Russian Logics and the Culture of Impossible: Part II—Reinterpreting Algorithmic Rationality

This article reinterprets algorithmic rationality by looking at the interaction between mathematical logic, mechanized reasoning, and, later, computing in Russian Imperial and Soviet contexts to offer a history of algorithm as object bridging inner outer worlds, humanistic vision that we, following logician Vladimir Uspensky, call “culture impossible.” We unfold deep roots this embodied scientific intelligentsia. In Part I, we examine continuities turn-of-the-twentieth-century discussions poznaniye—an epistemic orientation towards process knowledge acquisition—and postwar rise school logic. Establishing connection allows us explain, II, role disciplinary dynamics logic cybernetics characteristic understanding programming, not narrow skill, but matter consciousness.