METAPHYSICS OF THE CITY IN THE CONTEXT OF THE PHILOSOPHICAL CONCEPT OF “RECORDING NAMES”

Abstract

The term “metaphysics” in modern philosophical discourse emphasizes not the pres ence of an extra-physical primary cause of motion (as in Aristotle’s philosophy), but the pre- sence of motivation for human behavior, which is associated with value orientations, with the priorities of collective self-preservation and development. From this point of view, the experience of the neo-Kantian philosophical school, which became a powerful intellectual force in Europe at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. According to the paradigm of thinking that emerged in this school, value is something important, but not necessarily physically existing. “Values do not exist, they mean” is a thesis that was introduced into philosophical circulation by the neo-Kantians. In the context of modern world-system changes in the globalized world, the problem of the correlation of cultural, ethical and political dimensions of world dynamics, which is reflected at the local level, in particular, in different views on the sustainable development strategies of individual Ukrainian cities, becomes relevant. The urgency of this problem is added by the appearance on the geopolitical “chessboard” of new global leaders (in particular China), who have both great political potential and extensive cultural and historical experience. The article examines Western philosophical and ethical concepts regarding the relationship between ethics and politics, public and personal good, which were born in crisis periods of historical development, the philosophical concept of “name correction”, which was also born in one of the crisis periods of ancient Chinese history and belonged to a philosopher whose name is deeply respected in modern China. Confucius, of course, cannot be attributed to the ideologists of Chinese modernization, which began in the 1980s and took on the form of a “Chinese miracle” at the beginning of the 21st century, but some features of the implementation of this reform indicated that it did not copy the model of Western modernization, but took into account its own cultural and historical traditions, in particular, the values of the peasantry. This, according to the author of the article, corresponds to one of the key principles of Confucianism, which is designated as “sin” – reciprocity. In the deontological plane, the conclusion is made that political decisions should be effective, not moral, but should take into account the moral reaction of society to the corresponding decisions. An important deontological rule in this con- text should be the rule formulated by the author by analogy with the ethical maxim of Daosism “wei-u-wei” (“action-non-action”, “non-interference”): to refrain from political interference in cultural traditions, since the latter are related to the personal sphere of sense-making and the consequences of such interference can be unpredictable. The author tried to illustrate his point with some examples from the contemporary cultural experience of Odessa.