Zharov Alexander
The article analyzes philosophical problems related to the study of the verbalization of new knowledge. Special attention is given to identifying the place and role of metaphor in the linguistic expression of this knowledge. The originality of metaphorical speech in various fields of creativity (science, poetry, and mythology) is characterized. The analysis of the features of the metaphorical language of science is conducted mainly through the history of development of physical knowledge. The author aims to develop his own generalizing concept of metaphor based on Russian philosopher Alexander Nikiforov’s theory about the structure of human cognition, consisting of three contexts (material, cultural, and personal) with the elements of which a scientist compares a new phenomenon. In this regard, the essence of the metaphor lies in the interplay of similarities and differences between the scientist’s personal experience and new data. Ultimately, new knowledge is formed with the establishment of a metaphor that interprets the new phenomenon. Initially, a so-called root metaphor is formulated, expressing the main aspect of the new knowledge. Subsequently, a network of clarifying auxiliary metaphors develops around it, interlocking due to the increasing interaction of various aspects of the scientist’s personal experience with different aspects of a new phenomenon being framed into new knowledge. In this case, the metaphor acts as an integral element of the conceptual populations, according to Stephen Toulmin. The content of these populations has not sufficient elaborated in the British philosopher’s teaching, and the author of the article addresses this gap. From his perspective, it is the metaphor that can act as a basic element of such populations, thereby becoming the primary measure of evolutionary variability of scientific theories. In addition, the author believes that the metaphorical definition of Toulmin’s basic element of conceptual populations can resolve conflicts between different approaches to describing scientific progress. Focusing on the description of its nature rather than on the extent of variability of scientific knowledge will allow the conflicting parties to unite.
Keywords: scientific cognition, new knowledge, scientific theory, scientific progress, verbalization, metaphor, evolutionary epistemology, semantics
Balashov Dmitry
In the early 21st century, effective altruism (EA), a philosophical and social movement developing ideas of classical utilitarianism, started to gain popularity in the USA and European countries. It has attracted followers from various fields, including philosophers, economists, entrepreneurs, and philanthropists. As its name implies, effectiveness (maximum benefit) of actions taken serves as the bedrock for the EA movement. But how high is this effectiveness really? To assess it, the author of the article suggests addressing the crucial issue of EA – helping the world’s poorest countries. This problem also occupies a central place in development economics, a branch of economics that is closest to EA and aimed at helping the poorest countries and their inhabitants. In this regard, the article compares the key approaches to effectiveness in development economics. It is concluded that effectiveness is understood in different ways and it is often achieved by opposite tools. To demonstrate the logic leading to such discrepancies, the author of the article identifies a number of criteria that allow, with a certain degree of convention, combining the theories into several groups: idealists (Thomas Pogge, Jeffrey Sachs), missionaries (Paul Romer, Paul Collier), fatalists (Daron Acemoglu, James Robinson), and realists (William Easterly, Abhijit Banerjee, Esther Duflo). The author comes to the conclusion that EA is not a magic cure for all diseases, but only one of the possible tools for solving world problems. And although it is impossible to talk about its global effectiveness, in particular aspects it is effective, which indicates the development of general utilitarian ethics.
