The concept of the metalogicity of being in the ontology of S.L. Frank

Abstract

This article is devoted to the analysis of the concept of the metalogicity of being, which marks the core of S.L. Frank's ontology. The principle of metalogicity presupposes not a rational cognition of reality with the help of concepts and definitions, but precisely the contemplation of images of being. Being has a metalogical character, and it is in this dimension that it becomes accessible to human perception and contemplation, which is the primary source of any subject knowledge. Based on this attitude, S.L. Frank distinguishes two types of knowledge: primary, intuitive knowledge of an object, which appears in its metalogical unity, and the resulting secondary abstract or abstract knowledge, which appears in various judgments and concepts. The relationship between these types of knowledge is not based on the principle of logical identity, but represents a "metalogical similarity" that allows for differences or "metalogical dissimilarity." Frank comes to the conclusion that inner, secret knowledge based on contemplation is the "knowledge of the incomprehensible" – reality in its true metalogical essence. Simultaneously with the incomprehensible as "secret" and the "inexplicable, but exclusively "sought", the cognizing subject in his metalogical knowledge through contemplation becomes involved in the mystery of the incomprehensible.