Description
Book SynopsisIn this book, Mikhail Epstein offers a systematic theory of modalities (the actual, possible, and necessary), as applied to the discourse of philosophy in its post-Kantian and especially post-Derridean perspectives. He relies on his own experience of living in the USSR and the US, dominated respectively by imperative and possibilist modalities. Possibilism assumes that a thing or event acquires meaning only in the context of its multiple possibilities, inviting counterfactual and conditional modes of description. The author focuses on the creative potentials of possibilistic thinking and its heuristic value. The book demonstrates the range of modal approaches to society, culture, ethics, and language, and outlines potentiology as a new philosophical discipline interacting with ontology and epistemology.
Table of Contents Preface Introduction: Fundamental Concepts of the Theory of the Possible 1 The Problem of Modalities in Contemporary Thought 2 A Preliminary Definition of the Modality of the Possible 3 The Ontological Status of Possible Worlds. Nominalism and Realism 4 The Principle of “Fullness” and the Problem of Realization of Possibilities 5 Duality and “Demonism” of the Possible 6 A Possibilistic Approach to the Possible 7 The Plan of the Book Part 1: The Possible in Philosophy 1 Criticism and Activism 2 Philosophy and Reality 3 Change of Modalities in the History of Philosophy 4 Philosophy as Possibilistic Thinking 5 The Area of the Thinkable: the Value of Thinking in Itself 6 Theory, Utopia, and Hypothesis 7 Catharsis of Thinking 8 Personified Thinking 9 Possible and Impossible: Aporia of Thinking 10 Language, Thinking, and Signifiability 11 Universals as Potentials: Conceptualism 12 From the General to the Concrete and Universal 13 Multiplication of Entities 14 Philosophy as Parody and Grotesque Part 2: The Fate of Metaphysics: from Deconstruction to Possibilization Introduction to Part 2 Section 2.1: Reverse Metaphysics: Critique and Deconstruction 15 Beyond Being and Nothingness: the Feeling of the Possible 16 A World View, Not a Point of View: “A Net with No Knots” 17 The Possible in Jean Derrida 18 The Metaphysics of Deconstruction: the Main Terms 19 The Radical Nature of Difference: Profit and Transcendence 20 Center and Structure 21 Reverse Metaphysics: the Other, the Play, and the Writing 22 Différance and the Tao Section 2.2: Construction and Possibilization 23 From Deconstruction to Construction 24 Construction and Creativity 25 De- and Con- 26 Potentiation as Method: Eros of Thinking 27 What is “The Interesting”? Proposed Criteria 28 Small Metaphysics: the Unique Part 3: The Worlds of the Possible Introduction to Part 3 29 Society 30 Culture 31 Ethics 32 Psychology 33 Religion Conclusion Appendix To be Able, to be, and to Know. A System of Modalities 1Definitions of Modality A Typical Definitions B The Specific Definition 2Оntic Modalities (Modalities of Being) A “To Be” and “To Be Able” in the Ontological and Modal Perspectives B Existence and Non-existence C The Possible and the Contingent D The Impossible and the Necessary E Strong and Weak Modalities F The General Scheme of Ontic Modalities G Supermodalities: The Due and the Miraculous 3Еpistemic Modalities (Modalities of Knowledge) 4Pure (Potentialistic) Modalities A Active Voice (Capacity, Need) B Passive Voice (Permission, Coercion) C Second-order Modalities (1)Will and Power (2)Desire and Love 5The Final Tables of Modalities 6Modal Categories in Various Disciplines A Be Able – Possess – Have Value. Modality in Economics B Necessity and Immortality: Modality in Eschatology 7Potentiology: Prospects for the New Discipline Index of Names Index of Subjects
