VERSUS

Reflexive experience of John Dewey’s pragmatic dimensions about knowledge and truth

Andrey Osiptsov, Olga Tsybulko — Wed, 21 Aug 2019 14:45:12 +0000

The origins of John Dewey's theories are early discussions about the classic duality of the real and the ideal. One of the most important manifestations of this duality can be traced in the separation of «knowledge» from «act». The mind is seen as an act of «reason», separated from the vulgar and universal world of practical. The idea that knowledge is a passive and high act, one of the highest aspirations of man, entered into the traditional definition of reason. The modern concept of science is a reflection of this definition. But it has a long history, starting with the Greeks, who first separated the theory from practice. For them, the study of the scientific phenomenon was both a cosmological mystery, and a peculiar complicated game. Greek philosophers believed that practical arts and crafts are beyond their control. Their world is more suitable for ethics, music and math. Significant influence of the Greeks was recognized and reflected by the historians of philosophy and science. Professor Whitehead's famous remark is that «the most reliable general characteristic of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of Plato’s references». Koestler argues that this statement should be read as follows: «science, up to the Renaissance, consisted of a series of Aristotle’s references».

Truth and knowledge are free from absolute interpretation. John Dewey insists on rejecting the Greek concept of absolute knowledge. He argues the need to replace it with existential and practical knowledge, to erase the Aristotelian understanding of knowledge. When the practice of cognition ceases to be dialectical and experimental, knowledge has become driven by changes, and testing of knowledge has become the ability to cause certain changes. Demonstration, for experimental sciences, means a certain kind of reasonably performed action; it ceases to be contemplative and becomes true in the true sense. Now this means that philosophy must also change its essence by acquiring practical content.

Subjectless post/non/management: experience of prisons

Inna Knysh — Sat, 24 Aug 2019 16:24:34 +0000

As Ukraine’s development is undergoing a period of transition, which is characterized by an increase in the role of uncontrolled tendencies, it encourages people to social transformations in all fields, including management. One of them may be the expansion of the experience of working in prisons, where management turns into a purely technological (programmed) activity, resulting in a new phenomenon – information management with its inherent subjectless post/non/management. The article analyzes the projects of prisons – Panopticon by Michel Foucault and Superpanopticon by Mark Poster, and it has been concluded that they were created in order to determine the boundaries of routine and monotony of human movements and actions, which are characteristic of the economy of an industrial society. It has been confirmed that with the help of the information of the Superpanopticon database (banking system) that is testified by the solvency of the client, it obtains various advantages. It has been proved that the main function of Panopticon is to provide the presence in carefully guarded space, and the primary task of the database is to guarantee that no outsider could enter it; Panopticon aims at implanting discipline to the residents as a means against unusualness and difference from others, as well as the right of choice and any variety. It is emphasized that Thomas Mathiesen, investigating the process of observing the minority by the majority (the mass media development), contributed to the creation of Synopticon. As to Panopticon it is described as a local mechanism of immobilization of people whereas Synopticon as the one of global character (observers are ‘detached’ from their location during observation); meanwhile those who are observed turn into observers. It has been noted that Panopticon forcibly creates the situation where people can be observed, while Synopticon proceeds from the method of temptation. “Pelican Bay” is a factory of isolation (immobilization – as an indicator of rejection in the era of space-time constraints). Having compared Panopticon of Michel Foucault and Craig Minogue’s “Marngonet”, it has been proved that the latter is a ‘machine for transforming the mind’ and ‘producing subjectivity’, and these technologies are aimed at determining the limit of space-time constraints of a man (“Pelican Bay”).

The role of sociocultural factors in shaping the language of future teachers by means of professional communication

Аlla Kravchenko — Sat, 24 Aug 2019 16:31:03 +0000

The article deals with the problems of determining the role of a sociocultural factor in the formation of the language personality of a future specialist in the field of physical education and sport by means of professional communication.

Our results show that while the biases of language learners can potentially play a role in shaping the systems of professional communication, the relationship between biases of learners and the structure of non-straightforward system. Weak biases can have strong effects on language structure as they accumulate over repeated transmission. But the opposite can also be true: strong biases can have weak or no effects. Furthermore, the use of language can reshape linguistic systems during interaction. Combining data and insights from studies of learning, professional communication and use are therefore essential if we want to understand how biases in statistical learning interact with language forms and language use to develop sport culture of a future specialist in the field of physical education and sport. The essence and role of professional communication in teaching language skills fon future specialists of physical education and sports profile as a system of knowledge and skills that contribute to the development of their sociocultural competence, the formation of sports culture, worldview, morality and behavior are theoretically grounded and prepared for life in a multicultural society.

