Ukrainian National Academy of Science
Humanitarian Educational Centre
Odessa branch
Philosophy Department
Olexander Kyryliuk
ANTI-PROPP
Criticism of Vladimir Propp’s
Theory on Genesis of Magic Fairy Tales’ Structure
Odessa
Autograph – CHEUNSA
2009
ББК 71-0
К-43
УДК 008-1
Olexander Kyryliuk. ANTI-PROPP. Criticism of Vladimir Propp’s Theory on Genesis of Magic Fairy Tales Structure. – Odessa: Autograph/CHEUNSA, 2009. – p. 50. (Engl.).
SeparateEnglish supplement (Topics)to the book:
Olexander Kyryliuk. Weltanschauung Categories of Ultimate Bases in the Universal Culture Dimensions. – [Ukrainian National Academy of Science Ninetieth Anniversary; In Commemoration of Academician Volodymyr Shуnkarуuk (80-th anniversary): Photo coupled with wife]. / Abst. in Russian. pp. 357-389/ Bibl. pp. 392-411. / English Summary. / Abbrev. // UNSA Humanitarian Educational Centre: Odessa philosophy department // Odessa, Ukraine: Autograph Publish. House. – 2008. – 416 рр. In Ukrainian)
Олександр Кирилюк. АНТИ-ПРОПП. Критика теорії В. Проппа зі структури чарівної казки та її генезису. – Одеса: Автограф/ЦГО НАН України. – 2009. – 50 с. (англ. мова).
Окремий додаток до книги (авторефератанглійською):Кирилюк О.С. Світоглядні категорії граничних підстав в універсальних вимірах культури. – Монографія. – [Текст] – / Дев’яносто років Національній академії наук України. / До восьмидесятиріччя академіка Володимира Іларіоновича ШИНКАРУКА (фото з дружиною). / Автореф. книги рос. мовою сс. 357-389; резюме англ. мовою; список скорочень; бібліограф. сс. 392-411. / Олександр Сергійович Кирилюк – Одеса: Центр Гуманітарної освіти НАН України. Одеський філіал / Автограф. – 2008. - 416 с. (укр. мов.)
ISBN 966-96048-7-7
© О.С. Кирилюк, 2009
Summary
An original author conception of Existential Semiotics is being developed in the monograph. The methodological basis of the research is the results of studying the problem „human being - world" at Kуivan School of Philosophy. The world is understood as a projection of human senses on objective reality. But as the most meaningful human senses are existential senses, world on the whole, and its separate parts and phenomena get the indicated human measuring, foremost, in the maximum terms of the beginning and the end, life and death. Such are not only religious but also modern physical pictures of the world and history and political theories.
These ultimate senses form stable invariants of cultural discourses, in other words, they make culture universalias. These are the Categories of Ultimate Bases or – birth, life, death and immortality, and world-view codes, – alimentary, erotic, aggressive and informative, and also their combinations and formula „life – death – immortality".
They form not only the core basis of culture texts, but also serve as the analytical language of description of these texts.
Defining the invariant elements of a fairy-tale structure is the applied version of the search of culture invariants. On the basis of his own conception Me author provides a falsification of theory of V. Propp, which asserts, that the structure of a fairy-tale is formed by transformation of functions of fairy-tale characters into semantic units and that a fairy-tale is the reflection of reality, first of all - the initiation ceremony.
This falsification is due to acceptance of such base concepts, which are in conflict with it. The falsification of consequences of the theory, which has been conducted, defined falsification of all theoretical system, where these consequences had been taken from (modus tollens). Its falsification has been also proved by the fact that this work managed not only to open "reproduction effect", but also to set up and prove the empiric hypothesis of low level of universality, which describes this effect (K. Popper).
This empiric falsifying hypothesis confirms that any empiric culture text in a specific form through the historically preconditioned concepts reproduce a base universal cultural formula "death -immortality".
The universal utterances of metaphysical, philosophical worldview appear on its basis. The critical review of V. Propp's conception showed that in the reconstruction of a fairy-tale structure he stopped on the superficial, second-rate level of elements of its structure.
On the basis of this falsification in this monograph the author puts forward his own conception not only of the description, but also of explanation the source of structuring of cultural discourses. The factors, which determine the structure of culture texts, are base existential options of human being.
