Historical anthropology as а modern philosophy of history and theoretical sociology: social-cultural dynamics analysis

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Ukrainian state university of science and technology

Historical anthropology as а modern philosophy of history and theoretical sociology: social-cultural dynamics analysis

S. Aytov

Dnipro

Abstract

The article analyzes the impact of scientific approaches of historical anthropology as a modern philosophy of history on the theoretical sociology's understanding of social and cultural dynamics in the planes of «local civilizations» and global. The methodology of this work includes the principles of complementarity, structure, and dialogue. In the study of the problematic field of labor, the following methods were applied: philosophical hermeneutics, systemic-structural, and interdisciplinary. Historical anthropology as a philosophical-historical discipline, that analyzes the mental-cultural horizon of causality, the essence of historical processes and their possible projection into the future has a significant potential for the understanding of global social-cultural dynamics by theoretical sociology. An important problem for its understanding is the analysis of the essence and trends of globalization and civilizational development. The scientific influence of historical anthropology as a modern philosophy of history on theoretical sociology brings to this social and humanitarian discipline conceptual approaches for researching psychological and worldview-cultural causality and the essence of processes, that are part of its problem field. Among the issues that belong to the intellectual space of theoretical and sociological studies and can be effectively investigated using the concepts of historical anthropology, the following should be noted:

- the study of the mental and cultural horizon of the social dynamics of civilizational communities

- understanding the humanitarian plane of the historical foundations and development trends of «local civilizations»;

- study of correlation of globalization and civilizational trends of modern socio-cultural dynamics;

- proposing and understanding the scenarios of further global socio-cultural development;

- research of the content and features of alternative models of global socio-cultural dynamics and assessment of the probability of their implementation.

Solving these cognitive issues by theoretical sociology using the conceptual approaches of historical anthropology as a modern philosophy of history allows this discipline to form knowledge about the important mental and cultural foundations of causality, essence and probable prospects of sociocultural dynamics both at the level of «local civilizations» and at the global level. The significance of the analysis of a wide range of psychological and cultural-worldview foundations of socio-cultural processes is explained by the multifaceted and deep nature of their influence on various segments of global social reality, including economic, demographic, scientific - technological, educational, etc.

Key words: philosophy of history, historical anthropology, theoretical sociology, global processes, socio-cultural dynamics.

Анотація

С. Айтов

Український державний університет науки і технологій, Дніпро, Україна

Історична антропологія як сучасна філософія історії та теоретична соціологія: аналіз глобальної соціокультурної динаміки

У статті проаналізовано вплив наукових підходів історичної антропології як сучасної філософії історії на осмислення теоретичною соціологією суспільно-культурної динаміки у площинах «локальних цивілізацій» і глобального рівня. Методологія цієї роботи включає принципи комплементарності, структурності, діалогічності. У студії проблемного поля праці були застосовані такі методи: філософської герменевтики, системно-структурний, міждисциплінарний. Науковий вплив історичної антропології як сучасної філософії історії на теоретичну соціологію переносить у цю суспільно-гуманітарну дисципліну концептуальні підходи для досліджень психологічної і світоглядно-культурних каузальності й сутності глобальної соціокультурної динаміки, котрі входять до її проблемного поля. До питань, котрі належать до інтелектуального простору теоретично-соціологічних студій і можуть ефективно досліджуватися за допомогою концепцій історичної антропології, слід включити такі:

- аналіз ментально-культурної площини сучасних соціокультурних процесів глобалізації;

- студії соціально-психологічних й ідейно-світоглядних протиріч, котрі формуються й розвиваються в суспільно-культурному просторі наявної глобалізаційної моделі;

- дослідження ментально-культурного горизонту суспільної динаміки цивілізаційних спільнот;

- осмислення гуманітарної площини історичних основ і трендів розвитку «локальних цивілізацій»;

- вивчення співвіднесення глобалізаційних і цивілізаційних тенденцій сучасної соціокультурної динаміки;

- висування і осмислення сценаріїв подальшого глобального соціокультурного розвитку;

- дослідження змісту і особливостей альтернативних моделей глобальної соціокультурної динаміки й оцінка ймовірності їх реалізації.

