Transdisciplinary Status of the Ecological Modernization Theory and Its Role in the Development of Environmental Paradigm

The article examines the specificity of transdisciplinary orientations in modern scientific knowledge and reveals the multidimensionality of transdisciplinarity as a phenomenon of post-nonclassical science. Since transdisciplinarity is largely formed as a response to the challenge of increasing complexity and uncertainty of the future transformations in the “nature – man – society” system, the most appropriate area of transdisciplinary research today is environmental knowledge. In the example of the Ecological Modernization Theory (EMT), we investigate the interdisciplinary structure and transdisciplinary status of contemporary social ecology. The aim of the article is to analyze the various modes of transdisciplinarity in the structure of the ecological modernization theory and to identify its role in the dynamics of modern environmentalism. The epistemological status of EMT is explicated through philosophical and methodological reflection on the alternative discourses of sustainability as well as by using the principles of a systematic approach, methods of comparative analysis and semantic interpretation. The idea of sustainable development and the values of environmentalism are considered important factors in the formation of concepts and categories of this theory, its initial postulates and principles. The article substantiates the synthetic character of this theory, which meets the requirements of the post-non-classical type of scientific rationality. A conclusion is substantiated that EMT can be classified as a post-normal science. As a result of the analysis, it is argued that environmental philosophy has a special understanding of the goals of social development, principles of justice, social harmony, and human well-being. The reinterpretation of these concepts is a basis for adoption of novel theoretical schemes and methodological orientations in the system of modern socio-environmental studies.

Convergence of Information and Social Technologies in the Digital Age

The article discusses the specifics of current convergent development of information (IT) and social technologies (ST) and their socialization as well as defines the characteristic features of ST implemented on a digital platform. The authors analyze the reasons for the increasing demand for ST and explicate their role in post-industrial society. The authors believe that the boom of ST over the recent decades is associated with the need to transform “vertical” management practices toward distributed and maximally individualized usage. The network communication format in modern society, established due to IT development, is correlated with “soft” social design technologies, which provide not just subordination and discipline, but highly motivated work, initiative, emotional involvement, and creativity. At the same time, personal boundaries, which have become the most important component of psychological well-being for a modern person, are quite permeable to the combined impact of ST and IT. The “capitalization of human capital” in the information age has obtained quite a literal meaning because individual knowledge, skills, and initiative become the main resource and competitive base in digital economy. Using the example of Agile, one of the leading practices in modern IT industry, the authors analyzed the specifics of work organization of compact creative groups. The article reveals the ethical aspects of using convergent information and social technologies. The authors conclude that the task of countering destructive influences from ST on the information platform is relevant and even urgent. However, the society has yet to formulate humanistic guidelines for constructive socio-technological design practices.

Sociology at the Belarusian State University: Origins and Philosophy of Development

The article examines the origins and philosophy of the development of sociology at the Belarusian State University (BSU), which has accumulated the wisdom and socio-political thought of Belarusian thinkers of the past, absorbed the research experience of previous generations. Since the beginning of the work of BSU in 1921, the Department of Sociology and Primitive Culture was created (S.Z. Katzenbogen). The course in genetic sociology, which was taught by Professor S.Z. Katzenbogen, to a greater extent resembled a kind of fusion of philosophical and sociological thought and primitive history, was unlike modern ideas about sociological science. This period did not last long. Soon repressions broke out, the Great Patriotic War, and the post-war reconstruction took place, which significantly delayed the development of sociology as an independent science. All this time, sociology functioned in the bosom of philosophical knowledge, where the convergence of meanings and meaningful mutual enrichment took place, the difficult process of accumulating theoretical, methodological and practical experience was going on. The rticle highlights the key role of BSU in institutionalization, development of sociological science and education in Belarus. The leader of the revival of sociology at BSU was Professor G.P. Davidyuk (1923–2020). Following the example of the Belarusian State University, in the 1960s–1970s, sociological structures were created in all the leading universities of the republic; the work of the applied sociology sector of BSU contributed to the development of factory sociology. In 1989, a sociological department and a department of sociology were opened, at the end of 1996, the Center for Sociological and Political Research was established. Since 1997, the scientific and theoretical Journal of BSU. Sociology, and in 2000 the Belarusian Sociological Society began to function, a branch of the Department of Sociology of the Belarusian State University was opened at the Institute of Sociology of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. The traditions of previous generations, laid down by the leaders of the Belarusian sociological school, are gradually being transformed, taking into account the development of scientific, technological and informational and communicative progress, revising curricula and training programs for modern sociologists.

