигетике», которая-если эксплицировать ее применительно к общественным установкам и императивам мыслителя-означает минимизацию публичного, стратегию, наиболее продуктивную для осуществления собственного бытия. Применительно к институциональному (вос)производству знания это означает шанс для философии и научных исследований начать новое существование по ту сторону академического профессионального образования, т. е. вне современного университета. Наконец, хайдеггеровская концепция истины ставит под вопрос сциентистский образ науки и философии и показывает, что истинность знания не может зависеть от требования рационального реконструирования высказываний.
In the 1970s and early 1980s, a movement of Russian nationalists attempted to reshape the USSR in... more In the 1970s and early 1980s, a movement of Russian nationalists attempted to reshape the USSR in a Russian−patriotic spirit. Alexander Mikhailovsky considers the reception of this movement among intellectual circles at the time and whether its legacy still plays a role in official Russian politics today.
National Research University Higher School of Economics Research Paper Series, 2018
This article in the form of “reflections” is devoted mainly to the image-building of Heidegger in... more This article in the form of “reflections” is devoted mainly to the image-building of Heidegger in Russia as a thinker of Being, a conservative critic of late modernity and a “post” philosopher. On the one hand, due to French post-modernism influence on late Soviet and post-Soviet philosophy Russia has developed a special interest in Heidegger’s deconstruction theory. On the other hand, the reception of Heidegger’s criticism of European nihilism, totalitarianism and machine technology as the manifestations of modernity has shaped significantly the account of the “political”. The specifics of Russian reception of Heidegger can also be traced in the rejection of strict division between the “core” of Heidegger’s philosophy and “accidental” conditions related to social and political aspects of his work in 1930s. The current discussion about recently published “Black notebooks” shows not only the fact of existence of a separate language of description and analysis in Russian philosophical...
This article discusses Hans Poser’s new book “Homo creator” (2016). It aims to open the philosoph... more This article discusses Hans Poser’s new book “Homo creator” (2016). It aims to open the philosophy of technology to ontological, epistemological and ethical problems. The keynote of the book serves the conviction that the technical creativity builds the core of the engineering. Modal concepts as possibility, necessity, contingency and reality are used in a systematic way to characterize technology. Technological artifacts essentially depend on a special type of interpretation (“technical hermeneutics”). The central ontological problem consists in the fact that technology is based on new ideas, which at the beginning are a mere possibility, because the intended artifacts and processes never existed up to that moment. The author shows that conditions of the real world, cognitive, social and cultural conditions constitute the realm of the technological possibility and influence our culture (“life world”) from the very beginning.
The article provides a comparison of two intellectual accounts of experiences in the First World ... more The article provides a comparison of two intellectual accounts of experiences in the First World War—From the Letters of an Artillery Ensign (1918) by the Russian philosopher and writer Fjodor Stepun and The Storm of Steel by the German essayist Ernst Jünger. The aim of this article is to reveal similarities and differences between the “optics” of Jünger and Stepun who are reporting one and the same event but deal with two different images of the Great War.
Библия и христианская древность. Том 1. № 9 (2021). С. 239–253, 2021
Рецензия на: Гринбаум Д.Г. / Даймон в эллинистической астрологии: происхождение и влияние пер. с ... more Рецензия на: Гринбаум Д.Г. / Даймон в эллинистической астрологии: происхождение и влияние пер. с англ. Г. Н. Зеникова. М.: [Б. и.], 2019. 598 с.
Философия. Журнал Высшей школы экономики. — 2021. — Т. 5, № 1. — С. 201–215., 2021
Статья представляет собой введение к первому русскому переводу эссе Макса Шелера «О восточном и з... more Статья представляет собой введение к первому русскому переводу эссе Макса Шелера «О восточном и западном христианстве», которое было опубликовано в сборнике статей «Война и восстановление» (1916) и тем самым стало частью философии войны Шелера. В статье представлен полемический контекст этого эссе, а также установлена связь с аксиологией и феноменологией Шелера. Особое внимание уделено рецепции творчества Ф. М. Достоевского у немецких интеллектуалов начала XX века и влиянию этой рецепции на шелеровское понимание идей спасения и страдания в Восточной Церкви
Михайловский А.В. Четыре основных вопроса философии техники. О книге Ханса Позера «Homo creator» // Эпистемология и философия науки. 2019. Т. 56. № 3. C. 225–233. , 2019
This article discusses Hans Poser’s new book “Homo creator”
(2016). It aims to open the philosoph... more This article discusses Hans Poser’s new book “Homo creator” (2016). It aims to open the philosophy of technology to ontological, epistemological and ethical problems. The keynote of the book serves the conviction that the technical creativity builds the core of the engineering. Modal concepts as possibility, necessity, contingency and reality are used in a systematic way to characterize technology. Technological artifacts essentially depend on a special type of interpretation (“technical hermeneutics”). The central ontological problem consists in the fact that technology is based on new ideas, which at the beginning are a mere possibility, because the intended artifacts and processes never existed up to that moment. The author shows that conditions of the real world, cognitive, social and cultural conditions constitute the realm of the technological possibility and influence our culture (“life world”) from the very beginning.
