Risk-oriented concept in philosophy of technique

Abstract

In the article, the issues of terminology of technique philosophy related to the notions of a concept, a risk and an uncertainty are considered. It is noted that a concept in terms of philosophy is considered as a category of human thinking, of how a man being a subject perceives the environment: objects, processes, actions of other people. From philosophical point of view, a concept is characterized by four levels; "consciousness - authorial concept - concept of interpreter - collective consciousness". Definition of the levels can differ, but their sense remains unchanging. A concept is considerably wider than a notion and is syncretic by its content. Basic criterion, by which it is possible to distinguish between "a concept" and "a notion", is simple enough: if we can give a clear (of course, subjective) definition, then it is a notion, if we cannot – it is a concept. A concept becomes a notion when a subject has set it forth (authorial concept), listeners (readers) have interpreted it (interpreter concept), discussed and created a collective concept – after this the concept is formalized as notions. Good example of such chain of a concept transforming into totality of publicly-meaningful, clear and suitable for the practical use results is defending of a scientific dissertation. A risk is considered in philosophical understanding: it is impossible to formulate any universal definition for it as a risk is always subjective and inherent to a concrete participant of some technological or public process in concrete field. A risk should not be mixed up with an uncertainty, as a risk is a method for overcoming an uncertainty. A risk is a function of an uncertainty which does not have clear definition and can be estimated only partially. A risk relates to a subjective uncertainty only: an objective uncertainty should be only taken into account and cannot be an object of control as it cannot be diminished by way of experiments or analysis of statistics. A risk in philosophical understanding can be only a basis for further concretization by engineering sciences: there and only there it is possible to try (and it has been already partially realized) to work out methods for assessing a risk and use the obtained results for improving reliability of production and minimizing the accident rate.