Вирішення зазначених когнітивних питань теоретичною соціологією за допомогою застосування концептуальних підходів історичної антропології як сучасної філософії історії дає змогу цій дисципліні сформувати знання про важливі ментально-культурні засади каузальності, сутності та ймовірних перспектив соціокультурної динаміки як на рівні «локальних цивілізацій», так і на глобальному рівні. Значущість аналізу широкого спектра психологічних й культурно-світоглядних основ соціокультурних процесів пояснюється багатоаспектністю й глибинним характером їх впливу на різні зрізи глобальної суспільної реальності, в тому числі економічного, демографічного, науково-технологічного та освітнього.

Ключові слова: філософія історії, історична антропологія, теоретична соціологія, глобальні процеси, соціокультурна динаміка.

Main part

Introduction. The problem of theoretical sociology's application of the conceptual approaches of historical anthropology as a modern philosophy of history for the purpose of understanding the causality and content of global social and cultural dynamics was rarely and very superficially considered in scientific sources. In the reflexive field of analysis of the mentioned question, it is possible to single out the study of certain aspects that interact rather weakly with each other and do not form an integrated cognitive system.

Thus, F. Braudel notes the importance of analyzing the historical foundations of civilizational development for a relevant understanding of modern sociocultural reality. He draws attention to the importance of taking into account the burden and traditions of the development of societies in understanding the social processes of today [3, p. 30]. At the same time, this theoretical approach, which actualizes the relationship between past and modern socio-cultural processes, is formulated by the researcher rather vaguely. F. Braudel practically does not consider the idea of applying the methods of historical anthropology in studies of theoretical sociology to understand both civilizational and global sociocultural dynamics.

In Yu. N. Harari's concept of global historical processes and their connection with social and cultural development, the category of imagined order is of significant importance [7, p. 167-168]. The latter is one of the main methodological elements of the scientist's world - historical theory. It should be noted that the concept of an imagined order is not developed in detail in Harari's studies. The researcher avoids formulating the mental and cultural nature of the mentioned phenomenon. In his concept, there is no development of the impact of the psychological and cultural foundations of historical processes on the modern socio-cultural dynamics and its prospects.

C. Baler's research analyzes the complex problem of the influence of worldview factors, in particular the myth of Troy, on the cultural development of European civilization [9, p. 36-37]. This myth is considered by scientists as a kind of cultural matrix, which became one of the important components of the Western European civilizational community historical and cultural development.

However, C. Baler does not analyze the mental and cultural factors of historical and social processes, which are not always connected with the mythological layer of sociocultural processes, but are also essential factors of historical dynamics. Their spectrum is much wider and includes the phenomena of mental stereotypes, the emotional sphere of society, norms of socially significant behavior, which are practically not considered in the scientific research of the researcher.

In the work of P. Hoffman, the problem of the influence of mentality and norms of social behavior on the peculiarities of the development of Western European civilization is understood. According to the scientist, the «worldview of the competition», formed to a large extent in the culture of knightly tournaments, led to the formation in the mass consciousness of the societies of this civilizational community of the value of competitive struggle. This value became one of the most essential in the creation of the ethical and motivational paradigm of European societies [10, p. 9-11].

At the same time, P. Hoffman actually left out of the problem field of his own work the question of the influence of mentality and moral worldview values on the development of non-Western «local civilizations» and on the global socio-cultural dynamics as a whole. The problem of applying theoretical approaches to the study of the mental and cultural sphere of the past, formed in the intellectual space of historical anthropology, to the social and cultural processes of the present time is not investigated in this work.

D. Maza analyzes the theoretical features of historical knowledge and its conceptual potential. She notes the rather close integration of the science of the past with social and humanitarian disciplines [11, p. 10-11]. At the same time, the researcher almost does not pay attention to the prospects of its development due to interaction with the approaches of theoretical sociology.

A. Woodhouse studies the formation of ideas about the magical factors of sociocultural processes in European societies of the Early Modern Times, which he considers to be an essential factor [12, p. 548]. At the same time, the researcher avoids the question of the application of the theoretical assets of sociological science in understanding this problem. It should analyze the impact of mental and cultural factors on social dynamics.

