THE UNITY OF COGNITION IN BAKHTIN’S ONTOLOGY OF BECOMING

Abstract

The present paper sheds light on Bakhtin’s grasp of the individual’s role in achieving a synthesis of theoretical judgments and ethical personalism. My major thesis is that he uses the lexicon of Western philosophy, but he enlarges its scope by yoking together theoretical judgments with the self’s answerability and its unique place in being. The main conclusions I have reached are that Bakhtin is a systematic thinker, but not in the sense of mainstream Western philosophers, his ontology of becoming endorses the importance of the individual, and the unity of cognition is by its very nature dynamic since it is an event, not a state.