Ideas and Ideals

Abstract:

The paper analyzes K. Marx’s theoretical heritage from the modern standpoints, especially regarding his political and economic works. The author tries to answer the question – why his ideas were popular in the past and remain popular at present. The author discusses K. Marx’s scientific program and paradigm and shows that his scientific program fundamentally differs from those of other leading economists of the first half of the 19th century and his paradigm – from that of classical economics. Marxism created his own original paradigm which combined elements of classical economies and historical school. The paper also shows how K. Marx’s scientific program and some basic elements of his economic theory influence the works of scientists working within alternative schools. The author presents his critical notes to several elements of K. Marx’s theory, namely his historical concept, sociology, and especially, political economy. The author pays special attention to the terms used by K. Marx which allow making ambiguous conclusions and avoiding the critics. The author highlights the influence of Marx’s works on the choice of the subject and statement of problems made by researchers of neoclassical, Austrian, and institutional schools of economics. A major achievement of Marxism is that K. Marx states the problem of how modern bourgeois societies emerge, develop, and die as well as their institutional systems which define the economic dynamics and distribution of public wealth. The way how the Marxists explain economic processes (such as dynamics of prices, profits, and incomes, cyclical patterns of production development, and many others) as well as theories of historical dynamics, why states rise and fall, class structure of societies, and inefficiency of decentralized market economies have not been verified. However, at present K. Marx’s works are very attractive due to the ambiguity of his criticism of bourgeois society and, above all, an aphoristic nature and emotionality of his works. The reason for this is an integrated character of K. Marx’s political, economic, sociohistorical, and even ideological and psychological doctrine. As compared to Marx’s doctrine, modern science is comprised of specialized sectors and, therefore, it is less attractive and understandable.

Abstract:

The placement of Marx, together with Marxism, in a religious context may seem strange, at least to those people who still remember “opium for the people” and “a sigh of the oppressed creature”. There is a habit of associating the author and his teachings exclusively with the forms of scientific knowledge. However, it turns out that a more careful and consistent examination shows that despite the prevailing stereotype of the exclusively scientific identification of the Marxist doctrine, referring Marxism precisely to the religious context allows to understand its true place in history and culture. As the Russian philosopher of the Silver Age, S. N. Bulgakov, said, religion carries “the highest and last values that a person recognizes above himself and higher than himself, and that practical attitude, a human being is put in, in relation to these values”. But what are values? Values are the ultimate basis of choice and goal setting. Religion is the social form of the hierarchy of values existence. The article substantiates the thesis that the genesis of Marxism was the product of a complex collision in a general cultural process that embraced philosophy, science, and religion in their interrelation. The features of the interaction of these cultural phenomena in a certain social context explain the culturological features of religion, which are inherent in Marxism.

Abstract:

The paper discusses the most general social, philosophical and macrosociological ideas of Marxism. Marx and Engels used several arguments for their thesis on the socio-economic character of the "basis" when referring policy, state and entire spiritual and cultural sphere to the "superstructure". Each of these arguments is partly right but mainly misleading. The importance of material production for social processes and historical dynamics is not denied, but along with this factor there are always others, no less, and sometimes more powerful ones. Dühring argued rather naively in favor of his thesis of the primacy of power and violence. The Engels's counter-arguments are smart and sometimes sophisticated but should be revised. The analysis of social relations implicitly hidden in ‘property’ shows the fundamental nature of not only order, power and violence relations that reinforce property, but also the importance of normative cultural patterns and psychological attitudes. Technological progress loses the status of the main driver of historical dynamics and social evolution, it remains a very important factor, but only among other no less significant drivers of change. Social revolutions quite often eliminate the political forms that have become inadequate, but they are by no means the only, or the main, factors of such changes. The state is not at all an "instrument" of the class of exploiters (feudal lords, capitalists). The state and the state class (officials) are almost always an independent subject with their own interests, world vision, and resources. Marxism is firmly associated with the struggle for social justice, against class inequality, against the exploitation of man by man, against enslavement. As far as people continue to strive to improve their social status, class polarization, this or that measure of exploitation, social injustice always take place, and break through all attempts at restrictions and equalization. This means the inescapability of the demand for justice, which nourishes and will always nourish the high posthumous reputation of Marx, the emergence of more and more devotees of Marxism.

