Stasis

From Binary to Quaternary: the Genesis of a New Kind of Machine Base Code

Andrei Glukhovskii — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The article examines Leibniz’s project of universal calculus with a view to establishing the importance of the shift from binary code, which currently dominates modern computer science, to quaternary code, developed in coincidental philosophy. The argument that the binary calculus in Leibniz’s works represents the final version of the universal characteristic is supported by the evidence presented. The primary objective of computer science, as defined by the author, is the organisation of technically mediated human access to absolute knowledge. This endeavour coincides with the most important task of coincidental philosophy, namely the development of a new type of machine, described by Yoel Regev as absolute, which will transform the foundations of reality itself. The construction of such a machine is intended to supersede the modern binary computer. Its deployment will necessitate the collaborative efforts of philosophers and engineers. The philosophical contribution is to reorient the development of computer science toward the creation of a computer that employs quaternary calculus to compute and transform the essences of things. In conclusion, the paper demonstrates that the work of Leibniz, who first mentioned the binary calculus in 1679, and his subsequent publications provide the foundation for a transition to quaternary calculus. This transition could potentially result in the creation of a new kind of machine that provides access to and control over absolute knowledge. The paper therefore proposes that the quaternary code represents a novel and definitive realisation of Leibniz's universal calculus.

Leibniz’s universal calculus.

Leibniz's Lure: Why is the Subject of Political Action Lost in the Labyrinths of Neomonadology?

Oleg Goriainov — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In this article I ask who is the subject of political action in the modern reception of Leibniz’s metaphysics. A review of contemporary philosophers’ works based on Leibniz shows that they consistently bypass the question of such a subject. Evading the question of the subject has implications for various versions of neomonadology, so this paper clarifies the problematic nature of understanding the subject by analogy with Leibniz’s monads. The analysis of Leibniz’s texts helps to point out the special role of the body (matter), which entails raising the problem of individual bodies’ ontological status. To solve this problem, I propose an analysis of the concept of “substantial bond” (vinculum substantiale) and its role in Leibniz’s system. An analysis of the substantial bond shows that it is impossible to construct a coherent theory of the subject (and, in particular, the subject of political action) on the basis of monadology. To develop and consolidate this thesis, in the final part of the article I examine the work of Agamben, which reveals the implicit aporia inherent in the monadology project.

Leibniz's Lure: Why is the Subject of Political Action Lost in the Labyrinths of Neomonadology?

Олег Горяинов — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The Politics of Chance: Althusser's Aleatory Materialism and Badiou's Philosophy of the Event

Danil Davletbaev — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

Despite its apparent transparency, the question of the relationship between the thought of Louis Althusser and Alain Badiou, teacher and student, can receive a new interpretation if we consider Althusser's late philosophy, called “aleatory materialism”, as an attempt to ground political practice through the concepts of contingency, encounter, and void, which pose an ontological problematic. The key function here is that of a materialist philosophy, which Althusser sought to define in different periods of his work. One of these definitions can be found in his interpretation of Machiavelli's or philosophical practice, which is singular in nature. Moreover, the text dedicated to Machiavelli reveals an attempt to construct the concept of the political subject, which disappears in later writings. Hence, it can be assumed that Althusser's "theory of the encounter" in its political explications splits into two different philosophical strategies, united by the primacy of aleatory: in the first one, a specific "void" of the historical conjuncture is constructed, which should be occupied by the future subject of political practice; in the second one, the dominant role is given to the ontological concept of the void and the action of the “clinamen”. A comparison of Althusser's internally split theory with Badiou's concept of the event allows us to conclude that the latter's philosophy combines two designated strategies in one way or another.

Contextualism and Dialectical Hermeneutics: From History to a Political Ideal

Sergei Koretko — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This article critically examines the contemporary approaches to intellectual history. The author compares the Cambridge School of Political Thought and the methodology of dialectical hermeneutics and argues that contextualism cannot explain the intersections between a political ideal and intellectual history. The author examines the method of dialectical hermeneutics in the the thought of Hans-Georg Gadamer, Paul Ricouer, Fredric Jameson, Walter Benjamin, Slavoj Žižek, and outlines a dialectic of history and a political ideal.

Performative in declaration and manifesto: on the issue of perverformative heritage

Vladislav Makarov — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The article analyzes and reconstructs the relationship between three concepts: performative, declaration, and manifesto. Examining John Austin's performative theory as depoliticized and limiting the domains and methods of performative realization, I characterize Austin's notion of the performative as conventional. The operation of a conventional performative is possible only within the framework of a legal system. Specific historical forms of such performativity include the declaration of nullity (recognition of a marriage as invalid) and the royal/military manifesto. The use of the concept of the “performative” for analyzing the manifesto and declarative genres is deconstructed in connection with the foundations of manifestos and declarations that do not fit into Austin's restricted notion of performativity. Based on the work of Jacques Derrida on the deconstruction of performative theory, aimed at introducing elements of perversion and iterability into it, I propose to consider the performative effect of declarations and manifestos in connection with such concepts as law and justice. An examination of the texts of the Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen and the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Citizen shows how the repetition of the law contributes to its subversion. Based on the concept of the “performative,” I turn to the “Communist Party Manifesto,” which allows us to define the Manifesto as an attempt to affirm and realize the possibility of justice. This justice is actualized by the “illegitimate” heirs through a deconstructive performative that rips the original context and opens up new forms of struggle, ensuring a permanent movement toward justice, carried out by various participants in emancipatory politics.

Heidegger’s Metaphilosophy: A New Reconstruction

Pioter Shmugliakov — Thu, 29 Aug 2024 00:00:00 +0000

The essay proposes a new reconstruction of Heidegger’s metaphilosophy. Providing a common explanation to a variety of Heidegger’s pronouncements on the nature of his discipline in seminars and public addresses, the essay stresses their ties to the phenomenological doctrine of Being and Time. My presentation spans four major theses: (1) Philosophy is actual in the practice of philosophizing, understood as an activity of intrinsic worth. (2) The essential procedure of philosophizing is clarification of experience. (3) The medium of philosophizing is conceptual knowledge. (4) The goal of philosophizing is non-conceptual: a “fundamental attunement.” Focusing on the apparent tension between (3) and (4), I argue that the structural relations between the conceptual and the non-conceptual elements in Heidegger’s metaphilosophy are best accounted for in terms of the duality of understanding (Verstehen) and being-attuned (Befindlichkeit) in the existential analytic. In conclusion, I suggest that the metaphilosophical vision this analysis yields is faithful to the existential promise of philosophy and provides the conceptual resources to defend its essential status as a mode of human realization.