Book review: V.E. Kemerov “Social philosophy: paradigms shift” (Moscow: Akademicheskij proekt, 2022. 127 pp.)
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21146/2413-9084-2024-29-1-162-169Keywords:
paradigm of social and humanitarian cognition, classical, non-classical and post-classical stages of science development, strategy of reductionism, globalization, re-ideologization of science and mass consciousness, dialogue of cultures, human subjectivity, methodology of anti-reductionismAbstract
The problem of paradigm shift has been on the agenda of social and humanitarian cognition for half a century. Among the factors that led to the appeal to this topic, two played a decisive role. The first one the emergence of Soviet social science from ideological isolation, gave an impetus to comparisons of the achieved results. The second one, the transfer of the problem of human to the center of theoretical and methodological analysis, gave rise to the need for a radical reconstruction not only of the structure of social science, but also of its basic methodological principles. Originating in line with the theoretical and methodological principles of research of the “science” type, the social sciences and humanities of the classical period relied on the strategy of reductionism, which assumed the priority of the general (concepts) over the special (real phenomena, events, and people), identity over difference and diversity. The effect of this attitude persists to this day, causing not only a growing gap between science and reality, but also a decrease in the theoretical and methodological potential of social and humanitarian knowledge. The problem of changing the paradigm of social and humanitarian cognition is considered in the book by V.E. Kemerov “Social philosophy: paradigm shift”, in which he substantiates the need to develop a strategy of anti-reductionism and outlines the range of tasks facing modern social philosophy in this area.