Вестник Самарской гуманитарной академии. Серия «Философия. Филология». 2019. 1 (25). С. 86–98., 2019
The article compares two conceptual images of the “Invisible City” in the German and Russian aest... more The article compares two conceptual images of the “Invisible City” in the German and Russian aesthetics of modernity – “Secret Germany” and the city of Kitezh. From the point of view of phenomenology, the author focuses on a special type of sociality. The term “esoteric openness” or “including exclusivity” is introduced to define the collective experience of the symbolic reality of the “Invisible City”. “The Church of the Invisible City” (1914) by Sergei Durylin is taken as a basis for describing the community of the “Invisible City”. This idea has a heuristic potential in the context of “post-secular” models of the state and society.
Martin Heidegger’s philosophy had a profound influence on the late Soviet and post-Soviet philos... more Martin Heidegger’s philosophy had a profound influence on the late Soviet and post-Soviet philosophical landscape. Nevertheless, there is no general picture of perception and critique of Heidegger’s philosophy in Russia. This article deals with Heidegger’s entry into the Russian philosophical scene as a philosopher of the future — a conservative critic of late modernity, a thinker of Being, and a “post” philosopher. On the one hand, by virtue of the influence French post-modernism had on late Soviet and post-Soviet philosophy, Russia has developed a special interest in Heidegger’s deconstruction theory. On the other hand, the reception of critique given by Heidegger to European nihilism, totalitarianism and machine technology, as the manifestations of modernity, has prompted significantly the interest in “political ontology”. The specifics of reception of Heidegger in Russia can also be traced to a refusal to make a strict division between the pure “core” of Heidegger’s philosophy and “accidental” circumstances associated with social and political aspects of his work in 1930s. The ongoing discussion about recently published Black Notebooks manifests not just the fact that there is a separate language of description and analysis existing in Russian philosophical field but also the original tendency for holistic consideration of Heidegger’s thinking, which includes not just his existential and historical reflections but also political passages and critique of civilizational discourse. Besides the reviews of Black Notebooks made by N. V. Motroshilova, V. V. Mironov and D. Mironova in the last year’s issues of Voprosy Filosofii (a philosophical journal), the attention is focused on the earlier works by N. V. Motroshilova, V. V. Bibikhin, A. V. Gulyga, V. A. Podoroga and A. G. Dugin, related to Heidegger’s overcoming of the Western metaphysical tradition and his concept of a new beginning beyond Machenschaft. The article is also devoted to considertion given to a new book by J. Love (2017) examining the philosophical influence Heidegger exerts in Eastern Europe and Russia.
This paper presents the hermeneutic interpretation of the first records of Martin Heidegger’s Bla... more This paper presents the hermeneutic interpretation of the first records of Martin Heidegger’s Black notebooks („Reflections II–VI”, October 1931). Heidegger’s “Esoteric initiative” is reconstructed and compared with Nietzsche’s critique of reading and writing and Plato’s parable of the cave. Other related texts of Heidegger are also analyzed: the lecture Vom Wesen der Wahrheit (1931/32 and 1933/34) and his correspondence with E. Blochmann and his brother Fritz, which cover the Heidegger’s period of 1930s – 1940s. Additionally, denial of the academic and scientific way of writing in Heidegger’s work is discussed. The methodological problem lies in the fact that there is no mindfulness of the esoteric gesture in Heidegger’s thinking, and, paradoxically, the whole research of Heidegger’s philosophy is separated from the openness of thinking that we can learn from Heidegger himself. Therefore, the critical awareness of Heidegger’s esoteric initiative provides an opportunity to acknowledge the philosophical (rational) dimension of this initiative, which is a consistent thread running through the great majority of Heidegger’s texts. The article examines the arrangement of Heidegger’s message and focusses on fundamental constants of the life and thinking experience that enable the knowledge of truth and staying in the truth. These constants include solitude (Einsamkeit), vivid correspondence between thinking and Being, expressed through the cordiality (Innigkeit) and continued insistence (Inständigkeit), silence (Schweigen), and concentration (Sammlung). Finally, the article explains Heidegger’s notion of truth in compliance with his esoteric initiative.
While engineers play one of the main roles in the advanced industrial society, they also develop ... more While engineers play one of the main roles in the advanced industrial society, they also develop technologies and design our future. Yet, in contemporary philosophy, culture and engineering are usually discussed separately, engineering knowledge and education are usually contrasted with the socio-humanitarian knowledge. This can be dealt with using a “value-sensitive design” approach, which is explored through creativity, intentions and expectations. Therefore, this paper intends to overcome the opposition between technology and culture and provides a description of the engineer as an original technological “form of life”, not as a social and professional group. It first addresses E. Spranger’s idea of “forms of life”, which are a mode of conceiving a culture that arose at the turn of the 20th century in conjunction with phenomenology. A set of theoretical resources of sociological thought (H. Freyer) and German engineering philosophy of technology (F. Dessauer, M. Schröter, H. Hardensett) is further proposed to deal with the domination of economic rationality (or pseudo-economic pragmatism) and profile the type of engineer, which cannot be reduced to the “value-neutral” type of the “technician” or “technologist”. This paper focuses on the structure of the project activity as a particular modern “form of life“. It examines the type of engineer as homo creator, which is described as the dominant type in the advanced industrial society. Although engineering activity produces material things or artefacts, still it has chiefly immaterial nature as far as includes projecting, planning, organizing and other intellectual activities. Investigation, development, production as integral parts of engeneering are always dependent on systems of market, political decision-making, cultural values, traditions and images of everyday life, i.e. incorporated within the life-world. In this regard, engineers don’t form the “technosphere“ but rather create guidelines for action by integrating concrete values of man’s life-world into technologies (for example, innovations and sustainable development). Integration of technology and culture proceeds not externally but within the project activity which provides an opportunity to implement the concrete technical form of life and transform life-worlds of contemporary industrial societies. The principal hypothesis is that the activity of engineering, which produces technology is not a variation of the instrumental reason but the expression of the infinite creative freedom implemented in the European culture. It is pointed out that the compensative function of technology (Mangeltheorie) shall be called into question and replaced by the notion of technology as “optimation” (Optimierungstheorie). I claim that technology produces surplus possibilities which surpass all imagination. According to Dessauer, technology can be conceived real being from ideas and participation in divine creation (Weiterschöpfung). The engineering inventions and the technological transformation of the world make us aware of escalation, innovation and crossing of space and time borders which allow the technological spirit to unfold the perfect technological universe.
