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Professor V. P. Bekh established a new school, combining the organismic scientific field and the conception of noosphere. He developed the integral philosophic conception of social life self-development as a controversy between the individual and society. The research interests of professor Bekh comprise the spheres of philosophy, sociology, pedagogics and political science. The dissertation theses of the researcher deal with the solution of the above mentioned aspects of the problems.
The history of human thought provides strong evidence of that the end of the past century and the beginning of the next century are usually marked by the new key problem of social development coming forward at the cutting edge of gnoseology. The current crisis brings out clearly that life optimization at the planetary scale is the overriding problem at the turn of the XX and XXI centuries. We are lead to it by globalization and information revolution that bring the information unity of the social world.
The process of updating the issue of social life fundamental rationalization could be observed long ago. One can differentiate three stages of the process: the first stage is connected with the justification of the individual supremacy in history and the wordly origin of society and state (the Renaissance); the second stage deals with the development of the social marxism doctrine, revealing the essence of social life on the basis of the material aspect supremacy over the spiritual one with the growing creative role of the people subjected to social effect (end of the XVIII – end of the 1980s); and, finally, the third stage deals with the search for the “philosophic entity” among a great number of relatively independent and incompatible ways of explaining the social world development lines – theological, materialistic, technocratic, phenomenological, existential and others (from the middle of the XX century).
In these cases researches usually faced the problem of proving the new algorithm of the scientific inquiry as methodology, being the means of philosophic, sociological, political and other research, is the system of principles and ways of organizing and developing the theoretical and practical activities as well as doctrine of the system. This is a well-known fact. The problem herein is caused by the fact that by the end of the XX century the existing methodologies of the social world perception had run their course both in the East and in the West and could not warn the world community about the approaching total crisis of the social world. Nowadays the methodologies cannot reconstruct the trajectory of the social systems transformation.
At the same time two opposite methodological approaches to the social research organization are implemented in practice. According to one of them synergetics, as a principally new method of investigating social phenomena, is actively introduced in social science. Its adherents see the advantages of synergetics in its revealing the mechanisms of self-organization and self-development of social systems. Certainly, at some stage the method provides the production of new scientific products. This can be considered as a positive achievement of the methodological knowledge, as a doctrine about the organization of the modern world problems theoretical analysis.
The supporters of the post-modernism and ethnomethodology are at the back of the pack. Ethnomethodologists, for example, consider it inexpedient to study the problem of research methods. From their point of view everything that can be directly observed is the people’s effort to create the general sense of social reality. The substance of reality is viewed as something less interesting than the means used to create the image of something “beyond” reality. However, this viewpoint is immature and has vaguely set up principles that show how the community of actants provides strong support to the agreement on the general images of reality. Nevertheless, the implication of ethnomethodology is viewed as a potentially revolutionary phenomenon for sociological doctrinization. We estimate it on the basis of the materials and documents of the XII and XIII World Congresses of Sociology.
This approach in the social world cognition methodology is opposed with another algorithm of social world investigation. Its essence is in the fact that the problem of cognition method pales into significance and the researchers focus on the key, in their opinion, problem of modern times. At the time the systematically important role was played by the problem of the so-called “perpetuum mobile”. Certainly, it wasn’t solved, but in the course of its theoretical investigation there were many findings that essentially advanced the world community on its way to the transformational growth.
At present, we believe, the problem of investigating the future of society comes to the fore. To prove it, one should refer to the writings of D. Bell “The Coming of Post-Industrial Society”, U. Beck “Risk Society: Towards a New Modernity”, I. Vallenstein “The End of the Familiar World”, A. Giddens “The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration”, J. K. Galbraith “The New Industrial State”, A. Zinoviev “Suprasociety Ahead”, V. Liakh “Post-Industrial Society as a New Paradigm of Social Development: Problems and Prospects”, Y. Masuda “Computopia”, T. Parsons “The System of Modern Societies”, L. Melnyk “Social and Economic Problems of Information Society”, V. I. Franchuk “Foundations of Modern Theory of Societies” etc.
Thus, the optimization of social life is studied in reference to its basic natural creation – the country. The latter is analyzed as a system of material and spiritual processes for the comprehensive characteristics of which the researchers use the terms “social” or “spiritual” organism. We face the same problem when we use the systemic, natural, above-organic, superorganic or organismic approaches.
