Philosophical Congress: professional Corporation or free Association of communities?

Abstract

The text is based on a presentation at the round table «Philosophical congresses as a factor of consolidation of intellectual communities: current perspectives», which was held within the framework of the international conference «What is a community? Social hermeneutics, power and media» (Belgorod,  NRU «BelSU», October 21-22, 2019). The topic of philosophical congresses is specified in the context of discourse and communication problems of institutionalization and professionalization of philosophy and the need to understand the nature of the «philosophical community». This topic is in contact with previous attempts to untie the tangled knot of various historical-philosophical and historical-scientific theories of the origin and history of philosophy, which often remained abstract due to inattention to the specific historical specifics of philosophical communities and philosophical discourses that go through stages of cultural transformation from antiquity to their actual, modern forms. The authors proceed from the need to consider the concept of «philosophical community» in its logical distinction from «society», «community» and «corporation». Society is a concrete historical organic system in which a part (including a person) is subordinated to the whole and vertically integrated into this social totality; community is most often implemented as a free Association of a limited number of individuals in a horizontally integrated open system; in corporations, the interests of the whole (rather rigid collective and vertical power system) always prevail over the private will. Philosophical congresses are considered as Central events in the development of philosophical institutions and discourses, in which not only international recognized authorities meet, various local communities (schools and directions) and lone authors conduct free dialogue and debate, certain results are summed up and the results of collective and individual creativity of participants are tested, but also new thinking intuitions and guidelines arise, sometimes marginal and not always obvious, and philosophers are further professionalized.