Tyugashev E. A. A Dispute about the Autonomy of Philosophy

(Novosibirsk State University)

Abstract ♦ A debate about the autonomy of philosophy initiated in 1910 by the international journal “Logos” was ongoing throughout the 20th century. The subject matter of the discussion was the foundation of the independence of philosophy from science and religion with consequential possibility of the supremacy of philosophy in society.

The metaphor of autonomy is a political and juridical metaphor applied to the philosophical community in its relationship to other cognitive communities. The metaphor of the autonomy of philosophy carries a certain heuristic meaning, which consists of, firstly, aiming to discern its own laws of philosophical activity; secondly, pointing out the possibility of relatively independent, self-sufficient development of philosophy, if certain conditions are met.

The issue of the empirical self-sufficiency of philosophy has become a key point of the debate. The adversaries of the thesis of the autonomy of philosophy opposed to the “philosophical imperialism” and pointed out the dependence of philosophy on scientific facts and religious experience as a purely theoretical thinking. The defenders of the autonomy of philosophy maintained both the uselessness of empirism to gauge a priori philosophical theses and the existence of philosophy’s own intuitive, existential, and socio-practical experience.

The author proposes that the actual problem is not the autonomy of philosophy, which from its onset is historically given, in a sense of existence and development according to its own laws, but the sovereignty of philosophy permitting the autonomy, emancipation and sovereignty of religion and science. The situation of the sovereignty of philosophy is historical. There will always be philosophical movements, which consider serving science or religion as their task and interpret themselves as their constituents. But the progressive nature of philosophical process creates the prerequisites for the rise of such philosophical movements which, being based on their own socio-practical foundation, achieve the sovereignty of the philosophical thought.

Keywords: dispute, autonomy of philosophy, self-sufficiency of philosophy, sovereignty of philosophy, philosophical experience, metaphilosophy.

Tyugashev Evgeny Aleksandrovich, Candidate of Science (philosophy), associate professor of the Theory and History of State and Law, Constitutional Law Department, Novosibirsk State University. Postal address: 2 Pirogov St., Novosibirsk, Russian Federation, 630090. Tel.: +7 (382) 266-73-89. E-mail: tugashev@academ.org

Citation: Tyugashev, E. A. (2014) Spor ob avtonomii filosofii  [A Dispute about the Autonomy of Philosophy]. Znanie. Ponimanie. Umenie, no. 1, pp. 175–182. (In Russ.).

Submission date: 10.12.2013.

RUSSIAN VERSION

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