Keywords: effective altruism, development economics, global resources dividend, poverty trap, charter city, randomized controlled trial, inclusive institutions, extractive institutions
Nikandrov Aleksey
The creation of a theory of a socialist state on the basis of the theoretical Marxist heritage became one of the most urgent tasks that Joseph Stalin faced. The works of Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels did not contain specific provisions about the essence of the socialist state. Only in Vladimir Lenin’s works did the concept of a “socialist state” appear, and the theory of the socialist state gradually began to take on clearer contours, but death did not allow him to create any detailed theory. By the end of the 1920s, it became clear that the theory of a socialist state could not be based on the principles of proletarian internationalism and the dictatorship of the proletariat, which had received special development in the works of the classics of Marxism. This theory should have been built only on the principle of the people as the source of state and law in the USSR, i.e. the Soviet people as the source of Soviet power. This in turn led to the need to introduce the principle of the all people’s state (state of the whole people), i.e. classless society. Such a formulation inevitably and directly came into confrontation with the axioms of Marxism. The Marxist doctrine of class nature of the state experienced significant resistance when applied to the socialist state. The duality of the nature of the socialist state (class and democratic state) determined the difficulties for the development of the theory of this state. The article analyzes the prehistory of the doctrine of the all people’s state, which was brought into effect as an official designation of the new political status of the Soviet state at the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). This was preceded by an attempt to conceptualize the term “All People’s State” in the 1947 Draft of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (AUCPB) Program. The new concept was not part of the new theory of the socialist state; it was tested as a risky and experimental innovation without an appropriate theoretical basis. For the first time, this term appeared and almost immediately disappeared in the spring of 1936, before the publication of the draft Constitution. The article shows how Joseph Stalin and Soviet theorists and ideologists of the Stalin era, using Marxist terminology, slowly approached to proclamation of the USSR as an “all people’s state”, gradually filling the class structure of Soviet society with new “non-class” concepts. At the same time, the class discourse of proletarian internationalism did not lose its theoretical potential. It was subjected a specific transformation, becoming the part of Soviet foreign political rhetoric, including one of the most important principles of self-representation of the USSR.
Keywords: Soviet state, dictatorship of the proletariat, classless socialist society, all people’s state, Joseph Stalin, the 1936 Constitution of the USSR, the 1947 draft AUCPB Program, the third CPSU Program of 1961
Belousov Alexander
The relevance of propaganda research is beyond doubt in connection with current events, but the importance of work on critical analysis of propaganda in post-war time seems even more significant. In this regard, the book “Falsehood in War-time” (1929) by the British politician, writer, and social activist Arthur Ponsonby is of great interest. He extensively catalogs types of lies and constructs a phenomenology of lies during World War I. The article analyzes the influence of the political views of the book’s author on the critical stance toward propaganda. Ponsonby, a pacifist, consistently advocated for Britain’s non-intervention policy from the war’s onset. Special attention is paid to the harm caused by propaganda – from the defilement of the human soul in the interpretation of Ponsonby to the emergence of psychiatric disorders such as paranoia and schizophrenia, as noted by Jacques Ellul. It is emphasized that the excessive propaganda can negatively impact the quality of human capital from a public administration perspective. The article also provides a detailed analysis of the criticism of Ponsonby’s ideas, particularly in modern times. Critics have labeled him a lot with various terms – “pacifist”, “Germanophile”, “Kaiser supporter”, etc., accusing his work of perpetuating “historiographical legends” about British propaganda. However, in reality, rather than exposing lies, Ponsonby’s work often created them based on contradictory interpretations and fabrications. The article compares the book “Falsehood in War-time” with other key works of those years – “Propaganda Technique in the World War” by Harold Lasswell and “Propaganda” by Edward Bernays. It also juxtaposes Arthur Ponsonby’s strategies for abolishing propaganda with those of Noam Chomsky, one of the most famous followers of the critical trend in propaganda research. It is concluded that propaganda should be pragmatic, considering its implications in the post-war period and have some kind of an exit strategy.
Keywords: World War I, propaganda, manipulation, public opinion, discredit,cancel culture, negative human capital
Ponsonby Arthur
The article gives the first Russian-language translation of four chapters from the book “Falsehood in War-time” (1929) by British politician and writer Arthur Ponsonby (1871–1946). The translation was made by Alexander B. Belousov, a Senior Researcher at the Institute of Philosophy and Law of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. The chapter “Atrocity Stories” examines in detail the stories of German troops’ atrocities, which were circulated in leaflets, pamphlets, letters, and speeches during World War I almost every day. The British author provides documented evidence of how these stories were verified, resulting in the proof of their falsity. The chapter “Faked Photographs” reveals the use of fake photography captions with various examples. It is noted that faked pictures hold special value, as they have a greater impact than any mere statements that could be criticized or denied. It was difficult to detect falsity at that time. The faking of photographs amounted almost to an industry during the war, with Ponsonby noting that the French excelled the most in this practice. The chapter “The Criminal Kaiser” traces the political logic of personifying responsibility for the outbreak of war. Ponsonby believes that in the future this played a bad joke on the governments of European states, since the lack of punishment for actions led to deep disappointment among the people. The chapter “Germany’s Sole Responsibility for the War” shows that accusing the enemy of sole responsibility for the war is a common form in every nation and in every war. After World War I, doubts arose about adequacy of the accusations, once again proving their mythical nature. The translation is provided with factual comments, as well as Alexander Belousov’s article “Arthur Ponsonby and the Abolition of Propaganda”, which examines the issues raised by the British author, which are still relevant today.