The paper focuses on Heidegger’s own concept of “genuine
technology” (echte Technik) as closely r... more The paper focuses on Heidegger’s own concept of “genuine technology” (echte Technik) as closely related to his interpretation of the Aristotelian distinction between physis and techne. The proposed hypothesis is that three complex concepts “care – work – techne/ technology” can be considered as crystallization points of Heidegger’s thought of the late 1920 and early 1930’s, the points interconnected by a systematic line.
Михайловский А.В. Вернер Зомбарт как критик техники // Социологическое обозрение. 2024. Т.23. №2. С. 260–282. , 2024
The article provides an analysis of W. Sombart’s conception of modern capitalism in the aspect of... more The article provides an analysis of W. Sombart’s conception of modern capitalism in the aspect of cultural critique. The first hypothesis is that Sombart’s critique of technology is a critique of modern capitalism. The ideal type of critique of technology is defined by the instrumental interpretation of technology and the belief that mechanization and massification of modern society, alienation of labor, psychological degradation, etc. are consequences of the inversion of the Zweck-Mittel-relationship (this views technology as basically a means to an end). The second hypothesis is that Sombart proposes a version of the “other modernity,” which means an attempt to put technology in the service of the bourgeois order through its subordination to ethical principles. Acceptance of technological advances is accompanied by concerns about its negative impact on the public and private spheres. The report “Technology and Culture” (1910) poses the problem of the “cultural value of technology”. The third hypothesis deals with the explanation of this version of the “other modernity” by a compensatory interest (it does not reject industrialization as such, but points to defects in the late capitalist development that require correction). The study identifies two different diachronic paradigms in the conservative thought in Germany before WWI and, accordingly, in the interwar period: 1) a paradigm of compensation and 2) a proactive paradigm of contributing to the national renewal, setting new guidelines in understanding the fundamental conditions of modernity. In the 1920s and 30s, Sombart goes beyond the critique of culture and demonstrates the attitude of proactive modernism (“German socialism” with planned economy and technocratic management that favor the common good over individual profit).
Philosophy. Journal of the Higher School of Economics
The central purpose of this study is to contextualize Hans Blumenberg's early essay The Relat... more The central purpose of this study is to contextualize Hans Blumenberg's early essay The Relationship between Nature and Technology as a Philosophical Problem (1951), not to reconstruct the complex views of the German philosopher concerning technology. The following translation of Blumenberg's essay is also of interest since it can be seen as a part of an unfinished project called “Geistesgeschichte der Technik”. The study deals with Blumenberg's rootedness in discussions around technology in Germany (philosophical anthropology, pessimistic cultural criticism). The article shows how the young philosopher reacted to the issues presented by Husserl, Heidegger, Gehlen and other authors. The philosophy of technology in Scheler's Problems of the Sociology of Knowledge (1926) presumably had a decisive influence on the formulation of the question concerning technology in Blumenberg, which is one of the main theses of my article. Namely, the broader significance of Scheler fo...
Михайловский А. В. На пути к «духовной истории техники» : фрагмент одного проекта Ханса Блюменберга // Философия. Журнал Высшей школы экономики. — 2022. — Т. 6, № 3. — С. 315–333.
The central purpose of this study is to contextualize Hans Blumenberg’s early essay The Relations... more The central purpose of this study is to contextualize Hans Blumenberg’s early essay The Relationship between Nature and Technology as a Philosophical Problem (1951), not to reconstruct the complex views of the German philosopher concerning technology. The following translation of Blumenberg’s essay is also of interest since it can be seen as a part of an unfinished project called “Geistesgeschichte der Technik”. The study deals with Blumenberg’s rootedness in discussions around technology in Germany (philosophical anthropology, pessimistic cultural criticism). The article shows how the young philosopher reacted to the issues presented by Husserl, Heidegger, Gehlen and other authors. The philosophy of technology in Scheler’s Problems of the Sociology of Knowledge (1926) presumably had a decisive influence on the formulation of the question concerning technology in Blumenberg, which is one of the main theses of my article. Namely, the broader significance of Scheler for discussing technology in Germany before and after World War II boils down to three points: (1) at the heart of the process of technicization of the Modern Age lies a certain instinct of power (Machtantrieb); (2) only a break with the culture of the Middle Ages makes it possible to genetically explain
the world in which science and technology, in their mutual influence, are a consequence, not a cause; (3) philosophy as metaphysics allows us to see and name the ethical “guilt” of the New European society. The second thesis of this article is that Hans Blumenberg is the author who ultimately did not create the “philosophy of technology”; Blumenberg’s writings on this topic are found on the periphery of his texts on the genesis of the Modern Age, which at the same time does not detract from the significance of his present statement.
