F

Fa Chia

Legalists, philosophers of law, a leading ideological trend in ancient China. Shang Chun (4th century B.C.) and Han Fei Tzu (died c. 233 B.C.) were its most eminent exponents. The followers of Fa Chia, expressing the interests of the new nobility which had become rich with the development of exchange relations, resolutely fought against the survivals of the gentile system and the communal-patriarchal traditions and stood for the unification of the country and historical progress.

Han Fei Tzu provided the philosophical basis for the economic and political views of Fa Chia. He held that natural laws (tao) determine the development of things. Human society must also have its own laws (fa) which would serve as the criterion of men's actions. These laws are the chief instrument of the state in the struggle against conservative socio-political forces, for the consolidation of the country's might and prosperity. Han Fei Tzu and other proponents of Fa Chia were opposed to religious mysticism and superstition.

Factors, Theory of

A positivist sociological conception which gained wide currency in the West and in Russia at the end of the 19th century (Max Weber, Gaetano Mosca, M. Kovalevsky, and N.I. Kareyev). Its principal feature is denial of monism in sociology, denial of a single basis of history and society and recognition of the mechanical interaction of many diverse equal factors (economy, religion, morality, technology, culture, and others).

Being an expression of pluralism in sociology, Theory of Factors denies the unity of the historical process and society, the objective laws of social development, and the internal necessary links between social phenomena. Theory of Factors claims to stand above materialism and idealism, but in reality frequently slides to positions of subjective idealism, exaggerating the role of subjective factors in history.

The proponents of this theory considered the main task of the social and historical sciences to be the description of social factors in their interaction. Pointing to some positive elements in this theory (the attempt at a concrete analysis of the facts of social reality), Lenin, Plekhanov, and Labriola demonstrated its complete theoretical bankruptcy, its mechanistic nature, and its inability to grasp the essence of social phenomena.

Faith

Recognition of something as true without proof. Blind faith in the supernatural (God, angels, devils, etc.) is an essential part of any religion. In this sense there is no difference between Faith and superstition. Religious Faith stands at the opposite pole to knowledge. Nevertheless many idealist philosophers try to reconcile Faith with knowledge or to pass it off as knowledge (see Fideism).

Falsehood

A statement distorting the actual state of affairs. Epistemologically, Falsehood was defined by Aristotle as that which is contradictory to reality; if a statement connects what is disconnected in reality, or disconnects what in reality is connected, it is false. A distinction must be made between Falsehood and absurdity. From the psychological and ethical point of view the deliberate Falsehood must be distinguished from the unintentional Falsehood.

Family

A nucleus of society based on marriage and consanguinity, i.e., relations between husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters, etc. Life of the Family is characterized both by material and spiritual processes. The first include biological and economic-consumer relations and the second, legal, moral, and psychological relations.

Family is a historical category. Its life and forms are determined by the socio-economic order in society and the nature of social relations as a whole. In ancient times sexual relations were of a haphazard nature and no Family existed. Family arises in the period of the gentile system on the basis of the sex and age division of labour and the settled mode of life when economic ties and interests supplemented the natural liaison of persons of different sex.

During the matriarchy a large maternal Family existed—the commune and the group and then paired marriage. In the period of the patriarchy a large paternal Family arose, the commune, which, as military democracy was established, turned into a small paternal family based on monogamy. Simultaneously woman became property, the slave of her husband. Accumulation of wealth and its transfer to legitimate heirs was the main purpose of the Family.

In bourgeois society, private property laid a particularly big imprint on the Family. Here crude material considerations and the commercial advantage of marriage play a tremendous part. The victory of socialism opens wide scope for the equality of men and women in all spheres of social life, in production and the family. Love, mutual respect, and upbringing the children are the primary moral principles of the Soviet Family. Family relations will improve in the period of building communism, as the living standard of the people rises and the rules of communist morality strike deep root in the life of society.

Fantasy

Imagination distinguished for the power, vividness and exceptionality of the ideas and images it conceives.

Fascism

"Fascism is an overt terroristic dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic and most imperialist elements of finance capital." (Programme of the CPSU) The establishment of Fascism reflects the inability of the ruling bourgeoisie to maintain its power by the usual "democratic" methods. Fascism heads the forces of anti-communism and strikes its main blow against the Communist and Workers' Parties and other progressive organizations.

The fascist system was established for the first time in Italy (1922) and then in Germany (1933) and in other countries. In Germany Fascism was masked under the name of National-Socialism. Fascism was the striking force of international reaction; fascist states, Hitlerite Germany in the first place, unleashed the 2nd World War. Notwithstanding the complete rout of the fascist states in the 2nd World War, reactionary elements in some imperialist countries are trying to revive Fascism.

The ideology of Fascism is irrationalism, extreme chauvinism and racialism, obscurantism, and inhumanity.

Fatalism

A philosophical conception, according to which everything in the world and human life is predetermined by fate. The idea that fate governs man and even the gods was widespread in ancient mythology.

In the history of philosophy, the conception of Fatalism was interpreted differently, depending on how the question of freedom of will was treated. In the theory of predestination (see Occasionalism, Pre-Established Harmony), man was regarded as a plaything in the hands of God or nature and unable to change the preordained course of events. This variety of Fatalism, fully denying freedom of will, was opposed by another extreme—voluntarism. Religious Fatalism (see Islam, St. Augustine, Luther, Calvin, and others) admitted, with some reservations, that man enjoys freedom of will, but fails to reconcile the "good" will of God with man's "evil" will.

