Methodological Status of the Concept of World Picture and its Philosophical Origins

The world picture in a literary text is created by linguistic means, while it reflects the individual picture of the world in the mind of the writer and is embodied in the selection of elements of the content of the work of art; the selection of the language means used; in the individual use of figurative means. The artistic picture of the world is a secondary, mediated the world picture, and it is mediated twice - by language and individually - by the author's conceptual picture of the world. Keywords: artistic reality, worldview, methodological characteristics, reality, linguistic approach.

The historical and the transhistorical in Marx’s dialectical method

This essay revisits the question of alterations in Marx’s view of method from the 1857 “Introduction” to Capital. In the wake of the belated upsurge of interest in Marx’s notebooks of 1857–8, posthumously published as the Grundrisse, a dominant interpretation has been developed in Marx scholarship which characterizes the method of the “Introduction” as an ascent from the (transhistorical) abstract to the (historical) concrete and, upon such characterization, stresses the mature Marx’s departure from it. Rereading the 1857 “Introduction” with an emphasis on the theoretical import of its examples, I argue, against this interpretation, that although this text does not provide a fully worked-out account of method, it nevertheless offers invaluable insights into some of the central methodological problems with which Marx was concerned and in response to which his dialectical method was developed. In particular, I highlight what could be called Marx’s critical historicist approach to the categories and argue that this approach, together with his specific understanding of the process of the reproduction of the concrete in thought, constitute the lasting pillars of Marx’s dialectical method, in the 1857 “Introduction” as well as in Capital. Finally, in a concluding section, I re-examine the methodological status of the commodity and argue that the post-1857 emergence of the commodity as Marx’s favourite starting point does not represent a fundamental change, or a reversal, in his view of method.

SOCIOBIOLOGY: BETWEEN OBJECTIVE RESEARCH AND POP-SCIENCE

Статья посвящена осмыслению методологического статуса получивших в последнее время широкое распространение эволюционных социальных наук. В рассмотрении этого вопроса автор опирается на анализ основных трудов классика социобиологии Эдварда Уилсона. Особое внимание уделяется раскрытию противоречивой природы этой дисциплины - как исследовательской практики, использующей соответствующие научные методы, и как поп-науки. The article is devoted to understanding the methodological status of recently widespread evolutionary social sciences. In consideration of this issue, the author relies on the analysis of the main works of the classic of sociobiology Edward Wilson. Particular attention is paid to revealing the contradictory nature of this discipline - as a research practice using appropriate scientific methods, and as pop-science.

One More Time on the Zone of Proximal Development

The article presents an analysis of L.S. Vygotsky’s concept of a zone of proximal development (ZPD); considers various ZPD definitions; provides a critical review of the most popular definition of ZPD as adopted from L.S. Vygotsky’s 1935 work and used as basic by English-speaking authors. Taking into account the fact that L.S. Vygotsky’s general methodological intention was to establish psychology as a practice and that his developmental theory as well as the ZPD concept development remained incomplete due to the known life circumstances, we analyze L.S. Vygotsky’s writings that allow for another ZPD conceptualization, which differs from the one implied by the 1935 definition, so as to attempt at reconstructing the concept. In reviewing L.S. Vygotsky’s assumptions regarding the learning-development relationship; ZPD; its relevance for diagnostic assessment and teaching; feasibility of extrapolating the ZPD concept onto different personality aspects, the authors identify substantive aspects of the ZPD concept that the "canonical" definition lacks. The article describes a multidimensional model of ZPD, which has taken shape within the Reflection-Activity Approach to assisting students with overcoming learning difficulties and which integrates Vygotsky's key ZPD-related ideas. E.G. Yudin’s conceptualization of methodological functions of conceptual schemes is used to reconstruct the methodological status of the ZPD concept. The authors demonstrate that, since its inception, the ZPD concept has passed through the stages of an explanatory principle, a research subject, and a methodological tool for constructing new subjects of research and development.

Tematski rječnici kao nastavno sredstvo u p(r)oučavanju jezika

The purpose of this article is to present the methodological status of the dictionary in the process of learning/teaching other Slavic languages and to determine the features of the bilingual thematic educational Ukrainian-Croatian dictionary. Dictionaries play an important role in the development of national culture and in the supporting and improving a particular native language. During the thirty-year period of independence both Croatia and Ukraine can boast only a small amount of Croatian and Ukrainian lexicographic editions that could simultaneously apply to Croatian and Ukrainian. The important role of vocabulary in learning a foreign language does not require any comments. In fact it is generally accepted in teaching methods, which means that dictionary, as well as textbook, are necessary means in the teaching process. Noting and grouping words in dictionary also has a fairly long history. The alphabetical order of lexical units is traditional and commonly accepted in the world lexicography. Hence, thematic and ideographic lexicography are supposed to be alternatives to alphabetic lexicography.

