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Critique of Axiological Reason: Why the Idea of Values has Achieved the Totality in Modern Culture

Received: 1 January 2019    Accepted: 11 February 2019    Published: 1 March 2019
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Abstract

The article deals with the question of applicability limits of the Value Theory in cultural studies and validity limits of contemporary value-based consciousness. This limit is set by differentiating between the Good and the Value; the difference was clear to ancient Greek and medieval philosophers, and the necessity of acknowledging which is returning to the philosophy today. The Good exists independently, it is a source of life and, therefore, supposes gratitude; values and evaluation come into question when “there is choice and its declination, when it is up to us to choose between action and inaction”. But the fact is that collective consciousness is now dominated by axiological rationality. Gnoseologically, the characteristic of this rationality is the substitution of the classical idea of truth by evaluation. Contemporary philosophy sees the question of how these or those Values emerge as a field of the critical analysis. No prominent school of philosophical thought places critical importance on Values, but Values are regarded as derivatives from various foundations: interests of a social class or a group, structures of the unconscious, language or communication logic, the nature of human existence, the sense of being. Consequently, axiological reason is seen as mythologically “naive”, which is also a reverse side and a victim of cynical reason. Theories, that attempt to define Values as foundations of the culture, reflect naivety of collective consciousness. Their major theoretical drawback is of the same nature: they oversee the difference between the Value and the Good. The author analyzes the essence of culture from the hermeneutical point of view, according to which culture is based on comprehension of meanings constituted by language, and Values are just what meanings manifest themselves through.

Published in International Journal of Philosophy (Volume 7, Issue 1)
DOI 10.11648/j.ijp.20190701.15
Page(s) 31-40
Creative Commons

This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.

Copyright

Copyright © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

Axiological Rationality, The Good and the Value, Sense and Value, Cynical Reason, The Mythology of Values

References
[1] Kagan M. S. (1997) The philosophical theory of values, Saint-Petersburg (in Russian).
[2] Heidegger, Martin. (1993) Letter on Humanism, M. Heidegger, Time and Being, The Republic, Moscow. (Russian Translation).
[3] Fedchuk, Dmitrie A. (2016) The concept of value in axiology and scholastic notion of good, International Journal of Cultural Studies, Vol. 2, pp.52-61 (in Russian).
[4] Plotinus. (1995) Ennead, UTSIMM-Press, Kiev (Russian Translation).
[5] Aristotle. (1984) Works in 4 volumes. Vol.4. Moscow: Thought (in Russian).
[6] Nancy J. - L. (1994) Today, Ad marginem-93. pp. 148-164 (in Russian).
[7] Baudrillard, Jean (1990) La Transparence du Mal, Paris (in French. Russian Translation 2006).
[8] Bataille, Georges (1957) La Littérature et le Mal, Paris (in French. Russian Translation 1994).
[9] Badiou, Alien. (1993) L'Éthique. Essai sur la conscience du mal, Hatier, Paris (in French. Russian Translation 2006).
[10] Joas H. (1999) Die Entstehung der Werte, Suhrkamp, Franfurt am Main (in Germаn) Russian Translation: Joas H. The appearance of values. Saint-Petersburg: Aleteya 2013.
[11] Macintyre A. (1981) Аfter virtue. А study of moral theory, Norte Dame University Press, Indiana.
[12] Heidegger, Martin (1991) The Essence of Truth, Heidegger M. Conversation on a country road. Higher School, Moscow, pp.8-27 (Russian Translation).
[13] Hyde, Luis. (1983) The Gift. Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World, Canongate, Edinburg, New York, Melbourne.
[14] Who comes after the Subject? (1991) Ed. By E.Cadava, P. Connor, J. - L. Nancy. N. - Y.
[15] Yachin, Sergey E. (2016) Meaning and values. Critique of the theory of value in modern philosophy, International Journal of Cultural Studies, Vol.2 (2016), pp.27-39 (in Russian).
[16] Taylor, Charles (1989) Sources of the Self: The Making of the Modern Identity. Harvard University Press.
[17] Etzioni, Amitai (2000) The Third Way to a Good Society/ Demos.
[18] Dokuchaev, Ilya I. (2009) Value and existential. Basic principle of historical axiology of culture, Science, Saint-Petersburg (in Russian).
[19] Hegel, Georg. (1975) The Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences. Vol. 1. Moscow: Thought.
[20] Pelipenko A. A. (2012) Comprehension of culture. At 2 part. Part I. Culture and meaning. Russian Political Encyclopedia, Moscow (in Russian).
[21] Drobysheva, Elena E. (2010) Architectonics of culture: experience of philosophical reflection of culture. Saint-Petersburg: Publishing house SPbSUSE, 2010 (in Russian).
[22] Parsons Talcott. (1937)The Structure of Social Action. McGraw Hill Book Company, Inc. (Russian Translation 2000).
[23] Barthes, Roland (1957) Mythologies, Seuil, Paris (in French. Russian Translation 1989).
[24] Sloterdijk, Piter. (1983) Kritik der zynischen Vernunft. 2 Bände. Suhrkamp, Frankfurt am Main (in Germаn. Russian Translation 2001).
[25] Yachin, Sergey E. (2002) The human in the sequence of events of sacrifice, gift and exchange. Dal’nauka, Vladivostok.
[26] Žižek, Slavoy (1989) The Sublime Object of Ideology, Verso, London.
[27] Jameson, Fredrik. (2007) Marxism & Interpretation of culture. Armchair Scientist. Moscow.
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    Sergey Evgenievich Yachin. (2019). Critique of Axiological Reason: Why the Idea of Values has Achieved the Totality in Modern Culture. International Journal of Philosophy, 7(1), 31-40. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijp.20190701.15

