The Concept of Complexity in Philosophical Contexts: Semantic and Pragmatic Specifics

The present research featured the content of complexity in philosophical contexts in the aspects of its validity, consistency, and compliance with the pragmatics of philosophical comprehension of reality. The article considers both explicit and implicit attempts to define complexity as a philosophical concept. The author addressed the validity of using the term complexity in a philosophical context by standardizing its meaning, i.e. building a pattern in accordance with the basic linguistic denotations of this concept. A review of its ontological and epistemological use made it possible to identify some cases of redundancy, unreasonableness, and semantic shift. The article introduces some possible ways of using the concept of complexity. The limited implementation of its epistemic function makes it possible to establish the boundaries of its applicability. The concept of complexity is important for metaphysics; however, such ideas as "metaphysics of complexity", "ontology of complexity", or "epistemology of complexity" have no ground. The article also provides a comparative analysis of the concept of complexity in specific scientific and philosophical contexts. Based on the revealed discrepancies in its interpretation, the author speculates whether the so-called philosophy of complexity can act as a context for understanding the philosophical problems of complexity science with its ambiguous nature.