Scientists arguments about the coming “arrival of the knowledge economy” demonstrate a low level of social science development. Because such arguments show a misunderstanding that any human activity at all times was based on knowledge – information obtained in the process of studying the world. This human activity and differs from the activity of animals. And social scientists to understand this has not yet reached.
The second principal feature of human activity is the use of technology in it. That is, people-created action programs that ensure the application of knowledge to achieve the goals of the activity. As a program is a sequence of actions, the technology consists of methods and tools to support the implementation of the action. Therefore, the progress of mankind consists of two stages – the acquisition of new knowledge and the creation of technology for its use in practice.
New knowledge and technology emerge regularly, but some have a greater impact than others on society – its existence and development. The period of such influence was called “technological mode”. This concept is introduced by economists, but it applies to all spheres of activity. Because in all spheres of society all activities are based on knowledge and technology.
This means that there are technological structures in the political, social, scientific, cultural, military and all other spheres of activity. Their successive change demonstrates the development of the sphere. But their cardinal influence on the existence and development of the social environment takes place only within the boundaries of the sphere itself. But since all spheres of activity are “organs” of the unified system of the social organism, a significant change in any of them necessarily has some impact on the rest of the spheres-makes them adapt to the new features of the changed sphere.
As a result, the whole system of the social organism changes somehow
At a minimum, the models of interaction with the changed sphere of other spheres are corrected. As a maximum, some of the other areas of activity are also changing significantly. At the same time, the scale of changes is dictated by the need to restore the stability of the system of the social organism – the greater the imbalance in the social body created a change in some of the spheres of activity, the more the system of the social organism will change.
Therefore, on the one hand, the system of the social organism is changing continuously, on the other hand, periodically it changes radically. As it happened as a result of the transition to the model of industrial society. After all, it is in all key features is fundamentally different from the previous society – the feudal. And the fact that in this story all spheres of activity have changed fundamentally means that the source of changes is not one of the spheres of activity, but some common for all sphere-performing a system – forming function for the public organism.
And this is not an economic sphere. The attempts of economists to declare the economic sphere systemically important for society is a manifestation of the inertia of Marxist thinking-the idea that the economy is the Foundation of society. As a consequence, the postulation of the idea that the role of the only motor of social development performs the process of changing the economic sphere.
The reason why a significant part of political scientists and sociologists agree with this postulate does not belong to the category of scientific ones. Just in the social science sector economic science appeared first. While other social science disciplines began to develop much later. And economists took advantage of the handicap in time-introduced into the consciousness of the social science community their own ideas about the organization of society. Naturally, in these views, the economy served for the society as a system-forming sphere of activity. But Marx and Engels summed up by this pseudo-scientific postulate is the basis of the informational theory of social development.
Society is certainly a single organism
This means that it has a sphere of activity, the purpose of which is to ensure the organizational and legal unity of society. This is Economics. But the political sphere is not suitable for the role of the backbone. After all, in it, politicians perform only the function of the captain of a public ship – manage the processes of existence and change of society. And to what purpose to conduct a public ship, on which route and in what way, the captain dictates the ideological sphere. Because the activity in this sphere creates a common understanding of the world for the subjects of all spheres. What unites them all in the public body.
That is, in the same way as for the participants of the tour the initial unifying beginning is a map of the area. Because first of all, guided by it, they make all important decisions on where and how to move. As a result, they act together. As the world Outlook sphere creates the world Outlook, it acts for other spheres of activity as the cartographer – the Creator of the map of the public environment and the expert on its use. This is exactly what makes the world Outlook sphere of activity the main unifying principle of society and its system integrator. And it is the ideological sphere that ensures the unification of people and all spheres of activity into a single social organism.
Therefore, the main difference between an industrial society and a feudal one is a fundamentally different worldview. And the reason for the radical restructuring of the organization of society and the transition to new goals for him was the replacement of the captains and navigators of public ships of European civilization idealistic worldview materialistic. The same thing happened in history with the transition from the ancient society to the feudal – Christian worldview offered new goals for society and demanded a different organization.
Today, severe and already chronic crises are observed simultaneously in all spheres of activity of the countries of the First world. Political, economic and social crises are only more visible. As the concern of all. And all sufficiently understood. This means that there is a crisis common to all spheres of activity. Accordingly, having a common cause for all spheres.
Such a reason can only be a common understanding of the world
Because if in all spheres activity leads to disappointing results, it means that in all spheres the understanding of what is happening in them is lost – the direction and nature of the flow of developing processes. As a natural consequence of the complexity of the environment as a result of the increase in its activities, the number of subjects, types of social relations. That leads to failures, as a consequence of the inadequacy of the actual existing conditions.