Science as a Value of Risk Society

In the article, the issue of the relationship between science and the sphere of cultural values is considered in two mutually correlated aspects. First, it reveals the ambivalent status of science as the most important social institution in a modern dynamically transforming society, which, in accordance with the very popular metaphor of U. Beck, is increasingly called the “risk society.” Secondly, the problem of sociocultural determination of scientific knowledge is interpreted as a problem of the axiology of science. At the same time, the relationship between social and intrascientific (cognitive) values is examined through the prism of possible forms and mechanisms of their philosophical and methodological representation. The author examines the specificity of pre-requisite knowledge, especially in the form as the metatheoretical foundations of scientific research is revealed. The article reveals the ambivalent nature of the value status of science in the context of changing socio-cultural priorities of the industrial civilization, against the background of a brief reconstruction of the main ideas of U. Beck’s concept of reflexive modernization, the theory of risk-generating development of science and high technologies by G. Bechmann, Z. Bauman’s idea about sociocultural imbalance as an essential characteristic of “individualized society.” The specificity of the value determination of scientific knowledge is considered in the context of substantiating the sociocognitive approach as the most important result of the philosophical and methodological research in the 20th century. Within the framework of this approach, two alternative strategies are distinguished, for using social and cognitive values as specific forms of prerequisite knowledge. One of the strategies is focused on development of conceptual foundations of science and rationally grounded metatheoretical structures (V.S. Stepin). The second strategy gives preference to non-conceptual (pre-conceptual) forms of background knowledge as productive metaphors that perform the functions of methodological heuristics and the integration of scientific knowledge into culture (M. Foucault, L. Laudan, et al.). The article concludes that there is the peculiar bifunctionality of the cultural valuein relation to science. On the one hand, science itself is a fundamental value in modern culture, although its impact on social life is ambivalent. On the other hand, the dominant values of risk society influence the formation of a new image of science and its methodological tools.

Anthropological Crisis in the Social Realities of the 21st Century

The article examines the modern anthropological crisis in the context of various social phenomena. The author identifies key features of this crisis and reveals its causes. The article, addressing such philosophical concepts as time, space, happiness, motivation, analyzes the theories on the essence of this crisis. The author discusses the issues of self-alienation in an accelerating and polarizing world, of dialectical antagonism, of contradiction between the Self and the Other. The article critically analyzes the modern forms of consumerism, the consumer society, and the liberal worldview. Written in the essay form, the article poses the questions to the reader: How and why does man lose and acquire his meanings? What role do words and silence play in that? Who wins in the existential race “man versus society”? The author argues that a person does not see his absolute, since his expanding outer space narrows the inner space. The stratification of internal and external space (which is advisable to understand as a consequence of the loss of contact with reality) is the cause of lies, violence, and aggression. Liberal form of worldview is interpreted in a dialectical form: as the opposition of slavery, preserving its original vices. The article demonstrates how progress can lead to chaos in social life. Distinguishing three types of personality (directive, democratic, and liberal-permissive), it is concluded that the latter type of personality forms a border between the external and internal world. This kind of gap is the source of growing social and psycho-logical chaos. The concludes with a discussion of the possibility of happiness in modern social conditions.

Book Projects on the 100th Anniversary of Belarusian State University

The article provides an overview of the books published in the Republic of Belarus for the 100th anniversary of the Belarusian State University. Four books prepared in the form of essays by faculty members of several departments (history, international relations, mechanics and mathematics) and the Fundamental Library. The greatest attention is paid to two such works. Peer-reviewed jubilee editions give a comprehensive idea of the history of the university, its structure in different years, the current state, and faculty potential. It has been established that the editions are based on rich source material. In this aspect, the work titled Unknown V.I. Picheta is especially significant, as it acquaints the reader with a previously unpublished book Review of the Activities of the Fist Western Committee by the first rector of the Belarusian State University, an outstanding historian, academician of the USSR Academy of Sciences and the BSSR Academy of Sciences V.I. Picheta. The article point out that this book, supplemented with several dozen letters from Picheta’s correspondence with twenty colleagues, students (mainly from the time of the book’s composition), will arouse great interest in the scientific community of Belarus, Russia, and other countries. The review briefly analyzes the structure and content of the book, published in 2019, for the 130th anniversary of the university philosopher, vice-rector and dean S.Z. Katzenbogen. It is concluded that all publications do not only celebrate the anniversary of the first university in Belarus but also, taking into account their scientific component, contribute to the deepening of the study of the history of the development of Belarusian science and culture of the 20th and early 21st centuries.

The Post-Academic Trend in the Evolution of Methodological Consciousness

The development of science at all stages of its penetration into a technogenic society is accompanied by changes in methodological consciousness in its various incarnations. However, preferring to analyze the metamorphoses of science as special knowledge about the world, to examine the evolution of its methodological tools, forms of structural and functional organization of scientific and cognitive activity, at the same time, modern research practices leave aside the evolution of methodological consciousness as such. Although, according to the author, analysis of this phenomenon makes possible to define, if not a paradigmatic, then at least a syntagmatic approach to the study of modern post-academic science. The representation of methodological consciousness can be carried out in different versions. The article considers its evolution at various levels of functioning – individual and supra-individual, embodied in the methodological innovations of science itself as well as in the philosophical and methodological discourse interconnected with it. The assertion of unique forms of methodological consciousness at the supraindividual level, in particular, characterizes the development of modern social physics, which combines syntagmatics, inter- and transdisciplinarity as strategies of scientific search. The evolution of methodological consciousness at the individual level is inextricably linked with the renewal of the scientific habitus of individual scientists. In the context of the commercialization of post-academic science, destructive changes in the qualities of scientific creativity and scientific ethos undoubtedly affect the mental and cognitive components of the scientific habits of researchers. For the majority of the scientific community, the transformation of the scientific habitus proceeds spontaneously. Awareness of the uniqueness of post-academic science today occurs mainly within the framework of philosophical and methodological discourse. The result of this process is problematized by the author as a phenomenon of “post-academic philosophy of science,” characterized by a number of features of a substantive, methodological, and institutional nature. The question of its correlation with the traditional philosophy of science, on the one hand, and with disciplinary strategies in the study of science, on the other, opens up prospects for the emergence of new paradigms of modern philosophical and methodological discourse.