Keywords: World War I, propaganda, manipulation, public opinion, lies
Lesiv Bogdan
The approach to law elaborated by the distinguished American judge Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. remains poorly studied in Russia due to several methodological obstacles. One of the problems arises when the study is not preceded by a deliberate conceptualization of legal formalism as a general impetus that prompted the American legal community in 19th – 20th centuries to discuss legal practice from the perspective of new values. The realistic approach to law was not the creation of abstract reasoning, but rather it was a response to concrete manifestations of another approach – the formalistic. Accordingly, the substance of the particular approach (and its cognition) is to a certain extent determined by the substance of the other (and cognition of it – or rather, cognition of its “wrong” elements). Moreover, realists criticized other movements of legal thought, i.e. positivism, natural law theory, and the historical school, also as an expression of a common anti-formalist attitude, rather than beginning a separate dispute with each of them. Another methodological issue relates to such a peculiarity of the American realistic approach as a focus on contemplating the life of common law (or American law), but not law as a universal social phenomenon. Justice Holmes and other American jurists responded primarily to the “practical” judicial formalism in England and the USA, which peaked in the 19th century. Making up for these two omissions is essential for methodologically consistent reference to Holmes’ teachings and is relevant in two aspects: first, for enhancing and clarifying the standard classification of legal doctrines; secondly, it reveals the reasons for specific practical patterns of the development of American law (especially judicial) influenced by one of the most authoritative models of legal thinking. The article aims to clarify the starting points of the American realistic approach to law through Holmes’ works and by virtue of his definition of legal formalism. One of the key questions is what the solutions are that realists proposed instead of formalist practices. The corresponding feature of the article is the emphasis on those Holmes’ pieces which are organically confirmed by examples from the common law, in particular, the free market of ideas doctrine.
Keywords: legal realism, formalism, historical school of law, formal logic, sources of law, common law, judicial law-making, analogy of law, free market of ideas
Makarov Andrey
, Golubenko Olga
The article considers key difficulties in regulation of creating a comfortable urban environment in Russian cities.Such programs are actively developed nowadays, and significant budget funds are allocated for urban environmentdevelopment. At the same time, serious problems have arisen in this area: 1) legal norms and institutions have not created sufficient guarantees for taking into account the opinions of residents within the framework of improvement, which leads to the infringement of their rights and social conflicts; 2) the institutional framework for improvement programs, including the problems of hard and soft budget constraints; 3) the problem of strict regulation and legal acts, which prevents a creative approach to the improvement of the urban environment, and makes it difficult to take into account local residents’ opinion. The authors of the article, considering the existing regional legislation and international experience, propose measures to enhance the institutions and principles in the field of urban improvement.On the one hand, costs of improvement programs should be adequate to the capabilities of the government (regions), business, and society; improvement should not turn into a heavy burden and a source of rent extraction. On the other hand, it was shown that significant liberalization in this field should be achieved in order to move from bureaucratic regulation towards respecting the opinion of local residents and property owners. The opinion of residents and owners (rather than abstract standards) should form the basis of decision-making, and unnecessary improvement projects and rules should not be imposed. This requires the revival of the public hearings institution, both in urban planning projects and in improvement projects, and it is necessary to guarantee the veto right of local residents and take into account their position.In practice, various formats can be used for protecting the rights of local residents – from local referendums to creating public councils. Other actors (political parties, nonprofit organizations, etc.) can also play an important role in public discussion, but for an effective dialogue, fundamental measures are needed to develop local democracy and civil society.
Keywords: comfortable urban environment, urban improvement, legal regulation, urban planning policy, public hearings, local democracy