Table Of ContentA Philosophy of the Possible
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Value Inquiry Book Series
Founding Editor
Robert Ginsberg
Executive Editor
Leonidas Donskis†
Managing Editor
J.D. Mininger
volume 333
Contemporary Russian
Philosophy
Editor
Dr. Mikhail Sergeev, University of the Arts, Philadelphia (usa)
International Editorial Board
Dr. Anatoly Akhutin, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Kiev
(Ukraine) – Dr. Alexander Chumakov, Vice-president of Russian philosophical
society, Moscow (Russia) – Dr. Mikhail Epstein, Emory University, Atlanta
(usa) – Dr. Boris Groys, New York University, New York, and The European
Graduate School / egs, Saas Fee (usa – Switzerland) – Dr. Vladimir Kantor,
National Research University Higher School of Economics, Moscow (Russia) –
Dr. Ruslan Loshakov, Uppsala University, Uppsala (Sweden) – Dr. Natalya
Shelkovaya, Volodymyr Dahl East Ukrainian National University (Ukraine) –
Dr. Igor Smirnov, University of Konstanz, Kostanz (Germany) – Dr. Karen
Swassjan, Forum für Geisteswissenschaft, Basel (Switzerland) – Fr. Dr. Vladimir
Zelinsky, Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Brescia (Italy)
The titles published in this series are listed at brill.com/vibs and brill.com/crph
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A Philosophy of the Possible
Modalities in Thought and Culture
By
Mikhail Epstein
Translated from the Russian by
Vern W. McGee
Marina Eskina
leiden | boston
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Cover illustration: The Bridge of Possibilities (2010). The digital graphics created by the artist
Nikolai Bogoliubov. Used with his permission.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Epstein, Mikhail, author. | McGee, Vern, translator. | Eskina,
Marina, translator.
Title: A philosophy of the possible : modalities in thought and culture / by
Mikhail Epstein ; translated from the Russian by Vern W. McGee and Marina
Eskina.
Other titles: Filosofiia vozmozhnogo. English
Description: Leiden ; Boston : Brill Rodopi, [2019] | Series: Value inquiry
book series, issn 0929-8436 ; volume 333 | Includes bibliographical
references and index. | In English, translated from Russian.
Identifiers: LCCN 2019013208 (print) | LCCN 2019015925 (ebook) | ISBN
9789004398344 (ebook) | ISBN 9789004398337 (hardback : alk. paper)
Subjects: lcsh: Possibility.
Classification: LCC BC199.P7 (ebook) | lcc bc199.p7 e6713 2019 (print) | DDC
123--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019013208
Typeface for the Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic scripts: “Brill”. See and download: brill.com/brill-typeface.
ISSN 0929-8436
ISBN 978-90-04-39833-7 (hardback)
ISBN 978-90-04-39834-4 (e-book)
Copyright 2019 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands.
Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Brill Hes & De Graaf, Brill Nijhoff, Brill Rodopi,
Brill Sense, Hotei Publishing, mentis Verlag, Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh and Wilhelm Fink Verlag.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system,
or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,
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This book is printed on acid-free paper and produced in a sustainable manner.
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I am off in search of a great May-be.
FRANÇOIS RABELAIS1
…
Maybe!
But who has the will to concern himself with such dangerous maybes?
For that, one really has to wait for the advent of a species of philosophers,
such as have somehow another and converse taste and propensity from
those we have known so far – philosophers of the dangerous “maybe” in
every sense.
And in all seriousness: I see such new philosophers coming up.
FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE2
∵
1 “Je m’en vais chercher un grand peut-être.” These words, uttered by Rabelais on his deathbed,
are cited in Peter Anthony Motteux’s book The Life of Rabelais. Alexander Pushkin introduces
these words into his own definition of happiness: “Mais le bonheur … c’est un grand peut-être,
comme le disait Rabelais du paradis ou de l’éternité” (“But happiness … is that great ‘may
be,’ as Rabelais said of paradise or of eternity”), Letter to P.A. Osipova, 5 November 1830.
Aleksandr S. Pushkin, Collected Works, 10 vols (Moscow: Khudozhestvennaia literatura, 1977),
vol. 9, pp. 345, 346.
2 Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil: Prelude to a Philosophy of the Future (Section 1,
Aphorism 2), transl. Walter Kaufmann (New York: Vintage Books/Random House, 1966), pp.
10–1.
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Contents
Preface xi
Introduction: Fundamental Concepts of the Theory of the
Possible 1
1 The Problem of Modalities in Contemporary Thought 1
2 A Preliminary Definition of the Modality of the Possible 4
3 The Ontological Status of Possible Worlds. Nominalism
and Realism 6
4 The Principle of “Fullness” and the Problem of Realization
of Possibilities 9
5 Duality and “Demonism” of the Possible 12
6 A Possibilistic Approach to the Possible 15
7 The Plan of the Book 18
Part 1
The Possible in Philosophy
1 Criticism and Activism 23
2 Philosophy and Reality 29
3 Change of Modalities in the History of Philosophy 34
4 Philosophy as Possibilistic Thinking 45
5 The Area of the Thinkable: the Value of Thinking in Itself 59
6 Theory, Utopia, and Hypothesis 67
7 Catharsis of Thinking 72
8 Personified Thinking 81
9 Possible and Impossible: Aporia of Thinking 90
10 Language, Thinking, and Signifiability 98
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viii Contents
11 Universals as Potentials: Conceptualism 108
12 From the General to the Concrete and Universal 117
13 Multiplication of Entities 124
14 Philosophy as Parody and Grotesque 130
Part 2
The Fate of Metaphysics: from Deconstruction to Possibilization
Introduction to Part 2 141
section 2.1
Reverse Metaphysics: Critique and Deconstruction
15 Beyond Being and Nothingness: the Feeling of the Possible 145
16 A Worldview, Not a Point of View: “A Net with No Knots” 152
17 The Possible in Jean Derrida 157
18 The Metaphysics of Deconstruction: the Main Terms 162
19 The Radical Nature of Difference: Profit and Transcendence 170
20 Center and Structure 175
21 Reverse Metaphysics: the Other, the Play, and the Writing 180
22 Différance and the Tao 187
section 2.2
Construction and Possibilization
23 From Deconstruction to Construction 197
24 Construction and Creativity 206
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Contents ix
25 De- and Con- 213
26 Potentiation as Method: Eros of Thinking 217
27 What is “the Interesting”? Proposed Criteria 226
28 Small Metaphysics: the Unique 233
Part 3
The Worlds of the Possible
Introduction to Part 3 247
29 Society 251
30 Culture 258
31 Ethics 267
32 Psychology 278
33 Religion 287
Conclusion 303
Appendix
To Be Able, to Be, and to Know: a System of Modalities
1 Definitions of Modality 313
A Typical Definitions 313
B The Specific Definition 315
2 Оntic Modalities (Modalities of Being) 317
A “To Be” and “To Be Able” in the Ontological and Modal
Perspectives 317
B Existence and Non-existence 318
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