Department History

The Department of Theory of Culture and Phylosophy of Science is established in July 1990. Then it is the first department in the Soviet Union that addresses new conceptual and theoretical topics required by the ongoing liberation from totalitarianism manifesting in all spheres of life. The Department’s doctrine is centered on the spirituality gap of the scientist-oriented European culture as well as the rationalistic paradigm in modern philosophy and science. The first Head of the Department is Doctor of Sciences in Phylosophy, Academician of the Ukrainian Academy of Political Sciences, Corresponding Member of the Ukrainian Academy of Informatics, Professor Ivan Tsekhmistro.

The Department’s complex scientific theme “Spirituality Problem in Science and Culture” is part of the republican interuniversity program “Classics, Modern and Postmodern: Spirituality Problem at the Turn of the Millennium”. It covers faculty’s individual studies and state-financed research topics “Postmodernism and Relational Holism” (2000-2002), “Comparative Studies of Postmodern and Holistic Tendencies in Modern Philosophy of Science and Culturology” (2003-2005), “Science and Religion Today and in Future” (2006 — 2008), “Science and Religion in the Postmodern Era” (2009 — 2010), “Quantum Holism, Studies of its Background and Applications” (2012-2013) supervised by Professor Ivan Tsekhmistro.
These studies are based on the new scientific trend rapidly developing at the Department of Philosophy of Kharkiv University since 1970s, namely: holistic philosophy of science brought forward in the works of Professor I. Tsekhmistro and his followers. In 1970-1990, there come out five monographs and numerous scientific articles published in the major national and foreign scientific journals.
This direction in the scientific thought is based on the idea of relativity and non-universality of the bordering general notion of “set”. The notion develops into the concept of integrity with its numerous applications to different problems underlying modern science: quantum physics, cosmology, set theory and psychology. Tsekhmistro`s idea of the implicative and logical nature of quantum correlations (1972) proves to be successful in interpreting the so-called quantum correlation effects and many other quantum physics problems. According to this idea the quantum property of the world as an integrated whole, ultimately indivisible into sets, produces the required probability structure of the quantum system potentials, while at the same time being responsible for its characteristic implicative and logical features. The wave function reduction and quantum correlation effects are a trivial result of the implicative and logical organization of potential possibilities in pure quantum states. These effects are relational and logical by nature rather than physical or material and result from changes (from measurement or physical interaction) in the structure of relations between the complementary sides of reality: the world as a relatively extracted set of physically verified elements and the world of potential possibilities generated by its ultimate indivisibility into elements and sets.
One of these sides represents the relevantly existing structure of the system as a real (and physically verified) though relatively extracted set. The other side isn’t less real and conveys a range of potentials characteristic of the system that are produced by the same property of its indivisibility into elements and sets. The third and deepest aspect of physical reality — quantum property of the world as an indivisible unit — comes out of this property of ultimate indivisibility of the system into elements and sets. It is this particular property that governs the world of quantum system potentials under the laws of logical implication depending on what is happening in its actual set configuration affected by measurement (or physical interaction).
These holistic concept results prove very important for the spiritual problem studies in modern culture. The holism idea allows to understand that law and order observed in nature is never forced. On the contrary, it is the only possible harmonious combination — concurrence in many constituents of the world (physical or real system). At the same time, this property of the world causes deep emotional experience of harmony and beauty. This vision generates the feeling of respect that never pressures or forces, but possesses the irresistible power of love, with the ultimate goal being to reconcile life and eternal harmony. By contrast, evil is a brute, destructive power of compulsory nature aiming at achieving partial objectives and ignoring such holistic vision and feelings. It is evil that is forced, invading from outside, pressuring, destroying harmony and thus causing harm and losses.
This ultimate truth of the modern view on nature can be characterized as follows: the bases of the holistic concept are “the vision of what lies across, beyond, and within the fleeting flow of immediate things; what is real, and yet seeking complete realization; what seems almost possible, and yet proves the most solid of the existing facts; what gives meaning to everything happening, and yet eludes comprehension; what looks like the final value, and yet is beyond reach; what serves the high ideal, and is the hopeless quest” (A. N. Whitehead). That’s how holistic philosophy interprets the side of the world as an indivisible whole.
The great ancient division (nature—spirit, world—god) brought about European science and culture and underlying them, has run its course and is drawing to its close. Anyway, the quantum prospect with its inherent philosophy of holism makes these eternal notions and their oppositions senseless.
Quantum physics has introduced an overwhelming element of spirituality into the modern world view. The underlying ideas of the world having a unique property of being an indivisible whole surpass all the most powerful images of spiritual experience in our consciousness. This property of integrity is comparable only with the psychological wholeness of our “ego”. However, our “ego” is actually nothing but a feeble reflection, a hint on the objective property of the real world integrity. If we look into the very heart of the world by virtue of its ultimate indivisibility into elements and sets, we can behold a logical connection and interdependence in the sets of probabilities characteristic of pure quantum states. It is only afterwards, at the next stage, common physical causalities and dependencies conditioned by energy and impulse transfer enter the game as a result of actualized potential possibilities of quantum systems.
So, science buries the religious concept of human spirituality. Yet, today’s science development fuels modern culture with a new concept of world and human spirituality, which requires identification and understanding. Thus, we can hope to achieve a new vision of the world and ourselves in it. But to do that, we need to create a new language and new philosophical and humanistic ideas in tune with modern science and its remarkable turn towards studies of the world spirituality sources.
After all, this path promises not only to eliminate eternal antagonism of spirit and nature, human and the world, science and religion, but also to synthesize mentalities of science and spiritual values of the world’s religions, which will lead to achieving a whole new post-scientist and at the same time post-religious, hopefully lighter and more human-friendly, spirituality of culture in the XXI century.
The fundamental principles of holistic philosophy are outlined in monographs and numerous articles of Ivan Tsekhmistro and his followers.
The works by the leading representatives of the school I. Tsekhmistro, O. Tiahlo and V. Shtanko have time and again received positive reviews from the national scientific press, where they have been placed alongside the world-class publications.