We see a vivid prospect in implementing the organismic methodological prism to the investigation of modern society as modern countries come at the pressure of globalization to the development of continental social structures. That is why, it’s not by chance that during the celebration of the 250th anniversary of Lomonosov Moscow State University the key methodological problem discussed at the Faculty of Sociology was the idea of the organismic structure of the social world and its heuristic scope for the theory of social gnoseology.
So, not denying the efficiency of the synergetic paradigm, postmodernism and other approaches to the investigation of social phenomena, we give preference to another algorithm of the social cognition organization, reserving the right, first, to implement any methods efficient for the indication of laws and regularities of social world. Certainly in this case we don’t refer to the theological world perception on account of its specific character and go into the utmost relativity. Second, we reserve the right to provide fundamentally new methodological procedures, if that is not required by the problem situation which is studied by the researcher.
It’s necessary to explain why we support studying the organismic idea as a powerful and at present central methodological means of organizing the social world investigation. First, the organismic idea, integrates sociological theories of the past with V. Vernadskyi’s idea of noosphere. The content and form coincide in this case. Second, social systems are viewed as the forms of the specific energoinformational life that leads our research to the Space. Third, we proceed to the investigation of the unique phenomenon of planetary origin – a subjectless form of overcollective structure and impersonal forms of social subjectivity – products of life of the rational living substance that should unveil the secret of alien civilizations and promote the search for the forms of communication with them.
Concurrently it means that to solve the problem of optimizing the social life of planetary mankind in philosophy and social science we should explain several aspects, mainly: first, we should develop the philosophic object-matter of the concept “social organism” by representing it as an essence, content and form of social life; second, we should render social organism as an objective reality with corresponding morphological and functional characteristics; finally, third, we should analyze social phenomenon as an original object of gnoseology, to master which one should have special philosophic and methodological means. We described the above mentioned aspects of the problem in the whole range of writings. That’s why, it is reasonable to outline only its key elements.
SOCIAL ORGANISM AS A PHILOSOPHICAL IDEA
The idea of organismic incarnation of the human life has an ancient history. The first references about the social organism as a form of human existence go back to the ancient Indian Vedas (about 3500 years ago) and early Roman history (about 2500 years ago). Much later this idea was supported by Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes, Comte, Spencer, Marx, Engels, Lenin, Durkheim and many other philosophers. In world sociology there formed the whole school, which was called “organismic school”. Nowadays it is supported by such modern scholars as academicians M. M. Moiseev, A. V. Aganbegian, R. F. Abdeev and Ukrainian researchers as, for example, V. P. Andrushchenko, V. I. Volovyk, M. I. Mykhalchenko, V. F. Shapovaliv and others.
Our study shows that the IDEA OF SOCIAL ORGANISM appeared to logically reflect the specific planetary phenomenon, mainly the self-development of social life or rational living substance co-existing with the usual protein-nucleic life or simple living substance.
Hereof, there is the persistent desire of researcher to pattern the living species of the planetary substance after the rational living substance by means of analogy method. Therefore the history of its self-development is closely interwoven with the concept “physical organism”. This connection can be shown in the following way: it is a metaphor for Plato, an analogy – for Aristotle, parallelism – for Spencer, absolute identity – for Lilienfeld. At present we determine it as a relatively independent phenomenon, the subject of a special scientific-philosophical analysis.
Practically the key of the matter is to turn this idea into the philosophical conception of self-development of social reality as a relatively independent geological process. Genetically social reality comes into being out of biosphere development and has a unique independent existence within noosphere, and then naturally turns into electromagnitosphere as an element of space environment. This mode of the phenomenon of noocosmogenesis includes three levels: the Prelife, the Life and the Superlife.
In such a way current crisis of social development closely leads us to revealing V. I. Vernadskyi’s viewpoint about that in various fields and on various levels of the hierarchial Universe organization, by means of different material and energy flows, there exist extremely diverse forms of living substance founded on different field forms. It means that on our planet there exists a specific form of rational living substance with the electromagnetic species field. Though this hypothesis is disputable, it doesn’t contradict with the existing functional definitions of life that were earlier formed by A. M. Kolmogorov and O. O. Liapunov.