Fatalism finds its most complete expression in philosophical teachings which profess the absolute repetition of all events in every cosmic cycle: "eternal return" of the Pythagoreans, Nietzsche, and others. This conception regards chance and human freedom (see Necessity and Chance, Freedom and Necessity) as an instrument and prerequisite of fate, and thereby recognizes that man is the maker of his own destiny. For example, in Nietzsche's philosophy which is thoroughly fatalistic and at the same time voluntaristic, "will to power" followed from "love for fate."

Historically, Fatalism has played a reactionary role. On the one hand, the view of destiny as a timetable of man's life given from above develops passivity and slavish submission to circumstances. On the other, confidence in the omnipotence of the supreme will, which leads those chosen by fate to inevitable victory and domination, engenders religious fanaticism.

Fate

The religious, idealist concept of a supernatural force predetermining all the events in the life of men. In ancient Greek mythology, the fate of men and even of gods depended on the Moerae (the Parcae among the Romans). As time went on, fate came to be regarded as a supreme justice ruling the world (Dike, Nemesis among the Greeks). In Christianity, Fate is a divine providence, a supreme being. All modern religions regard Fate as divine predestination. In Protestantism it takes a clearly expressed fatalistic character (see Fatalism).

Some religions (like Catholicism and the Orthodoxy) try to reduce the fatalism of the Fate idea through an eclectic combination of the idea of divine predestination and free will. Fate is sometimes used to denote the concurrence of circumstances in the life of individuals or nations.

Fauvism

From French fauve—wild, a trend of bourgeois art which was given its name after an exhibition in 1904 in which H. Matisse, R. Dufy, A. Derain, A. Marquet, G. Rouault, M. de Vlaminck, G. Braque, and Van Dongen took part. They were united by a negative attitude not only to academic and naturalist art, but also to art traditions and laws in general.

The fauvists tried to express their discontent with capitalist reality by asserting the right of the artist to distort and give a primitive picture of objects and phenomena, laying excessive stress on compositional constructions, angles, etc. The fauvists saw the purpose of art in distracting man from life's contradictions, in bringing alleviation to people despite the bitter class struggle proceeding in the world. At the beginning of the 1920s, Fauvism was replaced by other trends (expressionism, surrealism).

Feedback

A fundamental characteristic of diverse control systems employed in automatic regulation, communications and computer technology, and also in animate nature and society. A control system, in which information about the actual state of the effector units of the regulated system, or the result of their action on an object, is continuously transmitted, is called a closed-loop system, or feedback.

Feedback may be negative, when the value of the control signal and the value of the signal about the state of the regulated object or effector unit are subtracted in a special device; and positive, when the two values are added. Negative Feedback is employed in various automatic devices designed to maintain a constant state in the regulated system. Positive Feedback is employed in radio engineering (amplifiers, generators), automation, and in animate nature (the interrelationship of organs in the growth of an organism).

The concept of Feedback is essential for analyzing the mechanism of development processes in animate nature and in society (e.g., extended reproduction diagrams) and is helpful in revealing the structure of the material unity of the world and the dialectics of its development.

Fetishism

Worship of objects and phenomena of nature; an early form of religion in primitive society. The term "Fetishism" was proposed in 1760 by Charles de Brosses, a French historian and linguist. Not knowing the essence of material objects, people attributed to them supernatural properties and believed that these objects (fetishes) satisfied their wishes. Fetishism is connected with totemism and magic. Fetishism forms part of many contemporary religions (worship of images and the cross). (See Fetishism of Commodities.)

Fetishism of Commodities

A distorted, false, and illusory notion held by people in respect of things, commodities, production relations, which arises in conditions of commodity production based on private ownership, especially under capitalism. The emergence of Fetishism of Commodities is due to the fact that production ties between people in society based on private property are effected not directly but through the exchange of things on the market, through the purchase and sale of commodities and, hence, take the form of commodities, in consequence of which they acquire the nature of relations between things and become, in a manner of speaking, properties of things, of commodities. People begin to be dominated by the things and commodities they produce.

This material form of production relations, the dependence of people on the spontaneous movement of things and commodities constitutes the objective basis of Fetishism of Commodities. People harbor illusions that things, commodities by their nature possess some secret properties, which in actual fact they do not have. Fetishism of Commodities conceals the actual situation: the subordination of labour to capital, the exploitation of the working class. On the surface of phenomena the relations between the capitalist and the worker appear to be relations between equal commodity holders. All the illusions of equality and freedom engendered by capitalism rest on this transmuted form of the manifestation of economic categories which are inevitable in this society.

Bourgeois vulgar economics utilizes Fetishism of Commodities to camouflage the real nature of capital and conceal the true cause of the exploitation of the working class. Marx was the first to reveal the secret of Fetishism of Commodities, its roots and its objective basis. Fetishism of Commodities is historical by nature; with the downfall of the capitalist mode of production it disappears.

Feudalism

A socio-economic formation which came into being after the disintegration and fall of the slave-owning or primitive-communal systems and existed almost in all countries. The feudal lords and the peasants were the main classes of feudal society. The ruling and exploiting feudal class included the nobility and the higher clergy. Within the ruling class there was a hierarchic division into social estates and the subordination of the smaller feudals to the bigger ones. The church was among the biggest feudals. The exploited peasantry was deprived of all political rights. In the towns the bulk of the population consisted of masters, journeymen, apprentices, and unskilled workers.

The prevailing production relations were based on the feudal lord's ownership of the means of production, on the land in the first place, and the workers' incomplete ownership expressed in different forms of personal dependence of the peasant on the lord. Under Feudalism the productive forces were developed only by the labour of the dependent peasants who had their own household, minor implements, and a certain material interest in their work.

