Gorodezky Marat
The article postulates the ontological meaning of digitalization, in addition to the obvious technical and political ones. Digitalization is understood as informatization to the utmost extent, i.e. the extension of the action of semantic-syntactic operations to an unlimited number of objects and the expansion of the information and linguistic area (realm) within existence. It is argued that digitalization is the fundamental transformation of existence. The essence of this transformation is the merge of the material and linguistic realms of being. The author stands on an objective and idealistic position in understanding the world. The world is understood as being – a structure which logically exhausts the capacity of existence and consists of three realms: material, linguistic and conscious. The logic of merging the material and linguistic realms is seen in their unification in relation to consciousness. Instead of three, there are two realms – a united material-linguistic one (“materiolanguage”, as the author calls it) versus a conscious one. Ontological inequality emerges: while there used to be a balance of three harmoniously delimited realms in the previous structure of existence, then as a result of the transformation the united material-linguistic area becomes infinitely dominant in relation to the conscious one. Consciousness turns out to be “permanently squeezed” and devoid of its own area, but a fundamentally irreducible ontological link. The unification of matter and language is carried out from the side of the language realm (“expansion of language”). The key idea of the article is that language, according to its inherent intention of signification and the disjunctive movement of detailing definitions, “breaks through” matter itself as a fundamental level of the semantic homogeneity and absorbs the material realm. This penetration leads to the ontological replacement of things, as the author describes it, and deprives consciousness of the harmonizing boundary formed by the material level which distances consciousness from the sociolinguistic realm. The described ontological transformation is regarded as an ontology of absolute evil. In addition to the main conclusion, the problems of transhumanism are touched upon and criticized.
Keywords: digitalization, existence, realms of being, language, matter, consciousness, ontology, homogeneity, meaning, transhumanism
Illarionov Grigoriy
, Mosienko Mikhail
The relevance of research on memory wars is indirectly reaffirmed by a growing number of scientific works on this phenomenon, while the direct proof of its significance is the fact that nowadays memory wars are evolving in a radically different context compared to those taken place in the past. Today they occur against the background of socio-epistemological relativism and post-truth and therefore acquire new qualities requiring theoretical understanding. The aim of this article is to analyze the transformations of conflictogenic public discourse in relation to the social past under the influence of socio-epistemological relativism. As this research encompasses both the interconnection between the social past and the social present and the sphere of social epistemology, the methods chosen are, on the one hand, more or less theoretically neutral phenomenological method, and, on the other hand, structural and conceptual analysis – the latter two being appropriate for the study of epistemological concepts. Based on the results obtained, the authors come to the following conclusions. Memory wars, understood from the constructivist standpoint (especially within the framework of socio-epistemological relativism), do not have any necessary connection with the historical process. They are linked only associatively. Such wars exist in the scope of an epistemologically abnormal discourse: it lacks the institute of expertise and its narratives are self-referential. Memory wars are based on the opposition between information and noninformation. Any opponent’s narrative is tagged as noninformation, it is going not to be refuted, but just not to be considered. Hence, the aim of memory wars is not to justify the truth of the narrative but to monopolize the role of the narrator. Modern memory wars differ from similar wars of past eras in that they do not create integral narratives, but remain fluid and inconsistent, because finality and consistency are not their aims: they perceive memory of the past as purely instrumental for accomplishing practical goals of today.
Keywords: memory war, post-truth, historical narrative, abnormal discourse, constructivism, socio-epistemological relativism
Davydov Dmitry
The article is devoted to the search for an answer to the question of why in the West, right-wing populists and conservative authors have become in demand among representatives of the working class and the poor. This question directly affects the problems of the evolution of left-wing political thought: leftists are less and less interested in class struggle and more and more often talk about civil rights and ecology. The main message of this article is that the ideological contradictions among the modern Left will no longer seem anomalous if we move away from the idea of the transition to a post-capitalist society as a process in which the interests of the most economically vulnerable are satisfied in the first place. On the contrary, as the facts show, the formation of post-capitalism can be associated with an increase in the social stratum, consisting of those who are no longer struggling for survival and are not in acute material need. They shape their own left agendas by talking about systemic oppression, homophobia, racism, sexism, transphobia, ableism, or environmental pollution. The key problem lies in the specifics of the ideas about the world of left-wing post-materialists: a) they are gradually ceasing to care about socio-economic issues as such; b) their views are becoming naive and idealistic, relevant only to their own secure environment; c) they focus on solving the problems that they believe are caused by consumption and economic growth, and this is often contrary to the interests of the most vulnerable in the socio-economic sense. The article argues that a serious symptom of the growing antagonism between materialists and post-materialists is the very discourses of Conservatives and Republicans, which are becoming increasingly economically centered and attractive to a considerable part of the poor and the working class. Moreover, conservative critics of the contemporary leftists are often convincing in their exposure of left-wing idealism and anti-materialism. All this makes us doubt the relevance of the left-right dichotomy.
