Читать книгу Основной метод философии The Basic Method of Philosophy - Александр Жалнин - Страница 4

If philosophy is a special type of thinking, then we can define it by comparing it with other types of thinking: a) scientific and artistic in terms of the way of thinking and b) technological and personal in terms of the object of thinking.

The scientific type of thinking is characterized by the predominance of formalized and depersonalized content, a few axiomatic foundations, logic as a way of organizing content elements, and as a result, obtaining equally understood (formalized and unified) results, verified by evidence. The subject of scientific thinking is the search for patterns, that is, actions and relations of nature common to all people.

Artistic thinking is characterized by the predominance of figurativeness, emotionality of content, individual skill (talent) and personal attitude of the author as a way of organizing content elements, not strictly defined and numerous cultural grounds, and as a result, obtaining emotionally oriented results. The subject of artistic thinking is the identification and display of various states of human consciousness.

Technological thinking is characterized by a focus on the creation of technologies and material values – it uses elements of both scientific and artistic thinking. Personal thinking is characterized by a focus on the creation of spiritual and social values – it also uses elements of both scientific and artistic thinking. As you can see, technological and personal thinking are mixed types of thinking, which would be more correctly called varieties of thinking.

However, both scientific and artistic types of thinking, considered as opposites, also contain "impurities" of their opposite – in artistic thinking there is both logic and the generally accepted symbolic apparatus, and in scientific thinking there is both talent, imagery, and personal attitude. If we separate these "impurities" from the basis of the type of thinking, we will get two opposite characteristics of thinking: one is impersonal, logical, unemotional, based on the laws of nature, the other is personality-oriented, emotionally imaginative, based on states of consciousness.

These characteristics can be designated as the objective and subjective sides of thinking, or consciousness. In the real process of thinking, these two sides of consciousness or two phases of consciousness exist in dynamic unity, constantly changing their relationship to each other and switching the mode of brain operation from one to another. It is obvious that this process – the change of states of consciousness and phases of the functioning of the brain – is, on the one hand, a natural process, on the other hand, a process realized and regulated by consciousness. As a process realized and regulated by consciousness, it is neither a scientific nor an artistic type of thinking – it is a regulator of the relationship between the objective and subjective side of consciousness.

I consider the system of knowledge about this process and the ability to apply it the most adequate idea of what place the "philosophical type of thinking" should occupy.