The feudal mode of production was characterized by three successive forms of ground rent: labour, service, natural rent, and money rent. Ground rent was a specific form of exploitation in feudal society. Very frequently rent extended to the product of the serfs' surplus labour and also to part of their necessary labour. The feudal system was marked by natural economy and a stagnant, low level of technology.

The superstructure of feudal society had a number of distinctive features: the feudal state as a rule took the form of an absolute monarchy; religious ideology prevailed in society's spiritual life. Social thought developed mainly in a religious form. The entire history of feudal society was pervaded by the class struggle. Peasant uprisings, though taking place mostly under a religious banner, undermined the feudal system and hastened its fall. Feudalism was replaced by capitalism, the third and last exploiting form of society.

Feuerbach, Ludwig (1804–1872)

German materialist philosopher and atheist, taught at Erlangen University. His book Gedanken über Tod und Unsterblichkeit, published anonymously in 1830, led to his dismissal from the university. Feuerbach spent the last years of his life in a village. He did not understand the nature of the revolution of 1848 and did not accept Marxism, although he joined the Social-Democratic Party towards the end of his life.

In his struggle against religion Feuerbach's views evolved from the ideas of the Young Hegelians to materialism. His proclamation and defence of materialism greatly influenced his contemporaries. Engels wrote about the impact of his writings: "Enthusiasm was general and we all became Feuerbachians at once." (Marx, Engels, Selected Works, Vol. 2, p. 368.)

Anthropologism was a characteristic feature of Feuerbach's materialism, which was the consequence of the historical conditions in pre-revolutionary Germany and expressed the ideals of revolutionary bourgeois democracy. Criticism of Hegel's idealistic understanding of man's essence and his reducing it to self-consciousness was the initial point of Feuerbach's philosophical evolution. Renunciation of this view inevitably led to renunciation of idealism in general.

One of Feuerbach's services was that he emphasised the connection between idealism and religion. He sharply criticised the idealist nature of Hegelian dialectics. This opened the way to utilising the rational content of Hegelian philosophy and in this respect facilitated the shaping of Marxism. But Feuerbach himself in fact simply cast aside Hegel's philosophy and that is why he failed to notice its main achievement, dialectics.

The basic content of Feuerbach's philosophy was the proclamation and defence of materialism. Anthropologism made itself felt here in the problem of man's essence and his place in the world being placed in the foreground. But Feuerbach did not pursue a consistently materialist line on this question because he took man as an abstract individual, as a purely biological being.

In the theory of knowledge Feuerbach consistently applied the viewpoint of empiricism and sensationalism, resolutely opposing agnosticism. At the same time he did not deny the importance of thought in cognition, tried to examine the object in connection with the activity of the subject and voiced suppositions about the social nature of human knowledge and consciousness, etc. But on the whole Feuerbach did not overcome the contemplative nature of pre-Marxian materialism.

In his understanding of history Feuerbach remained entirely on idealist positions. Idealist views of social phenomena followed from his desire to apply anthropology as a universal science to the study of social life. Feuerbach's idealism was especially evident in the study of religion and morality. He regarded religion as the alienation and objectification of human traits, which are ascribed a supernatural substance. Man, as it were, is doubled and contemplates his own essence in God. Thus religion is man's "unconscious self-consciousness."

Feuerbach sees the reason for such doubling in man's feeling of dependence on the spontaneous forces of nature and society. Of special interest are Feuerbach's surmises about the social and historical roots of religion. But, owing to his anthropologism, Feuerbach did not go beyond surmises on this question and was unable to find effective means of combating religion. He sought them in replacing unconscious by conscious self-consciousness, that is, ultimately, in education, and even advocated the need for a new religion.

Not understanding the real world in which man lives, Feuerbach deduced the principles of morality from man's intrinsic striving for happiness. Its achievement is possible, provided every man rationally limits his requirements and loves other men. The morality constructed by Feuerbach is abstract, eternal, and the same for all times and peoples.

Notwithstanding the limitations of his views, Feuerbach was a direct predecessor of Marxism. Some present-day idealists reproduce Feuerbach's ideas of anthropologism in a frankly idealist interpretation.

Main works: Zur Kritik der Hegelschen Philosophie, 1839; Das Wesen des Christenthums, 1841; Vorläufige Thesen zur Reform der Philosophie, 1842; Grundsätze der Philosophie der Zukunft, 1843.

Fichte, Johann Gottlieb (1762–1814)

German philosopher; leader of German classical idealism, second after Kant, professor of Jena (dismissed on being accused of atheism) and Berlin universities. He criticised the estate privileges and advocated the unity of Germany and abolition of her feudal division; he emphasised the importance of "practical" philosophy, of justifying morality, the state and the legal system, but reduced "practice" to the mere activity of moral consciousness; considered a scientifically based system, namely, the science of knowledge, a prerequisite for "practical" philosophy.

Subjective idealism underlies his Wissenschaftslehre published in 1794. Fichte discarded Kant's doctrine of the "thing-in-itself" and sought to deduce all the diversity of forms of knowledge from only one, subjective-idealist element. Fichte posits the existence of some kind of absolute subject with boundless activity which creates the world. His initial Ego is neither an individual Ego nor a substance like the substance of Spinoza, but the moral activity of consciousness. From this mystical absolute Ego Fichte deduces the individual Ego. The latter is not an absolute but only a limited human subject or empirical Ego, to which is counterposed a likewise empirical nature.

