Ideas and Ideals

The article continues the discussion of the concept of the cognitive turn previously presented in Ideas and Ideals (2025, vol. 17, no. 3, pt. 1, pp. 155–172). The publication attracted considerable attention and initiated a scholarly discussion in which philosophers A.V. Ivanov, A.S. Samarin, D.A. Sevostyanov, and the educator Z.A. Aksyutina took part. All participants supported the relevance of addressing the cognitive turn and the need to substantiate it in the context of crisis phenomena in science, philosophy, and intellectual culture as a whole.

The discussion focused on several fundamental assumptions identified in the original article, including mono-ontologism, the desubjectivization of cognition, and the predominance of attention to the external world (nature), accompanied by a significant underestimation of the internal dimension of cognition, above all the human being. These positions were generally accepted by the discussants. In contrast to these outdated constructs, the article formulates several new propositions: the concept of a three-aspect reality integrating the physical, the psychic, and the cognitive; the reintegration of the subject into the process of knowledge; attention to both the external and the internal aspects of any action; and the understanding of the knowing subject as an extremely complex research instrument that requires careful adjustment. These ideas also received a positive assessment in the discussion.

One of the most important outcomes of the debate is that it effectively reached the level of shaping a broader conception of the cognitive turn, within which each participant contributes from the perspective of his or her own research interests. A.V. Ivanov considers the state and prospects of knowledge within the framework of the metaphysics of all-unity, which corresponds to the orientation of the cognitive turn toward holism and synthesis. A.S. Samarin expands the discussion to the broader fi eld of cognitivism, largely through a metaphilosophical perspective. D.A. Sevostyanov analyzes the diversity of “turns” in contemporary intellectual culture and interprets the cognitive turn as the creation of cognitive constructs that can be understood as a form of systemic inversion. Z.A. Aksyutina, who applies categorical methodology in pedagogical research, confirms the relevance of the cognitive turn for the implementation of projects based on a new instrumental framework.

The article concludes by presenting several additional ideas concerning the cognitive turn. It is interpreted as a shift in the direction of humanity’s development from the past and the present toward the future; as a transformation of the human being from a mere instrument of cognition into the primary goal of knowledge; and as a change in the understanding of intellectual activity – from a form of work to the highest form of leisure that brings intellectual fulfillment and joy.

There is a paradoxical situation in the world. It is becoming increasingly diffi cult to qualify what is happening as an expansion of military operations in the fi eld of economics and fi nance or the formation of special instruments of war in them. In these conditions, the roles of economic and national economic security are changing from providing economic and fi nancial activities to determining the very existence of the nation. A perfect system of economic and national economic security should be guided by the principle of maximizing effi ciency while minimizing risks and threats. It is impossible to fulfi ll this requirement without science and education, as they prepare the human and intellectual potential for the expanded and safe reproduction of Russia. The article aims to show that, without detracting from the world-class achievements of our country in science and education, internal problems are growing in them, determining the areas of vulnerability of the national economic security of the Russian Federation. Attention is focused on topics representing areas of vulnerability of the Russian economy: a reduction in the number of faculty members of the country’s universities in qualitative and quantitative terms, disruption of the process of personnel reproduction in science and education, teachers and researchers receiving academic degrees of candidates and doctors of sciences. The existing dissertation defense mechanisms are analyzed and the legal and economic gaps fi lled by shadow relations are demonstrated. As a result, many scientists are economically unable to pay for the preparation and defense of their dissertation. The dialogue between the article’s co-authors is used as a method that allows for a comprehensive and multifaceted demonstration of the gaps and shortcomings in the mechanisms for preparing and defending dissertations in economic, legal, and ethical terms. The authors propose a national project to fi nd a way out of this situation – the creation of the digital platform “Science and Education of Russia”.  Automation and digitalization of multiple interactions will become easier, faster, more economical and more transparent for applicants and the government, displacing shadow relations.

Improving the system of scientifi c knowledge inevitably leads to changes in the social reality. In the work “Cognitive Turn: The Change in the Foundations of Intellectual Culture” V.I. Razumov calls the process of changes – “a cognitive turn”. The purpose of the article is to predict their implementation in practice on the basis of the most signifi cant tasks of the cognitive turn. To achieve the goal, the author uses such methods as analysis and forecasting. The main tasks of the cognitive turn include: the formulation of the provisions forming their new base on which science and education will be built; the formation of a new scientifi c approach to scientifi c activity; the realization that the most complex subject of the Universe is a man himself. When formulating the provisions forming the new educational base, the orientation of the cognitive turn in education is revealed. Instead of mechanically assimilating information, students get the opportunity to develop as active participants in their own learning, acquire the skills of independent search and processing of knowledge, which makes them ready for the challenges of our time. The formulation of the provisions forming the new base of science required an analysis of existing developments using the example of the application of categorical methodology, which made it possible to determine the existing effects of the cognitive imperative on the components of science: research methods, categories, theories. It is important that the examples are taken from various fi elds of scientifi c knowledge. The given examples of the resourcefulness of cognitive technologies in the development of science have shown the movement of modern science towards a multidimensional approach.

