The Civilization Index

Author(s):  
Andrew Targowski

The purpose of this chapter is to define energy levels of civilizations, particularly in respect to a role of information-communication processes. Rapid changes in the world economy and social structure have brought into question traditional assumptions, prompting some intellectuals to speak of a “clash of civilizations” (Huntington, 1993; 1996) or even “the end of history” (Fukuyama, 1989; 1992). Before one can speculate about a new world order, it is necessary to develop an appropriate set of measurements to compare human societies and a terminology to describe them. The environment described as a “civilization” by Toynbee (1995) and “the world civilization” by Braudel (1993) has changed so drastically that those definitions are no longer sufficient. The spectacular progress in technology and social life that has been achieved at the beginning of the third millennium stimulates an extensive investigation into the human condition and the world status. Questions like the following need to be answered: 1. What is the state of Western and other civilizations at the beginning of the 21st century? 2. How can it be compared to other civilizations in terms of level of development? 3. What criteria and measurements should be applied in evaluating and comparing civilizations? 4. What is the relationship between a given civilization and the world civilization? This study falls into a category of wide-ranging comparisons of large structures and processes, in order to understand how human entities behave in a certain way because of the consequences of the civilization system’s behavior as a whole (Tilly, 1984).

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 163-177
Author(s):  
Salamah Eka Susanti

The progress of information, communication and transportation technology has had a wide influence on daily life, and even overhauled the social system. It is difficult to put the process of social, cultural and political change nowadays apart from the development of global dynamics. The process of globalization has a huge influence on the development of religious values. Religion as a view that consists of various doctrines and values has a great influence on society. They recognize the importance of the role of religion in social life - the politics of the world community. plays an important role in the process of globalization. Because of the importance of the role of religion in people's lives, it is necessary to understand the extent of religion in responding to various social problems. Religion is reduced to provide rules of life and as an instrument for understanding the world that will bring happiness to human life. In line with these changes, finally emerged three forms of fundamental paradigms that developed among Muslims in the face of globalization, namely: conservative, liberal and alternative paradigms. Keywords: Paradigm, Islamic, Globalization.


Author(s):  
Andrew Targowski

The purpose of this study is to develop a comprehensive model of generic civilizations and world civilization, applying the cybernetic technique of analysis and synthesis. Identifying the role of information-communication processes is particularly important for this quest, because these processes strongly influence the progress of civilization at the beginning of the 21st century. Three models, developed by Braudel (1993), Toynbee (1957), and Koneczny (1962), serve as both justification for this type of study and the foundations for a new model. The spectacular progress in technology and living standards achieved by mankind at the beginning of the third millennium prompts research on the grand view of the human condition. Numerous questions need to be answered: 1. What is a civilization? 2. What types of civilizations can be recognized at the beginning of the third millennium? 3. What are the relationships between any particular civilization and the world civilization? 4. What is the role of information and communication in a civilization? 5. What types of laws rule any particular civilization and the world civilization? 6. What are the prospects of the world civilization? Answers to these questions should help us to understand our current condition and the direction of its improvement or perhaps mankind’s further well-being.


Author(s):  
Анатолий Мигунов ◽  
Anatoliy Migunov ◽  
Елена Лисанюк ◽  
Elena Lisanyuk

