(Editor-in-chief:
Roman Manekin).
Donetsk: Soviet Historians' Association
(Donetsk Branch) Publishers, 1992, Annaly, vol. 3.
Editor's Foreword-3-11.
Chapter 1. Phenomenon of Alternativity:
Some Theoretic Problems-12-75.
Chapter 2. Objective Sociological Laws
and Subjective Factor-76-108.
Chapter 3. Historical Subject and
Alternatives of Social Activity-109-131.
Chapter 4. Genesis of Capitalism as an
Alternative of Historical Development-32-164.
Conclusion-165-170.
Editors Summary -171-173
The subject of this research is traditional in fact. Alternativity problem studied by the authors is nothing else but the old problem of free will. Fierce polemics on this issue have been going on for thousands years, at least since the times of Socrates In the frame work of certain system of notions the same problem may be formulated as an issue of social subject and objective sociological laws.
Editor's Foreword the subject of the research
is examined in the context of the process of replacement of the old general
scientific paradigm (founded on the achievements of the 17 th-19 th cent.
natural science) by the new one, which is being formulated in the framework of
some scientific currents (the most influential one among them is Brussels
School of Ilya Prigogine). The reinterpretation of the role and place of the
alternativity phenomena in the world, the recognition of their essential
significance represent an inalienable feature of the new paradigm.
Chapter 1 (Phenomenon of
Alternativity: Some Theoretic Problems, by Yakov SHEMYAKIN) deals with the
most general issues of the study of Alternativity Phenomenon. The initial
premise for this research was for its author the reinterpretation of dialectics
of the possible and the actual and the recognition of the possible existence as
a special sphere of reality. Such recognition has entailed the reinterpretation
of the notion of 'regularity' dialectics of necessity and fortuity, problem of
contradiction, as well as it has entailed new attempts to find new approaches
to the study of the issue of freedom, the determination of criteria and sources
of progress and regress. In the subsequent parts of his chapter Yakov Shemyakin
consideres the Alternativity Problem in the context of understanding of Man and
Society as extremely complicated systems of interaction of the different forms
of matter movement, he analyses the issue of 'Alternativity and Activity'. In
the last part of his chapter the author studies the alternativity problem with
respect to the World History
Chapter 2 (Objective Sociological
Laws and Subjective Factor, by Andrey KOROTAYEV, Institute of Oriental
Studies, Soviet Academy of Sciences, Moscow); the author of the chapter opposes
the fatalistic interpretation of the objective sociological laws. In his
interpretation these laws only set certain probability field, and within this field for a social subject to move
in some directions (less probable) would be more difficult, to move in some
other directions (more probable) would be less difficult etc. Andrey Korotayev
underlines the fact that different variables of social evolution interdepend,
but those interdependences are not functional, usually they look like not very
rigid correlations. So, the author considers non-linear models of social
evolution to be most promising
With respect to the problem of social subject the author comes to the
conclusion that for the greatest part of the existence of the Mankind
(primitive and archaic societies as well as early civilizations) the social
evolution could be considered as a natural process governed by the logics of
the objective sociological laws, where the role of subjective factor was minor.
But later (with the accele-ration of social change, when the people began
realizing the existence of a gap between due and real; with genesis arid institutionalization of different social ideals
etc.) the significanse of this factor started growing. The qualitative
break-through in this respect took place during the Axis-time (8 - 3 cent.
A.N.); since that epoch the social evolution of the Mankind cannot be considered
as a completely (or almost completely) natural process. Social consciousness
starts determining more and more social being.
In Chapter 3 (Historical Subject and Alternatives of
Social Activity, by Igor IONOV, Institute of World History, Soviet Academy
of Sciences, Moscow) historical subject is considered in the light of activity
approach reinterpreted by the author. He proceeds from the assumption that the
attempts to explain the alternatives of social activity as a result of either
solely external or exclusively internal determinations have proved to be
unsufficient. Igor Ionov tries to overcome such onesidedness and to combine in
his research both approaches. As he shows the antinomy of freedom and necessity
(that becomes apparent in activity) may, be interpreted both
'materialistically' (as contradictory adaptive-adaptizing in relationto the
environment character of activity) and idealistically (as a
contradiction between value-oriented and aim-oriented types of activity
motivation). The different combina-tions of adaptive and transforming,
adaptizing sides of the activity phenomenon, valueoriented, aim-oriented and
also consumption-oriented motivations of activity
determine (in Igor Ionov's interpretation) the character of the concrete
historical alternatives of various evolution.
Chapter 4. (Genesis of Capitalism as
an Alternative of Histo-rical Evolution, by Michael DMITRIYEV, University
of Moscow, Faculty of History) deals with the mechanism of the formation of the
alternatives of social evolution taking as an example genesis of capitalism in
Europe. The author considers the cardinal dissimilarity of the European and
Asiatic ways of social evolution as the most convicing confirmation of the existence
and significance of alternativity phenomenon in history.