Traditionally, this year will open on January 27 in Moscow with the International Christmas Readings. For many years, the co-chair of one of the sections - "Science and Christianity" - is Archpriest Kirill Kopeikin, associate professor of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy, director of the Scientific and Theological Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of St. Petersburg State University. His section, which, as usual, is held at the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University, is perhaps one of the most important platforms where the relationship between faith and scientific knowledge is discussed. We present to the attention of the readers the conversation of our correspondent with him.

Why do we need knowledge

Yes, I graduated from the Faculty of Physics of St. Petersburg State University, then graduate school, defended my dissertation, then worked in a special design bureau "Integral" at the university.

- Why do many physicists become priests? It seems to be a distant sphere ...

It's actually not that far away. Francis Bacon, who can be called the founder of modern science, argued that God gave us Revelation in two forms. The first is the Bible, and the second is the world itself, which is the book of the Creator. At the same time, Bacon believed that reading the book of nature gives us the keys to a deeper understanding of the Bible. This is probably true, because, as we see, this idea of ​​knowing the Creator through creation is still hidden in physics. This is on the one hand. On the other hand, it must be said that it was physics that allowed us to develop a theoretical view of the world. And the essence of the theoretical vision is as follows. In physics, the world is not drawn as a collection of some facts, objects, in it we describe the laws that govern these bodies. The laws discovered by physics have a primary ontological (existential) reality. That is, when we study physics, we sort of take the position of the Legislator, the Creator. It seems to me that this is what leads many physicists to the fact that they begin to perceive their occupation in physics as a kind of sacred action, and then become priests.

- People come to the Church in different ways, and this leaves an imprint on people. What imprint does physics leave?

I think, first of all, the habit of disciplined thinking. And yet - the freedom of judgment, the absence of fear of novelty, the courage to overcome common stereotypes.

But there is schematism in systemicity, which can narrow the living experience of faith. Some believe that a believing person does not even need theology, they say, why philosophize, learn something, when it is enough to be with God.

Yes, the Apostle Paul said that in the world of the next century even knowledge will be abolished, and only Love will remain. When we see Him face to face. But until this happens, we need theology, and physics, and much more.

St. Maximus the Confessor, one of the greatest Byzantine theologians, believed that the knowledge of the fluid created nature is a kind of game that ultimately leads us to the knowledge of God. And just as a child leaves toys, parting with childhood, so a person in the future will move on to some higher level of knowledge. Everything has its time. In the meantime, you just need to go through your period of development.

About rationalism

In one of your articles you write: “Only by making science its ally, the Church will be able to attract to itself the intelligentsia, which could bear witness to the faith to all educated people.” But how to do that? After all, the Church will then have to adjust to the rationality of science.

And what, is the church environment irrational?

- But faith is against rationality.

Who told you this? Look up the Holy Scriptures. The Apostle Paul says that our ministry is a reasonable ministry (Rom. 12:1). The Greek original uses the words λоγικηλατρια (pronounced "logic"), and was translated into Latin as "ratio". Our service to God is a reasonable service. Reason is a gift of God, it is a sin to refuse it. Another thing is that everything is not reduced to the mind alone.

- Meanwhile, our atheist intellectuals call themselves rationalists and seem to be proud of it.

Well, that's just how they think to themselves. In fact, the nature of their atheism is irrational. Because this is the result of the dominance of 70 years of so-called scientific atheism, about which Berdyaev wrote well: there is no rationality behind this, behind this there is a struggle for power over souls and the desire of a totalitarian state to completely subjugate everything and everyone. You see, this is a problem that needs to be overcome. And this is happening gradually.

Now science itself inevitably comes to overcome atheistic materialism. The remarkable Russian physicist David Nikolaevich Klyshko, who was involved in quantum optics and quantum informatics, wrote in one of his latest works published in the most authoritative journal “Uspekhi Fizicheskikh Nauk” that we still do not have a materialistic interpretation of the state vector, which is a mathematical representative of elementary micro-objects . Do you understand? Those particles that make up matter, we cannot describe materialistically. Nothing new has yet been invented in terms of their description, but it is already clear that this will not be materialism in the usual sense of the word. And many scientists talk about it. The late academician Ginzburg, in his Nobel lecture, named the interpretation of quantum mechanics among the three great problems of physics. Until now, no one can understand what reality is behind those mathematical constructions with which we describe the world - and this is important in order to move further in the study of elementary particle physics.

Nevertheless, he understood that the world was on the verge of the emergence of some new physics. Once I showed him my work on Jung and Pauli. Wolfgang Pauli was an outstanding physicist, Nobel Prize winner, one of the founders of quantum mechanics. And Carl Gustav Jung was an outstanding psychologist, the creator of analytical psychology. And they jointly tried to understand how the physical and mental interact in this world. Vitaly Lazarevich was at first surprised that "some priest" was writing a paper on this topic. But then he showed his colleagues, they did not find any mistakes, and Ginzburg, being an honest person and seeing the scientific conscientiousness of the work, posted it on the podium of the website of the journal "Uspekhi fizicheskikh nauk".

- And what kind of psyche can there be in the physical world? Atoms are non-living...

Herein lies the mystery. In fact, the quantum world often behaves as if it were alive.

living world

By "live" do you mean the so-called observer effect? This is when the very fact of observing quantum particles by a scientist changes their physical parameters. That is, the particles, it turns out, react to what a person measures them.

Yes, including this. The most unexpected thing that we encounter when in our study of the world we reach a fundamental level, to quantum mechanical objects, is that objects look more like something mental than physical, in the ordinary sense of the word. We are accustomed to think that an object exists by itself. And then it suddenly turned out that quantum objects interact with us and, as it were, answer our questions. This is so surprising that the English physicist Charles Galton Darwin wrote a paper in 1919 in which he argued that quanta are very similar to living organisms. And I even thought that, perhaps, free will would have to be attributed to the electron.

