Faculty of Humanities

Publications

• Book

  Vervoort L.

  Problem Solving in Philosophy. How to Do Philosophy in the Age of Ultra-Intelligent AI

  This open access book provides a method for philosophical problem solving, offering philosophers the tools to stay ahead of machine intelligence. Louis Vervoort argues that, with ultra-intelligent AI knocking at the door, philosophy can no longer rely solely on its ancient methodological toolkit. The proposed method is essentially the same as used in natural science, theoretical physics in particular, and aims at solving problems through theory-synthesis. The author shows by first case studies that current AI can already assist us in this task – a trend that will surely strengthen in the near future. After explaining the method in detail, the book proceeds by proposing unified solutions to classic problems of (analytic) philosophy, such as Gettier’s problem, the problem of induction, of causation, of the interpretation of probability, of free will. The author argues that these solutions maximise a quantitative measure of solidity, and that philosophy can now reach standards of certainty that are comparable to those of natural science. The book is written for professional philosophers, but avoids jargon, so it should also be accessible to laypeople and scientists.

  Springer, 2026.

• Article

  Ганин А. В.

  “One of Our Own among Strangers and a Stranger among Our Own”: The Surprising Destiny of General of the Yugoslav People’s Liberation Army Fedor Makhin

  This article is devoted to the remarkable fate of the Russian officer and Yugoslav general Fyodor Makhin. He was born in the family of an Orenburg Cossack exiled to penal servitude, later returned home, managed to get a brilliant education, including graduating from Nicholas military Academy, participated in the First World War, and in 1918 was embedded in the Red Army as a secret agent of the Socialist Revolutionary Party and became commander of the 2nd Soviet Army on the Eastern Front. In the summer of 1918, while carrying out a secret mission, he surrendered Ufa to the anti-Bolshevik forces, went over to their side, and then became one of the military leaders of the People’s Army of the Committee of Members of the All-Russian Constituent Assembly. Later, without recognizing the military coup in Omsk, as a result of which Admiral Alexander Kolchak came to power in the anti-Bolshevik camp, Makhin at the end of 1918 took part in a conspiracy of Socialist Revolutionaries and adherents of the Bashkir national movement against Kolchak and his supporter Orenburg Cossack chieftain Alexander Dutov, but the conspiracy was revealedy. Makhin was sent abroad. After that, he continued his work as a Socialist-Revolutionary activist. In particular, he supported the rebellious sailors in Kronstadt in 1921. Later, he lived in Prague and Belgrade, focusing on working for Zemgor (United Committee of the Zemstvo and City Unions), which helped Russian emigrants. In the early 1930s, Makhin was recruited by Soviet intelligence as a secret agent. By the same period, he was actively supporting the USSR in the event of a possible war (despite the fact that many military emigrants, on the contrary, were waiting for a new war, as a result of which they hoped external enemies would eliminate the communist regime). Makhin later joined the Communist Party of Yugoslavia. During the Second World War, he participated in the resistance. He joined the partisans of Iosip Broz Tito and became one of his close associates, receiving the rank of lieutenant General of the People’s Liberation Army of Yugoslavia. In 1944, a quarter of a century after he left his homeland, Makhin visited the USSR with the Yugoslav delegation. At the end of his military career in Yugoslavia, he served as a head of the Yugoslav Military Archives. Makhin passed away in June 1945, shortly after the victory of the Red Army in the Great Patriotic War and was considered one of the Yugoslav heroes. However, due to political changes, his name was forgotten.

  Journal of Slavic Military Studies. 2026. Vol. 39. No. 1. P. 95-107.

• Book chapter

  Anna K. Aleksandrova.

  A Homoarchical Institution within a Heterarchical System: Church and State in Contemporary Greece

  The example of the interactions between the Church of Greece and the state, both historically and in recent years, shows the dichotomy of homoarchy and heterarchy. The contemporary Greek state, established two centuries ago, has steadily shifted towards heterarchy throughout this period, especially in recent decades once the European integration began, the EU being a heterarchical organization. At the same time, the homoarchical institution of the Church is deeply integrated with the state. The role the Church played historically determined its connection with the Greek nation and state, and Orthodox Christianity was established as a cornerstone of the Greek national identity. The political drive to deeper integration with the EU is a challenge for the Church, since its traditional values do not always mesh with the democratic norms of contemporary European Union and the Greek identity inevitably has a significant religious component, recently supplemented by an element of a shared European identity.

  Presently, the contemporary Greek heterarchical state, integrated into equally heterarchical EU is very carefully and slowly, but consistently, attempting to push the Church out of the state system. This confirms to the previously mentioned trend – the more homoarchical the state is, the closer its connection to the Church (it was the strongest during the absolutist Bavarian rule and under the Regime of the Colonels), and, conversely, the more heterarchical the state becomes, the more problematic its connection with the Church.

  In bk.: Principles and Forms of Sociocultural Organization: Historical Contexts of Interaction. L.; NY: Anthem Press, 2026. Ch. 9. P. 177-197.

• Working paper

  Orekhov B.

  You shall know a piece by the company it keeps. Chess plays as a data for word2vec models

  In this paper, I apply linguistic methods of analysis to non-linguistic data, chess plays, metaphorically equating one with the other and seeking analogies. Chess game notations are also a kind of text, and one can consider the records of moves or positions of pieces as words and statements in a certain language. In this article I show how word embeddings (word2vec) can work on chess game texts instead of natural language texts. I don't see how this representation of chess data can be used productively. It's unlikely that these vector models will help engines or people choose the best move. But in a purely academic sense, it's clear that such methods of information representation capture something important about the very nature of the game, which doesn't necessarily lead to a win.

  arxiv.org. Computer Science. Cornell University, 2024