Modern West: two life worlds

LTReikšminiai žodžiai: Vakarų civilizacija; Politinė Apšvieta; Mokslo Apšvieta; Dialektinis materializmas; Laisvė; Lygybė; Western civilization; Political Enlightenment; Scientific Enlightenment; Dialectical Materialism; Freedom; Equality.

ENThe fall of the Soviet Union and the political, cultural and economic shift of Lithuania toward western European world requires complex analyses of the philosophical context in which such a shift could take place. The context is modern western civilization, consisting of two life worlds, established under the names of Political and Scientific Enlightenments. One major task of the text consists of a disclosure of the founding principles of these two life worlds to note both, their common ground and their seemingly irreconcilable divergence. In the text it is argued that the Soviet grand experiment is founded on a specific interpretation of Scientific Enlightenment that led to the invention of a theory called “Dialectical Materialism” and its consequent reduction of all events to “material explanation”. The text also contains strict analyses of the Marxian, Soviet paradigm, called “Dialectical Materialism” and shows the impossibility to maintain such a paradigm without contradictions. If the contradictions are to be avoided, then this paradigm must allow Political Enlightenment as the ground without which the Soviet experiment is doomed to failure. Finally, the text shows that Lithuanian proclamation of independence from Soviet Union opens the principles of Political Enlightenment and “joins” Western Europe as a site where autonomous and equal citizens become the basis of any government. Indeed, the text points to an issue which is unresolved: the materialism of the “free market” that demands “freedom” but abolishes equality and thus creates a fundamental tension in current Lithuania between the fundamental and inseparable aspects: freedom and equality. [annotation in the book]