L. Sangha investigates the problems of the formation of collective ideas in the field of folk religion in the English society of the Modern Times, in particular, the sphere of ideas about ghosts. [13, p. 3-5]. An interesting aspect of studies of this investigation is the analysis of the influence of this cultural layer on the further dynamics of society. However, achieving such a goal requires more complex «research optics», including the implementation of theoretical sociology concepts.

H. Roche considers the issue of perception of Greek culture by German society through the prism of ideas and stereotypes of the vision of cultural achievements of ancient Greek civilization [14, p. 542-543]. An important aspect of this work, which actually belongs to the reflexive field of historical anthropology as a modern philosophy of history, is integration, at least potential, with socio-humanitarian sciences. Indeed, the application of the methodologies of theoretical sociology can deepen the solution of both the mentioned problems and scientific tasks in understanding the sense of historical and modern socio-cultural dynamics.

In accordance with the analysis of the specified scientific questions, the purpose of this work is to identify and understand the influence of the conceptual approaches of historical anthropology as a modern philosophy of history on the analysis of sociocultural dynamics by theoretical sociology at the levels of «local civilizations» and the global level.

Research methods. The methodology of this work is based on the principles of complementarity, structure, dialogicity and is based on factual, conceptual and critical material contained in the works of modern domestic and foreign specialists in theoretical sociology and historical anthropology.

Studies of the influence of historical and anthropological concepts on research by theoretical and sociological investigations global social and cultural dynamics were implemented on the basis of a number of scientific methods. They include methods: philosophical hermeneutics, systemic-structural, interdisciplinary. The application of the specified scientific methods in this article aims to achieve a number of cognitive tasks.

The principle of complementarity application and the method of philosophical hermeneutics is aimed at identifying the peculiarities of the methodological approaches of historical anthropology as a modern philosophy of history and theoretical sociology to the global socio-cultural dynamics study of the peculiarities by clarifying their content.

The involvement of the system principle and the system-structural method in the work contributes to the formation of the structure of the analysis of the influence of scientific approaches of historical and anthropological concepts on the theoretical sociology's understanding of the social and cultural development essence and prospects.

The implementation of the principle of dialogicity and the interdisciplinary method in the work is aimed at understanding the potential of the historical anthropology scientific approaches as a philosophy of history on the analysis of causality and the essence of global sociocultural dynamics by theoretical sociology.

Research results. Historical anthropology as a philosophical-historical discipline that analyzes the mental-cultural horizon of causality, the essence of historical processes and their possible projection into the future has a significant potential for the understanding of global social-cultural dynamics by theoretical sociology. An important problem for its understanding is the analysis of the essence and trends of globalization and civilizational development.

An important factor in the socio-cultural dynamics of modern times, the humanitarian foundations of which are understood by historical anthropology as a modern philosophy of history, are mentality and various cultural phenomena and ideological values at the global level and in the horizon of the development of individual «local civilizations». The process of creating globally significant cultural and moral and ethical values, stereotypes of social behavior is objectively necessary for the direction of social and cultural dynamics, the formation of future development models and their likely implementation.

One of the sociocultural processes of globalization significant problems is the multiculturalism of the world and the existence of a number of civilizational communities. The world system, based on cultural pluralism and civilizational features, is an alternative to the modern paradigm of globalization. One of the most important factors of this alternative of the global socio-cultural dynamics are the historical, ethnopsychological, religious aspects of the existence of peoples and «local civilizations».

Analyzing the dynamics of the development of civilizational communities, which occurs simultaneously with the dynamics of globalization, one should pay attention to its modern social and cultural trends. Among them are the following: the tendency to diverge in the worldview and moral and ethical priorities of societies and political elites within the

Western civilization; a significant increase in the difficulties of immigrants adaptation in post-industrial countries; deepening of worldview and ideological contradictions between post-industrial and industrial and archaic societies; reducing the influence of rationalistic concepts knowledge and understanding of the world. This happens simultaneously with the powerful spread of irrational beliefs and pseudoscientific theories; attempts to create alternative modern models of globalization processes.

Each of the aspects of the civilizational socio-cultural processes and globalization development is a complex phenomenon, the study of which is essential for theoretical - sociological and philosophical-historical studies. Thus, the analysis of the mental and cultural horizon and the historical dynamics of «local civilizations» for the understanding of social and cultural processes reveals differences in the worldview and modern European and American societies moral and ethical values. This approach focuses research attention also on studies of significant psychological and cultural problems of internal civilizational and social development, such as national identity and its role in modern social processes [6, p. 23].