Abstract:

The article is devoted to the substantiation of the status of Marxism as a revolution in economic science. To achieve this goal, the author has to resolve a number of methodological difficulties associated with the interdisciplinary nature of Marxism, as revolutionary changes may relate to the philosophical, sociological, political spheres of Marxism, but do not affect the economic area. The author shows the role of the ideological filter accompanying Marxism, which for a long time did not allow to grasp an idea of authentic Marxism. In addition, Marxism in its development has gone through several stages, so you need to choose a starting point to assess its revolutionary character. In the course of the study, the author comes to the conclusion that Marxism has led to fundamental changes in economic theory, having formed an independent direction of economic thought, which remains in demand in our time. However, from the standpoint of T. Kuhn’s theory of paradigms Marxist political economy is not the result of a revolution and a new paradigm in relation to the classical political economy, but it can be considered as its continuation in the form of synthesis of ideas of classical political economy and German classical philosophy, especially Hegel dialectical method and materialistic approach to understanding the nature of social relations, suggested by L. Feuerbach. However, the theorists of Marxism evaluate it as the result of revolution in economic science, since the development through contradictions and qualitative jumps constitute the essence of Marxism.

Abstract:

K. Marx fragmentarily presented the theory of industrial cycles in “Capital”, which investigated the formation and development of capitalism up to the maturing of free competition. A brief review of this theory shows that J. Schumpeter’s criticism is superficial. K. Marx did not deduce the mathematical laws of crises. The present paper partially fills this gap for the state-monopoly capitalism on the basis of the laws of surplus value and monopoly profit. Two models are considered, the transition from the first TM-2 to the second TM-2m is an ascent from the abstract to the concrete.Whereas TM-2 endogenously reproduces cycles in the positive growth rate of net output, TM-2m endogenously generates industrial cycles with decreases in net output in crises. This is achieved by converting a key parameter of the automation function into a new discrete variable, depending on the excess accumulation of capital. In addition, proportional control over the rate of capital accumulation has been introduced.TM-2m allows comparing impacts of economic policies on industrial cycles and on long-term trends in the US economy depending on a target rate of capital accumulation chosen by the State and financial capital in distinct scenarios.In 2018, the crisis will start, opening the next industrial cycle ending in 2025 according to scenario 1 or in 2026 according to scenario 2. The state monopoly-capitalism is entering a new period of over-production when sound economic policy becomes even more critical.

Abstract:

Enlightment philosophers treated XI-XVII centuries of Russian philosophy with a bit of scepticism. According to the canons of the European history of thought, Russian philosophy’s early period does not deserve to enjoy scientific status. Although this point of view has its followers, careful examination of textual sources and artefacts has proven it wrong. The following article analyzes ancient Russia's intellectual history within the framework of evolutionary rationality theory. The systemic design of the article integrates the achievements of archeology, history, philology, philosophy and history of science. It is everyday life that pushed forward scientific progress in Russia. The calculation of paschal cycles stimulated astronomy and mathematics. The XII-th century witnessed creative efforts of Kirik the Novgorodian, a distinguished mathematician. Computational texts' complexity provides bright evidence of high level research conducted in the competitive atmosphere. Translated texts of Saint John of Damascus, Andrey Kurbsky, Al-Ghazali and Maimonides made a contribution to logical studies. Ancient Russian thinkers used these works as a starting point to shed light on both religious and secular issues. The understanding of medicine as a kind of sacred knowledge made it a birthplace of innovation. There were several medical schools categorized by the way they addressed the body-soul dichotomy: teotherapy (spiritual guidance), non-traditional medicine (naturopathy and psychotherapy), nature-aligned medicine (Hippocratic tradition). “Galenovo on Hippocrates” is a colourful example of an ancient Russian text based on antropo-cosmic correspondence and qualitative nature of time. Christianization raises the question of ancient Russian political rationalism. The encorporation of translated Christian literature into the history of Russian thought prepared fertile soil for the development of abstract logic. The study of self-developing spatial thought in “Paleya Tolkovaya” shares its conceptual hallmarks with today’s information and communication theories. Spiritual significance of the early textual heritage increases along with the rising popularity of cognitive practices.

