The Problem of Consciousness and its Origin in Vasily Sesemann’s Manuscripts

The purpose of this article is to analyse the concept of consciousness in Vasily Sesemann’s manuscripts. Sesemann studied consciousness, describing it as an intentional experience and rejecting its naturalistic explanations. Sesemann revealed the irreducibility of life to physiological or chemical processes and at the same time rejected the dualistic opposition of spirit and matter, soul and body. In the manuscript text “Self-knowledge, self-consciousness and objectification” the philosopher explores the relationship of consciousness with self-consciousness and the subconscious, as well as various forms of objectification of consciousness. This manuscript can be attributed to a group of manuscript texts that discuss the origin of consciousness and the metaphysical relationship between matter and spirit. In the article, I will first discuss the relationship between Sesemann’s concept of consciousness and the philosophy of nature. Second, I will examine how Sesemann understands the relationship between consciousness and self-consciousness and the objectifications of consciousness. Third, I will analyze how the philosopher understands emotional intuition and subconsciousness. I argue that Sesemann’s approach is phenomenological.

Conscious and Unconscious Phantasy and the Phenomenology of Dreams

My goal is threefold. First, building on the basis of Husserl’s phenomenology of the imagination, I will argue that phantasy is a specific type of intentional experience, which intends its objects as neutralized presentifications (neutralisierte Vergegenwärtigungen). Second, I will turn to dreams and argue that non-lucid dreams are unconscious phantasies, which cannot be conceived in the above-mentioned way. This realization will bring us to the third task. When recognized as the most extreme form of unconscious phantasy, dreams compel us to raise anew the fundamental question: what is the nature of phantasy experience? According to the perspective I will here develop, phantasy is a specific field of experience that lies between two extremes: the fully translucent mode of the as if consciousness and the thoroughly opaque mode of absorption (Versunkenheit). Most of our phantasies, both conscious and unconscious, voluntary and involuntary, are lived somewhere between these two extremes.

Actualization of gifted schoolchildren’s intentional experience in the process of mastering geometric concepts: from support to activity mechanism

People’s intellectual abilities become a powerful civilization resource. Therefore, intellectually gifted schoolchildren’s development should be the focus of the state educational policy. Russian opinion leaders interpret the phenomenon of giftedness as a systemic quality that describes the child’s psyche as a whole. Such an approach turns into a priority to update and enrich the gifted schoolchildren’s intentional experience during geometry teaching. It assumes the development of a particular subjective state of orientation and selectivity of individual cognitive activity in preferences. This unique state becomes a mental activity mechanism, not just an accessory. The statistical data analysis confirms the hypothesis: the efficiency of actualizing gifted schoolchildren’s intentional experience in the form of their individual dispositions, beliefs, and emotional assessments while solving geometric problems during academic competitions is provided by specifically organized educational activities. It positively correlates with the level of mental activity development during mastering the activity methods with geometric concepts.

Acquaintance in an Experience of Perception-cum-Action

In everyday perception, we experience a direct acquaintance with things in our surroundings, say, as I see this tennis ball before me. In everyday action, we also experience a direct acquaintance with things, as I grasp and pick up and hit this ball. Moreover, perception and action form a unified phenomenal intentional experience, as I consciously see-and-grasp-and-hit this particular ball. An experience of seeing-and-acting with regard to a particular object is a form of direct acquaintance, a paradigm of what Husserl called ‘intuition’. The phenomenology of perception-cum-action leads into the ontology of direct acquaintance. The structure of this form of embodied intentional experience cuts between internalist and externalist models of perception (and volition in action), clarifies embodiment and activity, and obviates disjunctivist models of perception, while avoiding reducing consciousness in acquaintance to a physical transmission of physical information, say, between my brain, my body, and this ball.

Husserl on Intentionality and Attention

This paper discusses the role of attention in the phenomenological analysis of intentional experience in light of the problem of the relation between consciousness, intentionality, and transcendental subjectivity. Are these concepts equivalent? Or should we rather say that there is more to intentionality (and subjectivity) than consciousness? Does subjectivity embrace an unconscious domain? And, if so, how does this unconscious, yet intentional, life of subjectivity operate and how is it related to consciousness? In order to answer these questions, the paper tracks the development of Husserl’s conception of attention from the Logical Investigations to genetic phenomenology, by focusing on his analyses of temporality in the Bernau Manuscripts, on the relation between activity and passivity in the Analyses Concerning Active and Passive Synthesis, and on the issue of the self-constitution of subjectivity

Multivalency as a Backbone Principle in a Personality Spiritual and Moral Development within the System of Cossack Education

From the standpoint of the Christian humanitarian psychological paradigm, the article discusses the principle of polyvalence as a backbone regulatory standard of spiritual and moral development within the system of Cossack education. Psychological meaning of the said principle is revealed and its main integrative features are highlighted. Intellectual representations are characterized as pieces of cognitive, metacognitive and intentional experience. The author discusses moral and conceptual constructs within the framework of spiritual and moral evolution of a person from egocentrism toward altruism.