These differences were manifested in the understanding of the peoples of different civilizational communities on the issues of environmental protection and the abolition of the death penalty. Differences in worldview and moral-ethical values, their content and priorities significantly affect disputes in the trajectories of socio-cultural dynamics of European and American societies at the beginning of the twenty-first century. A more fundamental differentiation in the socio-cultural values of these societies and their elites also began to manifest itself. Thus, Europeans believe that their socio-economic model is more socially oriented, with a «human face», in contrast to the American model, which is more rigid in relation to society as a whole.

Studies in the reflective field of historical anthropology as a modern philosophy of history make it possible to reveal and understand the deep mental causes and content of social and cultural processes that take place in modern civilizations and significantly affect all aspects of their development. Thus, historical-anthropological concepts have methodological potential for the analysis of such an important problem of modern theoretical sociology as the analysis of the problems of social-cultural integration of numerous migration flows and ways of solving them. It is one of the most significant and fateful for Western civilization and its prospects.

An important problem analyzed by theoretical sociology is the process of the crisis of rationalism, the decline in the prestige of «secular ideologies», as stated by E. Hobsbawm [5, p. 109]. The scientific, «intellectual» picture of the world is inferior to irrational and fundamentalist worldviews in the broad public consciousness. The understanding of historical anthropology as a modern philosophy of the history of the causality of the mentioned sociocultural processes is based on the powerful tradition of researching medieval societies, in the mental space of which the segment of irrational and religious ideas was quite powerful.

The application of J. Le Hoff's theoretical approaches to understanding the sphere of the imaginary turns out to be effective in the analysis of the specified problem field. The latter consists of a set of images and ideas about the world that direct the development of society in accordance with its own essence [4, p. 8-9].

The understanding of modern socio-cultural processes from the point of view of theoretical approaches of historical anthropology as a modern philosophy of history significantly contributes to the understanding of the humanitarian foundations of psychological - cultural and worldview conflicts on the social dynamics of countries and «local civilizations». The transformation of the mental and worldview foundations of the modern socio-cultural development of Western societies significantly affects the ways of development of the modern model of globalization. The growing problems contribute to the formulation by historical and anthropological research of the question of an alternative to the existing globalist project, its content and potential in socio-cultural and worldview-ideological aspects.

The historical anthropological concepts application in the study of alternatives to globalization is largely connected with their experience of studying complex socio-cultural processes, that took place in the past and had a chaotic character, according to N. Ferguson [5, p. 109]. When analyzing trends in global socio-cultural dynamics, three probable models of future globalization are singled out: a world led by a geopolitical leader; a world without a leader; the world is multipolar, based on the dialogue of cultures and civilizations. The involvement of historical - anthropological approaches makes it possible to analyze the probability of the realization of each of the paradigms.

The leadership of certain countries and «local civilizations» in the socio-cultural dynamics of the world is postulated by J. Arrighi. In his opinion, Europe was the leader of the past, the USA of the present, and Asia with its dominant China will become the leader of the world system in the future [2, p.p. 5-7]. China's powerful economic growth, its orientation towards the ideal of a multipolar world, in which this country is actually supported by the majority of Asian countries, along with the simultaneous decrease in the geo-economic potential of the USA, are objective reasons that confirm J. Arrighi's hypothesis.

However, there are mental and cultural factors, that are important for understanding the perspectives of global sociocultural processes, which are studied by historical anthropology as a modern philosophy of history. They significantly limit China's potential to become the legislator of the future world order. Thus, E. Hobsbawm points to the absence of the concept of global expansion and hegemony in the historical traditions and ideological and cultural values of this country. A possible reason for slowing down the socio-cultural dynamics of this state is also the rather limited potential for creativity in the scientific and technological sphere of modern Confucian civilization, which includes not only China, but also those close to it in the religious and cultural aspect of Southeast Asian society.

Scientists express doubts in ability to advance worldview ideas and modern cultural concepts, that could unite humanity around the likely Chinese leadership. Other «local civilizations» cannot compete with the USA, China and India for economic reasons. At the same time, India, even to a greater extent than China, has a strong historical tradition of mental and socio-cultural isolationism.

