1701: Volodymyr Lesevych: Positivist Scientific Humanist Philosophy
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Medium (Personal)
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2026/06/11
“The old ‘science of sciences’ had before it either to identify itself with their general totality, or to cease to exist.”
“The decision as to the future fate of philosophy… must follow not from dreamy flights, dreams, delirium, contemplation, insight, or anything of the kind, but from the development of positive knowledge — that is, knowledge resting on facts and having as its basis the factuality given by experience.”
“At the point of departure of the new philosophy there is nothing mysterious, no ‘abyss of emptiness without outline or limits,’ but only experience and methodical thinking. From the mystical emptiness, deceptive and tedious, thought rushed into the fullness of life, into the fullness of facts, and firmly established itself on the unshakable shore of reality.”
“In answering the question, ‘What is scientific philosophy?’ we, of course, remained within the sphere of pure theory; but the result obtained by us passes beyond its limits: it points to a ‘completed worldview’ and reduces it to the totality of separate disciplines, conscious of their mutual connection and, thanks to that consciousness, permeated by the spirit of wholeness and generality — in other words, by the philosophical spirit.”
“Scientific philosophy, as we understand it, fully embraces ‘the concept of the work that man can produce’; that is, it embraces not only speculation, but also action — or, speaking in Auguste Comte’s language, not only ‘the domain of science, but also the domain of art.’”
“All separate scientific disciplines, as well as the whole sphere of human activity encompassed by the theory of art, are contained within and permeated by the general concept of scientific philosophy.”
“Acting in this way, it follows both the thinking of man and his activity; and, seeing in the latter the completion of the former, it does not soar away into the spheres of carefree contemplation, but always remains living knowledge, the science of life.”
“Man must listen to the voice of nature, which commands him to submit to the striving for knowledge, and at the same time requires that this knowledge be humane, that it never lose its direct relation to action and social life.”
“Be a philosopher, but with all your philosophy, remain a human being.”
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