The Mathematics of Action in Elena Kosilova's Philosophy

Identificator

EDN: XMAPVC ; УДК: 11:51

Authors

Markov Alexander Viktorovich, Doctor of Philology, professor, Russian State University for the Humanities. Russia, Moscow. ORCID: 0000-0001-6874-1073. SPIN-code: 2436-2520. E-mail: markovius@gmail.com; Shtayn Oksana Aleksandrovna, PhD in Philosophy, associate professor, Ural Federal University n. a. the First President of Russia B. N. Yeltsin. Russia, Yekaterinburg. ORCID: 0009-0004-1701-3147. SPIN-code: 1763-9290. E-mail: shtaynshtayn@gmail.com

Journal

HERALD OF VYATKA STATE UNIVERSITY №4 (158), 2025

Section

PHILOSOPHICAL SCIENCES

Pages

7-16

Abstract

The article is devoted to a study of the philosophy of mathematics of Elena Vladimirovna Kosilova (1966–2025) in the context of phenomenology, hermeneutics, and post-structuralism. The main aim of the work is to reveal the connection between mathematical cognition and the ethics of the act, showing how mathematical structures are constituted in consciousness while remaining rooted in the lifeworld and in historical practices. The authors set themselves the following tasks: to analyze critically Kosilova's position with regard to the new ontologies; to systematize her views on the processuality of consciousness, demonstrating how mathematics becomes a domain in which the ethical act overcomes formalism; and to show that, despite her critique of post-structuralism, Kosilova implicitly converges with its humanistic problematics. The research methods include a critical reading of Kosilova's philosophical texts in order to identify her arguments against the new ontologies; historical-philosophical analysis, which reveals the influence of Husserl, Patočka, and Derrida on her conception; and a metaphilosophical approach, which makes it possible to consider her ideas in the context of a dialogue between phenomenology, hermeneutics, and deconstruction. Kosilova offers an original philosophy of mathematics that combines a phenomenological analysis of consciousness with an Aristotelian ontology of form and matter, in which mathematics acts as form and the physical world as its embodiment, subject to "noise". Unlike extreme Platonism (Meillassoux) and constructivism, she regards mathematics as a dynamic structure arising in the dialogue between consciousness and the world, which requires an ethics of the act – a bold thinking that overcomes formal constraints. Despite her critique of post-structuralism, her ideas prove close to Patočka's hermeneutics (the historicity of mathematics) and Derrida's deconstruction (the problematization of self-evidence), particularly in her analysis of music as a model of the temporal constitution of meaning. Kosilova's key contribution is the conception designated by the authors of this article as the conception of the "subtle body of contemplation" – a primary act joining the corporeality of perception with intellectual intuition, which makes it possible to overcome the crisis of mathematics as a crisis of acts rather than merely of intuitions.

Keywords

phenomenology of mathematics the act consciousness historicity deconstruction intuition