To overcome the crisis in the sphere of argumentation studies, the project proposes a logical-cognitive concept of argumentation which is a compound formalized theory that includes formalisms for modeling argumentation of different types, a relevant conceptual framework and a methodology for the use of scientific research in the practice. Three types of argumentation are defined: theoretical (two types) and practical. Theoretical argumentation is a critical discussion of the agents’ knowledge and opinions about facts aimed to substantiate a certain view or to change it – i.e. persuasion. Practical argumentation is a critical discussion of opinions about actions which includes, in addition to the statements about knowledge and opinions, statements of a non-descriptive nature about the agents’ values and intentions to adhere to a certain line of behavior. The study of argumentation needs to focus on the large structures that reflect specifics of the criticism and defense of the positions of the parties. An atom unit of such study is the argument as a statement of reason, while its molecular elements are the argumentative structure of a dispute (frame), a multitude of arguments that express the parties’ positions, a multitude of the agents’ knowledge and opinions that act as the bases for the formation of positions, lines of behavior, etc. Within the framework of this trend, both indefeasible (deductive) and defeasible argumentations can be studied. The argumentation effectiveness can be assessed based on the procedural semantics and using analogues of such logical notions as consistency and completeness. Modern approaches to the argumentation, including those claiming the compound status, can be classified using two methods: based on the substantive and practical criteria. Importance of the research outcomes amounts to the theoretical and methodological role of the new conception of argumentation and the general “umbrella” term argumentation that allows systematizing the manifold research and educational approaches and concepts in this field and is associated with communicative nature of modern social life where efficiency and social success rely on argumentative and narrative competences.


2018 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 99-109
Author(s):  
Piotr Urbanowicz

Summary In this text, I argue that there are numerous affinities between 19th century messianism and testimonies of UFO sightings, both of which I regarded as forms of secular millennialism. The common denominator for the comparison was Max Weber’s concept of “disenchantment of the world” in the wake of the Industrial Revolution which initiated the era of the dominance of rational thinking and technological progress. However, the period’s counterfactual narratives of enchantment did not repudiate technology as the source of all social and political evil—on the contrary, they variously redefined its function, imagining a possibility of a new world order. In this context, I analysed the social projects put forward by Polish Romantics in the first half of the 19th century, with emphasis on the role of technology as an agent of social change. Similarly, the imaginary technology described by UFO contactees often has a redemptive function and is supposed to bring solution to humanity’s most dangerous problems.


Author(s):  
V. Sheinis

The world order based on Yalta and Potsdam decisions as well as on two nuclear superpowers infighting has filed as a history. What is coming up to take its place? A correlation between power and law in international policy, national sovereignty and supranational institutions, territorial integrity of states and the right of nations to self-determination, bloc infighting atavisms, so called "double standard" and international interventions – these are critical debating points that the author develops his own approach to. The role of the U.S. in world policy, and the foreign policy choice of Russia are also examined.


2020 ◽  
pp. 13-42
Author(s):  
Radhika Singha

This chapter assesses the key role of the non-combatant or follower ranks in the history of sub-imperial drives exerted across the land and sea frontiers of India. The reliance of the War Office upon combatant and non-combatant detachments from the Indian Army, used in combination with units of the British Army, left an imprint upon the first consolidated Indian Army Act of 1911. From 1914 the inter-regional contests of the Government of India for territory and influence, such as those running along the Arabian frontiers of the Ottoman empire, folded into global war. Nevertheless the despatch of an Indian Expeditionary Force to Europe in August 1914 disrupted raced imaginaries of the world order. The second less publicized exercise was the sending of Indian Labor Corps and of humble horse and mule drivers to France in 1917-18. The colour bar imposed by the Dominions on Indian settlers had begun to complicate the utilisation of Indian labor and Indian troops on behalf of empire. Over 1919-21, as global conflict segued back into imperial militarism, a strong critique emerged in India against the unilateral deployment of Indian troops and military labor, on fiscal grounds, in protest against their use to suppress political life in India and to condemn the international order which their use sustained.


2003 ◽  
Vol 15 (2) ◽  
pp. 148-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aaron Hughes

AbstractThis article provides a theoretical discussion of the genre of commentary writing. Rather than examining the role of commentary in a specific religion, it attempts to articulate a set of useful questions to begin the process of rethinking what this genre is and, in the process, help create a theoretical vocabulary and conceptual framework for an analysis of commentary from the history of religions. The article is divided into three parts. The first broadens the traditional concept of a "canon", ostensibly the raw data upon which the commentary imposes a taxonomy. The second argues that the human condition, what Heidegger calls the way in which we are thrown into the world, demands that we interpret it. Finally, it is suggested that commentary is fundamentally about location or space, thereby providing the classificatory schema that is necessary for contextualizing both past and present. The main goal of this article is to problematize the current discussion of commentary in a theoretical way.


