Epistemology & Philosophy of Science

Volume 55, Issue 1, 2018

Migration: an interdisciplinary concept and its epistemological dimensions

The article tends to clarify the possibilities of philosophical interpretation of migration concept in terms of its meanings in the sciences. The concept of migration appears as an empirical generalization and as a metaphor in different disciplines. In the first case, one dwells upon moving of the real living agents in space, in the second one it deals with the dynamics of quasi-agents (cells, programs, ideas). In order to clarify the conceptual status of migration, the author undertakes its contextualization in the process of anthropogenesis. Hence the archetypical character of migration is displayed as ontological framework of key developments of the emergence of the humans and as catalyst of socio-cultural development in general (E. Cassirer). The paper clarifies the possibility of identifying the structure of migration as a journey and adventure (A.N. Whitehead) in the form of uneven development and recurrence of the original event. The paradox of its legitimation is formulated. Philosopher’s “vnenahodimost” (M.M. Bakhtin), the ambivalence of philosophy (T.I. Oiserman) is the discovery of the philosopher as a stalker between the worlds.