These options as a result reproduce such a world of signs and meanings, which are identical in any culture. Because of it the humanity is united and indivisible not only in an anthropological, but also in cultural and historical aspect. People of different cultures differ one from another not in what they do exactly, but in how they do it.
TOPICS
1. Philosophical and methodological basis of the Weltanschauung Categories of Ultimate Bases researching
The main factors that determine the failures of applied structuralism, the study of folklore or ethnopoetry in the search of invariants of the texts of culture are their inability to find an adequate methodological ensuring for solving its applied problems, admission of the secondary epiphenomenal structures of the texts as the subject of investigation, ignoring the philosophical and Weltanschauung-ideological approach in the structurally-typological investigations of culture. In the research there is shown a positive effectiveness of implementation of the results of scientific investigations of Kуivan School of Philosophy in the process of detection of culture invariants (or culture universalias) that focused on the problem of human relation to the world. A foundation is given to the author’s conception of interpretation of Weltanschauung(worldview) Categories of Ultimate Bases as the genuine invariants of culture (Culture Universalias). There is offered a hypothesis that one notional invariant – Categories of Ultimate Bases is at the heart of all the system of cultural texts (discourses).
World is the world of a person, a projection of human senses to an objective reality. Therefore the major meanings of the world, in spite of their apparent objectivity, are inherently anthropomorphous. Objective parameters of the world in their universal meanings fix categories of philosophy. But, being forms of thinking, they simultaneously act as total forms of worldview. In this function they serve as a concrete definition of the Categories of Ultimate Bases. This proceeds from the fact that in conceptually-philosophical models of the world the Philosophic Categories are Weltanschauung and theoretical generalizations of the Categories of Ultimate Bases.
Since the world in its intrinsic definitions depends on a person, for the profound comprehension of the world it becomes obviously necessary to solve the problem of human essence. To put it otherwise, defining the world as projection of humanly significant senses on an objective reality places the emphasis on the very person. Hence in the research there were considered the typological approximations to a person. The first of them gives the person the naturalistic and essential definitions. Usually the essence of a person is defined by the list of the most significant indications, as it is considered, or by leading the concept person under a wider concept (an animal, a being) with its further concretization. Nevertheless, if to recognize, that any of the mentioned intrinsic features of a person is not characteristic for a concrete individual, it unambiguously leads to a conclusion, that the person, who is deprived even of these essential features, actually is not a person. Therefore, the definition of the person as an active animal making the tools of labour, amoral creature, and a being that has religion or abiped animal without feathers etc. cannot be considered satisfactory as there arelegless invalids, people who made a vital principle of idleness, people frankly immoral or atheists.
The second approach,axiomatic, rests on the basic vital intentions of a person. From the given data it is possible to draw the following conclusions. To axiomatic definitions of the person against which it is hardly possible to object owing to their evidence, refer the following: 1) the person is a living creature; 2) the fundamental inclination of the person as a living being is an aspiration for a survival which can be named as an instinct of self-preservation; 3) as any other living being a person possesses all basic vital functions called to provide realization of beforementioned fundamental inclination - nutritive, reproductive, aggressive and informational functions; 4) as well as everything in the world, the person is not eternal, he is a mortal being; 5) unlike other living beings the person is a unique creature in the world that understands his own individual finiteness and considers this phenomenon as a subject of a special personal Weltanschauung reflection.
The third approach which gives polarmortally-immortal definitions of the person, has the certain bases in the real facts of absence of precise borders between life and death in their ontological displays that was especially brightly showed in the widespread self-name of people as beings of the mortal nature (Engl. „man” – ‘mort’, Lаt. „homo” – ‘humus’, old-Irish „duine” – ‘mortal’).
Real means for the person to exceed his individual finiteness is socially caused going out of his own, naturally determined limits. Through that the transcendentation in the world appears as intrinsic feature of the person. Active overcoming by the person the natural limits of his own existence leads to creation of the "second", "humanized" nature, which becomes his „inorganic body”. Reification, objectification, incarnation, transformation - all these concepts express one and the same process – the process of overstepping by the person in his qualitative intrinsic definition the naturally determined limits.
