Development of the Foundations of Humanitarian Expertise in Russia: History and Methodology

Abstract

The article discusses methodological approaches to the development of theoretical and conceptual foundations of humanitarian expertise (HE). Two main approaches to substantiating the ways of forming HE and its institutionalization as an integral and relatively autonomous expert system are analyzed. The first is research and development under the leadership of B.G. Yudin, in which HE is understood in the broadest possible sense, which determines its procedural side. Any analysis of the consequences of the introduction of technical or humanitarian innovations for humans can be considered as an activity of this kind. HE in this concept is primarily communication, in which the common meanings, motives, and values of all subjects interested in solving the problem that have arisen are formed: developers of new technology and its users, as well as experts. The specificity of the HE developed by the Russian Humanitarian Science Foundation project under the leadership of B.G. Yudin is shown. The second approach, developed under the leadership of D.A. Leont'ev and G.L. Tulchinsky, considered HE as a social technology and was based on the study of the mutual influence of social events and mental processes. The work was aimed at more rigorous formalization of the examination and a clear definition of its procedural component. In the works of D.A. Leont'ev, the emphasis is on personality, its preservation and development, the possibilities of self-determination and self-realization. The article discusses both the features of HE from the point of view of the developers of this approach, and the procedure for its implementation. The provisions common to the two approaches are analyzed. This is the interdisciplinary, complex and probabilistic nature of this phenomenon, which has many uncertainties, as well as its predictive projective orientation. It is concluded that in modern realities, despite the presence of problems, this kind of expertise is not in demand either by developers of new technologies, or by effective managers, or by officials at various levels.