From this Fichte concludes that theoretical philosophy, positing Ego and non-Ego, necessarily counterposes them to each other within the bounds of the same initial absolute Ego, as a result of its limitation or division. Following this peculiar method of "positing", "contrapositing" and "synthesising", Fichte elaborated a system of categories of being and thinking, both theoretical and practical. This method, in which some features of idealist dialectics are developed, is called "antithetical", because the antithesis as such is not deduced by Fichte from the thesis but is placed alongside it as its opposite. Fichte regarded direct contemplation of truth by the mind, i.e., "intellectual intuition", as the organ of rational knowledge.

Besides subjective idealism, which was basic to Fichte's doctrine, his philosophy also evinced a leaning towards objective idealism which increased in the last years of his life. The question of freedom became central for Fichte in ethics. Interest in it was heightened by the French bourgeois revolution. Like Spinoza, Fichte sees in freedom not a causeless act, but an action based on the understanding of inescapable necessity. In contrast to Spinoza, however, Fichte makes the degree of freedom accessible to people dependent not on individual wisdom but on the historical epoch to which an individual belongs.

Unable to overcome the illusions engendered by Germany's backwardness in his day, Fichte elaborated a utopian project of a German bourgeois society in the form of der geschlossene Handelsstaat (closed merchant state). The project reflected specific elements of Germany's bourgeois development and was marked by a number of reactionary features, including nationalist German exceptionalism.

The founders of Marxism-Leninism made a profound assessment of the progressive and reactionary features of Fichte's doctrine. Engels named Fichte among the philosophers whom German Communists highly respect.

Fideism

A doctrine which replaces knowledge by faith or in general assigns definite importance to faith. Fideism is inherent to some extent in all idealist theories and expresses the subordination of science to religion.

Finite

See Infinite and Finite.

Finitism

1. A philosophical conception which denies the objectively real content of the category of the infinite (see Infinite and Finite) and proceeds from the assumption that there can be no infinity in the Universe, in the microcosm, or in man's thinking. Finitism sees the grounds for this in the fact that in his experience man always deals with finite things and their properties. Metaphysically counterposing the finite and the infinite, Finitism ignores their dialectics and interconnection in knowledge.

2. In one of the trends of formalising mathematics (see Formalism) Finitism bans the use of infinity in metamathematics.

Fluids

Hypothetical weightless substances (light, thermogen, magnetic, electric, positive and negative fluids, phlogiston, etc.), which were considered integral elements of bodies that determine their corresponding properties. The concept of Fluids was especially widespread in the 18th and first half of the 19th centuries. At that time the structure and properties of bodies were not yet perceived in their unity and the diverse properties of an object were often considered as attributes of special external active elements passing from one body to another.

The doctrine of Fluids was a development of the ancient natural philosophical concepts of elements, of active form and passive matter (see Aristotle) and was associated with the formation of concepts of chemical elements. The abstraction of properties, qualities, motion, and forces from the things in which they are objectively inherent, the fact that they were considered as something independent, was also reflected in dynamism, energism, and vitalism.

For all its erroneousness and naiveness, the doctrine of Fluids played an important part in natural science by making it possible to systematise diverse physical and chemical phenomena, providing a general basis for their study.

Flux

A philosophical category denoting the substantive mutability of things and phenomena, and their ceaseless conversion into something else. Heraclitus, the classical proponent of Flux, expressed his conception of reality in his famous formula "all things flow". The category of Flux is associated organically with the dialectical world outlook: it is based on the concept that all things and phenomena are unities of opposites—of being and non-being. It is incompatible with the metaphysical notion of inception and development as simple quantitative increase or decrease.

The dialectical substance of Flux was conclusively developed by Hegel. In his philosophy, Flux is the "primary truth", constituting the "element" of all subsequent development of the logical definitions of the idea (category). Flux as the unity of being and nothing expresses the universal abstract form of the origination, inception and existence of all things and phenomena: "there exists nothing that is not a mean condition between Being and Nothingness" (Hegel). Lenin stressed the importance of Hegel's proposition in his Philosophical Notebooks.

Force, Theory of

An idealist theory claiming that social inequality is a result of the use of force by some people against others. It gained the greatest currency among bourgeois ideologists. Dühring associated the appearance of classes with the employment of force by one part of society against another (internal force). Gumplowicz, an Austrian sociologist (1838-1909), Kautsky, and others regarded the enslavement of a weaker tribe by a stronger one (external force) as the decisive cause of the appearance of classes and the state.

Marxism, without denying the role of force, at the same time asserts that force is rooted in economic conditions. Theory of Force is utilised by the ideologists of the imperialist bourgeoisie to defend neocolonialism, justify the policy "from strength", and the cold war.

Form and Content

Philosophical categories which serve to bring out the internal sources of the unity, integrity, and development of material objects. Content is the sum total of elements and processes which make up the basis of objects and determine the existence, development, and succession of their forms. The category of Form expresses the internal connection and method of organization, the interaction of a phenomenon's elements and processes both among themselves and with the environment.

The development of Form and Content is the development of the two sides of the same phenomenon, the bifurcation of the whole which gives rise to contradictions and conflicts and leads to the discarding of Form and reshaping of Content. The unity of Form and Content is relative and transient and is upset by changes, conflicts, and struggle between them.

The source of contradictions between Form and Content lies in the difference between their functions in development: Content is the basis of development, Form is the mode of existence of a thing; Content possesses its own motion, Form depends on it; Content contains the intrinsic possibility of boundless development, Form limits it; Content plays the leading role in development. Form possesses relative independence, for it is able both to promote and hamper development, and so on.