История философии в разных ракурсах: идеи, концепции, методы. К 70-летию Алексея Михайловича Руткевича / Под ред. И.И. Блауберг. – М.; СПб.: Центр гуманитарных инициатив, 2022. C. 95-109., 2022
The article develops an approach to Oswald Spengler’s philosophy of technology in the light of th... more The article develops an approach to Oswald Spengler’s philosophy of technology in the light of the metaphysics of “Urfragen”, proposed by A.M. Rutkevich. The concept of flame (Flamme), denoting the flow of life, self-affirmation, struggle, is associated in the article with the myth of Prometheus, the titanic creator of the fire technique, which bears the entire human culture. At the same time, the tragedy of Prometheus (hubris and nemesis) anticipates the tragedy of Faustian thinking. The author of the article shows that Spengler’s apology for technology and engineers as “priests of the machine” does not contradict the forecasts about the decline of the West and the triumph of civilization. Constantly asserting his “heroic realism”, Spengler criticizes money and the mercantile spirit, not technology as such, and the real problem of technical civilization seems to be an alienation of Faustian man from his own technology as his existential form.
Seubert H., Neugebauer K., Massa M. (Hg.). »… wo aber Gefahr ist …«. Heidegger und die Philosophie der planetarischen Technik. Freiburg/München: Verlag Karl Alber, 2021. (Schriftenreihe der Martin-Heidegger-Gesellschaft, Bd. 13). S. 150–169., 2021
Heideggers Frage nach dem Wesen der planetarischen Technik ist mehr und anderes als eine reine Te... more Heideggers Frage nach dem Wesen der planetarischen Technik ist mehr und anderes als eine reine Technikkritik. Sie erfasst die Formationen der alles umfassenden Technik als Grundform der Seinsverlassenheit und eines veränderten Weltverhältnisses nach dem Ende der Metaphysik. Der Band zeichnet Heideggers Technikphilosophie in ihren immanenten Verweisungszusammenhängen nach. Er befragt Heideggers Technikbegriff auch vor dem Horizont der ungeahnten Perspektiven, die Anthropotechniken und Digitalisierung seither eröffnen.
Как современному человеку найти баланс в своих отношениях с технологическим миром, чтобы не потер... more Как современному человеку найти баланс в своих отношениях с технологическим миром, чтобы не потерять в нем себя? Об этом «Культура» поговорила с философом Александром МИХАЙЛОВСКИМ, доцентом НИУ ВШЭ, известным специалистом в области интеллектуальной истории и философии техники, руководителем «Герменевтического кружка» и переводчиком.
Философия. Журнал Высшей школы экономики. — 2022. — Т. 6 № 1. — С. 281–301., 2022
В этой статье автор рассматривает концепцию истины М. Хайдеггера в свете социально-эпистемологиче... more В этой статье автор рассматривает концепцию истины М. Хайдеггера в свете социально-эпистемологической проблематики. Он полагает, что «истина как несокрытость» представляет собой более продуктивный подход, чем теория корреспонденции или когеренции, поскольку позволяет ухватить ряд социогуманитарных концептов, где верификации осложнены. Автор считает, что хайдеггеровская бытийно-историческая мысль о «существе истины» получает логическое продолжение в «эзотерической инициативе», или «сигетике», которая-если эксплицировать ее применительно к общественным установкам и императивам мыслителя-означает минимизацию публичного, стратегию, наиболее продуктивную для осуществления собственного бытия. Применительно к институциональному (вос)производству знания это означает шанс для философии и научных исследований начать новое существование по ту сторону академического профессионального образования, т. е. вне современного университета. Наконец, хайдеггеровская концепция истины ставит под вопрос сциентистский образ науки и философии и показывает, что истинность знания не может зависеть от требования рационального реконструирования высказываний.
In the 1970s and early 1980s, a movement of Russian nationalists attempted to reshape the USSR in... more In the 1970s and early 1980s, a movement of Russian nationalists attempted to reshape the USSR in a Russian−patriotic spirit. Alexander Mikhailovsky considers the reception of this movement among intellectual circles at the time and whether its legacy still plays a role in official Russian politics today.
National Research University Higher School of Economics Research Paper Series, 2018
This article in the form of “reflections” is devoted mainly to the image-building of Heidegger in... more This article in the form of “reflections” is devoted mainly to the image-building of Heidegger in Russia as a thinker of Being, a conservative critic of late modernity and a “post” philosopher. On the one hand, due to French post-modernism influence on late Soviet and post-Soviet philosophy Russia has developed a special interest in Heidegger’s deconstruction theory. On the other hand, the reception of Heidegger’s criticism of European nihilism, totalitarianism and machine technology as the manifestations of modernity has shaped significantly the account of the “political”. The specifics of Russian reception of Heidegger can also be traced in the rejection of strict division between the “core” of Heidegger’s philosophy and “accidental” conditions related to social and political aspects of his work in 1930s. The current discussion about recently published “Black notebooks” shows not only the fact of existence of a separate language of description and analysis in Russian philosophical...
This article discusses Hans Poser’s new book “Homo creator” (2016). It aims to open the philosoph... more This article discusses Hans Poser’s new book “Homo creator” (2016). It aims to open the philosophy of technology to ontological, epistemological and ethical problems. The keynote of the book serves the conviction that the technical creativity builds the core of the engineering. Modal concepts as possibility, necessity, contingency and reality are used in a systematic way to characterize technology. Technological artifacts essentially depend on a special type of interpretation (“technical hermeneutics”). The central ontological problem consists in the fact that technology is based on new ideas, which at the beginning are a mere possibility, because the intended artifacts and processes never existed up to that moment. The author shows that conditions of the real world, cognitive, social and cultural conditions constitute the realm of the technological possibility and influence our culture (“life world”) from the very beginning.
