Cultural Choice Among Southerners

In the 1950s, Charles Snow wrote about the growing gap between the humanities and natural science cultures. He saw this as a great danger both for science itself and for all humankind. In Russia, it was complemented by a crisis of humanitarian knowledge. The article considers the ways to overcome this crisis and build a bridge between cultures.The solution of these problems is associated with the development of interdisciplinary approaches in general, and the theory of self-organization in particular. Synergetics today represents an approach that lies at the intersection of subject knowledge, philosophical reflection and mathematical modeling. It allows you to solve problems that go beyond individual scientific disciplines. Many of them require an analysis of processes and factors in rational, emotional and intuitive spaces.The article shows that the ongoing humanitarian and technological revolution, the tasks of designing the future, increase the role of humanitarian knowledge. The author substantiates the importance of a civilizational approach to humanitarian culture and considers the cultural issues of the unique civilization of Russia. There is outlined a number of specific steps to overcome the crisis of Russian humanitarian knowledge.The concept of cultural challenge is of particular importance among the problems for which solutions are proposed. The transition from the industrial to the post-industrial phase of the civilization development and the widespread use of artificial intelligence systems will free from work about half of people. The social stability and prospects for the civilization development are determined by the ability of culture to make their life complete, meaningful and creative. The use of interdisciplinary approaches in the education system of Russia is of fundamental importance in the course of the humanitarian and technological revolution. The organizational and financial reforms of the last thirty years have led education to a deep crisis. The interdisciplinary approaches are needed in order to balance the wishes of the programs authors, the opportunities of students and to correlate the training received with the prospects for the country’s development. The revision of the content and forms of education today is becoming a problem not only for teachers and scientists, but also for the entire national culture.The imperative of our country’s cultural development is the image of the future. In the industrial era, there was an idea of universality of the ways of social systems development. In the postindustrial reality, the world becomes more complex, diversity increases. At the current point of bifurcation, several development paths open up. A civilization’s cultural choice, based on tradition, scientific forecasting and the image of the future, becomes fundamental. Interdisciplinary approaches can play a fundamental role in shaping such a cultural choice.

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The Square Circle of Margaret Cavendish: the 17th-century conceptualization of mind by means of mathematics

Language and Literature ◽

10.1177/0963-9470-20011001-02 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 10 (1) ◽

pp. 21-39 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Roberto Bertuol

Keyword(s):

Cognitive Theory ◽

Conceptual Metaphor ◽

Common Knowledge ◽

17Th Century ◽

Linguistic Community ◽

Margaret Cavendish ◽

Mathematical Concepts ◽

Knowledge And Beliefs ◽

Cognitive Metaphor ◽

Cultural Choice

The cognitive theory of metaphor (Lakoff and Johnson, 1980; Lakoff, 1987; Lakoff and Turner, 1989) is the basis in this article for investigating the significance of the use of mathematical language, and in particular of the metaphor to square the circle in Margaret Cavendish's poem The Circle of the Brain Cannot be Squared. In the article I begin by introducing Margaret Cavendish as the first 17th-century female poet writing on scientific topics. I then explain how mathematics in the 17th century influenced people's view of reality and the extent to which this is mirrored in poetic language. The theory of cognitive metaphor provides the framework for the elucidation of mathematical concepts used to explain 'unknown' realities like mind and emotions and, in particular, of the central metaphor to square the circle in Cavendish's poem. A brief overview of the criteria of Lakoff and colleagues for analysing metaphors shows that the apparently extravagant metaphor to square the circle was simply a novel poetic extension of the conceptual metaphor UNIVERSE IS MATHEMATICS that, like other types of metaphors considered by cognitive linguists, is grounded in everyday experience. Further, Werth's (1994) remarks about the reasons behind the poet's use of particular concepts to explain others help highlight another important aspect at the basis of the production of novel metaphors, namely that of 'poetic choice'. Finally, I elaborate on Werth's remarks by drawing attention to what I term cultural choice, that is, to the influence that common knowledge and beliefs shared by the members of a linguistic community exert on the poet's choice of metaphors. The analysis of the poem shows that the topic and language of the poem, as well as the subtext, that is, the length of lines and the stanza form, depend on metaphoric projections from the domain MATHEMATICS. Through the conceptual metaphor NATURE IS MATHEMATICS, Cavendish explains man's attempt to take control over irrationalia such as fancy and female nature. The impossibility of squaring the circle is used as a proof to demonstrate that nature and fancy cannot be restricted and, at the same time, to give Cavendish a hope of acceptance in the male-dominated world.

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