The Idea of Cyclicity as a Paradigm for the Explanation of Historical Reality

Abstract

The article discusses the explanatory potential of the idea of historical cyclicity and its role in the modern theories of social development. The historical cyclicity is considered as a paradigm for modeling historical reality that provides the unity of the past-present-future in the historical movement of humanity. The problem is reviewed in the framework of the socio-philosophical interpretation of historical process, which presumes that the historical process has points of bifurcation, interruptions in its gradualness and is accompanied by a change of social ideals, moral priorities, spiritual values and models of social practice. In this regard, the author refers to A.S. Akhiezer’s study Russia: A Criticique of Historical Experience, to his interpretation of cyclicity as a “pulsation” of the mass characteristics of society in the periods of the repetitions in history, the periods of “movements in the opposite direction.” The author demonstrates that each time in such periods the emergence of dual oppositions takes place. In this regard, it is important to use critical reflection, which provides an understanding of the situation through the dialogue of oppositions and assists to avoid the absolutization of polarities in assessments of cultural phenomena. In other words, the critical reflection provide a reconciliation based on mutual understanding of common cultural and moral values and norms. This reconciliation is a mediation, way out of social and cultural confrontation. The author argues that the historical development is of complex nature and cannot be reduced to rectilinear motion. Any social system does not have an ultimate finish, even if a system is at the stage of its decline. Thus, any civilization retains elements of the old cultures, includes them in the present and remains open to the future. The author concludes that there is a certain cultural and historical symmetry between the spiritual life of society and its historical cycles. Therefore, the meaning of cyclicity as a historical phenomenon can be considered only in the unity of all the components (social, economic, political, moral, religious and cultural) of historical process. Such an understanding is achieved through the joint efforts of philosophers, historians, economists, political scientists and cultural researchers.