The article provides a comparison of two intellectual accounts of experiences in the First World ... more The article provides a comparison of two intellectual accounts of experiences in the First World War—From the Letters of an Artillery Ensign (1918) by the Russian philosopher and writer Fjodor Stepun and The Storm of Steel by the German essayist Ernst Jünger. The aim of this article is to reveal similarities and differences between the “optics” of Jünger and Stepun who are reporting one and the same event but deal with two different images of the Great War.
Библия и христианская древность. Том 1. № 9 (2021). С. 239–253, 2021
Рецензия на: Гринбаум Д.Г. / Даймон в эллинистической астрологии: происхождение и влияние пер. с ... more Рецензия на: Гринбаум Д.Г. / Даймон в эллинистической астрологии: происхождение и влияние пер. с англ. Г. Н. Зеникова. М.: [Б. и.], 2019. 598 с.
Философия. Журнал Высшей школы экономики. — 2021. — Т. 5, № 1. — С. 201–215., 2021
Статья представляет собой введение к первому русскому переводу эссе Макса Шелера «О восточном и з... more Статья представляет собой введение к первому русскому переводу эссе Макса Шелера «О восточном и западном христианстве», которое было опубликовано в сборнике статей «Война и восстановление» (1916) и тем самым стало частью философии войны Шелера. В статье представлен полемический контекст этого эссе, а также установлена связь с аксиологией и феноменологией Шелера. Особое внимание уделено рецепции творчества Ф. М. Достоевского у немецких интеллектуалов начала XX века и влиянию этой рецепции на шелеровское понимание идей спасения и страдания в Восточной Церкви
Михайловский А.В. Четыре основных вопроса философии техники. О книге Ханса Позера «Homo creator» // Эпистемология и философия науки. 2019. Т. 56. № 3. C. 225–233. , 2019
This article discusses Hans Poser’s new book “Homo creator”
(2016). It aims to open the philosoph... more This article discusses Hans Poser’s new book “Homo creator” (2016). It aims to open the philosophy of technology to ontological, epistemological and ethical problems. The keynote of the book serves the conviction that the technical creativity builds the core of the engineering. Modal concepts as possibility, necessity, contingency and reality are used in a systematic way to characterize technology. Technological artifacts essentially depend on a special type of interpretation (“technical hermeneutics”). The central ontological problem consists in the fact that technology is based on new ideas, which at the beginning are a mere possibility, because the intended artifacts and processes never existed up to that moment. The author shows that conditions of the real world, cognitive, social and cultural conditions constitute the realm of the technological possibility and influence our culture (“life world”) from the very beginning.
Вестник Самарской гуманитарной академии. Серия «Философия. Филология». 2019. 1 (25). С. 86–98., 2019
The article compares two conceptual images of the “Invisible City” in the German and Russian aest... more The article compares two conceptual images of the “Invisible City” in the German and Russian aesthetics of modernity – “Secret Germany” and the city of Kitezh. From the point of view of phenomenology, the author focuses on a special type of sociality. The term “esoteric openness” or “including exclusivity” is introduced to define the collective experience of the symbolic reality of the “Invisible City”. “The Church of the Invisible City” (1914) by Sergei Durylin is taken as a basis for describing the community of the “Invisible City”. This idea has a heuristic potential in the context of “post-secular” models of the state and society.
Martin Heidegger’s philosophy had a profound influence on the late Soviet and post-Soviet philos... more Martin Heidegger’s philosophy had a profound influence on the late Soviet and post-Soviet philosophical landscape. Nevertheless, there is no general picture of perception and critique of Heidegger’s philosophy in Russia. This article deals with Heidegger’s entry into the Russian philosophical scene as a philosopher of the future — a conservative critic of late modernity, a thinker of Being, and a “post” philosopher. On the one hand, by virtue of the influence French post-modernism had on late Soviet and post-Soviet philosophy, Russia has developed a special interest in Heidegger’s deconstruction theory. On the other hand, the reception of critique given by Heidegger to European nihilism, totalitarianism and machine technology, as the manifestations of modernity, has prompted significantly the interest in “political ontology”. The specifics of reception of Heidegger in Russia can also be traced to a refusal to make a strict division between the pure “core” of Heidegger’s philosophy and “accidental” circumstances associated with social and political aspects of his work in 1930s. The ongoing discussion about recently published Black Notebooks manifests not just the fact that there is a separate language of description and analysis existing in Russian philosophical field but also the original tendency for holistic consideration of Heidegger’s thinking, which includes not just his existential and historical reflections but also political passages and critique of civilizational discourse. Besides the reviews of Black Notebooks made by N. V. Motroshilova, V. V. Mironov and D. Mironova in the last year’s issues of Voprosy Filosofii (a philosophical journal), the attention is focused on the earlier works by N. V. Motroshilova, V. V. Bibikhin, A. V. Gulyga, V. A. Podoroga and A. G. Dugin, related to Heidegger’s overcoming of the Western metaphysical tradition and his concept of a new beginning beyond Machenschaft. The article is also devoted to considertion given to a new book by J. Love (2017) examining the philosophical influence Heidegger exerts in Eastern Europe and Russia.
