Ontological axiology: origins and modernity

Abstract

The article analyzes the current state of ontological axiology in the context the problem of the source of values associated with being as it is relevant to the philosophical discipline. Employing examples from the history of the doctrine of values’ formation, the author demonstrates that the source of values is Being as Whole. According to the author, ontological axiology is based on the unity of objective, subjective and transcendental levels of being, rather than on its individual components. Formation of ontological axiology begins with works of Nietzsche and concludes in the classical period of its history (1890s — 1930s), with developments of such outstanding philosophers of the 20th century as G. Rickert, M. Heidegger, M. Scheler, N. Hartmann, and N. О. Lossky. During this period, the doctrine of the absolute character of values as “transcendental essences” was developed. In this case, the values themselves are differentiated, as expressions of the subjective, objective or transcendental levels of being. Ontological axiology as a philosophical discipline reaches a new level of development from the 1990s to the 2010s in opposition to the axiological relativism of philosophy and socio-cultural reality of the postmodern. From the standpoint of updated ontological axiology, the source of the objectivity of is the transcendental spirit (Deitas) as the spiritual potential of the infinite Universe. The life of the Universe gives birth to man in the unbreakable unity of his body, soul and spirit. Therefore, axiology together with the ontology and epistemology determines the specificity of philosophy and ways of its further development. Refs.14.