Manifesto of the Philosophy of Reality
1) Why this is needed now
Contemporary philosophy is blurred between science, art, and journalism; its own proper subject and its criterion of truth are being lost. The Philosophy of Reality (PR) proposes to restore to philosophy a clear place and practical force through the Basic Method of Philosophy – the regulated mutual transition of the objective and the subjective in thinking and cognition.
2) Definition
The Philosophy of Reality is a mode of thinking and a discipline that systematically distinguishes, in any phenomenon, two sides of reality – the objective (rational-logical, natural) and the subjective (emotional-sensory, conscious) – and regulates their mutual transition.
Reality is thereby conceived both as a quasi-object (a whole: the object plus its physical analogue in the brain) and as a quasi-concept (a way of linking subject and object in cognition).
3) The Basic Method of the Philosophy of Reality (the core of the manifesto)
Distinguish the sides. In every object, separate the objective and the subjective as real sides of one and the same thing.
Maintain the transition. Organize thinking so that the results of one side are checked and complemented by the other (structure ↔︎ image, facts ↔︎ experience).
Set the neural bridge. Understand a concept in a dual way: as an informational structure of consciousness and as a physical analogue of the object in the brain; cognition is their coordinated formation.
Test truth from both sides. Truth is the correspondence of the concept to the phenomenon from both sides; partial correspondences yield opinion, conjecture, conviction, and so on.
4) Ontology of the Philosophy of Reality: the mutual transition “existence ↔︎ essence”
Existence is the most general concept of the objective side (nature, factuality).
Essence is the most general concept of the subjective side (consciousness, meaning).
Each side is known through the other: existence – as a “mode” of essence, and conversely; their continuous transition is the working fabric of reality.
5) Place among types of thinking
The Philosophy of Reality explains and reconciles the dominant tendencies of other forms of thinking:
Science: predominance of the objective (formal knowledge).
Art: predominance of the subjective (experience).
Technology and practices: their applied mixes.
The Philosophy of Reality provides a meta-level: how to sustain the balance and transitions between these poles.
6) Minimal conceptual set (working vocabulary)
Reality – the linkage of thought and thing; the “between” of subject and object; the first step of analysis is to distinguish both sides of the phenomenon.
Concept – both an informational form and a physical analogue of the object in the brain.
Truth – a two-sided correspondence of the concept to the phenomenon; falsehood / prefabrications are distortions of one of the sides.
Living concepts – integrated structures capable of “working” in consciousness as processes.
7) Norms and rules of thinking in the Philosophy of Reality
Do not substitute the sides. The ideal/material, language/world, and other dichotomies are partial projections. The Philosophy of Reality fixes precisely the subjective/objective and their transition.
Avoid one-sidedness. Reasoning “by facts only” without sensory-meaningful verification is profanation; reasoning “by experience only” without objective verification is delusion; partial coincidences are opinions, conjectures, convictions.