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    Sergey Evgenievich Yachin. Critique of Axiological Reason: Why the Idea of Values has Achieved the Totality in Modern Culture. Int. J. Philos. 2019, 7(1), 31-40. doi: 10.11648/j.ijp.20190701.15

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    AMA Style

    Sergey Evgenievich Yachin. Critique of Axiological Reason: Why the Idea of Values has Achieved the Totality in Modern Culture. Int J Philos. 2019;7(1):31-40. doi: 10.11648/j.ijp.20190701.15

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  • @article{10.11648/j.ijp.20190701.15,
      author = {Sergey Evgenievich Yachin},
      title = {Critique of Axiological Reason: Why the Idea of Values has Achieved the Totality in Modern Culture},
      journal = {International Journal of Philosophy},
      volume = {7},
      number = {1},
      pages = {31-40},
      doi = {10.11648/j.ijp.20190701.15},
      url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.ijp.20190701.15},
      eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.ijp.20190701.15},
      abstract = {The article deals with the question of applicability limits of the Value Theory in cultural studies and validity limits of contemporary value-based consciousness. This limit is set by differentiating between the Good and the Value; the difference was clear to ancient Greek and medieval philosophers, and the necessity of acknowledging which is returning to the philosophy today. The Good exists independently, it is a source of life and, therefore, supposes gratitude; values and evaluation come into question when “there is choice and its declination, when it is up to us to choose between action and inaction”. But the fact is that collective consciousness is now dominated by axiological rationality. Gnoseologically, the characteristic of this rationality is the substitution of the classical idea of truth by evaluation. Contemporary philosophy sees the question of how these or those Values emerge as a field of the critical analysis. No prominent school of philosophical thought places critical importance on Values, but Values are regarded as derivatives from various foundations: interests of a social class or a group, structures of the unconscious, language or communication logic, the nature of human existence, the sense of being. Consequently, axiological reason is seen as mythologically “naive”, which is also a reverse side and a victim of cynical reason. Theories, that attempt to define Values as foundations of the culture, reflect naivety of collective consciousness. Their major theoretical drawback is of the same nature: they oversee the difference between the Value and the Good. The author analyzes the essence of culture from the hermeneutical point of view, according to which culture is based on comprehension of meanings constituted by language, and Values are just what meanings manifest themselves through.},
     year = {2019}
    }
    

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    AB  - The article deals with the question of applicability limits of the Value Theory in cultural studies and validity limits of contemporary value-based consciousness. This limit is set by differentiating between the Good and the Value; the difference was clear to ancient Greek and medieval philosophers, and the necessity of acknowledging which is returning to the philosophy today. The Good exists independently, it is a source of life and, therefore, supposes gratitude; values and evaluation come into question when “there is choice and its declination, when it is up to us to choose between action and inaction”. But the fact is that collective consciousness is now dominated by axiological rationality. Gnoseologically, the characteristic of this rationality is the substitution of the classical idea of truth by evaluation. Contemporary philosophy sees the question of how these or those Values emerge as a field of the critical analysis. No prominent school of philosophical thought places critical importance on Values, but Values are regarded as derivatives from various foundations: interests of a social class or a group, structures of the unconscious, language or communication logic, the nature of human existence, the sense of being. Consequently, axiological reason is seen as mythologically “naive”, which is also a reverse side and a victim of cynical reason. Theories, that attempt to define Values as foundations of the culture, reflect naivety of collective consciousness. Their major theoretical drawback is of the same nature: they oversee the difference between the Value and the Good. The author analyzes the essence of culture from the hermeneutical point of view, according to which culture is based on comprehension of meanings constituted by language, and Values are just what meanings manifest themselves through.
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Author Information
  • Department of Philosophy, School of Humanities, Far Eastern Federal University, Vladivostok, Russia

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