The methodological receptions of the research of the human’s spirituality in the cultural and educational space

Helena Bogdanova — Sat, 24 Aug 2019 16:38:26 +0000

The methodological receptions are covered in the article which can significantly change the principles, the methods and the procedures of the scientific knowledge of the human spirituality and its formation in the modern conditions. Through disclosure of the contradictions in the process of the affirmation of the spiritual values, this problem is actualized and the perspective approaches of the research (existential-phenomenological, anthropological, axiological, communicative-dialogic, etc.) are offered.

Methodological reception is the understanding of human spiritual world as the quittance of human being in all spheres of life. It means that consideration of spirituality of Homo educandus requires contextual analogous, in a wide cultural space, in all system parameters. The next reception is determined by the character of human spirituality and universality. The spiritual life of a person contains rational and emotional-affective aspects, cognitive and value-motivational moments, conscious and vaguely tangible installations, and many other aspects, levels, states. At the same time, all these facets and the content of spiritual life are fixed in spirituality (not in the mosaic diversity, but in unity, in the interconnection and integrity). This position should become the principal indication in the assessment to the human spiritual level by the aspects of logic and behavior, the phenomenon estimation can never be absolutely established by the factor of universal spirituality in a position or a solution.

The methodological reception is recognized in the understanding of the existential human nature, namely, that the person perceives through his spiritual forms. The necessity of the consideration of the spirituality as the quintessence of the being, the universality, existentialism, the individuality and the uniqueness, the subjectivity, the self-reflection was demonstrated. The perspectives of the further research were determined which was connected to the study of the different disclosure of the spirituality and its role in the human life.

Gender aspects of female education in the discourses of «Naturalism» and «Biological determinism»

Yuliia Makieshyna — Sat, 24 Aug 2019 16:44:00 +0000

The gender aspects of the university education which manifest themselves vividly in the professional structure of the hierarchical pyramid are closely connected with the ideas and concepts of the biological essentialism and vulgar determinism. Those radical transformations in the gender relations that took place in the last decade of the XX-th century, have a great impact on the social status of both men and women. Following the masculine – as a normative one – style of life women have borrowed the qualities immanently inherent in men; rationality is among the most important ones. Nowadays this «new rationality» is vividly represented in the professional sphere: there are many professions that have gone from «all male» to female, and almost none that have gone the other way. As successful careers are impossible without good university education now more than a half of the students in the Western world are women (in the Humanities and social sciences the ratio of men to women is 1 to 6). Among the educated class women’s new economic power has produced considerable changes both in the social and private styles of behavior. As a result the renaissance of the based on women’s biological inabilities has been evoked to fulfill social roles. The basic myth here is that «Anatomy is Destiny». The traditional view that women's place is in the home was based on some claim that women were naturally or constitutionally unfit to take part in the public or political domain; the latter was greatly supported by the scientists in the second half of the XIX century (R. Spencer, A. Clark, Ch. Darvin, J. A. Tomson and others) and in the second half of the XX century (A. Wilson, L. Tiger, D. Barash and others). The fact that in these periods precisely the feminist movement was the most prominent shows how tightly the science is connected with ideology. In the «nature / nurture» argument feminist thinks claim that nature does not dictate whether women should be confined to motherhood, nurture does. The crucial shift that occurs here is the assertion that women's identity is not fixed by anatomy, biology, genes or DNA. Once it is admitted that women's biological nature does not determine them, but social trends, customs, beliefs and prejudices limit and prescribe their roles, then the door is open for re-education, transformation, and social change.

Applied turn of philosophical hermeneutics

Vira Dubinina — Sat, 24 Aug 2019 16:49:39 +0000

The article presents a critical analysis of the methodological consequences of phenomenological and philosophical hermeneutics. The article examines the possibility of a generalized perspective on qualitative research with emphasis on flexibility of research techniques and procedures that can be used in a variety of conceptual approaches. As well as focus on sequence and coherence of the methodological approach when the methodical procedures are coherent to philosophical grounds of the approach is analyzed. The author describes phenomenological and hermeneutic approaches' philosophical grounds used as a qualitative research strategy and shows how particular philosophical world view take shape in the data analysis procedures and in research quality assessment principles.