A change of Form occurs as a result of a change in Content itself, which determines its leading role in development. Form as such never remains unchanged. But the change, the discarding of Form does not always proceed at once, but most frequently as a result of the gradual sharpening of contradictions between Form and Content. Moreover, external conditions, factors, and connections not related directly to Content also exert a certain influence on the change of Form.

Form possesses a relative independence which is all the greater as Form is older. The stability of Form is a factor which ensures progressive development of Content. But this stability, which at the first stages stimulates development, becomes in time a source of conservatism. Contradictions between Form and Content are not contradictions between passive and active sides. The actual process takes place as a result of their interaction as opposites actively influencing development.

The non-conformity of Form to Content caused by the lag of Form behind Content, though of great significance for development, characterizes only one of its contradictions. The resolution of the contradictions between Form and Content depends on their nature, the degree of their development, and the conditions in which they develop. This resolution can be brought about through a change of Form in conformity with the changes in Content, a change of Content in conformity with the new Form, the discarding of Form, subordination of the old Form to the new Content, and so on.

In transition from one qualitative state to another, the old form is either abolished or transformed. Moreover, the old Form cannot be abolished before the prerequisites and elements for transition to a more improved Form have been prepared within it. This is a dialectical process of "elimination", in which the old Form is seldom discarded completely or absolutely and the new Form does not always at once dominate but begins to prevail gradually; the old Forms ensure development to a lesser degree than the new Forms, and, therefore, the latter assume an ever greater place in time. This feature of the "elimination" of the old Form also creates the possibility for regressive development, the restoration of the old Forms.

The dialectics of Content and Form is strikingly displayed in the constant renewal and progressive development of society.

Formal Conclusion

In the formal (logical) system S with axioms A₁... Aₙ and rules of inference R₁... Rₘ, Formal Conclusion of a proposition (formula) D from a multitude of initial premisses is the sequence of formulas, each of which is either an axiom or a premiss of G, or is immediately inferable by one of the rules of inference R₁... Rₘ from the formulas preceding it. The last formula of this sequence is D. Proposition D is said to be the conclusion or finite formula inferred from the given premisses G. The inference of D is valid in the given system only.

This is a syntactical conception of conclusion. The inferential relation may also be considered semantically: D is logically inferrable from A₁... Aₙ and G, provided it is decided for each interpretation (see Interpretation and Model) for which A₁... Aₙ and G are decided.

Formalisation

A method of ascertaining more precisely the content of knowledge: objects, phenomena, and processes in the given sphere of reality are compared in a definite way with material constructions of a relatively stable nature; this makes it possible to bring out and fix the essential and natural aspects of the examined objects. As an epistemological method, formalisation helps to establish and specify content by ascertaining and fixing its form. That is why every formalisation necessarily gives a rough picture of living, developing reality. But this "rough picture" is an essential aspect of the process of cognition.

Historically, formalisation arose together with thought and language. An important step in the development of formalisation is associated with the appearance of written language. Subsequently, as science, especially mathematics, developed, signs of a special nature were added to the natural languages. Together with formal logic the method of logical formalisation appeared. It consists in bringing out a logical form for conclusions and proof. The creation of calculi in mathematics and the idea of universal calculus (Leibniz) was an important stage in developing formalisation methods. The construction of logical calculi, which began in mathematical logic in the mid-19th century, made it possible to apply its methods to formalising entire branches of science. Spheres of knowledge formalised by means of mathematical logic acquire the character of formal systems.

Formalisation of knowledge does not eliminate the dialectically contradictory relationship between content and form, characteristic of knowledge as a whole. The results of modern logic show that if a theory of sufficiently rich content is formalised it cannot be fully reflected in this formal system: an unascertained and unformalised residue always remains in a theory. This non-conformity between formalisation and the formalised content acts as the internal source for developing the formal logical means of science and is usually manifested in the discovery of propositions which cannot be solved in the given formal system (see Decision Problem). Another form in which this contradiction is manifested is the antinomy. This situation is remedied by constructing new formal systems in which the part not covered in the preceding formalisations is formalised. Thus, ever deeper formalisation of content is effected but absolute completeness is never achieved.

Formalised Language

A calculus to which interpretation is ascribed (see Interpretation and Model). The syntactic part of the formalised language (see Logical Syntax) or the calculus itself is constructed in a purely formal way (see Logistic Method). A calculus becomes a formalised language by adding the semantic rules which impart meaning (see Denotation and Meaning) to properly constructed propositions of a calculus.

In addition to purely logical axioms, a formalised language may also contain some propositions of a non-logical nature (for example, some laws of biology, axioms of arithmetic, and others); then a formalised language deductively describes the corresponding content. Thanks to its deductive means a formalised language makes it possible to apply a strict process of reasoning and receive a new deductive conclusion not contained directly in the accepted axioms. Thus, formalised language is an instrument for conclusion and proof in formalised scientific subjects. The role of formalised language has been enhanced by attempts to automate scientific reasoning through electronic machines (see Cybernetics).

Formalism

1. A general name for an anti-realistic method which includes many trends and schools in the art and aesthetics of bourgeois society in the epoch of imperialism (see Abstract Art, Cubism, Surrealism, Dadaism, Purism, Primitivism, Fauvism, Tachism). All these trends, notwithstanding some or other distinctions, have common features: they counterpose art to reality, divorce the artistic form from the idea-content and proclaim the autonomy and primacy of form in works of art. Formalism stems from the idealistic understanding of aesthetic pleasure, which it alleges to be free from social ideas, vital interests, from the aesthetic and social ideals and, therefore, entirely dependent on the "play of pure forms". Actually formalism usually reveals the full dependence of the content of works on bourgeois ideology. At the same time the divorce of form from content in art inevitably leads to its destruction, although this is claimed to be "form-creation". Formalism is hostile to socialist art.