Abstract:

One of the reasons contributing to the “instant” (according to historical standards) conquest, subjugation and actual destruction of the multimillion civilizations of the New World was the extermination of the rational basis of civilization, understood as a complex of religious, cosmological, philosophical views and educational structures, which provided their maintenance. The most illustrative example is the civilization, traditionally called the Aztec Empire. It was the first on the path of the conquerors and the most “alive”, developed and numerous at that time. Paradoxically, that nowadays we can judge the existence of the Aztecs’ complex system of the world perception and religious-philosophical thinking that united all spheres of human life and society in integrity by texts in the Nahuatl language (common to the population of Central Mexico), which did not have alphabetic script. We have the opportunity to assess the role of the rational worldview in the lives of the peoples who inhabited Central America on the eve of the conquest by testimonies and stories of the conquistadors about the ancient knowledge transmitted by the oral tradition and the pictorial “books” that survived in the first years of the conquest. All these texts were recorded in the Nahuatl language (in the Latin script), or in the Spanish language. The task of this work is to identify the points of conflict between the two civilizations in the rational-philosophical aspect. One of the parties has already stepped on the path of the anthropogenic development, armed with "advanced" weapons and a militant monotheistic religion, with pronounced missionary aspirations. The other is a traditional society characterized by a pronounced "national idea" based on the religious cosmological worldview, a strict social organization, a universal education system, the existence of clear laws regulating all spheres of everyday life and an astronomically verified system of calculating the years and human destinies. It can be concluded that the strength of civilization i.e. its organization and established order, turned out to be a weak link, the destruction of which led to the disintegration of integrity. The destruction of the basis, the loss of the higher meaning, the core of this well-functioning effective mechanism, caused the collapse of the whole system: religious rituals, economic organization, administrative structures, education, upbringing and everyday life.

Abstract:

The research is devoted to the identification of patrimonial properties of the highest political power and its interaction with regional elites in the Turkic world in the context of continuity with the political tradition of the Golden Horde and its fragments - the Siberian Khanate and the Russian state. The methodology of the study is based on the civilizational approach, which assumes the multi-variance of socio-economic and political development of peoples with different statehood and territories, as well as the biosphere concept of culture that is close to it. The methodological bases of the research are the following theories: V. Vernadsky’s theory of biosphere and noosphere, N. Ya. Danilevsky’s theory of cultural-historical types, the concept of civilizations (society) as a system of interaction of individuals and institutions, P. Sorokin’s concept of economic and cultural types. To determine the concepts of "state" and "statehood" in the study, the theory of "early state" by Henry J. M. Klassen is used. An important methodological position is the continuity of the state institutions of the post-Golden Horde space of the Mongolian empire, and, accordingly, of the Turkic statehood, originating in the works of J. de Guignes mid-XVIII century and developed in later studies. As a result of the research, several characteristic features of the socio-political organization of the Turkic statehood were revealed. The first is "order for trade", that is, the situation in which statehood is formed around the economic idea, in relation to the Turkic khaganate - around the idea of ensuring the stable functioning of the trade route from East to West. The second is "the political ahead of the ethnic". In the Turkic world, ethnic groups are formed after the formation of political associations. "Turk", "Mongol", "Russian" - for a long time were not ethnic concepts, taking such a meaningful load for a long time. The third is statehood as power not over territory, but over people "It dominates people over people, but lives on earth" - one of the main messages of political self-consciousness of the Turkic world. This statement of the problem of power removes a number of traditional "problematic issues" of describing the Turkic states - from the question of borders to the problem of the applicability of the formation theory and the concept of "feudalism" towards them. From this follows the fourth feature of the Turkic statehood: the maximum remoteness of the central government from the "land", the authority of the supreme ruler as power not over the state "as a whole," but over regional elites. On the one hand, this creates a well-known halo of the sacredness of the supreme authority, on the other - it makes it extremely unstable, obliging for constant search for compromises with local rulers. Against this background, a special role is played by "grassroots" social structures that are distinguished by stability against the backdrop of changing supreme rulers. The latter circumstance, in particular, determined the relative simplicity of integration of the Siberian Khanate to the Russian state: the new government simply "transferred" the self-administered units (volosts) of the aboriginal political association. The Russians did not offer the West Siberian aborigines anything fundamentally new: since the statehood in the Moscow kingdom and the Siberian Khanate was based on the same principles, the new government was not actually engaged in building political institutions here, using the already existing system of relations.