The purpose of the paper is to outline the key strategies for applying the methodology of philosophical hermeneutics in social sciences: to determine theoretical conditions for the turn of philosophical hermeneutics towards applied social research; to identify key concepts and techniques of philosophical hermeneutics, relevant to exploring actual social phenomena; to outline the logic of application of the elements of philosophical hermeneutics within social science. Scientific outcome of the paper is expressed in the following statements: the theoretical conditions for the applied turn of philosophical hermeneutics include the pragmatic critique of ontologization of the hermeneutic circle, that is, the reinterpretation of philosophical hermeneutics contrary to the key guidelines of its founders (M. Heidegger, H.-G. Gadamer); key concepts and techniques of philosophical hermeneutics, relevant to the research of actual social phenomena, consist in the hermeneutic circle and self-understanding, hermeneutical reduction and destruction; the logic of the applied use of the elements of philosophical hermeneutics in the context of social science involves correlation of the structure of the research with the hermeneutic structure of self-understanding, inherent in the subject under consideration.

In the framework of this study, a historical-philosophical excursion to the evolution of the “hermeneutic turn” of philosophizing was compared with analytics of the possibility of instrumentalizing the elements of philosophical hermeneutics by the qualitative methodology of modern social sciences.

Physical education and sport education in the system of sports value

Vlada Bilohur — Sat, 24 Aug 2019 16:56:39 +0000

This article is devoted to sporting values that serve as the axiological soil selection needs, interests, experiences, goals, plans, ways to implement sports activities. Sporting values reflect the internal state of human existence in the national aspect, since they are a form of existence of the nation, individual and universal. Social-philosophical analysis shows that this is why the sport as a basis for the substantial development of the individual is the sense of individual existence is always transformed in certain types of sports practice and is an element of the life process of the individual. Through sport established contacts not only with professional athletes from different countries, but also among ordinary citizens of different countries. Regarding the role of professional athletes, they on the one hand, facilitate the identification of citizens with their own nation-states, and on the other, force to think in supranational and global categories. Participation of representatives of different ethnic groups within a single sports team strengthens ethnic solidarity and tolerance in society. In addition, people who participate in sports during their free time overcome outside national boundaries. Thus, if "taking into account the size of the sports industry in Europe, the sport, cultivated at pan-European level, able to play a unifying role". Social and philosophical analysis shows that this is why sports as substantial basis for the development of the individual, provides the sense of individual existence. Sport always transforms in certain types of sports practice and acts as a consistant part of the life process of the individual. Intrinsic relationship of sport and spirituality serves the mediated beginning between intelligence and instinct, experience of man's relation to the world of sport to other people. Sports and ultimately lead to the sense of harmony, combining images of the world with the moral laws of the individual. As a spiritual-existential sense, sport is a harmony of the soul of the individual world implementation of the principles in sports activities. Sport is a substantial basis for the development of the individual, including aunity of material and spiritual elements of human activity in which the principal place is occupied by sport (physical) of the dominant culture, moral components that generally lead the improvement of sports community.

Science as a social phenomenon of knowledge and mastering of reality

Valentyn Molodychenko , Alla Serdyuk — Sat, 24 Aug 2019 17:03:47 +0000

The present stage of the development of society is characterized by the progressive development of science on the background of the complexity of the common problems of mankind, increasing the amount of scientific information, new forms of communication. Back in ancient societies of Egypt, India, China appeared the foundations of philosophical and other knowledge, which made it possible to develop science. Ancient science considered a human being as an integral part of whole nature.

The transformation of science into a social institution took place in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. and the structure of which is gradually becoming more complicated. Modern "productive" functions of science are implemented in the following directions: use for the development of production, the development of science through the development of fundamental research, the study of human phenomenon, as well as the processes of management and forecasting of possible scenarios for the social development of civilization.

All this suggests the formation of a multi-dimensional image of modern science as a system of knowledge and a social institution. As a complex sociocultural phenomenon, science is regarded as a system of knowledge, forms of social consciousness and human activity.