2. A trend in mathematics which tries to solve the problems of foundations of mathematics by means of formal axiomatic constructions. Formalism arose at the beginning of the century (the German mathematician D. Hilbert, and his colleagues W. Ackermann, P. Bernays, and G. Neumann). In contrast to intuitionism, Hilbert seeks foundations for mathematics in a strictly elaborated formalised axiomatic method. The truth of a theory obtained by this method is understood by Hilbert as its non-contradiction. Thus Hilbert reduces the truth-value of mathematics to its non-contradiction and tries to prove the latter in mathematics itself. But such an attempt runs counter to the achievements of modern mathematics (Gödel's second theorem). Formalism is also untenable from the philosophical viewpoint, because ultimately a mathematical theory, like any other, finds its proof in practice, in its conformity to the object. To try and deduce the truth of any theory, as Hilbert does with regard to mathematics, from the internal conformity of thoughts means to defend in one way or another the positions of idealism. This does not negate the positive results achieved by exponents of formalism in the proof theory.

Formula

Conventional expression by a definitely organised system of symbols of certain relations, processes or structures. The following are the examples of formulas: X∨X (the Law of Excluded Middle); Ax+By+C=0 (algebraic equation of a straight line); F=m dy/dt (Newton's second law); n→ p+e+γ (process of beta disintegration); H/H>C=C\<H/H (structural formula of ethylene).

Formulas make it possible to express intricate relationships, processes, and structures in a compact and generalised form. The efficacy of scientific knowledge largely depends on the finding of a productive formalism that enables scientists to express in the language of formulas the objects they study and their quantitative and qualitative relations.

Fourier, François-Marie-Charles (1772–1837)

French utopian socialist. He came from a middle-class merchant family and worked for a long time as a clerk and a business employee. Fourier profoundly and lucidly criticised bourgeois society, revealing the contradictions between the ideas voiced by the ideologists of the French Revolution and reality, the antagonism between poverty and wealth, and the moral and physical degradation of most people.

In justifying the socialist system, he proceeded from the propositions of the French materialists on the decisive part played by environment and education in moulding the personality. All human sensations and passions (taste, touch, vision, hearing, olfaction, friendship, ambition, love, fatherhood, predilection for "intrigue", desire for diversity, striving to unite in groups), all traits of the human character as such are good. There is no need to suppress human passions. The fault is not with man but with the society he lives in. Hence, it is necessary to create a social system which promotes the full satisfaction of human passions and their development.

The phalange, consisting of a few production units, is to be the main cell of the future society. Each member of the phalange has a right to work. Guided by their own interests, people voluntarily join some productive group or other. Narrow professionalism, which warps man, is eliminated in the phalange; in the course of a day each member of the phalange passes from one type of work to another, engaging 1½–2 hours in each. This turns labour into a necessity and an object of pleasure. As a result, society attains a high level of labour productivity and material abundance. Distribution in the phalange is made according to labour and talent.

Fourier's conjectures concerning the elimination of the antithesis between mental and physical work, between town and country are highly valuable. Lack of understanding of the historical mission of the proletariat and renunciation of revolution as a means for remaking the existing society is characteristic of Fourier, as of other utopian socialists. He expected to achieve his aims by peaceful propaganda of socialist ideas among the capitalists, too. As an inducement to the latter he suggested that unearned income, amounting to one-third of the total, be preserved in the phalange.

Main Works: Théorie des quatre mouvements et des destinées générales, 1808; Théorie de l'unité universelle, 1822; Le Nouveau Monde industriel, 1829.

Frank, Philipp (1884–1966)

Physicist and philosopher, specialising in mathematical physics. Began his activity in Vienna and then took Einstein's place in the chair of theoretical physics in Prague. Emigrated to the USA in 1938. Frank is a neo-positivist. He took an active part in the Vienna circle and, together with Schlick, wrote a series of books, Essays on a Scientific World Outlook, which has played a big part in shaping contemporary positivism. Frank is an active opponent of the philosophy of dialectical materialism. Eclectic combination of empiricism with apriorism and recognition of the intelligible, super-sensory aspect of some categories (space, time, and others) is characteristic of Frank as of some other neo-positivists (see Neo-Positivism).

Franklin, Benjamin (1706–1790)

American thinker, political leader and encyclopaedic scientist. All his activities were associated with the struggle of the American people for independence. He was an ideologist of the bourgeois revolution of 1775–83 and called for the abolition of slavery. In his philosophical views was close to Locke and was greatly influenced by the works of the French 18th century Enlighteners. A deist, he acknowledged the objective existence of nature and its laws, and developed the idea of the indestructibility and uncreatability of matter. Franklin's scientific works in physics (discovery of the electric nature of lightning) received world recognition and played an important role in the struggle against religious superstitions. Franklin took an interest in economic problems, he called man a tool-making animal. Problems of war and peace held a considerable place in his historical works. He advocated the establishment of peaceful relations among nations.

Freedom and Necessity

Philosophical categories expressing the relationship between the activity of people and the objective laws of nature and society. Idealists regard freedom and necessity as mutually exclusive concepts and comprehend freedom as the self-determination of the spirit, freedom of will, the possibility of acting according to a will which is not determined by external conditions. They assert that the idea of determinism which posits the necessity of human actions fully removes the responsibility of man and makes the moral judgement of his actions impossible. Only unlimited and absolute freedom, from their viewpoint, is the basis of human responsibility and, consequently, of ethics. Sartre, Jaspers, and other proponents of existentialism lapse into extreme subjectivism in explaining freedom.