The next step in the gnoseological analysis of energoinformational life form, after determining its essence, is the identification of its specific content, indifferent to the form, which is exterior to it: sense is completely different than form. That’s why, it’s important to understand the content of social life not as a substrat of something social, but as its inner state, combination of processes that characterize the interaction of the elements forming another nature as well as their cooperation with space environment, and predetermine their existence, development and change; in this case the sense of social life is seen as totality.
It is commonly known that the specific sense of the idea “social organism” unfolds as a social world. I. Kant was the most precise having called it a noogenic world, i.e. the world made by the human mind. The latter is represented as an intelligible matter, i.e. the specific reality, perceived by the person by means of spiritual feelings.
The above mentioned specific sense, which is being constantly reproduced by the human-being on the planetary scale, requires special conditions for its efficient functioning and development. In this case it is essential to understand the place and role of the form for the existence of another nature. The organismic form is necessary for the social life as rational living substance, developed up to the determined maturity level, and requires it, on the one hand, to preserve and increase basic attributive properties of the intelligible matter, on the other hand, to reach the necessary and sufficient potency to realize its specific general (phasic) function – to generate the space form of life (Superlife) on the Earth.
SOCIAL ORGANISM AS AN OBJECTIVE REALITY
The analysis of the social organism as a specific reality should begin with the determination of its nature. It is a generally accepted rule in gnoseology. Unfortunately, at present in literature in philosophy and sociology there is no single view on the nature of noogenic world. It is connected with people’s way of life, their activity, public relations, social and individual consciousness, noosphere, supranatural substance etc. However, neither of these positions can be accepted, because there is no reference to its specificity, i.e. we cannot distinguish it from other positions. That’s why we need to find the way-out from the semantic dead end. In this respect we should remember that the theoretical justification of the quantum-wave nature of social life would have integrated it with biological life (Prelife) and space life (Superlife).
When justifying its genesis, there is one vivid fact – the specific nature of social phenomenon should be studied on the part of its source, i.e. on the part of its attributive properties of the living human organism. Herein major attention should be focused on the mediate function of the biological organism, because the latter functions as a mediacy organ of the psychophysical and psychological components of the human structure, and in a wider sense – of the material and spiritual worlds. In addition, it is known from psychology that the psychophysical component is connected with person’s feelings, and the psychological – with senses. The first one is based on structural information, the second one – on phenotypic information.
That’s why it is essential and prospective to explain in the rational living substance the essence and functions of the information which plays a key systematically important role in the field form of life. Information flows, which are predetermined by interaction of the organism with the environment, consist of perception, digestion (structural information), on the one hand, and perception of the operational information (social, scientific and technical information, spectacular, music etc.) information by sense organs, on the other hand.
Researchers should make big effort to conceptionally explain the mechanisms of the rational living substance digesting the “external” or space material and generating individual virtual social worlds. For example, the digestion of proton flows is in the form of distortion in the human organism of the same content that is in the objective form of the universum, i.e. the Universe. “An important step towards a true representation of the organism is the substitution of the category of stimulation by external forces for the category of the intervention of external causes”, wrote G. Hegel.
In physical terms, the interaction is a kind of oscillation of the individual’s inner force field and the external energy information field of the social unit – group, team, ethnic community, nation and, ultimately, humanity. Passionarity, according to L. Gumilyov, leads us to the scientific understanding of the mechanism of the process.
When adding the fundamental principles of existence to the social organism to investigate its major attributive features and regularities in existence it is important to assume that the normal state of the universum is constant reproduction of the original substance or continuous motion of evolvement. It means that social organism should be viewed as an eternal activity or subject. However, as social organism owns rigidity it should be studied as an object, thus one can deal with its morphological structure.
The crucial point in studying the morphology of social organism is determining the substance (the so-called morph) of its body. That’s why, in future investigations it is of major importance to explain what is produced by the human spirit and represents the objective social world within us. The production of this interpersonal product, which we consider to be only KNOWLEDGE, is the mode of existence of social reality inside us.