Digitalization in the system of methods of scientific knowledge

The study aims to clarify the methodological status of digitalization in the framework of the philosophical theory of knowledge. The subject of the study: explication of the instrumental and methodological nature of digitalization. The problem is solved by employing the categorical and conceptual apparatus of philosophy of science, particularly in paradigm analysis. A comparative analysis of the concepts of “information” and “digitalization” is carried out. Information within the framework of classical scientific rationality coincides with the phenomenon of absolute-relative knowledge. In non-classical rationality, it represents a movement of meaning and expresses the value-valued nature of information technology. In postnonclassical science, the phenomenon of information is associated with intrasystemic communications. Digitalization as a mode of data transmission is incorporated into the deductive and inductive logic of classical science and leads to an essential limitation of the source base. In modern science, data selection entails the creation of systematic factual meaning, and digitalization coincides with analytical activity. In addition to general logical functions, digitalization points to new perspectives on such types of systems methodology as modeling and design. In relation to the information as a methodology, digitalization acts as a meta-methodology. That is, the digital world is defined as an observing reality. In the framework of digitalization, information is identical to knowledge in its postnonclassical meaning. In digitalization, the process of cognition is incorporated into reality itself, forming an intersubjective field of meaning. In this context, digitalization serves as an inter-paradigmatic method of scientific knowledge. Digitalization refers to the rational side of cognition and is a type of systematic methodology and general logical methods.

The Theoretical and Methodological Status of the Concept of Religion According to the Essentialist Interpretation of Ethnic Community in Foreign Researches

The article focuses on the theoretical and methodological status of the concept of religion in the essentialist interpretation of ethnic community by analyzing the material of foreign researches. The key effort is to reveal whether the essentialist views on ethnic communities are compatible with the constructivist paradigm of religion. The essentialist approach to the notion of an ethnic community now develops in the frame of primordialism, which can be divided into two main directions: cultural and socio-biological. Proponents of the former concentrate on a detailed description of cultural differences between ethnic communities, with cultural diversity being accepted only to describe the essence of a particular ethnic community. Sociobiological primordialists deny cultural features’ status at the face of biological evolution. The common theoretical assumption of primordialisms turns out to be the essentialist vision: an ethnic community is endowed with the essence defined by a number of attributes, including religion. The constructivist approach, however, suggests that religion has no referent in reality and its notion is defined conventionally and empirically. Accepting this approach would deprive religion of its essence. Rendering the essence of religion relative, therefore, means blurring the boundaries defining the essence of an ethnic community. This consequence clearly contradicts the essentialist approach to an ethnic community. Thus, embracing an essentialist approach to ethnic community leads to the need to adopt the essentialist interpretation of religion.

Methodological status of time in political science

In contemporary political science time is becoming a portmanteau-concept. It forms terminological concatenations in all fields of theoretical and applied researches. At the same time methodological status of time in political science is still not clear. Author suggests a systematization of those researches there time is viewed as a meaningful factor in political process. On the analysis of theoretical basis, methodology and tools four approaches are introduced: narrative approach, psychological approach, institutionalist approach and cyclic approach. The order of introduction of these approaches is based on the degree of intentionality of political actors in their treatment of time: from the most to the least conscious end.

The role of the multidisciplinary approach in the philosophy of history

The article discusses the role of the disciplinary approach in the study of historical memory. In the modern research field, the methodological status of an interdisciplinary approach is becoming more and more popular. It is connected with the problems of the new ontology formation, where the general foundations between nature and society are investigated. Many sciences use the of interdisciplinary methodology to understand the interaction of the natural sciences and the humanities. Today, the organization of interdisciplinarity is actively criticized, which does not take into account the interconnection between natural sciences and humanities. The absence of this relationship is manifested in the problems of historical memory. Therefore, the idea is being advanced to justify the fundamental status of historical memory, it is necessary to change the organization of scientific knowledge.

Plato’s Medicalisation of Ethics

I argue for the view that the scientific model which Plato consistently had in mind when sharpening his main ethical theory was medicine. Moreover, I ascribe to Plato a “medical model of ethics”. A careful examination of this model reveals how Plato appropriates several medical concepts and ideas by employing two central methodological devices in his thought: dialectical transposition and analogical characterisation. In discussing them, I identify different kinds of medical references in the dialogues –not all medical references in Plato have the same methodological status– and draw greater attention to the most recurrent medical analogies in them. More generally, the paper is also meant to provide a case study of the complex relationship between medicine and philosophy in Antiquity by examining in a new light the various ways in which the former served as an epistemological and ethical model for the latter.