A diametrically opposed and wrong view is held by adherents of mechanistic determinism. They deny the freedom of will, motivating it by the claim that the action and behaviour of man in all cases are determined by external circumstances not depending on him. This obviously undialectical conception elevates to an absolute objective necessity and leads to fatalism.

A scientific explanation of freedom and necessity is based on recognition of their dialectical interconnection. The first attempt to demonstrate this interconnection was made by Spinoza, who defined freedom as recognised necessity. Hegel gave an elaborated conception of the dialectical unity of freedom and necessity from idealist positions. A genuinely scientific, dialectical materialist solution of the problem of freedom and necessity is based on the recognition of objective necessity as primary in the epistemological sense and man's will and consciousness as secondary, derivative.

Necessity exists in nature and society in the form of objective laws. Uncognised laws are manifested as "blind" necessity. At the beginning of his history man, being unable to divine the mysteries of nature, remained the slave of uncognised necessity, was unfree. The deeper man cognised objective laws, the freer and more conscious his activity became. Limitation of human freedom is determined by the dependence of people's freedom not only on nature but also on the social forces dominating them.

In a society divided into antagonistic classes, social relations stand opposed to people and dominate them. The socialist revolution abolishes the antagonism of classes and frees people from social oppression. With the socialisation of the means of production, the anarchy of social production inherent in capitalism is replaced by planned, purposeful organisation, while the living conditions, which so far dominated the people in the form of alien, spontaneous forces, come under man's control. A leap is made from the kingdom of necessity into the kingdom of freedom (Engels). The experience of building socialism shows that socialist society gives people the opportunity consciously to apply objective laws in their practical activity, to direct the development of society purposefully and in a planned way, to create all the necessary material and spiritual prerequisites for the comprehensive development of society as a whole and of each individual, i.e., for the exercise of genuine freedom.

Frege, Gottlob (1848–1925)

German logician, mathematician, and philosopher, professor of Jena University from 1879 to 1918. His works opened a new stage in mathematical logic. Frege for the first time effected the axiomatic construction of the logic of propositions and predicates and laid the basis for proof theory. In his two-volumed Grundgesetze der Arithmetik, published in 1893 and 1903, he built up a system of formalised arithmetic aiming to demonstrate the idea that all mathematics is reducible to logic (see Logicism). The subsequent development of logic is largely connected with the development of Frege's legacy, in particular with overcoming the contradiction discovered in his system.

Frege was opposed to the subjectivist "psychological" trend of logic. His views of logic are stamped by elements of materialism. At the same time Frege's treatment of the problem of the universal contained features of objective idealism in the spirit of Plato. He voiced a number of ideas and concepts which entered contemporary science: interpretation of the concept as a logical function, the concept of the values of truth, introduction of quantifiers, analysis of the concept of the variable, etc. Frege is the founder of that part of logical semantics which is connected with the concepts of denotation and meaning, linguistic expressions, and the relation of designation (or name).

French Historians of the Restoration

A. Thierry, F. Guizot, F. Mignet—bourgeois historians of the 1830-40 period. They went farther than the French 18th century materialists in explaining social development. They considered the history of feudalism and bourgeois society as the struggle of the third estate against the nobility and the clergy, and arrived at the conclusion that the causes of the class struggle are rooted in different material interests of the social classes. Thierry, for example, regarded the religious struggle between Presbyterians and Catholics as a struggle of the political parties for the property interests of different classes.

But, reducing social life to property relations, these historians did not see their basis—the forces and relations of production. On the question of origin of classes they held to idealist positions, regarding wars and violence as the decisive force of social development. As ideologists of the liberal bourgeoisie, the historians of the Restoration epoch denied the existence of contradictions within the third estate which, in their opinion, included the entire people except for the nobility and clergy. Viewing the class struggle as progressive in the past, they denied the need for it in capitalist society, calling the struggle of classes madness, advocating class peace and claiming that capitalism was eternal.

Freudism

The theory and method of psycho-analysis so named after Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), Austrian physician, neuropathologist, and psychiatrist. Studying the causes of pathological mental processes, Freud resolutely rejected vulgar materialistic attempts to explain changes in mental acts by physiological causes. At the same time he completely deviated from the materialist world outlook, denied objective methods of studying mental activity, and created an arbitrary subjectivist theory.

Freudism divorces mental activity from material conditions and the causes producing it. Mental activity is regarded as something independent, existing side by side with material processes (see Psycho-Physical Parallelism), and governed by special, unknowable, eternal psychic forces lying beyond consciousness (see Unconscious). Dominating the spirit of man, like fate, are immutable mental conflicts between the unconscious striving for pleasure (above all sexual), for aggression and the "principle of reality" to which the mind adapts itself.

Freud subjects all mental conditions, all actions of man, and also all historical events and social phenomena to psycho-analysis, i.e., interprets them as manifestations of unconscious, above all sexual, impulses. Thus, the ideal—the psychic (above all the unknowable "Id"—the Unconscious) is considered the cause of the history of mankind, morality, art, science, religion, state, law, wars, and so on.

Neo-Freudists, exponents of the schools of "cultural psychoanalysis" (K. Horney, A. Kardiner, F. Alexander, and E. Fromm) preserved untouched the main idealist line of Freud, renouncing only the tendency to see in all phenomena of human life a sexual undercurrent and some other methodologically inessential features of classical Freudism. The Freudist concept has exerted and continues to exert great influence on various spheres of culture in capitalist countries, particularly on the theory and works of art. Freudism has now less influence in the sphere in which it originated, namely, neurology and psychiatry.

