The crisis of modernity and the pandemic as the forerunner of a new project of civilization

Abstract

The modern pandemic is interpreted by the author as a symptom of the crisis of civilization and nature's response to the peculiarities of its development. The pandemic can be put on a par with major man-made disasters. But it is unlikely that the world will begin to change after the pandemic; humanity has not yet realized the reasons for what is happening. There are two assessments of the current situation — optimistic and pessimistic. The latter deals with the civilization crisis and the completion of the modern project. The basic ideas of this project are considered: mastering nature, building natural science and engineering, forming the state, law and society. In general, the modern project was implemented, as a result, a modern life and sociality with all known problems have developed. To understand the peculiarities of the implementation of a modern project, the author analyzes the cardinal changes that have occurred with the concepts of nature, technology, personality, economy, state and society, discusses trends in social development (the invasion of new technologies, the crisis of fundamental ideas of modernity, the formation of network communities and metacultures, the convergence of capitalism systems and socialism, the formation of a new morality and vision of reality), indicates the characteristics of a new semantic project of civilization.