- He is not related to another Charles Darwin, the founder of soulless mechanistic evolutionism?

This is his grandson. And, unlike his grandfather, he was already in a different world of scientific ideas - he was a direct witness to the emergence of the quantum theory of the structure of the atom, he himself left a noticeable mark in experimental physics. For example, scientists know the Darwin-Fowler method. At one time, his book "The Modern Concept of Matter" was very popular.

And the German philosopher Alois Wenzel, who wrote the book Metaphysics of Modern Physics, went even further. He argued that the world of elemental objects is similar to the world of elemental spirits. Although I would call it "elementary logos". You see, in a sense, the whole reality that we encounter in the Kantian world is alive. And we interact with this reality.

- Isn't there a temptation to pantheism in such a view of physical reality? Like, the whole world is the living God?

There will always be danger if you fantasize thoughtlessly. It is clear that it does not follow from the very fact of "living matter" that this is God. The Creator simply created such materiality. And this does not contradict Orthodox teaching.

Metropolitan Anthony of Surozh, in my opinion, one of the greatest theologians of the 20th century, said that the only true materialism is Christianity. What did he mean? That we believe in matter not as something inert, dead, but as something called by God to be transformed. And Vladyka Anthony very accurately remarks: this is what happens in the Church. When we celebrate the liturgy, a miracle of transfiguration occurs - God unites with bread and wine. Vladyka Anthony explains that this is not a magical violence against matter, but, on the contrary, it is the elevation of matter to the level to which it is called by God, to the state about which the Apostle Paul writes: “God will be all in all” (1 Cor. 15, 28). The whole world must be deified, brought into union with God. And Vladyka says wonderfully: God does not create anything dead, because He Himself is life.

- But we, ordinary people, still live in a world of dead, inert matter. Only scientists can see the quantum world.

Why only scientists? It is in the miracles that sometimes occur that this hidden life of matter is revealed.

It turns out such a picture. What we observe in our macrocosm is a consequence of the fall, our fallen world. But if we try to see what the fallen, inert matter consists of, then at the elementary level we see signs of some other, “living” state? Or, as it were, borderline with "live"? At the elementary level, particles have quantum uncertainty - they are both localized and not localized in space. The entanglement effect operates there, when the state of one particle can be instantly transferred to another, even if they are at a great distance from each other. That is, there are signs of the existence of a world with other laws. Perhaps, further, beyond this level, there is some subtle world?

In my opinion, it is wrong to oppose the "subtle" and "non-subtle" worlds. This is done by those who have the old Newtonian picture of the world in their heads: they say that there is space and time as a receptacle for events, and material bodies are located in them. In fact, the universe is very different. Space and time in it arise as a result of a very complex system of relations between elements that themselves have some, I would say, an internal dimension of being. And the fabric of reality is very tightly intertwined, it is alive, and the world consists of elementary particles, which are more like logos, like monads, like something alive. And we interact very closely with this. This is our reality, not some "subtle" world.

- It is difficult to imagine such an interaction. We are big, we are in the macrocosm, and there are the smallest particles ...

What does "we're big" mean? All this happens in us, including at the gene level. Back in 1943, one of the creators of quantum mechanics, Erwin Schrödinger, developed ideas about the connection between genetics and quantum mechanics. And our compatriot, the outstanding geneticist Timofeev-Resovsky, said that the discreteness (separation, discontinuity) of our bodies is a manifestation of the quantum nature of the world. It can be assumed that genes are, as it were, amplifiers that transfer “life” from the quantum microscopic level to the macroscopic level. And at the same time they convey the property of discreteness. That is, we have separate bodies precisely as a result of the quantum nature of the world. And if the world at a fundamental level were arranged differently, then life could look, for example, like a continuous ocean.

- Like in the movie "Solaris"?

More or less like this. There would be no discrete world, no separate beings, but one community.

Doesn't the fact that matter at the elementary level behaves as "alive" confirm the evolutionary theory, according to which life and mind arose by themselves? Before, atheists claimed that the living arose from inert, inorganic matter, and this was easily refuted. But what if matter is originally “alive”?

Just like that, without a creative Mind, one cannot be transformed into another. In addition, the idea of ​​self-emergence of intelligent life refutes the phenomenon of "silence of the universe." You probably know: in the 60s and 70s, scientists were actively engaged in the search for extraterrestrial life. And the program is still running today. At the same time, mind you, recently astrophysicists have begun to discover a lot of exoplanets in space. As of December 2013, the existence of 1056 planets has been reliably confirmed. In the Milky Way galaxy alone, according to new data, there should be more than 100 billion planets, of which 5 to 20 billion are possibly "Earth-like". Also, according to some estimates, about 34 percent of sun-like stars have planets close to them that are comparable to the Earth. Here are all the conditions for the "self-emergence of life" and the development of civilizations. But they don't reveal anything about themselves.

- Should they?

The likelihood of this can be estimated. Professor of the Department of Astrophysics and Stellar Astronomy of the Faculty of Physics of Moscow State University Vladimir Mikhailovich Lipunov proposes to do this in the following way. We agree with astrophysicists that the universe has existed for about 10 billion years. Let's accept the fact that over the past century our civilization has been developing exponentially, with acceleration. Then the number characterizing the growth of technological civilization during the existence of the universe will be of the order of exp (10,000,000 / 100), that is, 1042,000,000 . This is a colossal number. For comparison: the number of all elementary particles in the universe is only 10 80 . That is, the probability of the emergence of civilizations like ours is as great as the existence of matter itself is obvious. They should be, period. And astrophysicists should see traces of the activities of these civilizations in space.