Friendship of the Peoples

Fraternal co-operation and mutual assistance between the nations and nationalities of socialist society, one of its characteristic laws and motive forces. Friendship of the Peoples is a new type of international relationship, based on socialist economy, socialist democracy, and the Marxist-Leninist ideology of internationalism.

The relations between the peoples of the USSR are an example of the Friendship of the Peoples which has developed with the establishment of socialist nations. It is a natural result of the Great October Socialist Revolution, the building of socialism, and the consistent pursuit of the Leninist nationalities policy by the Communist Party. It is the source of the strength of the Soviet state and accelerates the Soviet people's progress towards communism.

In the course of the full-scale construction of communism, which marks a new stage in the relations between peoples, the socialist nations develop in every sphere and draw even closer together. The peoples of the USSR have friendly feelings for the working people of all countries. Fraternal cooperation and mutual assistance is making great strides among the peoples of the world socialist system.

Function

1. An outward manifestation of the properties of some objects in a given system of relations, e.g., the function of the sense-organs, the functions of money, the functions of the state, etc. A number of idealist philosophies seek to reduce science to a description of the functions of objects, denying not only the possibility of cognising the essence and laws of things but also their existence (Machism, behaviourism, etc.).

2. In the mathematical sense, Function is a concept expressing the dependence, the relations between elements of two sets. The mathematical concept of Function is utilised in all the exact sciences. Following Mach, the neo-positivists try to replace the concept of causality by that of functional dependence. Lenin criticised this viewpoint in his Materialism and Empirio-Criticism.

3. The logical or propositional function has a special meaning.

Functional Calculus

An extension of propositional calculus by formalising inferences based on the internal structure of the propositions. One of the basic concepts of Functional Calculus is the predicate of one or several subject variables: P(X₁...Xₙ), where P is the predicate and X₁...Xₙ are the subject variables.

In functional calculus of the first order, predicates of subject variables are bound by quantifiers (universal quantifiers ∀ and existential quantifiers ∃). The axiomatics of Functional Calculus is obtained from the axioms and rules of inference of propositional calculus by the addition of two axioms: ∀xP(x)→P(y), P(y)→∃xP(x) and the following rules of inference: if formula C→D(x) has been inferred, then C→∀xD(x) is inferred; if formula D(x)→C has been inferred then ∃xD(x)→C is inferred.

Functional Calculus is non-contradictory and complete in the sense that any equivalent-true formula can be inferred in it. The decision problem is undecidable (proved by A. Church). Binding by quantifiers not only of subject variables, but also of predicate variables produces Functional Calculus of the second order.

Functional Dependence

A form of stable relation between phenomena or magnitudes, in which a change in some phenomena causes a definite change in others. Objectively, Functional Dependence is manifested in a law which has precise quantitative definiteness and in principle can be expressed as an equation uniting the given magnitudes or phenomena as a function and an argument.

Functional Dependence may describe a relation: (1) between abstract mathematical magnitudes or functions regardless of what they express; (2) between properties or states of material objects and phenomena; (3) between objects, phenomena or material systems as such within the bounds of a harmonious system of a higher order.

Every Functional Dependence presupposes that the phenomena subordinated to it are distinguished by definite constants, parameters, concrete conditions and a quantitatively definite law. Functional Dependence is not identical to a causal connection. Side by side with phenomena in which the causal connection is subject to an exact functional law, there are many singular and chance causal connections which are not functional, just as there is Functional Dependence between mathematical magnitudes or properties of bodies which is not a causal connection.

Functional School in Sociology

A school in contemporary sociology of the USA (R. Merton, T. Parsons, P. Sorokin). The Functional School regards society as a single, interconnected social system, each element of which performs a definite function. The basic feature of such a system is the interaction of its components and the absence of a single determining basis. But actually the determining part of the system, according to this school, consists of "spiritual values", above all religion, as an element of the system discharging a necessary social function.

The ideas of Functional School are a reaction to the empiricism of contemporary American sociology. On the other hand, the functional explanation of the social system is counterposed to Marxist social science. The Functional School is metaphysical, anti-historical, and idealist. It recognises equilibrium in the social system, denies the concept of the historical process, and claims that conflicts in capitalist society are ruled out.

Futurism

A trend in art which arose in Italy in 1909-11. It was founded by F.T. Marinetti (1876-1944). In his book Manifesti del Futurismo he wrote: "We shall extol the mounting triumph of the machine"; "A racing motorcar is more beautiful than the statue of Nike of Samothrace." These calls for extolling "industrial dynamism" could not conceal the real essence of Futurism which expressed the ideology of the aggressive Italian bourgeoisie.

The futurists' idealisation of the machine, far from appreciating man's labour, actually boiled down to worship of technology and glorification of "mechanised" militarism (the poems and novels of Marinetti). The distinctive features of paintings and sculptures of Futurism (G. Balia, C. Carra, U. Boccioni, L. Russolo, and others) were the self-contained images of "rhythms" and "motions", subjectivist symbols, distorted moving objects, elements of erotics or mysticism.

Russian Futurism, which originated in 1910, was a contradictory movement in literature and art. The Russian futurists (the Burlyuk brothers, Kruchenykh, Khlebnikov, B. Lifshitz, and V. Kamensky) were hostile towards the reactionary essence of Marinetti's manifestos, but their own works were petty bourgeois and anarchistic. On realising the ideological and aesthetic fallacies of the formalistic refinements of the futurists, Mayakovsky and others broke with Futurism and went over to positions of socialist realism.