Home – Home – Jornals – Philosophy of Sciences 2013 number 1

The paper briefly considers the history of the problem of metaphysics of existence of nature and human. The author analyzes its current state in philosophical, religious and natural-scientific contexts. He gives proof of the definition of metaphysics as a kernel of spiritual theoretic activity, i.e. a set of eidetic creative tings which form the basis structure of scientific research programs. He also marks out seven antique binary metaphysical programs which were mutually complementary; further these programs determined guidelines of scientific activities.

The paper considers the evolution of ideas of philosophy of science with a regard for the development of concrete sciences. The research is aimed at trying to answer the question if it is possible to create a single unified philosophy of science.

The paper deals with one of the aspects of Godel’s dilemma of the man-computer relation and the existence of absolutely unsolvable predicates in mathematics. The author discusses the basic premise of the dilemma, viz. the concept of incompleteness of mathematics as a corollary of incompleteness theorems. He concludes that Godel’s argument of man’s superiority over a finite machine is incomplete as far as solvability of mathematical predicates is concerned.

The paper discusses the possibility of unification of the geometric language of forces and fields, the geometrical language of four-dimensional space-time and the probabilistic language of quantum mechanics. The author shows that all the three languages are equivalent to one of the forms of the extreme variation principle – the principle of least action. He argues in favor of the capacity of Richard Feynman’s method of path integral for explaining the sense of the particular formulas of the principle of least action. For this purpose, we need to substitute the classical idea of an object moving along a unique path for the idea of its simultaneous motion along an infinite set of possible paths. Hence the author concludes that axioms of classical mechanics and relativistic one are special cases of Feynman’s formulation of quantum mechanics.

Darwinism appeared to be the final trait in the mechanistic picture of the world; thus, it put all natural sciences on the mechanical basis. Ch. Darwin considered natural selection as an external factor which improved the morphological organization of individuals when they adapted to changing environmental conditions. H. Spencer offered the term survival of the fittest which, in his view, more accurately reflected the essence of the evolutionary factor, viz. the increase in the number of individuals with higher fertility. But his term had an absolutely another sense, in comparison with Darwin’s one. The synthetic theory of evolution uses the concept of natural selection in the Spencerian sense but with a genetic tinge.

The paper presents an attempt to treat intentional states ontologically as neurophysiological states relative to linguistic objects. We may also treat these states as functional ones. It makes possible to consider mind as a capacity for developing intentional attitude of its bearer to acquired linguistic objects or to those constructed by his or her own.

Academician Dmitry Belyaev was at the hub of activity in Russian biology. He took part in rehabilitation of genetics which was ostracized and persecuted for years in the USSR, in organization and development of the Siberian Branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences including the Institute of Cytology and Genetics, and in establishing communications with the global genetic community. His concept of destabilizing selection had fifty years of experimental verification and now it keeps developing.

The paper presents a brief review concerning the current state of the problem of interaction of stress response, behavior and ecological factors in evolutionary process. It shows the leading role of behavior in evolutionary changes. Also, it considers the role of stress reactions in revealing, creation and regulation genetic variability.