The study of patterns and trends in the development of scientific knowledge, its social functions and role becomes an important aspect of understanding modern social reality. Finding the general in the phenomena, revealing the general connections and laws, philosophy generates the general methodological principles of interaction with the natural sciences.

Formation of the human ”I“: an aesthetic dimension

Oleksandr Ruban — Sat, 24 Aug 2019 17:10:36 +0000

The work is devoted to the analysis of the «human phenomenon», and the problem of understanding his own personality and determining the essence. The study of one’s own personal origins is one of the most complex issues of interest to the human mind and arouses philosophical reflection from the times of Socrates. Today, the most acute problems are the identity of the human person, the preservation of its uniqueness and will, the restraint of aggressive manifestations, the promotion of decent human life for every inhabitant of the Earth. Therefore, the emergence of the concepts such as «reverence for life» (A. Schweitzer), «deserve the love of the neighbor» (G. Selie), «the goal for mankind» (A. Peccii), «the path of non-violence» (M. Gandhi), «the noosphere» V. Vernadsky) and others are not accidental, but reflect the modern stage of the development of universal human ideals. The author’s thoughts lead him to the conclusion that the solution of the problem of the human personality, his ego, lays, first of all, in the field of aesthetic component of human life, as in maximally humanistic field. The requirement for the development of such living conditions is the emergence of aesthetic necessity, as means of emphasizing the distinction of the self «I» from the other self identities, through self-realization, self-affirmation and self-expression of an individual beginning, where all that existed previously to people as co-figurative (integral, co-precious, etc.) can actually turn into their opposite, to the fact that denies this singularity - in such as a non-figurative aspect. Person is transformed from a holistic being into a limited being, alienated from certain moments of human being.

Since human life is determined by his needs, the isolation of his own personality is connected, first of all, with the realization of the aesthetic need as a «human» way of life, which is creativity. That’s why «free creativity», not burdened with the necessity, is the best way for self-realization of its own potential and the affirmation of personality as the sensational essence.

Possibilities of students communicative competence level increase in the context of new philosophy education

Bakhtier Idrisov — Sat, 24 Aug 2019 17:17:34 +0000

The aim of the study is to determine the direction of pedagogical actions in the future teacher’s professional qualities formation. The analysis of scientific works has been carried out and the personal qualities interrelation and pedagogical actions influencing the quality of education has been determined. Difficulties in communicative competences learning are caused by the following contradictions:

1) the necessity to highlight the concept and translation features: in the scientific sense English «communicative competence» means both «communicative competence» and «communicative competency», which leads to different variations in the use of its synonym «communicative competence»; the concept application researchers reveal new approaches to its content, depending on the personal vision of the ultimate goal and the scope of scientific application; there is no common understanding of social, personal and professional competencies, or methods for determining the level of mastering them, which is explained by differences in educational programs, by the vision of the training ultimate goals and the requirements of a particular society.

Thus, the analysis of the concept content studying shows that the future teacher communicative competence is a complex interrelation of the following qualities: possession of professional and personal erudition; the ability to adequately build relationships in accordance with professional and social objectives; possessing a high level of communication and the ability to organize mutual understanding and interaction with various social strata representatives. As a research tool was used "Sociolinguistic method for determining the level of students communicative competence." which was developed by the author of the article

The method of the level communicative competence determining that promotes the system of knowledge formation in the field of communication and the use of the normative rules of determination by the students is proposed.

The value-semantic essence of the holiday and its role in the harmonization of the cultural being of the modern man

Tamara Troitska , Olena Troitska , Olga Popravko — Sat, 24 Aug 2019 17:26:45 +0000

The actuality of the research is due to the existing problems of the development of the cultural person, which should not lose the faith, the hope and the humaneness in the calls of the time and the space. But the modern stage of the development of the culture demonstrates the situations of the alienation of the man from the nature, other people, their own essence. As the result, the person realizes the imperfection of his life and does not feel confident in the realization of the existential properties. Such condition requires the search of the sources of the harmonization of the cultural space of the person, so the strengthening of its connections with the outside world and the finding of the harmony in its own microcosm.