This paper presents the hermeneutic interpretation of the first records of Martin Heidegger’s Bla... more This paper presents the hermeneutic interpretation of the first records of Martin Heidegger’s Black notebooks („Reflections II–VI”, October 1931). Heidegger’s “Esoteric initiative” is reconstructed and compared with Nietzsche’s critique of reading and writing and Plato’s parable of the cave. Other related texts of Heidegger are also analyzed: the lecture Vom Wesen der Wahrheit (1931/32 and 1933/34) and his correspondence with E. Blochmann and his brother Fritz, which cover the Heidegger’s period of 1930s – 1940s. Additionally, denial of the academic and scientific way of writing in Heidegger’s work is discussed. The methodological problem lies in the fact that there is no mindfulness of the esoteric gesture in Heidegger’s thinking, and, paradoxically, the whole research of Heidegger’s philosophy is separated from the openness of thinking that we can learn from Heidegger himself. Therefore, the critical awareness of Heidegger’s esoteric initiative provides an opportunity to acknowledge the philosophical (rational) dimension of this initiative, which is a consistent thread running through the great majority of Heidegger’s texts. The article examines the arrangement of Heidegger’s message and focusses on fundamental constants of the life and thinking experience that enable the knowledge of truth and staying in the truth. These constants include solitude (Einsamkeit), vivid correspondence between thinking and Being, expressed through the cordiality (Innigkeit) and continued insistence (Inständigkeit), silence (Schweigen), and concentration (Sammlung). Finally, the article explains Heidegger’s notion of truth in compliance with his esoteric initiative.
While engineers play one of the main roles in the advanced industrial society, they also develop ... more While engineers play one of the main roles in the advanced industrial society, they also develop technologies and design our future. Yet, in contemporary philosophy, culture and engineering are usually discussed separately, engineering knowledge and education are usually contrasted with the socio-humanitarian knowledge. This can be dealt with using a “value-sensitive design” approach, which is explored through creativity, intentions and expectations. Therefore, this paper intends to overcome the opposition between technology and culture and provides a description of the engineer as an original technological “form of life”, not as a social and professional group. It first addresses E. Spranger’s idea of “forms of life”, which are a mode of conceiving a culture that arose at the turn of the 20th century in conjunction with phenomenology. A set of theoretical resources of sociological thought (H. Freyer) and German engineering philosophy of technology (F. Dessauer, M. Schröter, H. Hardensett) is further proposed to deal with the domination of economic rationality (or pseudo-economic pragmatism) and profile the type of engineer, which cannot be reduced to the “value-neutral” type of the “technician” or “technologist”. This paper focuses on the structure of the project activity as a particular modern “form of life“. It examines the type of engineer as homo creator, which is described as the dominant type in the advanced industrial society. Although engineering activity produces material things or artefacts, still it has chiefly immaterial nature as far as includes projecting, planning, organizing and other intellectual activities. Investigation, development, production as integral parts of engeneering are always dependent on systems of market, political decision-making, cultural values, traditions and images of everyday life, i.e. incorporated within the life-world. In this regard, engineers don’t form the “technosphere“ but rather create guidelines for action by integrating concrete values of man’s life-world into technologies (for example, innovations and sustainable development). Integration of technology and culture proceeds not externally but within the project activity which provides an opportunity to implement the concrete technical form of life and transform life-worlds of contemporary industrial societies. The principal hypothesis is that the activity of engineering, which produces technology is not a variation of the instrumental reason but the expression of the infinite creative freedom implemented in the European culture. It is pointed out that the compensative function of technology (Mangeltheorie) shall be called into question and replaced by the notion of technology as “optimation” (Optimierungstheorie). I claim that technology produces surplus possibilities which surpass all imagination. According to Dessauer, technology can be conceived real being from ideas and participation in divine creation (Weiterschöpfung). The engineering inventions and the technological transformation of the world make us aware of escalation, innovation and crossing of space and time borders which allow the technological spirit to unfold the perfect technological universe.
The paper focuses on Heidegger’s own concept of “genuine
technology” (echte Technik) as closely r... more The paper focuses on Heidegger’s own concept of “genuine technology” (echte Technik) as closely related to his interpretation of the Aristotelian distinction between physis and techne. The proposed hypothesis is that three complex concepts “care – work – techne/ technology” can be considered as crystallization points of Heidegger’s thought of the late 1920 and early 1930’s, the points interconnected by a systematic line.
This article in the form of “reflections” is devoted mainly to the image-building of Heidegger in... more This article in the form of “reflections” is devoted mainly to the image-building of Heidegger in Russia as a thinker of Being, a conservative critic of late modernity and a “post” philosopher. On the one hand, due to French post-modernism influence on late Soviet and post-Soviet philosophy Russia has developed a special interest in Heidegger’s deconstruction theory. On the other hand, the reception of Heidegger’s criticism of European nihilism, totalitarianism and machine technology as the manifestations of modernity has shaped significantly the account of the “political”. The specifics of Russian reception of Heidegger can also be traced in the rejection of strict division between the “core” of Heidegger’s philosophy and “accidental” conditions related to social and political aspects of his work in 1930s. The current discussion about recently published “Black notebooks” shows not only the fact of existence of a separate language of description and analysis in Russian philosophical field but also an original tendency to holistic consideration of Heidegger’s thinking including not only his existential and historical reflections but also political passages and criticism of civilizational discourse. In addition to the reviews of “Black notebooks” by N.V. Motroshilova, V.V. Mironov and D. Mironova in the last year’s issues of the magazine “Voprosy filosofii” there are earlier works by N.V. Motroshilova, V.V. Bibikhin and A.V. Gulyga related to the debate on Heidegger’s political and ideological commitment which are in focus of attention.