Abstract:

The development of methodological and theoretical aspects of robust management of economic systems is correlated with the evolutionary concept of management in the continuum of paradigms: subject-object, subject-subject and subject ─ poly-subject environment. The introduction of robust management means the transition within each paradigm from the concept of equilibrium to the concept of robust stability of economic systems. The article considers management of the economic systems interaction within the paradigm "subject ─ poly-subject environment", as well as the establishment of the coherence of the models of behavior of economic entities with the internal organization of their knowledge of reality in the continuum of management paradigms, so it is possible to obtain a reasonable assessment for the input of robust management in the space defined by each paradigm. Poly-subject environment of the economic systems operation is presented as a self-developing system having a certain hierarchy of levels of its formation. The research is focused at the primary level of development – "initial self-regulation", which includes the market (or business) environment represented by a variety of elementary organizational structures "subject – subject" and environmental elementary structures – business situations, characterized by chaos and uncertainty. Chaos is considered as the behavior of subjects which generates information with some measure of uncertainty. As a result, to order the chaos of the poly-subject environment the research is aimed at developing a typology of "suppliers" of information on the level of its uncertainty. Six types of information providers are identified and for each type the information generating uncertainty is determined. The natural continuation of the ordering of the poly-subject environment of the selected hierarchical level is the systematization and disclosure of the essence of the models of consumer information behavior, different internal organization of knowledge: from realism to rationalism and, consistently deepening the methods of knowledge, to cognitivism and constructivism. Depending on the internal organization of knowledge, which is attributed to the consumer of information, its immersion takes place in the context of a certain management paradigm. As a generalizing knowledge the matrix map of the connectivity of the models of behavior of economic subjects with the internal organization of knowledge about their actions in the context of the evolutionary representation of management paradigms is presented. The created structure of knowledge allows us to come to the statement: at the present stage each of the fundamental paradigms presented to the scientific community occupies a certain space with moving borders in the management of economic systems, which is also a guide for the development of the mechanism of robust control

Abstract:

The article analyses the potential of cognitive management strategies in emerging society of knowledge. The author states that intellectual capital as the source and development mechanism of society under the conditions of emerging society of knowledge failed to stand the test of time and was replaced by knowledge in terms of its functions. The importance and urgency of the issue makes it necessary to address to several problems, among which the following ones may be mentioned:

• The investigation of structural components of technology as an instrumental approach of rational action, the investigation of knowledge and knowledge-based emerging technologies as the foundation of knowledge society;
• The investigation of the role of cognitive technologies in management activity as a management strategy of innovative type. The formation of this strategy is a response to the challenges of emerging society of knowledge.

During the investigation of above mentioned problems the author uses the potential of comparative method and possibility of an integrative approach and comparative methodology. The article reveals the specificity of quantitative management strategies and defines the potential of cognitive management technologies. Knowledge management is presented as a multi-disciplinary approach to the achievement of organizational goals through the most effective usage of knowledge and cognitive technologies. The use of cognitive technologies is seen by the author as the basis of competitive advantages of an organization, where management process is carried out through the usage of knowledge arrays and knowledge technologies. The process of knowledge management is presented as a complex of interrelated practices, aimed at the development and optimal management, manifesting the potential through the influence on behaviour, mental structures, values and beliefs.

Abstract:

