Regional Ontology and Perspectives for the Analysis of Sociotechnical Systems

Introduction. The article is devoted to studying of the historical prerequisites for the formation of new ontological concepts in philosophy. To this end, the authors return to the main theses of E. Husserl, bringing back into focus the problem of the differentiation of being, which classical science has historically failed to address adequately. The paper discusses the question of whether phenomenology has succeeded. 

Methodology and sources. It is methodologically significant to consider the problem of regional ontologies in the context of the increasing complexity of the contemporary structure of scientific knowledge. This issue is mentioned by E. Husserl himself, but the above-mentioned idea is significantly elaborated in the works of A. Gurvich, G. Heffernan,  K. Maiolino, and E. Trizio. Among Russian scholars, the works of V.S. Stepin are particularly noteworthy in this context. 

Results and discussion. Phenomenology has established the principle of the primacy of understanding over knowledge in the process of cognition. At the same time, the regions themselves have not been adequately substantiated within phenomenology, which is surprising given the fact that more than 100 years have passed since the official publication of Husserl's works. According to the Western philosophical tradition, the main point is that the original concept of regionality did not take into account the artificial component of the world, which manifested itself in the search for a form to explain the world and historically evolved into the well-known system of scientific disciplines. However, this system no longer captures the world as a whole, but only clarifies its parts. 

Conclusion. The authors believe that the reason for the failures of phenomenology lies in its excessive concentration on the very essence of nature and its objects, while the transformed world has not received an adequate philosophical interpretation, and its naturalness is dualistic (social and technological). The article examines the natural attitude in the sciences and attempts to rethink the ways of positing the world that may underlie regional ontologies.

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