Keywords: Marxism, post-Marxism, post-capitalism, post-materialism, multiculturalism, globalization, migration, ecological alarmism, civil rights, socialism
Skorobogatskiy Vyacheslav
One of the topical tasks of the development of Russian society is the modernization of the public administration system, bringing the state structure in accordance with the requirements of a new social reality – the transition from an industrial to an information society. The peculiarity of the historical situation characteristic of Russian society is that it faces a twofold task of transition, firstly, to the next stage of civilizational development, and, secondly, from authoritarianism to democracy. At the same time, what is happening at the local-historical level forms a kind of context that directly affects the results of the movement in the mainstream of the general historical (global) process, mediates the scale and depth of the civilizational shift. The context that determines the possible limits of such a shift is the state of the basic institutions of society, primarily political ones. The article shows that the administrative and bureaucratic model of public administration, being implemented in Russia for two decades, has been undergoing a digital transformation in recent years. The main direction of digitalization is the sphere of services that the state provides to citizens, organizations, and businesses. It is noted that the usage of modern technologies does not lead to an increase in the efficiency of public administration, and its low quality becomes the main factor hindering economic growth and the formation of human capital. As a result of the study, it is concluded that the reason for the low quality of public administration and the contradictory consequences of its digitalization is that, in terms of its main characteristics, Russian society remains Soviet. The archaization of social, economic and political institutions experienced at the turn of the 1990s – 2000s in line with the political course of abandoning market and democratic reforms has created a situation of an institutional trap in which Russian society is today and which prevents the effective usage of new generation technologies.
Keywords: digitalization, modernization of public administration, meta-methodological platform in social science, archaization of basic institutions of society, the Soviet as a cultural and historical type, corporate structure of society, institutional traps
Roy Oleg
The need for security is one of the most significant human needs. The article discusses the theoretical content of this phenomenon, analyzes the existing approaches to its study. It highlights the features of security as a public good, localized at the national-state and individual levels. The work notes difficulties in the compatibility of these levels with each other and their internal inconsistency. It is emphasized that the main actor of public security policy is the state, which defines a list of special institutions designed to meet the security needs of citizens. Using the securitization theory as a theoretical and methodological basis, the author defines the main levels of analysis and forms of perception of security, highlighting its internal and external varieties. By the example of correlating the concepts of the executor of the function and the manager of security services, the features of the functioning of activities to neutralize security threats at the state and local levels are revealed. The article also summarizes the results of a pilot sociological study conducted in May – June 2022 and devoted to the analysis of the perception of security threats at the individual level, which made it possible to identify socially significant priorities in ensuring security. Based on the theoretical analysis of security as a public good and the results of sociological research, the author formulates the principles of the organization of state policy in the field of security and gives recommendations for its improvement. It is concluded that a deep connection between internal and external security factors requires a well-coordinated and well-thought-out policy for their synchronization. At the same time, the state needs to pay more attention to internal risk factors, considering such important social spheres as education, health and culture as components of security policy.
Keywords: security, public good, securitization theory, external threat factors, internal threat factors, danger, risks, functions, services
Ruvinskiy Roman
The article focuses on the long-term trends in the development of a regulatory mechanism of social relations, determined by the introduction of digital technologies for processing reputational data on the behavior and characteristics of individuals and organizations into the public administration. The first part of the research examines the regime of the rule of law established in the age of modernity, highlights its vulnerabilities and the difficulty of maintaining it in the face of specific modern challenges forcing the world elites to fundamentally reform social institutions and subsystems (economy, energy, healthcare, etc.). The second part is devoted to the characterization of existing data-driven regulation technologies, considering their transformative impact on the rule of law regime. The third part presents predictive characteristics of the emerging system of social regulation; special attention is paid to the role of ethical norms in constructing a new system of social regulation over and instead of the institutions of the rule of law. It is emphasized that modern mechanisms of regulation and control, based on intelligent data analysis and often involving some form of assessment of the behavior of subjects, are super-structured over existing systems of positive law, but can easily be used to expand the control of authorities in public relations that go beyond the scope of legal regulation. Such mechanisms may include increased requirements for access to social goods and require compliance not only with legal, but also with moral and ethical norms, professional standards, and arbitrarily interpreted customs. The author concludes that the regulatory datafication results in the actual replacement of the mechanism of legal regulation by extended compliance systems, often based on opaque norms of unclear origin. The institutions of the rule of law and the regime of the supremacy of law, presupposing the certainty of norm-setting and democratic control over lawmaking, are being replaced by loyalty programs fostering only obedience.
Keywords: rule of law, legal regulation, social credit system, digital transformation, digital profile, ethics, compliance, big data
Stepanov Semyon
In the Russian doctrine of tort law, the discussion of fault as a condition of tort liability is reduced to establishing its content by means of subjective or objective criteria. The first approach considers fault is a special mental attitude of a delinquent to illegal behavior and its consequences. According to the objective approach, fault lies in the failure of a delinquent to take the necessary precautions. However, scientists often abstract from identifying the genesis of these approaches. The article attempts to fill this gap. To achieve the goal, the author uses the historical method and refers primarily to Roman law. It allows, on the one hand, to indicate the causes of fault, on the other hand, to determine its content. The results of the study show that in classical Roman law, fault served as a fine-tuning tool when bringing a person to tort liability: in some cases, it expanded the limits of liability, in others, on the contrary, narrowed its scope. In addition, fault, defined in Roman law primarily by objective criteria, tended to coincide with wrongfulness. Some prerequisites for their separation can only be found in the Corpus Iuris Civilis. Significant changes occurred in the Middle Ages. By the 13th century, due to the influence of canon law, fault acquires a subjective content. This was largely due to the growing role of confession as the main element in the doctrine of the reconciliation of the sinner with God. Thus, the idea of the individual relation of the delinquent to the violation was formed, which contributed to strengthening the subjective approach. The article also reflects the teaching of Thomas Aquinas on human actions, thanks to which the subjective approach got into the studies of postglossators, as well as Hugo Grotius. By the 17th century, as a result of a complex process of interpenetration of legal and religious spheres, the subjective concept of fault finds its way into both criminal and tort law.
Keywords: fault, tort law, canon law, Roman law, wrongfulness