One day, the great physicists who participated in the Manhattan Project started talking about whether there are extraterrestrial civilizations. Enrico Fermi said: "They definitely don't." He was asked: "Why?" He replied: "If this kind of civilization existed, then our entire sky would be in flying saucers." This is now called the Fermi Paradox.

How to explain this paradox? One of the brightest Russian astrophysicists, Viktoriy Favlovich Shvartsman, believed that perhaps there are signals of another civilization, but we do not understand their meaning. This is akin to the most important thing in art - the understanding that we really have a work of art in front of us. And here everything depends on the person himself. The astrophysicist was convinced that the knowledge of the external world is a more primitive task than the knowledge and construction of the inner world of man, the spiritual and ethical world; the technological age will soon end, humanity will understand that it has gone astray, and, finally, it will completely take care of the soul in the broadest sense of the word.

God's poem

Father Cyril, and yet it is not clear how the mind can be enclosed in matter, albeit in “living” one. Are these different things?

What does imprisoned mean? And what is matter in general?

Look, the world as we know it is mostly emptiness. What is an atom? If the nucleus of an atom of hydrogen, the most common element in space, is increased to the size of a soccer ball, then the electrons around it will rotate at a distance of about a kilometer. Can you imagine? And if the distance between electrons and nuclei in the human body is removed, then the person will turn into the smallest speck of dust. The world, which, as it seems to us, is filled with solid matter, is in fact almost nothing. The effect of hardness in it is due to the electromagnetic interaction that keeps the particles at a certain distance. What is electromagnetic interaction? Its manifestation is a stream of photons, that is, light. And when the Apostle Paul says that everything that appears is light (Eph. 5:13), this can also be understood in a literal sense. That is, the material world is actually very ephemeral, on the verge of reality. This is the first.

Now the second. If we remember that the world was created by the Word of God, then the question arises: what is the reality of the word? If we are made in the image and likeness of God when we create a work of poetry, then where does this reality exist? St. Maximus the Confessor calls the material world "the seamless chiton of the Logos." St. Gregory Palamas, in whom Orthodox theology probably reaches its pinnacle, calls this world "the writing of the self-hypostatic Word." In the Creed, we confess God as the "Creator of the universe", and in Greek there is literally "poetis". If the world is God's poem, where does it exist? That's when a person creates a poem, where does he create it?

- In some information field.

In what other field? Here I am, writing a poem. In what information field does it exist?

- Er... well, in the mind, I guess.

In your mind, in your psyche, right? So where does the world exist?

- In the mind of God?

This conclusion can be drawn based on the data of modern science. Realizing that this so-called material world consists of almost nothing materially, at the same time we see that the world is the psychic of the Creator. Thought is born from nothing, so our world was created from nothing.

- So, we are all the thoughts of God? At any moment, God might think differently and... we will disappear?

No. Here is a poet, he created a poem out of nothing with the forces of his soul. And she, a poem, lives her own life. Although it has a piece of the author's soul.

- That is, our mind is like a piece of God?

No, I'm talking figuratively. To put your soul into a work is to create from yourself, in your own image and likeness. And this is what we received from the Lord. The proof of this is that we can be aware of both ourselves and His presence.

There is a well-known physicist, Alexei Burov, who is now working in the United States, at Fermilab, at the Enrico Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory. In one of his works, he writes that today 45 orders of the universe are open to us - from a size of 10 -19 meters (this is the order studied at the Large Hadron Collider) to 10 26 meters (this is the distance at which the galaxies visible in the Hubble telescope are located ). Can you imagine what it is? 10 meters with 45 zeros - this is the scale of the universe that is open to us. And he asks: does the ability to see the universe on such a scale mean that our mind is similar to the mind of the Creator?

It is usually believed that faith is something subjective, located in the realm of illusions. But now, says the physicist Burov, the most concrete proof of our faith is science, the ability of man to embrace the universe with his mind and penetrate into its essence. He writes: “It is customary to regard religious experience as strictly subjective, in contrast to scientific experience. The words "religious experience" give rise to an association of unique inexpressible personal experiences, visions and revelations. But isn’t there a delusion here, isn’t there an unjustified narrowing of religious experience?.. In the history of mankind there is no experience of faith, more majestic and at the same time completely objective, like the experience of fundamental science, like the experience of the cosmic growth of man himself… Science itself with cosmic power testifies to the sonship of God, as a real relationship between man and God.

That is, the very fact that we, being inside a closed system, are able to mentally go beyond its limits, speaks of the transcendent nature of our mind?

Yes, this is an absolutely amazing fact, although we take it for granted without thinking. But imagine this picture: Pierre Bezukhov and Andrei Bolkonsky discuss the structure of the novel "War and Peace" and the idea of ​​Leo Tolstoy. But we are in the same position - being a part of this world, we put forward a claim to understand its laws and even the meaning of its existence, that is, the Creator's intention. Einstein said so bluntly: “I want to know how God created the world. I am not interested here in this or that phenomenon, in the spectrum of this or that element. I want to understand His thoughts, everything else is details.”

In the last years of Einstein's life, the famous American physicist John Archibald Wheeler was his collaborator. And, reflecting on what place a person occupies in the universe, he came to the following conclusion: “He who thinks of himself simply as an observer turns out to be a participant. In a strange way, this is participation in the creation of the universe. This is the central conclusion for the “quantum and the Universe” problem.” Wheeler saw that the non-locality of quantum physics, coupled with the influence of the observer on the observed system, directly indicates that we are co-creators of the Creator and participate in the ongoing creation of the universe.

The Bible says that Adam was God's worker in Paradise because he was assigned to care for God's garden. But this cooperation ended after the fall and expulsion from paradise, didn't it? After all, we are punished, as if "put in a corner."