The knowledge, and moreover the scientific knowledge, is really an objective reality which, like a sediment, is produced by the human spirit, released by it and is inextricably connected with it. By discovering this ultimate particle there appears an opportunity to start exploring the morphology of social organism, by introducing it as an overorganic (field) body, which in common coordinates “space – time” has occupied what is at present known under the notion of “noosphere”.
When studying social life in its organismic form we deal with a constantly changing field which is an intelligible substance in contrast to the sensible matter. Social reality, which emerged in such a way, is the formation supporting itself through its constant movement. This means that the subjective intellectual power and the collectively generated objective intellectual power, having emerged, begin to interact. It is predetermined by the fact that they are two different forms of the same material. In that case they will inevitably enter in cooperation with each other. Thus in order to finish the investigation of the process in existence we need to represent the way these forces interact as an organic entity which, as a matter of fact, should be called social organism.
Within the structure of the integral system we should single out specific formations – generic and primitive social microforms, which are the products of the organocenosis in social organism. One should refer to the generic social organisms that what we understand as the sphere of society: economic, social in its narrow sense, political and cultural-historical. Primitive social microorganisms include business microforms, producing goods and services, and tissular microforms, servicing the former, concurrently referring them to the generic social organisms.
Investigation of the functional aspect of social organism is of particular interest. The complexity herein is caused by interpreting its components as an organic combination of functional organs. It turns out to be an important indication of O.O. Ukhtomskyi, who wrote that any temporary combination of forces able to achieve something can be an organ. However, when introducing the concept of a movable organ, he opposed the customs of linking this notion to the acuity of morphologically formed statically permanent formation.
In this case the elements of the individual and society structure can be studied as semantic units by means of which functional organs are formed. These functional organs, according to O.M. Leontyev, “act just as regular morphological permanent organs, though differ from the latter in the fact that they are new formations emerging in the course of the individual (ontogenetic) development”.
At the stage of the social organism functioning there is an apparent increase as functional organs generate a totally new functional formation – self-regulation system. Structurally the system consists of homeostat – an ontologic organ which possesses two feedback networks for the self-regulation of another nature.
As a matter of fact, we can start handling the issue of the planetary humanity development optimization only when we gain the understanding of the essence, content and specificity of the social life homeostat function – the functional organ derivative from primary functional structures of the social organism.
Further detailed ontological analysis of social life will perhaps deal with consistent investigation of functioning and development of social organism in ontogenesis and system of social organisms in phylogeny.
SEARCH FOR THE PHILOSOPHIC AND METHODOLOGICAL MEANS OF SOCIAL LIFE
We can conclude that in order to eliminate negative consequences of the modern crisis one should suggest an efficient theory of noosociogenesis or better to say noocosmogenesis. It can’t be developed without the research tools of social life problems. It means that in practice within science methodology one should use the following algorithm: first, develop a completely different outlook basis of the studied issue, then form new ideological belief, and, finally, arrange the research tools.
One should start with new outlook basis. At present there prevails the natural scientific vision formed on the principles of classical mechanics that has worked out its heuristic potential. To advance it is necessary to justify the new view on the origin and functioning of the Universe. That’s why philosophy should give a closer view of the attempts of natural sciences to prove the unity of the Universe base on the hypothesis about its quantum-vacuum origin.
It is obvious that the new outlook directly refers us to the search for the new ideological attitude to the research material organization. Herein, it is evident that researchers are not pleased with the subjective dialectics whichwas masterly developed and left to us by G. Hegel, simply because itis effective only for studying the manifestation regulations of the worldgenerating substance spiritual component. The same reason explains why we do not find satisfaction inthe objective dialectics, which was inherited from K. Marx,F. Engels, V. Lenin and which will reveal, according to the above formulated hypothesis, the manifestation regulations of the Universe basis material component. The crisis of socialism has proved this. The way-out should as usual be sought in the integration of contradictions.
That’s why, whentrying to gain an insight into the XXI century by means of philosophical methods, we should make a breakthrough to the new type of ideologies. Therefore two principal steps are necessary. First, we should decline monism in ideology, because the material and spiritual ingredient of the substantial Universe basis are so integrated to the organic entity that it is conceptually impossible to explain any form of planetary life from the perspectives of materialism or idealism. Second, we should move from the ideology of destruction tothe ideology of creation. In this case what is really important is the turn in the reasoning of philosophers and researchers that determine the nature and organization of the spiritual production in the information phase of the planetary humanity development.
