Discussions about truth, popular in the 20th century, gave rise to new antinomies along with problems. The discovery of psychoanalysis made it possible to turn it from a method of treatment into a philosophical and psychological doctrine of the relationship between the conscious and the unconscious in a person.
The pragmatist approach broke the traditional understanding of truth, because it believed that the veracity of any theory lies in its "capacity for work", that is, in how good it is in personal experience. But the most popular was the philosophy of science and technology, which put at the forefront the global problems generated by the scientific and technological revolution. The stumbling block between different schools of thought has become the humanities.
Analytical philosophy has taken a peremptory rationalistic-scientistic position. She stated that scientific knowledge is the only possible one. Logical positivism represented by Russell, Carnap, representatives of the Vienna Circle used the apparatus of mathematical logic to create a special language. He had to operate exclusively with verifiable concepts. From them it is possible to build consistent logical constructions that "can be tolerated" as theories. It is clear that the traditional humanities with this approach turned out to be sort of overboard. But that's not all. The theory of "language games" by Wittgenstein and his followers also substantiated the incompatibility of the natural and mathematical disciplines with the "spiritual sciences".
This trend was most clearly expressed in the concept of Karl Popper. He considered the humanities exclusively applied and in fact denied them the right to theory. At the same time, the author of the "open society" proceeded from two reasons. Firstly, any systematization in the humanitarian sphere is too subjective, and secondly, these sciences are infected with "holism", which makes them not describe the facts, but look for some non-existent integrity. Besides, they are not rational. Therefore, Popper attacked first of all the specifics of this area of human knowledge. The humanities, the philosopher accused, are intellectually irresponsible. It is based on irrational feelings and passions that blind, divide and interfere with discussions.
However, all these processes did not prevent the popularity of the opposite attitude towards the humanities. This approach shaped the face of the 20th century as much as Popper did. We are talking about the founder of philosophical hermeneutics, Hans-Georg Gadamer. Agreeing that every natural science and the humanities fundamentally differ from each other in the wayinterpretation, the philosopher considered this not a negative, but a positive phenomenon. In mathematics, physics, biology, theory is created according to methodology.
And the latter appears as a result of the knowledge of patterns and causal (causal) relationships. But the role of the humanities is that their truth is closer to real life, to people and their feelings. For the theory of natural disciplines, the main thing is correspondence to the facts. And for the humanities, for example, history, obviousness becomes the cornerstone when the essence of the event itself removes its cover.
Gadamer is one of the first to return to the positive coloring of the concept of "authority". This is what makes the "spiritual sciences" what they are. In this area we cannot know anything without the help of our predecessors, and therefore tradition plays a very important role for us. Our rationality only helps us choose the authority we trust. As well as the tradition that we follow. And in this unity of the present and the past lies the role of the humanities.