My report will focus on Heidegger’s thinking about technology and its connection with his politic... more My report will focus on Heidegger’s thinking about technology and its connection with his political involvement during the Nazi-era. My hypothesis is that Heidegger seeks to restore the original Greek sense of techne as closely related to physis which is conceived as revealing and disclosing of beings. In opposing it to the modern sense of technology as “machination” (Machenschaft), i.e. making, representing and managing beings, Heidegger proposed a reactionary-modernist vision of “genuine technology” (echte Technik) which was supposed to serve the German Volk and to secure his future.
Book Review: Epiphanius (Theodoropoulos), Archim. "The Hellenic Christian Synthesis" and the Chur... more Book Review: Epiphanius (Theodoropoulos), Archim. "The Hellenic Christian Synthesis" and the Church Fathers / translated from Greek by M. A. Vishnyak, ed. by hierom. Theodor (Yulaev). M.: GLK, 2021. 160 p.
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Papers by aleksander mikhailovsky
The second hypothesis is that Sombart proposes a version of the “other modernity,” which means an attempt to put technology in the service of the bourgeois order through its subordination to ethical principles. Acceptance of technological advances is accompanied by concerns about its negative impact on the public and private spheres. The report “Technology and Culture” (1910) poses the problem of the “cultural value of technology”.
The third hypothesis deals with the explanation of this version of the “other modernity” by a compensatory interest (it does not reject industrialization as such, but points to defects in the late capitalist development that require correction). The study identifies two different diachronic paradigms in the conservative thought in Germany before WWI and, accordingly, in the interwar period: 1) a paradigm of compensation and 2) a proactive paradigm of contributing to the national renewal, setting new guidelines in understanding the fundamental conditions of modernity. In the 1920s and 30s, Sombart goes beyond the critique of culture and demonstrates the attitude of proactive modernism (“German socialism” with planned economy and technocratic management that favor the common good over individual profit).
the world in which science and technology, in their mutual influence, are a consequence, not a cause; (3) philosophy as metaphysics allows us to see and name the ethical “guilt” of the New European society. The second thesis of this article is that Hans Blumenberg is the author who ultimately did not create the “philosophy of technology”; Blumenberg’s writings on this topic are found on the periphery of his texts on the genesis of the Modern Age, which at the same time does not detract from the significance of his present statement.
(2016). It aims to open the philosophy of technology to ontological, epistemological and ethical problems. The keynote of
the book serves the conviction that the technical creativity builds
the core of the engineering. Modal concepts as possibility, necessity, contingency and reality are used in a systematic way to characterize technology. Technological artifacts essentially depend
on a special type of interpretation (“technical hermeneutics”).
The central ontological problem consists in the fact that technology is based on new ideas, which at the beginning are a mere
possibility, because the intended artifacts and processes never
existed up to that moment. The author shows that conditions of
the real world, cognitive, social and cultural conditions constitute
the realm of the technological possibility and influence our culture (“life world”) from the very beginning.
On the one hand, by virtue of the influence French post-modernism had on late Soviet and post-Soviet philosophy, Russia has developed a special interest in Heidegger’s deconstruction theory. On the other hand, the reception of critique given by Heidegger to European nihilism, totalitarianism and machine technology, as the manifestations of modernity, has prompted significantly the interest in “political ontology”. The specifics of reception of Heidegger in Russia can also be traced to a refusal to make a strict division between the pure “core” of Heidegger’s philosophy and “accidental” circumstances associated with social and political aspects of his work in 1930s. The ongoing discussion about
recently published Black Notebooks manifests not just the fact that there is a separate language of description and analysis existing in Russian philosophical field but also the original tendency for holistic consideration of Heidegger’s thinking, which includes not just his existential and historical reflections but also political passages and critique of civilizational discourse. Besides the reviews of Black Notebooks
made by N. V. Motroshilova, V. V. Mironov and D. Mironova in the last year’s issues of Voprosy Filosofii (a philosophical journal), the attention is focused on the earlier works by N. V. Motroshilova, V. V. Bibikhin, A. V. Gulyga, V. A. Podoroga and A. G. Dugin, related to Heidegger’s overcoming of the Western metaphysical tradition and his concept of a new beginning beyond Machenschaft. The article is also devoted to considertion given to a new book by J. Love (2017) examining the philosophical influence Heidegger exerts in Eastern Europe and Russia.
Although engineering activity produces material things or artefacts, still it has chiefly immaterial nature as far as includes projecting, planning, organizing and other intellectual activities. Investigation, development, production as integral parts of engeneering are always dependent on systems of market, political decision-making, cultural values, traditions and images of everyday life, i.e. incorporated within the life-world. In this regard, engineers don’t form the “technosphere“ but rather create guidelines for action by integrating concrete values of man’s life-world into technologies (for example, innovations and sustainable development). Integration of technology and culture proceeds not externally but within the project activity which provides an opportunity to implement the concrete technical form of life and transform life-worlds of contemporary industrial societies.
