Metamorphoses of non-classical and postmodern philosophy.

Filosofijos idėjų pasaulis, ypač susijęs su ontologine ir estetine problematika, intriguoja netikėtomis įžvalgomis, minties nušvytimais. Ši problematika knygoje tyrinėjamose neklasikinės ir postmodernistinės filosofijos tradicijose yra taip susipynusi, kad jų beveik neįmanoma išskirti. Minėtose tradicijose aptariamas ontologinis individualios egzistencijos poreikis iškart kelia pamatinį filosofinį klausimą apie žmogiškosios būties prasmę. Aiškindamiesi jį tarsi pakliūname į nežinomybės ir paslapčių pasaulį, kuriame vinguriuoja įvairių daugiau ar mažiau pramintų kelių, takelių ir klystkelių. Ši metafora atspindi gyvenimo verpetuose paklydusių mąstytojų pastangas iš tamsos surasti kelią į šviesą. Autentiškas mąstymas išsiskiria gebėjimu išryškinti asmeninį požiūrį į pamatines žmogaus būties ir santykių su supančiu pasauliu problemas, atsiriboti nuo daugumai priimtinų neginčytinų sprendimų. Būtent taip elgėsi šios knygos dėmesio centre esantys neklasikinės filosofijos pradininkai ir jų sekėjai Martinas Heideggeris, Jean-Paul Sartre'as, Sigmundas Freudas. Kiek sudėtingiau aptariamos žmogaus, jo būties ir santykių su supančiu pasauliu problemos skleidėsi žymiausių postmodernizmo mąstytojų veikaluose. Tačiau norėtume pabrėžti, kad postmodernizmas ir jam būdingas maištas prieš klasikines Vakarų metafizikos nuostatas, svarstymai apie Vakarų filosofijos, meno, žmogaus, autoriaus ir pan. mirtį, mėginimai autorių ištirpinti Teksto galaktikoje natūraliai apsigyvena istoriosofinių motyvų prisodrintoje post-modernioje Vakarų kultūroje ir skleidžiasi joje naujos hermeneutikos pavidalu. [...]At the beginning of the new millennium, when the radical changes of postmodern consciousness are evident and the principles of Western and Eastern philosophy have become closer, the fundamentals of contemporary philosophy as well as the traditional academic style of philosophical thinking has been changing by adopting the values of 'poetic' thinking. The proponents of non-classical philosophy have formed the underlying characteristics of contemporary thinking: Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Bergson and their many followers. They started the tendency to emphasise ontology and aesthetization among philosophical problems, which had been at the margins of the main rationalist, classical Western philosophical tradition for a long time. Today those thinkers are considered to be the most important creators of the now dominating 'non-classical' way of thinking. There is no firmly established understanding of 'non-classical philosophy' in current academic discourse. In the scholarship of the last few decades, the term has been used by ascribing three main meanings to it: 1) by defining post-Hegelian existential fundamental attitudes related to the tradition of the 'philosophy of life' and to the ideas of aforementioned thinkers and their followers, which are conceptually opposed to the fundamental principles of modern metaphysics and classical rationalist philosophy; 2) when referring to non-European, especially Eastern, philosophical traditions and 3) when characterising the so-called 'postmodern thinking' influenced by the ideas of Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Bergson and Eastern traditions. The latter was first of all related to the non-classical principles of late Martin Heidegger and French poststructuralist philosophers (Barthes, Baudrillard, Deleuze, Derrida, Foucault, Guattari, Lacan, Lyotard, Nancy and Rorthy). The term of 'neoclassical philosophy' is also used as a susceptible metaphor when identifying various aspects of modern and postmodern philosophy that oppose classical rationalist Western thinking. Indeed, postmodern thinkers, who have taken over the principles of non-classical philosophy and developed them in an original manner, have changed the style of intellectual activity, the very practice of intellectual discourse and its conceptual universe; they have contributed many non-classical attributes and playful attitudes to the way of thinking created new spaces for the conceptual discourse and discovered new territories for philosophical knowledge. It should be emphasised that non-classical philosophy is rather a tendency characteristic to a specific stage to the evolving philosophical thought and not a doctrine. It is not as homogenous as were the tendencies of Western philosophy that developed already at the beginning of the 20th century, for example, intuitivism, early phenomenology, existentialism. On the other hand, non-classical philosophy does not replace classical metaphysics, but is just one, doubtlessly significant, tendency that exists alongside others. The relationships between the traditions of classical and non-classical philosophy are complicated and multifaceted. Despite separate non-essential differences, many fundamental conceptual attitudes link non-classical thinkers and their followers. First, they turned away from the cognition of the external world surrounding human beings towards studying the individual problems of human life or existence. They suggested a radical critique of rational thinking and abstract metaphysical constructions, thus opposing the belief in the power of the human mind, historical optimism and the principles of systemic and dialectical thinking that had dominated classical philosophy. They also downplayed the omnipotence of the mind and offered irrationalism, subjective dialectics, the inner experience of being and new, broadly understood concepts of life and existence. The proponents of classical metaphysics who had placed most significance on rational mind and systemic thinking were not able to understand the new phenomena of crisis that grew spontaneously in the depths of Western civilisation and influenced the changes in philosophical consciousness. It is no coincidence that a new philosophical tradition based on non-traditional principles developed eventually, while classical metaphysics and the relevance of its problems were decaying. By transferring the emphasis from gnoseological to ontological and aesthetic problems, the proponents of this tendency denied the principles of traditional systematic thinking, changed its categories and treated human existence as well as the complex character of consciousness more dynamically