Artificial Intelligence from an Interdisciplinary Perspective: Philosophical and Legal Aspects

The article discusses the development of artificial intelligence systems from an interdisciplinary perspective, addressing philosophical and legal problems. Special attention is paid to the issue of the creation of artificial general intelligence. The use and implementation of AI systems can potentially create controversial legal situations from in many areas. Among them are data confidentiality, social security and responsibility, intellectual property of AI systems, legal personality of AI systems, ethical standards of using AI systems. It is shown that legal regulation in the field of AI is lagging behind technological development. There is practically no legal regulation of the terms, conditions, and rules of the development, launching, operating, integration into other systems, and controlling of AI technologies. The authors analyzes the process of improving the regulatory framework in some countries, especially in the Republic of Belarus. The articles focuses on the paradoxes of legal regulation of AI systems. That authors argue that there is a need for coordination in the development of Belarusian legislation in the field of AI, taking into the account the international legal and philosophical discussion on the social responsibility of AI. The article proposes to develop and adopt a special legislation on the development of AI and robotics. According to the authors, in the new legislation, special attention should be paid to the issues of legal and ethical use of AI systems. The article concludes that there is a critical importance of a comprehensive and multidisciplinary discussion to ensure legal regulation of AI-related issues.

The Phenomenon of Racism and the Concept of Race: A Transdisciplinary Research

In recent decades, with development of scientific and philosophical knowledge, the transdisciplinary approach has become relevant, as it aims at comprehensive study of complex natural and social phenomena. Racism belongs among such phenomena, and it it is usually studied in sociology and historical science. The article presents a transdisciplinary study of racism, involving a complex appeal to philosophy, history, sociology, and other disciplines. Special attention is paid to the philosophical conceptualization of racism and the relationship of racism with the category of race. The article follows the evolution of the concept of race in philosophy, science and social and political practices from its origins to the 20th and 21st centuries, when this concept is declared to be artificially constructed and is gradually ousted from philosophical and scientific discourse. Bioanthropologists criticize the concept of race as inaccurate, while intellectuals see racial classifications as a sign of racism. The difficulty of the conceptualization is associated not only with the variability of the concept of race but also with the change in its historical types, from traditional to contemporary ones. Traditional (classical, biological) racism is based on the use of the category of race and the idea of insurmountable biological differences between representatives of different races. The aritcle concludes that present-day racism exists in two forms: class (institutional) racism and cultural (differential or “subtle”) racism. Class racism is associated with social and political practices of implicit segregation in employment and, accordingly, with unequal distribution of income. Cultural racism shifts the focus from biology to culture and emphasizes the insurmountability of cultural differences.

Formation of the Belarusian University as a National and State Project

Belarusian history is woven of a multitude of events and processes that defy unambiguous assessment. First of all, this refers to their political component: the Belarusian lands and population for more than a thousand years belonged to states that had nothing in common with the Belarusian ethnos in their names. However, it was this ethnic community that was a most important component of Ancient Rus, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the Russian Empire. It becomes clear that in the educational and scientific environment, as well as in the general intellectual sphere, the ancestors of Belarusians were somewhat outshadowed, which today motivates them to prove their priorities to their neighbors in the West and the East. It was only in the revolutionary upheavals of early 20th century that the Belarusian statehood began to form. And the most important factor in its approval was the first university – the Belarusian State University. The article is devoted to the consideration of its formation in the conditions of 1917–1921, the transformation of the original idea into a fully functioning educational and scientific organism. On the basis of archival material and little-known facts, an attempt is made to show that the university, as a state project, contributed to the strengthening of the Belarusian state, and its activities fully experienced all political and national demands and outlooks. In support of this, the article quotes examples of strict adherence of the BSU staff to all state guidelines, which primarily aimed at the continuous improvement of the educational process, at the training of professionals for the most important spheres of the national economy of the republic. The university strengthened its human potential, paying special attention to the development of fundamental and applied science (not only physics, mathematics, chemistry, and biology but also philosophy, history, and philology). In the 1920s, its scientists and students were in demand as disseminators of state plans among urban and rural population. A special place in the activities of the university was the policy of Belarusianization, which gave both an obvious positive effect and led to negative consequences. As a result, the author concludes that the two key words of the name of the university initially contained the ideas of its national, ethnic. and state affiliation and mission, which BSU strictly follows at the present time.