The principal hypothesis is that the activity of engineering, which produces technology is not a variation of the instrumental reason but the expression of the infinite creative freedom implemented in the European culture. It is pointed out that the compensative function of technology (Mangeltheorie) shall be called into question and replaced by the notion of technology as “optimation” (Optimierungstheorie). I claim that technology produces surplus possibilities which surpass all imagination. According to Dessauer, technology can be conceived real being from ideas and participation in divine creation (Weiterschöpfung). The engineering inventions and the technological transformation of the world make us aware of escalation, innovation and crossing of space and time borders which allow the technological spirit to unfold the perfect technological universe.
technology” (echte Technik) as closely related to his interpretation of
the Aristotelian distinction between physis and techne. The proposed
hypothesis is that three complex concepts “care – work – techne/
technology” can be considered as crystallization points of Heidegger’s
thought of the late 1920 and early 1930’s, the points interconnected by
a systematic line.
The second hypothesis is that Sombart proposes a version of the “other modernity,” which means an attempt to put technology in the service of the bourgeois order through its subordination to ethical principles. Acceptance of technological advances is accompanied by concerns about its negative impact on the public and private spheres. The report “Technology and Culture” (1910) poses the problem of the “cultural value of technology”.
The third hypothesis deals with the explanation of this version of the “other modernity” by a compensatory interest (it does not reject industrialization as such, but points to defects in the late capitalist development that require correction). The study identifies two different diachronic paradigms in the conservative thought in Germany before WWI and, accordingly, in the interwar period: 1) a paradigm of compensation and 2) a proactive paradigm of contributing to the national renewal, setting new guidelines in understanding the fundamental conditions of modernity. In the 1920s and 30s, Sombart goes beyond the critique of culture and demonstrates the attitude of proactive modernism (“German socialism” with planned economy and technocratic management that favor the common good over individual profit).
the world in which science and technology, in their mutual influence, are a consequence, not a cause; (3) philosophy as metaphysics allows us to see and name the ethical “guilt” of the New European society. The second thesis of this article is that Hans Blumenberg is the author who ultimately did not create the “philosophy of technology”; Blumenberg’s writings on this topic are found on the periphery of his texts on the genesis of the Modern Age, which at the same time does not detract from the significance of his present statement.
(2016). It aims to open the philosophy of technology to ontological, epistemological and ethical problems. The keynote of
the book serves the conviction that the technical creativity builds
the core of the engineering. Modal concepts as possibility, necessity, contingency and reality are used in a systematic way to characterize technology. Technological artifacts essentially depend
on a special type of interpretation (“technical hermeneutics”).
The central ontological problem consists in the fact that technology is based on new ideas, which at the beginning are a mere
possibility, because the intended artifacts and processes never
existed up to that moment. The author shows that conditions of
the real world, cognitive, social and cultural conditions constitute
the realm of the technological possibility and influence our culture (“life world”) from the very beginning.
On the one hand, by virtue of the influence French post-modernism had on late Soviet and post-Soviet philosophy, Russia has developed a special interest in Heidegger’s deconstruction theory. On the other hand, the reception of critique given by Heidegger to European nihilism, totalitarianism and machine technology, as the manifestations of modernity, has prompted significantly the interest in “political ontology”. The specifics of reception of Heidegger in Russia can also be traced to a refusal to make a strict division between the pure “core” of Heidegger’s philosophy and “accidental” circumstances associated with social and political aspects of his work in 1930s. The ongoing discussion about
recently published Black Notebooks manifests not just the fact that there is a separate language of description and analysis existing in Russian philosophical field but also the original tendency for holistic consideration of Heidegger’s thinking, which includes not just his existential and historical reflections but also political passages and critique of civilizational discourse. Besides the reviews of Black Notebooks
made by N. V. Motroshilova, V. V. Mironov and D. Mironova in the last year’s issues of Voprosy Filosofii (a philosophical journal), the attention is focused on the earlier works by N. V. Motroshilova, V. V. Bibikhin, A. V. Gulyga, V. A. Podoroga and A. G. Dugin, related to Heidegger’s overcoming of the Western metaphysical tradition and his concept of a new beginning beyond Machenschaft. The article is also devoted to considertion given to a new book by J. Love (2017) examining the philosophical influence Heidegger exerts in Eastern Europe and Russia.
Although engineering activity produces material things or artefacts, still it has chiefly immaterial nature as far as includes projecting, planning, organizing and other intellectual activities. Investigation, development, production as integral parts of engeneering are always dependent on systems of market, political decision-making, cultural values, traditions and images of everyday life, i.e. incorporated within the life-world. In this regard, engineers don’t form the “technosphere“ but rather create guidelines for action by integrating concrete values of man’s life-world into technologies (for example, innovations and sustainable development). Integration of technology and culture proceeds not externally but within the project activity which provides an opportunity to implement the concrete technical form of life and transform life-worlds of contemporary industrial societies.
The principal hypothesis is that the activity of engineering, which produces technology is not a variation of the instrumental reason but the expression of the infinite creative freedom implemented in the European culture. It is pointed out that the compensative function of technology (Mangeltheorie) shall be called into question and replaced by the notion of technology as “optimation” (Optimierungstheorie). I claim that technology produces surplus possibilities which surpass all imagination. According to Dessauer, technology can be conceived real being from ideas and participation in divine creation (Weiterschöpfung). The engineering inventions and the technological transformation of the world make us aware of escalation, innovation and crossing of space and time borders which allow the technological spirit to unfold the perfect technological universe.
technology” (echte Technik) as closely related to his interpretation of
the Aristotelian distinction between physis and techne. The proposed
hypothesis is that three complex concepts “care – work – techne/
technology” can be considered as crystallization points of Heidegger’s
thought of the late 1920 and early 1930’s, the points interconnected by
a systematic line.