The authors propose to turn to the philosophical analytics of the origins of the culture. In their opinion, those the universally important value are laid down which will allow to work out the new strategies of the ordering of the cultural being of the man. The holiday in this sense appears as one of the first phenomena of the culture and it is the bearer of the universally significant human values and the meanings, which are reproduced in the cultural being of the man, and thus, they maintain harmony.

Researching the nature of the holiday, the authors turn to the understanding of the holiday as the symbolic form of the culture. This approach gave the opportunity to comprehend this phenomenon as the value-semantic universe of the human way of the being in the world, which helps to streamline the cultural being of the man with the help of the symbolic mastering.

The value potential of the holiday is realized through the functions; it carries out in the cultural being of the person. The authors point out the function of the designing and the ordering of the cultural chronotope, as well as the ideological, the educational, the integrative, the socializing, the compensatory, the artistic-aesthetic, the communicative functions. Such functional orientation of the holiday is allowed to save and to transmit socially significant experience, it contributes to its individual assimilation, which supports the continuity of the human being.

Culture shock

Nadya Lobner — Sat, 24 Aug 2019 17:33:44 +0000

The author of the article wrote about her cultural shock when she had returned home to Austria after her month studying in Irkutsk. In 1995 she started learning Russian language in Salzburg Literacy University, where she and other 4 students were asked to spend a month in Siberia. In Irkutsk the author lived at the uncomfortable apartment. The infrastructure of the town was also poorly adjusted: no supermarkets and problems with goods. There was only a big market in the center of the town, where Siberians sold Taiga gifts, vegetables and fruits.

But the author was impressed by the landscapes in the vicinity of Irkutsk, the beauty and grandeur of Lake Baikal. Life in Siberia became a trip into another culture. The author noticed that people are kindhearted there. She spent lots of time with Masha, the owner of the apartment. Together they traveled to the country, preparing food from the crop collected in the garden and water from the fresh stream. She especially liked Masha's evenings in the kitchen. Friends came spontaneously. All had enough space. Although the author of the article was disgusted with alcohol and did not like drunk people, she said that her Russian friends drank a lot, but they were responsible. Maybe she was just lucky with her family, because, in the family, where her classmates lived, the situation was much worse.

Step by step, she understood: to understand the situation you must be involved into it.

Gradually, the unknown became known, and strangers became friends. So she learned to have patience and understand the art of being happy on little.

Upon her return to Salzburg, the author felt uncomfortable in this pure cleanness and comfort, seemed to be so cold and stressful to her. Even then, she realized that she was experiencing culture shock. The author was ready for such kind of experience but she was surprised, why she felt this cultural shock in Austria, but not in Siberia. The culture shock was getting stronger. At her apartment in Salzburg, she felt lonely and suffered from the fact that she had lost a simple lifestyle of Siberia.

Ten years later, when the author began to forget about her cultural shock, she realized that she had that small part of Siberia in her heart. She decided to change her attitude to nature and to be much closer to it. She began to spend a lot of time in the mountains and realized that she had to use Nature Coaching primarily for herself in order to became a person.

"Honey", symbols of Melitopol (sketches for metaphysics of the town)

Anastasiya Bortnykova , Maryna Bud'ko , Yevhenii Bortnykov — Sat, 24 Aug 2019 17:44:22 +0000

The initial aspects of human existence in the world are identity (as the basis of the sense of human belongingness) and orientation (as a basis for its aspiration and the ability to appear as a homo-viator, which is also a part of human nature). At the time when the individual human space is capable to expand to planetary scale, not only personal ability to orient, but also - due to this ~~the ability to identify becomes more complicated. The person gradually forgets the way home and the thirst for this path. But the lost sense of «home» in the constant motion does not eliminate the need in it, forcing the person to seek nostalgically, and to reject disappointingly temporal landmarks and temporary shelters, hoping, in spite of everything, to find the way home and try to find himself or herself at the end of the path.

This is precisely why interest in the concept of place (and the town as its quintessence), primarily - as the genetic basis that gives life to numerous unique cultures and, of course, to human with his or her own cultures and roots; just as it is the unique appearance of every place on earth, its unique and its spiritual essence, its metaphysical "portrait". However, despite the considerable attention of researchers to the phenomena of place and town, these phenomena of human existence until recently were ignored by ontology, while traditional studies of the abstract space, rather than specific places, continued to be the most often perceived ones as the background where the human drama found its place, but not as the genetic basis of human uniqueness. In connection with this, there is an urgent need to reevaluate the role of place in the existence of human and cultures, his or her philosophical comprehension as a metaphysical basis, which contributes to the creation of cultures, the preservation and development of the unique human being.
The proposed article opens a series of publications on the pages of the journal "Versus" in order to create a metaphysical "portrait" of Melitopol. The subject of the study within the article is "genotypic" for Melitopol "honey" symbols.

