The role of the unity of knowledge and practice
or, otherwise stated, the role of praxis in philosophy is no doubt
a notable gain of the human thought. The praxis bears on the philosophical
projection on existence. Indeed, to get energy, to process and
transform substance and lately information, to produce and to
investigate, to invent and to create - all these activities are
also markedly philosophical in their nature. Radu Florian alleges
that praxis is a fundamental relation in Marxian philosophy:
"Praxis... is the existence mode of society as an objective system ....
Practical undertaking is no doubt functionally decisive in the
whole praxis, but this does not mean that the spiritual trait
of reality, as an instance and constituent of praxis, were less
important. In this case, one overlooks that the practical undertaking
embraces the varied results of the subject's awareness, that a
practical undertaking cannot exists in defect of the spiritual
trait of reality".3
The philosophical experiment may be carried out by any man, either
individually or in a social context, as a part of the social reality.
That man is socially and historically determined is beyond doubt.
Each human being is both an instance in a social-historical wave
and an instance in the onflowing self-cognition of matter and
the associated exertion of his consciousness on the matter.
In this chapter, we have reverted to the profundities
of the world in the light of which the philosophical infinitude
can be more appropriately understood as an infinite potentiality
of the matter to manifest itself. As we have already seen, the
space-time existence with respect to the orthoexistence induces
the idea of philosophical infinitude in our mental structures
but this idea has been for a long time mistaken for a form of
mathematical infinitude.
In a more concise formulation, man's conscious
activity and his ability to know the world are the basic core
of a philosophical projection.
This projection may be corrected by solving
some of the associated questions. Let us also note in addition
that this projection should not be taken as truth-revealing. It
is just a hypothesis.
It is obvious that new philosophical projections
are needed so as to keep up the philosophical tension of our life.
Likewise, the systems of social and human values and civilization
as a natural complement to the social system are inconceivable
if we dispense with these philosophical projections.
Present-day science raises questions so difficult
that their solution is unlikely without resorting to philosophical
work and new hypotheses. Regarding the brain as a device, we should
observe how it cogitates on the most primitive concepts concerning
the world qua over-all existence, or just the space-time
existence. It may be said that what the brain actually cogitates
is a socially induced cogitation, and hence it does not mirror
its inherent properties. This is largely true, but the brain is
also endowed with a great imaginative ability and cogitation,
and is also dependent on its own biological, physical structures.
The exertions of cogitation-herein referred to as philosophical
experiment-commence with what is determined by the physical structures,
cogitation proceeds with what is individually generated under
the free play of imagination. Cogitation will however tent to
work prevailingly at the beginning of this track. Indeed, we are
approaching the philosophical experiment with no previous model
of the world, and address our mental structures under no linguistic
or mathematical formulation, and recording the answer. To be unable
to cogitate, to imagine, to have a feeling of, or to live the
nothing assumes the value of experimental fact, though it
is likewise a cogitating act. To have a feeling of, to live and
to cogitate beingness is also a fact of experiments that
may dispense with the concepts of space and time. When we resort
to these notions and inquire about their infinitude, the brain
reaction is multi-fold: physical-phenomenological, mathematical
and philosophical. The physical-phenomenological reaction of our
mental structures is the sole philosophical experiment, notwithstanding
the weakness lent to the concepts of space and time by the human
empeiria. However, these three philosophical experiments permit
us to build a general model of the world, which responds to the
present-day concerns in science.
Man has always questioned existence but he
has never ventured to seek an orthoexistence. Being used to work
with mechanical images, y compris space-time images, he strayed
from the profundities of the material world.
Man's philosophical dimensions are thus obvious.
They are not the outcome of his imagination. Instead, they spring
from some basic facts related to brain functioning during cogitation,
which subsequently grow in scope via social life and all that
adds his knowledge. That is why man's philosophical dimensions
are at work in his daily activities, in his consciousness and
in his designs.
The Philosophical Experiment
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