The Concept of «universal Concreteness» in Western Philosophy (using Voltaire as an Example)
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: The article provides a critical analysis of the principle of «universal concreteness» in Voltaire’s philosophy of deism. The article reveals the content of the ontological and epistemological foundations of the thinker’s worldview in his historical and philosophical explorations. The abstract nature of the principles of deism and «universal unity» in the philosophy of the French Enlightenment is the result of the influence of the one-sidedness of empiricism and rationalism. Voltaire and his associates, according to Hegel, proceeded in their philosophical constructions from the principle of universality and the embodiment of the concept of «wit», while the Germans relied on the possibilities of criticizing pure reason. The philosophy of the French Enlightenment is characterized by mobility, constitutes an «absolute concept» aims to criticize existing traditional ideas, destroys everything immovable, and embodies the «consciousness of pure freedom». The potentialities of the concept of «universal concreteness» in Voltaire’s worldview form the basis of his theoretical and practical philosophy, in particular, of human existence, morality, and free will. Using the weapon of human reason and wit, Voltaire directed his intellectual efforts against the «world order» in the field of law and order, state structure, judicial procedure, as well as the mode of government and political authority. In the philosophy of the French Enlightenment, we have enough ideas of concrete unity, which is the opposite of abstract metaphysical definitions. The result of the French Enlightenment is a persistent desire to achieve a «general unity» in the course of philosophical research, not abstract, but filled with concrete content. The critical analysis of the principle of concrete integrity reveals its constructive content and limitations in the context of social practice, science, and religion in eighteenth-century France.
Source: Ukrainian professional education
Authors: P. Kravchenko, S. Sheiko
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W4404593826