Philosophical and methodological aspects of moral education for the under-age pupils

Valentyn Molodychenko, Nataliia Molodychenko, Kristina Balashova — Sat, 24 Aug 2019 17:54:48 +0000

Modern society experiences a deep crisis of values, therefore, processes of formation of morality and spirituality of children and young people need to be transformed and renewed. But this certainly needs to be used with the powerful potential of the philosophical and pedagogical thoughts of various historical epochs. Valuable thoughts on the moral education of the individual were formulated by ancient Greek philosophers Socrates, Democritus, and Aristotle. They believed that people can change themselves, to form positive personality traits.

The origins of folk pedagogical wisdom in the child upbringing are described in the works of European prominent scientists: G.Gegel, I.Gerbart, A.Distervega, D.Dury, G.Kershenshestiner, J.Komensky, I.Pestalozzi E.Spranger.

Different aspects of moral education, based on the principle of nationality, national values with the means of folk pedagogy are reflected in the works of Ukrainian philosophers and humanitarians K.D. Alchevskaya, B.D Grinchenko, O.V.Dukhnovich, І.І. Ogienko, M.I. Pirogov, S.F. Rusovoy, G.S. Skovoroda, K.D.Ushinsky.

The present stage of the formation of philosophical and methodological approaches to the formation of the moral education concept in the young pupils become the position of modern educational philosophy (V.P. Andrushenko, I.A. Zyazyun, V.S. Lutay, M.D. Yaramchenko), education development concepts, upbringing and learning in modern conditions (A.M. Aleksyuk, I.D. Beh, A.M. Boyko, S.V.Goncharenko, M.G.Stelmakhovich).

According to the national idea, the order of society and the main target instruction of the modern school (to bring up the harmoniously developed, intellectual, creative, spiritual personality), the task for the teachers is to form the principles of the under-age pupils’ high morality. And the more complete and deeper the moral principles will be embodied in school and public practice, the more successfully the goal of education will be achieved, the more effectively the educational process will be.

Changing the paradigm of education development in Ukraine as a requirement of time

Oleksander Sagalakov — Sat, 24 Aug 2019 17:59:59 +0000

The modern stage of the development of Ukraine is gaining the independence; the leading concept of Ukrainian society life is the modernization, the essence of which was to change the social life in an evolutionary way, transforming the basic foundations of Soviet society.

Modernization is considered as the self-development of capitalism, on the other hand, the modernization of the post-Soviet society, which is an industrial extension of the semi-feudal society of the Russian Empire with its characteristic features. That is, instead of the theory of a revolutionary break-up and a qualitative change in the whole system of social relations, the modernization of society was planned, which was not intended of modernization according to its basic principles.

This led to constant social upheaval, the formation of an oligarchic system of authority in Ukraine, and the periodic confrontation of authority with the people. This is particularly acute in the field of education and science, where the theory of modernization has had a significant impact and had certain objective preconditions.

The beginning of the 90s of the twentieth century characterized by a low level of education, which is connected to the deteriorating staffing of teachers and educators of higher education institutions, and a large number of private institutions.

For the Soviet system of education, the following features were specific: education was sufficiently adequate for an industrial, totalitarian, closed ideologized society, which led to a significant backlog of Soviet education, science and technology from the West. And technological lag influenced the development of science and education, because the latter largely depend on the level of development of production. Another harmful rudiment of the Soviet system of education is the use of the experience of Soviet teachers. In the country, the whole system of social relations, values, ideologues has radically changed, and in the system of education, the principles and methods of Soviet pedagogy continue to be imposed. Another problem of Soviet education is the very weak inclusion and interaction with the world educational process, with the achievements of world science.

For the transformation of national education, it is necessary to raise the prestige of the teacher, the educator, the scholar, effective interaction with the European and world educational space, financing innovative directions of education development and motivation of the creative personality.