Since society provides a worldview sphere of activity, it means that the crisis originates in it. And in other areas only derivative crises are developing. As for failed to come to the destination group of tourists the initial problem is the quality of its existing maps. And the subsequent conflicts between them are derived from the map problems.
This means that the original cause of the first world crises is an outdated worldview-which does not correspond to the level of complexity achieved in the development process. Available to developed societies understanding of the world similar to the maps of half a century ago. It is clear that such maps are not able to ensure effective activity – they lack a lot and there are many that have not existed in reality for a long time. Guided by these maps, the captains of the doomed ships to conduct the public about routes to simulacrum goals. This is what the us and EU authorities are demonstrating today with depressing evidence.
Worldview provides the philosophical system derived from her philosophical teachings and derived from the teachings of social science theory. Industrial worldview of developed countries is provided by materialism, ideologies of socialism and liberalism, modern social science theories. Accordingly, the problem is one of these components or all together.
But the social processes developing in the countries of the First world demonstrate that it is not only the inadequacy of all three components of the industrial worldview. Two aggravating circumstances have a significant impact. The Outlook has dramatically worsened the refusal of the authorities of the ideological sphere from set a materialism orientation of power for purposes of social development. As a result, socialism and liberalism, as the ideology of social and personal development, lost the subject of activity. And from the sailing directions of social control has turned into his sets.
The captain of the ship, who lost his sailing, will put him in drift
And not knowing what to do, start drinking. The observed bacchanalia of greed of the ruling classes of developed countries, it is just typical for such a situation, the commanding binge. Ideologies are not only the powers that be – people use them for orientation in their own lives. The transformation of ideologies into political scenery devalued them as an individual navigation support – people gradually lost faith in their truth. So quality of worldview after the government lost and citizens. As a result, the” time of troubles ” came on all floors of society. And the same, for example, Ukraine, demonstrates its heavy form.
But materialism could not become the conceptual basis of social science
Because it has no mind and no society. And all attempts of philosophers to attach them to the materialistic model of the universe ended in failure. Therefore, the development of social science disciplines provided only a model created in the framework of materialism evolutionary process. Although the model did not explain the nature of the subjects of social processes, it nevertheless gave an idea of the processes themselves – their nature and orientation. As a result, the model could serve as ersatz conceptual support.
In fact, social science two centuries have evolved as polonyi – analogue alchemy. And as the results of alchemy were successfully used by the economy, and the results of alchemical social science with some efficiency used by the authorities of European civilization. First of all, social science disciplines oriented society and citizens to development. This provided European civilization accelerated development during the industrial era.
We can say that if chemistry and physics materialism has given the opportunity to develop, moving with the tide of evolution “crawl”, the social science it has provided the opportunity to sail only “a dog.” Nevertheless, even with the efficiency of the locomotive, social science allowed the authorities to manage the process of social development quite intelligently.
But when intellectual authorities announced the end of social development half a century ago, they deprived social science of its conceptual basis. Having lost it, social scientists turned into decorators of politics and dreamers. And the process of social development has moved into an uncontrollable mode.
Half a century ago, it was time for developed countries to change their worldview once again-to move to a new worldview. Adequate to the level of complexity achieved by society. And already the fourth technological way of the world Outlook sphere of societies of the channel of the European civilization. It was the first way of the ancient era. It was created by the first generation of philosophical systems. In them the earth the world was created “stone” senior creatures – gods, spirits, animate forces of nature. And there are their established rules. As a result, the model of the universe had a patchwork form, and in each flap acted established by her God order.
The second was the way of the feudal era. Its authors were Greek patristic philosophers known as the “fathers of the Church.” They developed a Christian model of a centralized world-created by one God and having a single world order. Christian religion has become a fundamental knowledge of the second way of life, and Church authorities have developed technologies for the use of this knowledge in the management of feudal societies.
The third was the way of the industrial era. Materialism, the world order in the form of a system of laws of nature and industrial ideologies have formed its fundamental knowledge. On the basis of social science theories were developed technology management of society-its existence and development.
But by the last third of the twentieth century, this way of life had exhausted its potential to ensure social development – its efficiency in managing social development had dropped to zero. This stopped the process of social development of the First world. And automatically deployed it in the direction of degradation. And the Soviet Union only came to the first position for the process of degradation of the final. Today it is obvious that the USA is rushing to this final. And a maximum of five years from America in the process of degradation behind the European Union.
This means that the question of creating a new worldview and the transition to the fourth worldview for the countries of the First world has become a question of their survival. At the same time, it is also already obvious that “think tanks” using the worldview of the industrial way of life are not able to solve this problem in principle. And other” brains ” in the West simply do not.
Since the USSR was the first victim of the evolutionary crisis, Russian intellectuals were the first to get rid of neoliberal illusions. And in the late 90-ies engaged in the study of the crisis of industrial society and the development of issues to overcome it.