Analyzing the role of cognitive technologies in shaping modern scientifi c activity, it is shown that it is provided through automation, increased accuracy, improved visualization, decision support and expansion of interdisciplinary connections, which creates favorable conditions for accelerating scientifi c research and stimulating innovation. In studying Man as an object of the Universe, cognitive technologies will allow for a deeper understanding of his nature as a biological, psychological and social being, through promising studies of his cognitive, emotional and behavioral aspects. During the analysis of cognitive turn tasks, an attempt was made to predict the implementation of some aspects of them in practice – in education, science, scientifi c activity and in research.

The article is a response to V.I. Razumov’s work “The Cognitive Turn: Changing the Foundations of Intellectual Culture”, published in “Ideas and Ideals”, issue 3/2025. The author of the review notes that V.I. Razumov is right, seeing
one of the elements of the cognitive turn in rejecting the positions of naive materialism, objectivism and rationalism and recognizing the equally important ideal, subjective and non-rational components in cognition. It also emphasizes
the validity of the author’s view on the Universe as an organic unity and the mutual infl uence of its physical, mental and knowledge levels. This requires a multiaspect approach to their cognition. There is also no objection to the author’s thesis about the most important role of the subjective principle not only in cognition, but also in the existence of the Cosmos. However, the author of the review emphasizes the need to distinguish between ‘false’ and true subjectivity, where the latter is just the most important condition for acquiring objective knowledge. Finally, the methodological position of the author of the reviewed article requires support, where he aimed at developing a categorical-refl exive methodology. The analysis of V.I. Razumov’s article ends with the suggestion that in the near future we will face not only a cognitive, but also a global anthropological and cultural turn with a new postpostclassical rationality and justifi cation of
many undeservedly forgotten names, books and knowledge.

The article is devoted to the analysis of such a phenomenon in modern philosophical thought as the ‘cognitive turn’. The ‘cognitive turn’ became the subject of research in the discussed V.I. Razumov’s article “Cognitive Turn: Changing
the Foundations of Intellectual Culture”. However, the ‘cognitive turn’ is not the only phenomenon of this kind. There are many known ‘turns’ of this nature. So, in modern literature there is a ‘linguistic turn’ mentioned, an ‘iconic turn’, an ‘epistemological turn’, etc. Each of them is realized as a signifi cant increase in publications on a specifi c topic. Each such ‘turn’ includes an ontological and epistemological aspect. The ontological aspect refl ects the changes taking
place in the object of philosophical understanding. The epistemological aspect includes the changes taking place in the very process of philosophical cognition.
At the same time, the ‘cognitive turn’ occupies a special place among them. The ‘cognitive turn’ is associated with the awareness of the role of cognitive constructs in cognition. Therefore, here the object and the process of cognition
appear in unity. Appeal to the analysis of cognitive constructs allows for a more adequate understanding of the nature of other ‘turns’ in cognition. Each of them is a manifestation of certain cognitive constructs. The analysis of cognitive
constructs makes philosophical research interesting not only for philosophers. An example of this is the analysis of inverse relationships in hierarchical systems; the model of systemic inversion is also a cognitive construct. Systemic inversion
is a form of intra-system relations in which a lower, subordinate element acquires a dominant meaning in a hierarchical system. The cognitive construct describing
this form of relationship, in addition to being purely theoretical, has wide practical signifi cance in many different fi elds of knowledge.

The article offers an analysis of the cognitive turn as a new stage in the development of philosophical knowledge associated with focusing on the internal processes of thinking, perception and consciousness. Based on the works of V.I. Razumov, the key metaphilosophical consequences of this turn are considered,including the transformation of the methodological foundations of philosophy, the integration of data from cognitive sciences. The importance of the cultural
context in the formation of cognitive models and the need for harmonious human development in the context of technological progress and the growth of challenges from artifi cial intelligence are emphasized. The author comes to the conclusion that the cognitive turn is not just a change in the substantive component of philosophical knowledge, but implies the possibility of a deep epistemological
and methodological reorientation, which is of strategic importance for the future of philosophical knowledge and human development in general.