On this point, the ideology, potentially productive for future investigations, namely the problem of the multicriteria optimization of social life, can be defined as a special structuring element which organizes the researchers’ activity in the process of acquiring cultural heritage of the past in terms of the idea of social organism.
In the meantime it is necessary to substantially enrich the means of the philosophic and scientific inquiry with a more universal methodological tool. We need it to persistently and rationally transform the accumulated by humanity combination of philosophic ideas by means of the heterogeneous theoretical heritage.
The use of the category “organism” to the energoinformational (field) life form means that social philosophers, and thus all social scientists, should not be afraid of including the terms, strengthened in the range of natural sciences, into the range of methodological means. First of all it concerns such high-efficiency instrumental research tools as synergetics, transpersonality, spontaneity, chaos, virtuality, self-organization, self-regulation, entropy, organocenosis, homeostat, homeorhesis, ontogenesis, phylogenesis and many others.
Thus, we do not have enough backlog to solve the most challenging problem of the modern age – optimization of the planetary humanity social life, because social life, as a field existence form of the intelligible living substance, has not got sufficient philosophic and scientific rationale. That’s why the problem of social life optimization is a unique and complex object of modern cognition theory.
If not predicting an essential upgrade of the research methodology, acquiring the above mentioned problem may transcend the XXI century. In any case the planetary humanity should acquire its major function in the Universe self-development. For this aim we should coordinate our behavior with the space environment development needs. To create all necessary social technologies of the modern cognition theory we should make the above mentioned steps. The earlier we start moving in this direction the more we can achieve.
Thus, we deal with two divisive tendencies in the approach to the social world investigation. The first one involves the development of principally new algorithms and techniques of theoretical research, the second one is focused on the central global problem, the solution of which will promote comprehensive reproduction of the subjectless form of overcollective structures and impersonal forms of social subjectiveness. In strict observance of the rules of logic and technology of theoretical study both approaches give positive results. Professional scholar should master them in a way he masters deductive, inductive, rational and irrational research methods. Their use is scholars’ matter of taste, it is predetermined by the complexity of the problem under study.
To solve the global problem I consider it reasonable to take the following three steps: 1) to start solving it in person; 2) to form the scholar school aimed at investigating the problems of noosociogenesis, self-organization and self-regulation of social systems. It should accumulate theoretical materials for further generalization; 3) to create the scientific publication “The New Paradigm” that will provide general public and scholars with the results of theoretical findings of postgraduates and Ph.D. candidates of the scholar school, i.e. giving an opportunity to young scholars to print their works on this problem and invite other investigators for cooperation in cognitive theory.
“THE NEW PARADIGM” AS AN ATTRACTOR OF FORMING NEW NOOGENESIS THEORY OF SOCIAL WORLD SELF-ORGANIZATION AND SELF-REGULATION
The idea of creating “The New Paradigm” – a specialized publication for young scholars of Zaporizhzhia region – appeared in 1996 as a result of Zaporizhzhia state university workers’ creative work over the nature and regularities of self-development of the Ukrainian social organism as well as continental and intercontinental structures, and, finally, planetary social organism.
In this respect it became evident that the crisis of social development, which can be observed nowadays, with vivid theoretical, methodological, ideological and vision characteristics, resulted from the collision of Homo sapiens activity and self-development regularities of both first and second nature.
It is natural, because, when maturing, the Universe acquires a more sophisticated organization thus needing a more delicate treatment, while the activity of modern human, more cultural manufacturing than material manufacturing, remains primitive on a global scale. Its dehumanish orientation and destructive nature are more and more often condemned by scientists and intellectuals. The reason for this is the dominating vision that has lost its academic characteristics. There is no sense to grapple with it by means of polemic. Its unacademic structures should be eliminated by the facts showing their scientific inconsistency.
We should try to find the vision progressive for the coming third millennium. Taking this into account, the thoughts of the approaching day become the insistent duty of philosophers, political analysts, sociologists, economists, culture experts, psychologists, linguists and other scholars. The investigations are essential, because they should promote the establishment of intellectual and ethical climate in the region, and in a wider sense – in the country and in the whole world, that is necessary for the fundamental change of the course of our lifestream that inexorably carries us through the somewhat shaded phantoms of nuclear idol, Chornobyl and Hiroshima, Aral and ozone holes to the planetary catastrophe unless we learn to think in a new light, unless global Reconstruction ends in success.