Not certainly in that way. We have been given the opportunity to make amends. And the possibility of co-creation with God is still present in us. Not to the extent, of course, as it was in paradise - and thank God, because, being in the current vicious state, we could destroy a lot. In fact, this is what we often do. Nevertheless, this gift of God has remained and imposes on us a great responsibility.

Looking to the future

You said that the world is on the verge of a new physics. What is changing in science now, what trends can be traced?

Now the question of what consciousness is is becoming topical, there are programs for studying a person, his psyche. Huge amounts of money are being spent on this. In Europe, for example, the Human Brain Project has been launched, involving more than 130 European research institutions. He has funding of 1 billion 2 million euros. Media reports say that they have already managed to obtain the most detailed computer image, or, as they say, the most detailed map of the human brain. Scientists are trying to find out how the structure of the brain affects the behavior and abilities of a person, how individual differences in the structure of the brain are associated with differences in personal abilities. And in the USA, the grandiose project BRAIN was launched, which stands for "Studying the brain through the development of innovative neurotechnologies." Its funding - $ 3 billion - is huge, especially in the context of the financial crisis and the curtailment of many scientific programs.

- And what can it give?

I believe that the question of the nature of consciousness cannot be resolved outside of a theological context. Because the very concept of personality, consciousness - it only arises in the context of biblical Revelation. And the research projects launched today will inevitably lead to an understanding of this.

And one more question, in conclusion. Does something change in the people themselves? I mean the atheistic attitude among the intelligentsia. You are the rector of the church at St. Petersburg University and constantly communicate with students, future scientists.

There are a lot of believers among students, and even more seekers. Student life is a time of active search for the meaning of life, one's life path.

- Do they go to church?

The services are attended mainly by teachers and alumni. And for students, the university is the place where they study, and then there is also the temple, on Sundays they go to the university again.

- In scrap, as the youth speaks.

Yes, but at the same time I have never encountered their negative reaction.

These guys organized themselves and hold meetings at the church of St. Tatiana. We have two churches at the university. The first, the Apostle Peter and Paul, is located in the building of the Twelve Colleges. We started serving there in 1996. At first, once a month, a prayer service, then once a week. Now there is a service every Sunday and on holidays - usually about a hundred people come, but on Easter you simply cannot enter the temple, everyone does not fit. And the Church of St. Tatiana - it is in the building of the former Larinsky gymnasium on the 6th line of Vasilyevsky Island, which now belongs to the Faculty of Philology and the Faculty of Arts.

- You probably read lectures at the community?

Yes, lectures are held all the time, I also read, and I invite someone.

How do you manage to...

With hard work and with the help of God!

- Let me wish you God's help in the coming year, and thank you for the interesting conversation.

Recorded by Mikhail Sizov

Philosophical Foundations

Philosophical principles of psychology.

Living organism.

The evolution of the psyche of living organisms

The psyche of the simplest living organisms (1st generation).

The psyche of living organisms of the 2nd level of development.

SUBCONSCIOUS SETTINGS.

The psyche of living organisms of the 3rd level of development.

The psyche of living organisms of the 4th level of development.

The psyche of living organisms of the 5th level of development.

The psyche of living organisms of the 6th level of development.

The psyche of living organisms of the 7th level of development.

CONSCIOUSNESS.

Once again about subjective images.

How consciousness works.

Transfer of information at the level of consciousness.

Transmission of information at the subconscious level.

How does the subconscious influence the work of consciousness.

How information is stored in the mind.

What role do feelings play in the psyche?

How art affects the human psyche

Mental illnesses and their causes

Stages of development of consciousness.

What is the non-material world made of?

The mind is like a program in a computer. The information in a computer is made up of programs and the data that programs use. Both program and data are intangible objects. But programs exist to serve an external operator (human). Therefore, we cannot say that there are programs similar to computer programs in the psyche. Since the programs in the computer are not self-sufficient, that is, their functioning is provided by an external operator. But it should be recognized that the psyche consists of programs that ensure the vital activity of a living organism. In order to emphasize their difference from computer programs, let's call them information structures.

In the psyche, there are information structures (programs), as well as information data used by information structures. Information structures and data will be called information objects.

Any computer program has a certain size, measured in bytes. In the psyche, any information structure also occupies a certain size (they have a certain information capacity).

An information structure and information data are intangible objects that can only exist on a material medium. They occupy a certain information capacity in the psyche of a living organism. The psyche consists of these two types of information objects.

Definition 1: Information object- this is an intangible object that can exist only on a material carrier, occupying a certain information capacity.

With this definition, we introduce the basis for the use of mathematical methods in the description of mental processes: when describing an information object, one can indicate its information capacity.

In addition, looking ahead, I want to say that for the existence of an organism with a certain level of development, a certain minimum information capacity is needed. Similarly, the more complex a computer program, the larger the size of the information area it occupies. Although it is possible to create a primitive program that takes up a lot of space in the information space, it is impossible to create a complex program that will take up less than a certain amount of information space. It follows from this that for the existence, for example, of consciousness in a living organism, its information capacity must be no less than a certain size. So, if scientists know the minimum information volume necessary for the existence of consciousness and meet some living creature whose brain information capacity is less than the required level, then scientists can conclude that the living creature does not have consciousness.

On the basis of axiom 1, we argue that the psyche exists only on material carriers. That is, if we recognize the movement of the soul in space, then we will have to look for material carriers of information that move it. This axiom will allow us to make scientific reasoning, not mystical reasoning. I.e information cannot be moved without the mediation of material carriers, and it can also be stored only on material carriers. This statement is as important for the informational (non-material) world as the law of conservation of energy for the material world.

A program in a computer consists of instructions that make up a certain algorithm. That is, any program consists of algorithms. The information structure also consists of algorithms that fulfill certain needs. The need to perform certain calculations also arise in computer programs, after, for example, after the operator has pressed a key. After pressing the key, the program needs to display the character on the monitor. Of course, comparing the work of the psyche with the work of a computer is a simplification that I use to explain the essence of the theory with simpler examples.

