Postmodern Project of Philosophy: “Social” Or “Not Social”?

Abstract

The article is devoted to the elaboration and formulation of a criterion for distinguishing between the modernist project of social philosophy, which is proposed to be called “social” and “non-social” within the framework of the article. Based on the work of such researchers as Tereshchenko N.A., Gasparyan D.E. and Karimov T.Kh. it is proposed to consider three characteristics of social relations as a criterion: the reflexive attitude of participants to existing social relations; negativity, orientation to the development and overcoming of the existing “state of affairs”, activity of participants; reductionism, the desire to single out a single foundation in society and interpret the entire variety of social facts as its manifestation. In modern society is understood as “social”: it is reflective, negative (develops) and has a foundation. Within the framework of postmodernism, society is understood as “non-social”: it is non-reflective, does not develop, and without foundation. The concept of everyday life of phenomenological sociology is considered as an example of the theory of “non-social”. It is also shown that the distinguished characteristics of “non-social” relate to many theoretical constructions in the field of social philosophy of the second half of the 20th century. And with the current question of the possibility of breaking the postmodern paradigm, when developing alternative programs for studying society (metamodern, post-postmodern, after-postmodern), these criteria should be taken into account.