Recieved

27.06.2025

Published

08.10.2026

References

1. Buharova A. A. Myshlenie transcendentnogo v teologii i fenomenologii Zh.-L. Mariona [Thinking the Transcendent in the Theology and Phenomenology of J.-L. Marion] // Filosofskie nauki – Russian Journal of Philosophical Sciences. 2016. No. 9. Pp. 103–117.
2. Gusserl' E., Derrida Zh. Nachalo geometrii [The Origin of Geometry] / transl. from French and German by M. Mayackij. M., Ad Marginem, 1996. 272 p.
3. Klejn L. S. Proishozhdenie nulya, ili Drevnejshaya evolyuciya igry v kosti mezhdu Dunaem i Indom [The Origin of Zero, or the Most Ancient Evolution of Dice Games Between the Danube and the Indus] // Stratum: struktury i katastrofy [Stratum: Structures and Catastrophes]. Kishinev, 1997. Pp. 47–66.
4. Kosilova E. V. Sootnoshenie filosofii matematiki i fiziki u K. Mejyasu [The Relationship Between the Philosophy of Mathematics and Physics in Q. Meillassoux] // Idei i idealy – Ideas and Ideals. 2020. Vol. 12, No. 2. Pp. 167–183.
5. Kosilova E. V. Filosofiya dlya studentov matematicheskih special'nostej : ucheb. posobie [Philosophy for Students of Mathematical Specialties : A Textbook]. M., Izd-vo Mosk. un-ta (Moscow University Press), 2021. 207 p.
6. Kosilova E. V. Pifagoreizm v sovremennoj filosofii matematiki [Pythagoreanism in the Contemporary Philosophy of Mathematics] // Vestnik Permskogo universiteta. Filosofiya. Psihologiya. Sociologiya – Perm University Herald. Philosophy. Psychology. Sociology. 2021. No. 4. Pp. 528–540.
7. Kosilova E. V. Bor'ba somneniya s sozercaniem: k situacii v sovremennoj filosofii matematiki [The Struggle of Doubt with Contemplation: On the Situation in the Contemporary Philosophy of Mathematics] // Logos – Logos. 2023. Vol. 33, No. 4. Pp. 49–70.
8. Kosilova E. V. Ob ekzistencial'no-fenomenologicheskom intellekte [On Existential-Phenomenological Intelligence] // Filosofskaya antropologiya – Philosophical Anthropology. 2024. Vol. 10, No. 1. Pp. 70–85.
9. Kosilova E. V. Vnevremennost' sub'ekta [The Timelessness of the Subject] // Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Filosofiya. Sociologiya. Politologiya – Tomsk State University Journal of Philosophy, Sociology and Political Science. 2024. No. 77. Pp. 177–192.
10. Kosilova E. V. Fenomenologicheskij analiz muzykal'nogo smysla (na materiale rok-muzyki) [A Phenomenological Analysis of Musical Meaning (Based on Rock Music)] // Horizon. Fenomenologicheskie issledovaniya – Horizon. Studies in Phenomenology. 2024. No. 2. Pp. 571–586.
11. Marion Zh. L. Nasyshchennyj fenomen [The Saturated Phenomenon] // (Post)fenomenologiya: novaya fenomenologiya vo Francii i za ee predelami [(Post)phenomenology: The New Phenomenology in France and Beyond]. M., Akademicheskij proekt (Academic Project), 2014. Pp. 63–99.
12. Markov A. V. Ostensivnoe i emfaticheskoe: Tynyanov v kanve Derrida [The Ostensive and the Emphatic: Tynyanov in Derrida's Framework] // Praktiki i interpretacii : zhurnal filologicheskih, obrazovatel'nyh i kul'turnyh issledovanij – Practices and Interpretations: A Journal of Philology, Teaching and Cultural Studies. 2022. Vol. 7, No. 4. Pp. 70–82. DOI: 10.18522/2415-8852-2022-4-70-82. EDN: OOFTOE.
13. Pavlov I. I. Ne-vozmozhnost' kak amehaniya: fenomenologiya smerti v rabotah Vladimira Bibihina [Im-possibility as Amechania: The Phenomenology of Death in the Works of Vladimir Bibikhin] // Filosofiya. Zhurnal Vysshej shkoly ekonomiki – Philosophy. Journal of the Higher School of Economics. 2018. Vol. 2, No. 4. Pp. 51–89.
14. Pogrebnyak A. Osnovnye ponyatiya metafiziki V. V. Bibihina (sofiya-strannost'-interes) [The Basic Concepts of V. V. Bibikhin's Metaphysics (Sophia–Strangeness–Interest)] // Stasis – Stasis. 2015. Vol. 3, No. 1. Pp. 212–247.
15. Sedakova O. A. Pritcha i russkij roman [The Parable and the Russian Novel] // Sedakova O. A. Sochineniya. T. III. POETICA [Sedakova O. A. Works. Vol. 3. POETICA]. M., Russkij fond sodejstviya obrazovaniyu i nauke, 2010. Pp. 363–375.
16. Sytina Yu. N. O bytovanii formuly "2×2=4" v russkoj klassike i o ee vozmozhnyh istokah [On the Currency of the Formula "2×2=4" in the Russian Classics and Its Possible Origins] // Dva veka russkoj klassiki – Two Centuries of the Russian Classics. 2019. Vol. 1, No. 1. Pp. 128–147.
17. Sytina Yu. N. "Dvazhdy dva – matematika. Poprobujte vozrazit'": vozrazheniya Dostoevskogo i russkoj klassiki ["Twice Two Is Mathematics. Just Try to Object": The Objections of Dostoevsky and the Russian Classics] // Dostoevskij i mirovaya kul'tura: al'manah – Dostoevsky and World Culture: An Almanac. 2018. No. 36. Pp. 47–55.
18. Yakobson R. O. Nulevoj znak [Jakobson R. The Zero Sign] // Yakobson R. O. Izbrannye raboty [Jakobson R. Selected Works]. M., Progress, 1985. Pp. 222–230.
19. Patočka J. The Natural World as a Philosophical Problem / transl. by E. Abrams ; ed. by I. Chvatík, Ľ. Učnik. Evanston, IL : Northwestern University Press, 2016. 240 p.
20. Patočka J. The Selected Writings of Jan Patočka / ed. by E. Plunkett. London : Bloomsbury, 2022. 396 p.

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License