It can be said that one of the goals of each information structure is to satisfy certain needs of a living organism. Satisfying the need provides a certain algorithm.

From all of the above, the following definition of the information structure follows:

Definition 2: Information structure(IS) is an information object consisting of algorithms, that is, having needs.

The need is the focus of IS on achieving a certain result.

The most primitive virus contains the only information structure with the need to multiply. A more complex virus has a need to defend itself (a self-preservation program). In certain situations, the need to persist can dominate over the need to multiply. That is, the information structure of such a virus consists of two information structures that are fighting each other for a dominant position. A colony of living beings can successfully exist either through efficient survival or through efficient reproduction. And if both ISs (information structures) work effectively, then such a colony will simply force out other colonies in the struggle for material resources.

The presence of needs distinguishes an information structure from information data. Similarly, a computer program is different from a store of information.

Just as a computer has a processor for executing commands, there is a processor that executes commands of information structures in living organisms.

Such a processor exists in every cell of a living organism, in every virus.

Analogy of the work of the psyche with the work of a computer.

When explaining more complex things, we use analogies with the principle of the device of simpler things. Such a simpler device is a computer. Therefore, I will briefly dwell on explaining the basic principle of its operation. Then I will reveal an analogy with the basic principle of the psyche of a living organism.

The processor is the center of any computer. This is a device that is capable of executing a specific set of commands. Based on this small set, the programmer builds various algorithms that allow you to create a gigantic variety of software.

The principle of operation of the processor is as follows: the processor receives a command, and the processor performs an action that corresponds to this command.

Similarly, there are reflexes in the psyche: a certain algorithm is executed on a certain stimulus.