According to the researcher, a characteristic feature of the «apolar» world as an alternative to humankind development is global social and geopolitical chaos, «the war of all against all.» A factor capable of stabilizing and integrating the socio-cultural relations of «local civilizations» can be the globalization projects of non-Western societies, which have the potential to create a worldview and value «matrix» acceptable to the entire world system. A socio-cultural and intellectually large-scale project, its significance and prospects can be understood thanks to research in the reflective field of historical anthropology as a modern philosophy of history.

It is important to use the spectrum of historical-anthropological disciplines that were formed in the last third of the last century, in particular, «history of ideas», «new cultural history», «history of memory», etc. in the implementation of this task [1, p. 185]. According to the theoretical approaches of historical anthropology as a modern philosophy of history, Islamic and Latin American civilizations can claim to create a socio-cultural and worldview «matrix» of global development in modern times with substantial grounds.

The modern Islamic world is very passionate, striving for socio-cultural consolidation. This civilized community is characterized by positive demographic dynamics and high social and religious activity. At the same time, the worldview of a part of the Muslim global community, the umma, is to some extent connected with radical ideas that contradict not only the modern globalist project, but also liberal social and ideological currents in the Islamic socio-cultural space. This internal confrontation objectively weakens the Islamic «local civilization» and limits the influence of its own universalist project to the area of Islamic countries.

The historical-anthropological analysis of the dynamics of the Latin American «local civilization» shows/ that the latter has a significant level of socio-cultural integrity. The social, cultural and political development of the societies of this civilizational community revealed a great variety of processes and phenomena significant for the world in the sociopolitical, worldview and artistic spheres.

Among them, one can name, in particular, the phenomenon of Latin American revolutionaryism, the socio-political movement and ideology of «liberation theology», the creation and development of the well-known literary trend of «magical realism». In the 1990s - at the beginning of the XXI century. numerous representatives of Latin America took part in the global «alter-globalist» movement, creating the foundations of a global civil society.

These factors give grounds for concluding, in accordance with the theoretical approaches of historical anthropology as a modern philosophy of history, about the formation of a powerful globalization subject in Latin America. At the same time, its socio-cultural matrix is being created. Its components, in particular, include: the value of multicultural development, political activism, ideals of social justice and racial and cultural equality, respectful attitude to religion, etc.

As we can see, mental and cultural-value factors are of essential importance for modern civilizational dynamics and socio-cultural globalization processes. Historical anthropology as a modern philosophy of history, which analyzes the specified theoretical issues, reveals the effective scientific potential of a relevant understanding of historical causality and features of multifaceted processes of civilization and globalization of social and cultural development.

Conclusions. The scientific influence of historical anthropology as a modern philosophy of history on theoretical sociology translates into this social and humanitarian discipline conceptual approaches for researching psychological and worldview-cultural causality and the essence of processes, that are part of its problem field. Among the questions that belong to the intellectual space of theoretical and sociological studies and can be effectively investigated using the concepts of historical anthropology, the following should be noted:

- analysis of the mental and cultural plane of modern socio-cultural processes of globalization;

- studies of socio-psychological and ideological-worldview contradictions, which are formed and developed in the socio-cultural space of the existing globalization model;

- the study of the mental and cultural horizon of the social dynamics of civilizational communities;

- understanding the humanitarian plane of the historical foundations and development trends of «local civilizations»;

- study of correlation of globalization and civilizational trends of modern socio-cultural dynamics;

- proposing and understanding the scenarios of further global socio-cultural development;

- research of the content and features of alternative models of global socio-cultural dynamics and assessment of the probability of their implementation.

Solving these cognitive issues by theoretical sociology using the conceptual approaches of historical anthropology as a modern philosophy of history allows this discipline to form knowledge about the important mental and cultural foundations of causality, essence and probable prospects of sociocultural dynamics both at the level of «local civilizations» and at the global level. The significance of the analysis of a wide range of psychological and cultural-worldview foundations of socio-cultural processes is explained by the multifaceted and deep nature of their influence on various segments of global social reality, including economic, demographic, scientific-technological, educational, etc.

References

historical anthropology sociology cultural

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