Humanitarian science and discussions about its role in the twentieth century

Discussions about the truth, popular in the twentieth century, gave rise to new antinomies along with problems. The discovery of psychoanalysis made it possible to turn it from a treatment technique into a philosophical and psychological doctrine of the relationship between the conscious and the unconscious in man. The approach of pragmatism broke the traditional understanding of truth, because it believed that the truth of any theory is its "work capacity," that is, how suitable it is for personal experience. But the most popular was the philosophy of science and technology, which placed at the center of the global problems generated by the scientific and technological revolution. A stumbling block between the various schools of thought has become the humanities.

Analytical philosophy took a categorical rationalist-scientistic position. She stated that scientific knowledge is the only possible one. The logical positivism in the person of Russell, Carnap, representatives of the Vienna Circle used the apparatus of mathematical logic to create a special language. He had to operate exclusively with verifiable concepts. Of these, one can build consistent logical constructions that "can be tolerated" as theories. It is clear that the traditional humanitarian science with this approach turned out to be overboard. But that's not all. The theory of "language games" of Wittgenstein and his followers also substantiated the incompatibility of natural and mathematical disciplines with "the sciences of the spirit."

This tendency was most clearly manifested in the concept of Karl Popper. He considered the humanities to be exclusively applied and in fact denied them the right to a theory. The author of the "open society" proceeded from two reasons. First, any systematization in the humanitarian sphere is too subjective, and secondly - these sciences are infected with "holism," which forces them not to describe the facts, but to seek a kind of non-existent integrity. In addition, they are irrational. Therefore Popper attacked, above all, the specifics of this area of human knowledge. Humanitarian science - blamed the philosopher - is intellectually irresponsible. It is based on irrational feelings and passions that dazzle, disconnect and interfere with the discussions.

However, all these processes did not prevent the popularity of the opposite attitude to the humanities. This approach shaped the image of the twentieth century in no less degree than Popper. This is the founder of the philosophical hermeneutics Hans-Gheorghe Gadamer. Agreeing with the fact that any natural and humanitarian science fundamentally differ among themselves in the way of interpretation, the philosopher considered this not a negative, but a positive phenomenon. In mathematics, physics, biology, theory is created according to methodology. And the latter appears due to the knowledge of regularities and causal (cause-effect) connections. But the role of the humanities is that their truth is closer to real life, to people and their feelings. For the theory of natural disciplines, the main thing is compliance with facts. And for the humanities, for example, history - the focus becomes obvious, when the essence of the event itself removes its cover.

Gadamer is one of the first to return to the positive coloring of the notion of "authority". This is what makes "the sciences of the spirit" what they are. In this area, we can not know anything without the help of our predecessors, and therefore the tradition plays a very important role for us. Our rationality only helps us to choose the authority that we trust. And also the tradition that we follow. And in this unity of the present and the past is the role of the humanities.