The way-out from the existing dramatic situation is, in our opinion, the search for and justification of the NEW IDEOLOGICAL PARADIGM of social progress on the basis of which it is possible to solve the heaviest contradiction between the individual and society, peculiar to the whole history of the humanity. The pathology in noogenesis as well as in physiology – the center of the protein-nucleic life, is a valuable facilitator in identifying the causes of social organism disease and its further cure.
Intuition suggests that the phantom of the information civilization, resulting from the individual’s attributive features self-development, is the magical beginning which can take us to the sphere of future formation. The range of future investigations strikes, even scares with its spheral depth, as it refers to Semantic Universe, impresses with its topical diversity, as spiritual component is peculiar to all living beings, and, finally, raises hope, as research experience, gained by senior generations of scientists in studies of Physical Universe, can be efficiently used when investigating a completely new form of the living substance – energoinformational.
As a rule, young intellectuals are the most sensitive to the needs of the time. They can have a different view on the energoinformational life form and propose their original solutions of the major problems of humanity, and immature Ukraine in particular. To support constructive, in terms of information civilization, ideas of young scientists there should be a special tribune allowing not only free expression of opinions, that can be nowadays done on a rather large scale, but also persistent accumulation of the most constructive ideas, their generation into the original functional structures, cautious preservation and collection of methodological tools to investigate the Universe, which consists of Physical and Semantic components.
The significant importance of “The New Paradigm” is in the fact that it should act as an organizer and agitator of the research youth in the region by attracting it to investigating contemporary problems in the sphere of social development. The editorial group of the new publication is ready for this.
In this regard we see the major aim of “The New Paradigm” in its functioning as an accelerator in the collective search for the efficient solution of the global problems of modern age – generation of the humanity integrity and formation of the self-development mechanism based on substantive uniformity of nature, individual and society. It is possible only if the editorial group of “The New Paradigm” consistently gives preference to the materials acknowledging the quantum-vacuum origin of the Universe, so that there is a definite integrity space vision and recognition of the information civilization ideology validity.
Besides, when overcoming a delay in the Semantic Universe investigation, the vision will require a more proportional allocation of scholars’ attention between the problematics of the Physical and Semantic Universe. However, that day is still far distant. One should not ignore efficient changes in perception as the data phase of development activates all our work with information, while computer technology invariably leads us to the creation of the Artificial Intelligence.
Time hastens. That’s why we invite young scientists of the region to look into the depth of the geological process through the rage of proceeding events, to see through the environment of weltering Antiintelligence the contours of the Universe evolution complex polymechanism that raises the world community to the peak of space Intelligence, the integral part of which we are too, dear reader.
It should be done to objectively evaluate the great progress prepared and performed by the scientists of the XX century. However, its value and force are not completely understood and discovered by the scientists of the XXI century. It should be implied right now to let the emerging world community easily enter the approaching, mysterious and enigmatic XXI century and third millennium.
We need it in the short term to persistently design, if yet impossible, the self-development mechanisms of separate countries, for example, Ukraine, Russia, Bilorussia, and in a wider sense – CIS, continental and intercontinental social structures, and at least to understand the natural processes of the morphological evolvement completion and efficient functioning of the universum noogenic motion mode on the Earth. The world community has come to the grips of the transition to the space phase of its development, and the information phase of the planetary community development is followed by the antropogenic or intellectual phase.
Nowadays there is a completely different time, that’s why there are new opportunities in investigating social world. However, it’s not all that simple as it may seem at first glance. There will be many difficulties and misunderstandings, and sometimes even counteractions on the side of the scientists that genuinely believe in the impeccability of their ideological and methodological positions. It all is not because of complexity of processes under investigation, but because of their delicacy and novelty for the modern science and philosophy of notions by means of which modern and even space life of Homo sapiens can be comprehended.
We are enlivened by the fact that the time correlates more with the future, and the issue under consideration makes up the inner essence of the modern epoch.