1. 1. Yakov Feldman Theory of man 1. Philosophy1. 1. What is the world made of? September -2011 Russia
2. 2. Ontology Ontology answers the questions - How does our world work or - What does our world consist of Since we are inside the "Philosophy" section, our answer to this question will be formulated in the most general of all meaningful ways
3. 3. OntologiesFrom Thales to Popper
4. 4. Thales of Miletus (other Greek Θαλῆσ ὁ Μιλήςιοσ, 640/624-548/545 BC) founder of European science and philosophy He believed that "the whole world consists of water"
5. 5. Pythagoras of Samos (another Greek Πυθαγόρασ ὁ Σάμιοσ, lat. Pythagoras; 570-490 BC) - an ancient Greek philosopher and mathematician, creator of the religiously believed that the philosophical school "everything is a number" of the Pythagoreans founded - modern mathematics and – modern music theory
6. 6. Parmenides from Elea (Greek Παρμενίδης; c. 540 or 520 BC - He believed that “Being is, ca. 450 BC) there is no non-existence” - This is the most general of possible ontological formulations - This rather than a logical, but a value statement. Its meaning: it is necessary to study only the eternal, there is no point in studying “fluid things”
7. 7. Empedocles from Akraganta (another Greek Ἐμπεδοκλῆσ) (c. 490 BC, Agrigento -c. 430 BC) - an ancient Greek philosopher, physician, statesman. He believed that the world consists of four figures, a priest. began - Earth - Water - Air - Fire And two forces - Friendship and - Enmity
8. 8. Democritus of Abdera There are only atoms in the world (Δημόκριτοσ; c. 460 BC - c. 370 BC) - and emptiness ancient Greek philosopher, one of the Atoms are the most founders of modern physics of different shapes and sizes Atoms move in all directions with a wide variety of speeds. Everything that we observe in the world comes from this movement.
9. 9. Plato, in the spirit of Parmenides, claims Plato (other Greek Πλάτων) that it is necessary to study only “the eternal, (428 or 427 BC, standing behind things”, then we will understand Athens - 348 or 347 BC. e., and the things themselves. ibid) - the ancient Greek philosopher This is the eternal, standing behind things, he calls "ideas". Things are "the realization of ideas in space." Ideas are hierarchically ordered. Among them there is one highest idea - the idea of ​​the Good. Later, Christians identified the idea of ​​the Good with God. The human soul consists of three principles - rational, furious and passionate, which roughly corresponds to our concepts of "intellect", "will" and "emotions"
10. 10. Plato in the VI book of the "States" divides everything that exists into two kinds: the sensed and the conceivable. The sensed is again divided into two kinds - the objects themselves and their likenesses. Perception from nature corresponds to the first kind, perception from the image corresponds to the second. Taken together, these abilities make up perception. The conceivable is also divided into two kinds - these are the ideas of things and their mathematical models. Ideas are eternal and unchanging entities. The ability to work with ideas is the mind. The second kind includes mathematical models. Mind and reason together constitute thinking.
11. 11. Aristotle believed that the consideration of “ideas” (other Greek Ἀριςτοτζλησ; 384 BC, Stagir - only interferes with the knowledge of things. 322 BC, Chalkis, Instead, he introduced the island of Euboea into consideration) - “reasons things”, thus the ancient Greek philosopher and scientist. A student of Plato, laying the foundation for the "analysis of factors". He found four such reasons for each thing - Material (from what) - Formal (according to what structure) - Operating (from what energy) - Target (for what) He believed that the soul is a function of the body, as sharpness is the function of a knife
12. 12. Nominalism and realism two positions in Medieval philosophy Nominalism: general concepts - names of things or names of names of things Realism: general concepts - independent entities condemned Nominalism as a false doctrine
13. 13. Nominalism and Realism continued Nominalists Realists Berngar of Tours Geyrik of Oxerre Roscelin Remigius of Auxerre Heinrich of Ghent Anselm of Canterbury Sereshal William Champeau Peter of Spain Walter de Mortan Buridan John of Salisbury of Occam Nicholas of Otrecourt ----------------- ------ Nicholas Oresme Pierre Abelard took a compromise position
14. 14. Rene Descartes (fr. René Descartes postulates Descartes; lat. Renatus the existence of two independent Cartesius - Cartesius; substances 1596 -1650) - - Extended and French - Thinking mathematician, philosopher, God guarantees the correspondence between them, physicist and physiologist. Man has thinking and, therefore, has soul. Animals do not have a soul, in this sense they are indistinguishable from mechanisms. The soul of a person is mated with his body in his brain.
15. 15. Charles Sanders Peirce (eng. Charles Sanders Peirce; 1839 - 1914) American philosopher, logician, mathematician Called for a special study of symbolic systems and coined the term "semiotics"
16. 16. Bertrand Arthur William Russell (Eng. Bertrand ArthurWilliam Russell, 3rd Earl Russell; 1872 - 1970) - Author of the Analytical English mathematician, philosopher and philosophy public figure Author (together with Whitehead) of the translation of all mathematics into modern formal logical language
17. 17. Bertrand Russell (1924) The world consists of a certain number, perhaps finite, perhaps infinite, of entities that have different relations to each other and, perhaps, of different qualities. Each of these entities can be called an event. Each event is related to a certain number of others, which can be called compressed. From the point of view of physics, the entire set of compressed events occupies a small region of space-time. One example of a set of compressed events is what will be called the content of the consciousness of a certain person at a certain time, i.e., all his sensations, images, memories, thoughts, etc., that can exist at one time. We will define the set of compressed events as the minimum region. We will find that the minimal regions form a four-dimensional manifold, and with a little logical manipulation we can construct from them the space-time manifold that physics requires.
18. 18. Bertrand Russell, continued We also find that some regions of space-time have very special properties. These regions are said to be occupied by matter. Such regions can be combined through the laws of physics into trajectories or paths that are much more extended in one dimension of space-time than in the other three. Such a path forms the history of a part of matter. To some extent, all types of matter, and certain types (nervous tissue) first of all, turn out to be able to form habits, that is, to change their structure in a given environment in such a way that when they subsequently find themselves in a similar environment, they react in a new way, but if a similar environment occurs frequently, then the response eventually becomes more uniform, although at first a difference in response occurs. Consciousness is a trajectory of many compressed events in the area of ​​space-time, where matter exists, the features of which are due to the formation of habitual features. The greater the lability, the more complex and organized consciousness becomes. Thus, consciousness and brain are really inseparable.
19. 19. Ludwig Josef Johann Early Wittgenstein Wittgenstein (German Ludwig Josef Johann - The world consists of facts, a Wittgenstein; 1889, Vienna - not of objects 1951, Cambridge) - Austro-English philosopher - Language reflects the world. Late Wittgenstein - Language is a set of contexts and symbolic games
20. 20. He pointed out the connection between the subject of culture as a symbol of Lev Semyonovich Vygotsky and development (Lev Simkhovich Vygodsky; individual psyche 1896 - 1934) - Soviet psychologist, The subject of culture as the founder of a cultural symbol for the consciousness of the historical school in is psychology and - Tool = tool in mastering = understanding the outside world - A tool for the development of the individual consciousness itself, since the assimilated and newly discovered ways of understanding the world enrich this consciousness
21. 21. George Herbert Mead In parallel with Vygotsky (eng. George Herbert Mead) and independently (1863-1931) - an American philosopher and sociologist (apparently they read lectures about each other, they didn’t know anything at all) at the University of Chicago, put forward two key Ideino did not publish a single (underestimated so far) book and did not have any titles. Thinking is born in his lectures were published in dialogue with others, and then after his death it turns into a dialogue with himself, which, in fact, is thinking Signs are born as communication tools, and then gradually turn into thinking tools
22. 22. Divided our world into three worlds - World of objective knowledge (M-3) - World of subjective knowledge or Karl Raimund Popper World of mental states (M-2) (German Karl Raimund Popper; - Material facts (M-1) 1902 - 1994) - He believed that M-3, an Austrian and British philosopher and sociologist, does not interact directly with M-1, but through M-2 Popper believes that we do not discover mathematical systems, but invent them, although when inventing a system, we automatically receive a gift (from whom?) mandatory properties of this system that we have yet to discover
23. 23. In the work “The role of labor in the process of turning a monkey into a man” (1876), he showed how, in the struggle with the world of nature, the modern (German Friedrich Engels; man 1820 - 1895) arose - Thus, the clearly German philosopher formulated the opposite “nature - culture” Before Engels (and Marx) understood this opposition as a transition from "natural man" to "man spoiled by civilization" (Jean-Jacques Rousseau)
24. Gumilyov in detail Lev Nikolaevich Gumilyov analyzes (1912 - 1992) - the interaction of the historian-ethnologist, human society, doctor of historical and geographical sciences (ethnos) with its natural habitat (biogeocenosis) And shows that ethnic groups arise in nature where a sustainable economic method of developing nature is developed
25. 25. About mathematics What is the nature of mathematical objects? There are three possible answers to this question. Mathematical objects exist in the world - - They are the essence of this world (Pythagoras) - They are a special kind of ideas (Plato) - If you look closely, you can clearly see them (Descartes)2. There are no mathematical objects in the world, but we can invent them (as we invented the wheel) - This is the point of view of K. Popper (see above) - The same is the point of view of N. Lobachevsky, who called his book “Imaginary Geometry”3. Mathematical objects constitute a special world. We can study this world. Sometimes we can use parts of this second world to describe what happens in the first - the material world - This view entered mathematics at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Frege (1883) was the first to articulate it clearly.
26. 26. About mathematics What is the nature of mathematical objects? There are three possible answers to this question. Mathematical objects are some properties of the physical world selected and recorded by man - Mathematicians: Gauss - Non-mathematicians: Ulyanov-Lenin2. There are no mathematical objects in the world, but we can invent them (as we invented the wheel) - Mathematicians: Lobachevsky - Non-mathematicians: Karl Popper3. Mathematical objects constitute a special world. We can study this world. Sometimes we can use parts of this second world to describe what happens in the first - the material world - This view entered mathematics in the late 19th century. Frege (1883) was the first to articulate it clearly.