Author(s):  
E.V. Troshchenkova ◽  

The article is aimed at identifying and analyzing the main frames for conceptualizing the socio-political role of memes and the models of their linguistic representation in the newspaper articles (16 articles, mainly 2019-2020, in English) on the relevant topic. In other words, this is an attempt from a scientific standpoint to represent how modern media, which are becoming the source and means of the viral spread of Internet memes, meta-represent an element of their own communication processes. Methodologically, the study is based on examining media texts about Internet memes in the broad context of socio-political transformations emerging from the active development of forums, social networks, instant messengers, and other tools. It proceeds from analyzing the thematic grid in each article, identifying the key, repetitive lexical elements, including metaphors, associated with interpreting memes popularity and their functions, as well as taking into account some iconic components of these multimodal texts. Then I review the entire article mini-corpus to identify repetitive patterns of meme representation and study their evaluative component. These models that can be viewed as coordination patterns are further compared with the way Internet memes are considered in academic studies. As a result, it is shown that although in modern journalism the conceptualization of memes in many respects correlates with what the experts of technologically mediated communication say, the article’s appraisal of the importance for various aspects meme usage is different. Journalists are less concerned with the precise definition of the phenomenon, meme classification in terms of structural types or according to component relations in them. They do recognize that going viral is an important feature for memes, but journalists, as opposed to scholars, are less interested in what makes these information products popular and widely shared, often taking it for granted. At the same time, journalists (compared to ordinary users) nowadays are less inclined to view memes just as an entertainment. However, it should be borne in mind that changes in the functionality of memes, apparently, occur unevenly around the world and in a number of countries are less noticeable for objective reasons, and journalists may be well aware of the differences between the English-language socio-political discourse, especially in the United States, and the European one “lagging behind”. The more indicative is the desire to anticipate the inevitable future transformations and take into account the experience of the countries that are more “advanced” in terms of using memes for public and political purposes. Thus, the focus of attention in newspapers is shifted towards two frames, both of which are viewed as reflecting situations that are potentially problematic for society. One is associated with the ideas of domestic alt-right radicalism and international “information terrorism”. The second frame is also based on the concept of the world plunging into information wars which are aggravated by economic problems, social tensions, and uncertainty about future. Against this background, memes are seen as coping method, a way to let off steam and get emotional relief from tension.


Author(s):  
I. V. SLEDZEVSKIY

Article is devoted to a role of world religions in the modern international relations and world politics. The phenomenon of world religious revival, his connection with globalization processes, formation of the multi-polar, polycivilization world is investigated. A research objective is the analysis of tendencies of a desecularization of the world community, the reasons and possible consequences of this process in global measurement. Article includes Introduction, three analytical sections and the Conclusion. In Introduction the phenomenon of world religious revival and approaches to his studying is presented. It is asked about a desecularization of the world community as a possible subject of the new direction of the international political researches – the international religious studies. The thesis about crisis of secular bases of modern political system of the world is proved in the first section. Revision of bases of a world order and standards of belonging to the world community from positions of the reviving religious fundamentalism, the cultural and political and social and economic bases of this process are considered. In the second section the role in a desecularization of the world community of political Islam (Islamism) is analyzed. It is noted that the greatest danger of politicization of Islam consists in emergence of difficult surmountable civilization break in the world community between the Western world (still confident in universality of the values) and the world of Islam. In the third section the possibilities of prevention of disintegration of the existing system of the international relations and collision of the cultural worlds are considered. The main attention is paid to processes of a global political institutionalization of such dialogue and its justification in the concept of global ethics – purposeful coordination and gradual connection of the basic moral and ethical values concluded in great religious and cultural traditions of the world. In the final section of article the conclusion is drawn that process of an institutionalization of civilization dialogue (civilization communication) it isn’t finished yet and didn’t become irreversible.


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