The article analyzes the cultural transformation and strengthening of conservativepatriotic sentiments in Soviet society during the fi rst Brezhnev decade (1964–1974). The widespread thesis about the deliberate curtailment of the
‘thaw’ by the country’s new political leadership is being questioned. The conservative shift that occurred in the late 1960s and early 1970s was natural and was caused by a number of factors. The fi rst is connected with the strengthening of consumerism in Soviet society. It objectively led to the de-ideologization of mass consciousness and a focus on personal problems and life arrangements. The second factor concerns the liberal discourse of the ‘thaw’. Liberalism had a protest character. This led to its exhaustion at a certain stage of development. The supporters
of ‘socialism with a human face’ were distinguished by utopianism and the absence of a positive program of transformations. The third factor is the intellectual
crisis and ‘spirituality defi cit’ of the late 1960s. It gave rise to nostalgia for lost roots. The strengthening of national self-awareness, turning to the past and movement towards strengthening patriotism began. Particular attention is
paid to the analysis of Russian village prose as the most vivid expression of the “pochvennichestvo” direction of culture. The reaction of the population to the invasion of troops into Czechoslovakia and the armed confl ict with China became
the evidence of the weakening of liberalism, internationalism and the assertion of the imperial principle of the state. The rehabilitation of the White Guard offi cers cemented the conservative shift in Soviet culture.

This is the last article by Wolfgang Sassin, regular contributor to “Ideas and Ideals”, member of the journal’s international editorial board. He was very worried about the problem of the future, and the key idea in his reflections was the relationship between uncontrolled population growth and the corresponding transformation of man as a species, the transformation of Homo Sapiens into Homo Billionis (Wolfgang’s term). In the proposed article, controversial from the point of view of evolutionists, he reflects precisely on this. And he comes to the extremely important conclusion that a person of modern civilization should think not about control over nature, but about control over himself.

The author offers his own scenario of human evolution, based on the fact that in the process of evolution, a person managed to turn his weakness into strength, thanks to the ability to think abstractly, have a strategy of action and be future-oriented, use in strategy not only his own experience, but also the knowledge gained from observing the world around us, to be open to existing patterns and to see ourselves and others as part of these patterns. Man acquired the ability for strategic thinking, which gave him the opportunity at all times to oppose something to the conditions of existence, in the spatial and temporal sense. The author shows that one should distinguish between biological evolution and the evolution of consciousness. In the conditions of uncontrolled population growth, a person begins to change as a species: he evolves towards Homo Billionis - a creature that is comfortable only in a herd. Instead of improving technology, man should rationally control himself and set rigid boundaries for his own motives and dreams, and not control and correct the nature of a small and easily vulnerable planet that he still tries to subjugate.

The starting point of the paper is the three articles in the journal Ideas and Ideals by Irina Zhezhko-Brown who analyzes the formation of a new ruling class in the USA, which rests on racial and gender minorities. The values proclaimed by the elite are fundamentally different from traditional American values.

The paper shows that any attempt to bring them into life can have devastating consequences for American society and, ultimately, lead to its downfall. Considering the huge role of the USA in the world system, this can be compared to the fall of the Roman Empire.

The author shows that it is possible to escape such an outcome. The obstacle to this escape is the entire social and economic system that has developed in the USA. In the field of economics, the priority in recruiting personnel is given to quotas based on race and gender instead of qualification and business qualities, which will lead to a significant decrease in the financial performance of companies and the wages of employees.

The author analyzes such long-term macroeconomic defects of the American economy as the budget deficit, trade and balance of payments deficit, and the growth of government debt. In the near future, these defects may lead to a deep economic crisis, a stock market crisis, and the US dollar can lose its position as the key currency.

The paper considers economic and political premises and prevention methods of these destructive processes.

The article analyzes two approaches to explaining the American Revolution. The first belongs to Irina Zhezhko-Braun, who in her works examines the features and formation of social technologies created by the left in the United States, their application in the struggle for power, the transformation of the consciousness and behavior of social subjects, the emasculation of the original democratic principles and other social processes. Vadim Rozin, being not only a methodologist, but also a culturologist, outlines another explanation - culturological. At the same time, he puts forward a hypothesis according to which modernity is a complex double process of a parallel crisis of the culture of modernity and the emergence of “postculture”, which for the time being is manifested for researchers in the trends of sociality. The author of the article considers it necessary to consider the American Revolution by combining both approaches (from the point of view of social sciences and cultural studies), that is, to implement a sociocultural approach and discourse. For this, he first characterizes the social and cultural approaches separately. If the selection and characterization of culture presupposes procedures for comparing different cultures, analysis of the integrity of culture and an invariant vision of the world, then sociality is set by the processes of directed social change, management and power. Then, relying on the material of the reconstruction of the modern American revolution, which was proposed by I. Zhezhko-Braun, the author outlines a sociocultural explanation. In particular, he claims that the successes of the quiet and invisible for many “step-by-step American revolution” can be explained not only by effective social technology and the connivance of the ruling class, but also by the fact that guided social changes are taking place against the background of parallel processes of the completion of modernity and the formation of post-culture