27. 27. “A mathematician can create things at will no less than Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob can do Frege the geographer; the mathematician is also only (Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob discovers what already exists and Frege gives it a name ”(1883) 1848 -1925) - German logician, mathematician and philosopher The meaning and meaning of the concept (sign) are not identical. (1892) According to Frege - Meaning is the object to which a given sign points (a set of objects). – Meaning is the procedure by which a given set of objects was constructed
28. 28. Frege, Plato and I Some authors (for example, R. Collins) identify Frege's views on mathematical objects with the views of Plato and believe that this proves the falsity of this position. Recognizing that Plato was strongly influenced by the Pythagoreans and, accordingly, impressed by the results obtained by contemporary mathematicians, I believe that1. Frege is essentially right. Frege, unlike Plato, did not believe that - Our knowledge is a memory. The soul remembers the world of ideas in which it was before moving into the body - Ideas stand behind things. Moreover, ideas are embodied in things3. On my own behalf, I want to add that one should not identify mathematical systems with symbolic ones.4. Symbolic systems are part of culture. They are born and die with culture. Mathematical objects, like many physical (natural) ones, lie outside culture5. Symbolic systems also represent mathematical objects as they represent physical objects.
29. 29. History of mathematics in the 19th century regarding the nature of mathematical objects 1826. Lobachevsky publishes his report "A Concise Exposition of the Principles of Geometry". In 1840, Lobachevsky published Geometry in German and sent two copies to Gauss. In a letter to Schumacher (1846), Gauss admits that the same ideas occurred to him, but he did not publish them. However, Gauss expressed his sympathy for Lobachevsky's ideas indirectly: he recommended that Lobachevsky be elected a foreign corresponding member of the Göttingen Royal Scientific Society in 1831. Boyai Sr. sends his son's work to Gauss. Gauss replies "These ideas have already crossed my mind." In the 1830s and 1840s, mathematicians actively discussed “whether it is possible to use in mathematical reasoning objects that cannot be observed in the physical world, for example, negative numbers and even zero” 1843. Hamilton discovers quaternions. (They certainly cannot be observed in any way) 1854. In the presence of Gauss, Riemann reads the historical report "On the Hypotheses Underlying Geometry." The Commission does not approve the report. The report was published only in 1868. In 1879 Kantor published "Transfinite Numbers". This work is met with a sharp rebuff from Kronecker - for the study of "what does not happen" in 1879. Frege publishes his Calculus of Concepts. ALL.
30. 30. About Soviet Philosophy Soviet philosophy (from 1930 to 1989) existed in special conditions - The threat of personal and collective repression. Therefore, new authors - who entered the circle of researchers after 1930 - hid their ideas in the shadow of the great permitted names (Marx, Engels, Lenin) - The focus on the world philosophical classics remained, and at the same time, limited acquaintance with the world philosophy of the twentieth century - knowledge of languages ​​was lost, there were few transfers – Limited personal contacts with foreign colleagues. Limited publications abroad All this led to the fact that new ideas were "dragged into books" in the garb of "the old Marxism, long known to the classics." In this form, they did not attract the attention of world philosophy and were not assimilated by it. Synthesizing the results of Soviet philosophy and the philosophy of the rest of the world is one of my tasks.
31. 31. ONTOLOGY My version
32. 32. The first dichotomy Our world is divided into two parallel worlds. Nothing that exists lies in these two worlds at once. Nothing that exists lies outside these two worlds. Nothing that exists passes from world to world These two worlds could be called - MMF - the world of material (physical) facts and - MIC - the world of ideal (mathematical) structures These worlds are equally real and equally primary Each of these worlds has its own given metric and its given topology
33. 33. The first dichotomy (continued) Everything that exists can be attributed to one of the two worlds according to the following rule - Everything that is "here and now" or "there and then" lies in the MMF - That which is "everywhere and always" lies in the MIC The first dichotomy can be called the Dichotomy of Descartes
34. 34. First dichotomy Mathematical objects Dichotomy of Descartes Physical facts
35. 35. The Second Dichotomy Humanity lies in the MMF and everything that is done (or appropriated) by mankind lies in the MMF. The above can be called the "world of man" Everything that lies in the MMF, but does not lie in the "world of man", can be called the "world of nature" I would call this dichotomy the Engels-Gumilyov Dichotomy
36. 36. The second dichotomy Mathematical objects Dichotomy of Descartes Engels-Gumilyov World of man Dichotomy World of nature Physical facts
37. 37. The third dichotomy The human world is divided into what is “in the head” (Psyche) and what is “outside the head” (Culture) What is “in the head” coincides with the “world of mental states” or Popper’s M-2 That that "out of the head" coincides with Popper's M-3 This dichotomy I would call Popper's Dichotomy.
38. 38. Third dichotomy Mathematical objects Dichotomy of Descartes Dichotomy of Popper, Engels-Gumilyov Psyche Dichotomy Culture Nature Physical facts
39. 39. The fourth dichotomy Culture is divided into - "objects in themselves" (material culture) and - "objects as symbols" (spiritual culture). I would call this dichotomy the Vygotsky-Mida Dichotomy Comment. It is obvious that Popper knew absolutely nothing about either Vygotsky or Meade.
40. 40. Fourth Dichotomy Mathematical ObjectsVygotsky-Mida Dichotomy Descartes Dichotomy Popper Engels-Gumilyov Dichotomy SYMBOLS Psyche Dichotomy Culture OBJECTS Nature Physical facts
41. 41. Discussion Refinement of concepts through thought experiments
42. 42. Einstein-Goedel paradoxes No theory can be justified by remaining within this theory Any sufficiently rich theory contains problems that cannot be solved by remaining within this theory No sufficiently rich theory can be deeply understood without going beyond this theory Comment. Now I have to go beyond ontology and even beyond philosophy. The inevitability of such a "violation of decency" and tried to justify above
43. 43. Equivalence For mathematicians, "equivalence" is any relation with three properties - Reflexivity - Transitivity and - Symmetry For all steel: "A and B are equivalent" means "for us, in a sense, A and B are the same" The “Universum” (the set of all the “entities” under consideration) has a certain “equivalence”, so the division of the “Universum” into equivalence classes is immediately fixed. The converse is also true: any division of the universe into classes defines some equivalence of the Essence - everything that in the language we use stands for "nouns"
44. 44. Observer Are data A and B equivalent? The answer to this question depends on the position of the observer. And the position of the observer is determined by two things - The community, which includes the observer - The tasks that the observer is solving at the moment Both of these circumstances relate to "epistemology". In the chapter "Gnoseology" we will consider them in detail. And now suppose that these two circumstances are fixed for a while and therefore at the moment we know for sure about any two entities whether they are equivalent
45. 45. Entities What entities do we need inside the ontology? Firstly, - "material facts" or simply "facts" and - "ideal constructions" Secondly, - "cultural objects" and - "mental states" Thirdly - "Objects of material culture" or "objects" and - "Objects of spiritual culture" or "symbols" There are also - "natural objects" that make up "facts" and - "mathematical objects" that make up "ideal constructions"
46. 46. ​​Symbols, my interpretation A symbol is such an entity that is - Produced or appropriated by mankind and - Important not in itself, but by what it “indicates” A symbol can point to any other entities listed above, including other symbols The first mandatory condition is that the symbol itself acts as a representative of a class of equivalent symbols. The second condition is that the symbol points directly to the class of entities. – But this class can consist of one element
47. 47. Symbols (continued) The word "sunrise" can be printed in any script, handwritten or spoken aloud. All these "material facts" will constitute one and the same symbol. This symbol indicates a class of equivalent facts - "sunrise". The "sun" is a natural object, this object is included in the "sunrise" fact as its element. In addition to the sun, this fact also includes objects, for example, the "horizon line" and "sky"
48. 48. Meaning and Meaning The word "sunrise" refers (although not as explicitly) to other symbols, such as the symbol for "sunset", the symbol for "sky" and even (for some observers) the symbol for "spacecraft "Sunrise"" In addition, for a particular observer, this word can indicate his personal experience - - on those actual sunrises that he himself saw and - on those mental states in which he fell into these situations. The totality of everything that the symbol indicates is called its "meaning" . The meaning is called "subjective" if the personal experience of the observer is taken into account, otherwise it is called objective. The value is usually referred to as the only - in this context - object to which the symbol points. Therefore, "meaning" is part of the meaning, its temporary "center". Such an understanding of "meaning" is wider than Frege's - due to a more detailed ontology ("context")
49. 49. Symbolic systems If the indications of these symbols to each other are very important, they speak of “symbolic systems”. In a particular case, symbolic systems, taken as a whole, indicate ideal constructions (mathematical systems). At the same time, the indications of symbols to material facts, mental states and other entities may be saved or lost
50. 50. Psyche Mental states can reflect 1. Material facts (directly from personal experience) 2. Ideal constructions (also from personal experience) 3. Symbolic constructions (which in turn can reflect all the entities named above) The richness of the psyche for each of the three points (taken in statics - as experience - and in dynamics - as giftedness) are relatively independent. Accordingly, giftedness manifests itself as 1. Impressibility 2. Mathematical abilities 3. Learnability (and as a result - education and culture) Artistic abilities are impressionability backed up by some sufficient level of education
51. 51. About realism and nominalism Nominalists are right Realists are right about symbolic systems of mathematical objects General concepts as General concepts as elements of symbolic ideal constructions of systems are real. are real. They exist at the same time. However, they are NOT names, they are names of no things.
52. 52. To be continued Send your opinion to me at [email protected] Yakov Feldman