The subject of analysis of this article is the habitus of a German writer of Japanese origin Yoko Tawada as well as the hybrid nature of her works. The main thesis of this study is that the "boundary" person (Tawada) with hybrid identity generates transnational texts, the topic of which is the problems of the language border at the denotative and connotative levels. The article especially focuses on the analysis of the problem of sexual and gender identity on the example of the story “The Bridegroom Was a Dog” The methodological foundations of this article are semiotics, the typology of culture, and the theoretical concepts of Mikhail Bakhtin, Yuri Lotman, and Homi Bhabha. The empirical analysis of Tawada’s novel and her several essays ("U.S. + S.R. Eine Sauna in Fernosteuropa", "Living in Japan", "Suspicious Passengers of Your Night Trains") makes evident that, in the Tawada’s understanding, at present there is no clear geographic or axiological boundary between East and West. The digital era, the Internet, global trade, and transnational corporations have played a key role in the delimitation of these value boundaries. The author analyzes gender transitions and the problem of sexual identity on the example of the story “The Bridegroom Was a Dog” and the novel “Suspect on the Night Train”. In the story “The Bridegroom Was a Dog” Y Tawada describes the transitions of artistic images from heterosexuality to lesbianism (Mitsuko Kitamura vs. Fukiko), and from heterosexuality (Taro vs. Yoshiko) to bisexuality (Mitsuko Kitamura vs. Tashio Matsubara). In contrast, the novel “Suspect on the Night Train” considers androgyny simultaneously in a woman and in a man. The detailed analysis of different segments of Tawada’s texts shows that the gender identity of her characters is not portrayed as biologically given, as a gift of nature, but is rather a product of search by means of crossing gender boundaries. In addition to the their description of the search for gender, transitional situations like bisexualism, and the final “landing” at the same-sex love (lesbianism, homosexuality), Tawada’s texts also contain manifestations of gender hybridity - hermaphroditism, as the “third” mental construct, after lesbianism and homosexuality.

Abstract:

In this article, the analysis of the age identity is used as a method to indicate the change in the relationships between generations in modern Japan. The age identity is understood as an element of the level model of the identity developed by the author. Perceiving the age identity as a level within which a person, belonging to a certain age, shares or does not share the values and attitudes of his/her generation, and based on the understanding that values and attitudes can change following the time trends, which are especially noticeable in a modern, dynamically changing world, the author analyzes this level and comes to the conclusion whether the values and attitudes of young, elderly and middle-aged people in modern Japan are similar. The socio-philosophical aspect is manifested in the fact that in this study the age level of identity is considered not in a psychological manner, which is quite typical for research of this level, but in terms of the impact, these changes in the consciousness and perception of the world among representatives of different generations have on the society. Characteristics of modern Japanese society are depopulation of the aging society, a decrease in the birth rate and changes in the labor market. The economic difficulties: difficulties with getting a secure job and low income levels lead to the fact that the Japanese start their families later or do not marry at all, and thus the family institution is being transformed. The changes in the family institution are also affected by changes on the gender level, as more and more women want or are forced to work after getting married and birth of children, and government supports them. Norms and values of the older people comply with the traditional understanding of marriage, children and work. However, the socio-economic realities of the modern world determine the change in norms and values for the middle-aged and young people. And this change does not create an acute conflict of generations, due to the continuing traditionalism and conservatism of the Japanese society.

Abstract:

In this article, the lexemes of Old English and Middle English periods are given, denoting the time in the Manuscripts of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles. So, the author gives original inscriptions with a translation into the Russian language, showing the time intervals important for the Anglo-Saxon ethnos. In the article it is noted that the following lexemes are such basic time guides: kalendae / calendae, idus, nonae, on Octabris /on Octabus, midwinter / midsumer and Christian holidays. Such lexical grid is explained by the history of the Anglo-Saxons. Thus, the article provides a historical reference, which is the following: Julius Caesar, beginning in 55 BC, sought to turn Britain into a Roman colony, but all his attempts ended in failure. Only the third time Rome was able to subjugate Britain, by the middle of the 1st century AD. In the conquered territory, the Romans built fortifications, developed trade relations, built villas according to the Roman pattern, introduced an agricultural system, etc. The Roman legions were withdrawn from Britain at the beginning of the 5th century, because of the dissolution of the Roman Empire. What about Christianity, in the first half of the VII century on the island of Britain namely the kingdom of the Angles Northumbria through the Irish missionaries (the Church in Ireland was approved as early as the 5th century), Christianity and, as a consequence, the Latin alphabet and the Latin book culture penetrated. Consequently, in Britain, being a colonized Roman Empire, and then converted to Christianity, the ideas of the Latin world about time took root. Along with the designation of the dates of the Roman calendar, the Christian folk conceptions gradually penetrate the Anglo-Saxons. The temporal reference point of the historical events of the Manuscripts is limited to the lexicon represented in the article.