Let's recede a step back and start searching for the essence of the person “from a blank sheet”, basing upon "axiomatic" postulates, that is, such which are obvious. And it is unconditionally obvious that the person is a living being. So, the certain functions directed to support existence are inherent in person, as in any other living being. Specifically human realization of these functions occurs during the process of aim relying and detail-practical transformation of the world. Therefore an unnatural, humanized world is formed. Each new generation coming to the world, finds a historically determined system of past objectified intrinsic forces of the person which through disobjectification becomes a basis for socialization of new generation.
Development of objective transformation of the world by this new generation leads to change of the world of objectives. The next generation of people passes socialization already under the influence of the changed objective senses of the cultivated world of people and so everything sinusoidally repeats at a later time.
This process which I name after Hegel and Marx through-self-life of the person is antithetic, regarding the substantial approach to his essence. The essence of the person is formed on the basis of above outlined mechanism and consequently is rather functional than substantial. Reasoning from premises it is possible to make a conclusion that the essence of the person as a social being is defined by those factors that are its own product. For this reason, the person in a certain sense is the creator of herself.
As long as the object of the research alongside with the world and the person isthe culture, on the basis of the offered approach there is given a separate definition to it.It is offered to understand Culture as the form and process of specific transformation of the natural source to the human one, the main point of that is "cultivation” of human in the person, that simultaneously transforms culture to means of life-support.
Being a living creature, the person requires satisfaction of some needs to support the existence; these needs are caused by peculiarities of his corporal organization, inherited from his evolutionary ancestors. All of them to some extent can be lead to one fundamental inclination peculiar to every living being - to aspiration for self-preservation, for continuation of life. All other basic functions of an organism are subordinate to it. This human aspiration (inclination), being socialized, gets essentially different, than in the animal kingdom, forms of realization.
Transformed in culture and presented at different levels of world attitude, the basic functions and fundamental aim at life supporting form a part of worldview consciousness (as the forms of world attitude) and act as its steady components, in a certain sense - constants. Worldview as an ideal constituent of world attitude and the form of the person’s self-knowing includes these constants, and within their limits they become “Universalias of culture”.
The person always vitally comprehended and sharply experienced the finiteness, frailty. In the myths, religion, folklore, literature, philosophy and other forms of spiritual perception of reality the Weltanschauung universalias corresponding to the given type of public consciousness are recreated, among them the categories of ultimate bases, the existence of the person in the world are central, namely - birth, life, death and immortality. Consequently the attitude of the person to the world is first of all the attitude of a finite being (that declines to his own completion).
Because of stated, in the work there is elaborated a language of description and the analysis of culture Universalias, as well as regulations specifying it. Semantic and lexical units of this language are the categories of ultimate bases, the codes of the worldview and the basic world outlook formula.
ByCategories of Ultimate Bases (CUB) I understand the constitutive, structural components of worldview connected with socialization and improvement of fundamental bases of existence of the person in the world in context of hisfinitary temporality. CUB in their worldview aspect are not only objective forms of existence of the person in the world (ontology of CUB), but also means of understanding of this phenomenon (worldview and philosophical aspect of CUB).
Reasoning from the use of the term “categories of ultimate bases” which is available in the literature one can draw the following conclusion. If categories of philosophy are the general forms of activity, and activity, in some authors’ opinion (V. Zviglyanich, M. Parniuk), is the ultimate basis of human existence in the world, it becomes clear that these categories simultaneously act as the general elements of the ultimate bases of existence of the person in the world.
If we accept the fact, that categories are a certain generalization of activity, then the following step will consist in recognition of that this activity occurs with the purpose of realization of the basic cultural-universal formula of support and continuation of life. The Categories, consequently, represent some invariant moments not only of activity as a pure process, but also of the activity that consists of the person’s aspiration for consolidation of the existence, supporting of life and overcoming of his own finiteness.
As long as the person achieves the realization of the basic world outlook formula by means of functions that are peculiar to all living beings but are transformed in culture such as the nutritive and reproductive functions, the function of aggression and defence, and the function of transfer of experience, then, according to the above-listed functions that form a part of culture, they can be defined as alimentary, erotic, aggressive andinformative codes of worldview.
The given language is defined more exactly by the following theses. Attitudes of the person to the world represent a multivariate phenomenon, therefore the processes of transformation of natural displays of life to specifically human existence in the world are realized in different forms, depending on a level of the relation “the person - the world”. In my opinion, the main of them arethe objectively-practical, ritually-ceremonial, practically-spiritual andspiritually-theoretical levels of world attitude.