What is the world made of?

Even in the early prehistoric epochs of the history of mankind, about which we know very little, mental images appeared that went beyond the limits of objects and processes that a person could observe in the world around him and familiar to him. First of all, they were simple totemic ideas concerning the position of the genus in relation to the world of plants and animals, as well as to other human races. A totem is a creature (plant or animal) that is in a certain connection with a person or his family; for example, the mythical founder of a clan may be a totem. J. Bernal says that these myths in their first formulations reflect the level of practical activity and forms of social organization. At a later stage, religious beliefs arise from them and, in particular, myths about the creation of the world by one or more gods. At the same time, the inanimate world was considered as a single complex; minerals, metals, etc. were parts of the earth, inseparably connected with it in the process of its origin.

As the primary vital needs of mankind were satisfied and progress in social development, people appeared who sought to fill in the logical gaps in myths and religious beliefs in order to get a coherent system of ideas about the world and the phenomena occurring in it. This system, or rather science, was called cosmology (the doctrine of the world). A particularly high level of it was achieved by the ancient Greek philosophers, who studied nature more than the sages of other countries. At the center of their teachings were not questions of the creation of the world, but questions about natural phenomena and their explanation. With such a formulation of the question, they inevitably had to come to the problem of substance, differences and commonality between different substances. Although the writings of most of these first philosophers are known to us only in fragments, and we are familiar with biographies mainly through dubious and often biased descriptions, nevertheless, their ideas still arouse admiration and give us a vivid picture of the era and society in which they lived. .

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