Our study of the ideas of organicism in contemporary research on man and society has stemmed from two significant circumstances. Firstly, organicism is an original approach in natural science has a long lineage (dating back to the classical antiquity), and as such it is akin to the natural-scientific approach of the characterological creatology (which is being developed by the author of this article). For this reason, the study of the basic ideas of organicism allows us to clarify some of the key intentions of the characterological creatology. Secondly, the methodology of organicism has been actively used and developed in recent years by Russian scholars of philosophy, sociology, political studies. In part, this interest has been determined by the recent “conservative turn” in Russian society, but it is also due to some specific features in the evolution of the global society. As the author of the article demonstrates, organicism has a large number of predecessors and “founding fathers” in both modern and contemporary philosophy. Among them are European and Russian conservatives, Herbert Spencer’s positivist sociologists and many others. But the true origin of organicism, as it is asserted, lies in the philosophical naturalism of Aristotle. The works of Russian scholars of both Soviet and post-Soviet times (Aleksei F. Losev, Aza A. Takho-Godi, Konstantin S. Khroutski) helped us consider the essence of Aristotle’s organicism, in particular the special importance of internal (immanent) causality for understanding the process of development. Following K. S. Khroutski, we emphasize the proximity of the Aristotelian position both to classical Russian school of natural science and to the classical natural-scientific characterology (and characterological creatology as well). Special attention is paid to the social applications of organicism, which are dealt with via the cases of contemporary Russian research in social sciences. The three cases are as follows: 1) the study of the phenomenon of the Novgorod Veche (K. S. Khroutski and Anatoly V. Karpov); 2) the analysis of the situation in contemporary Russian state and society (Rimma I. Sokolova); 3) the analysis of the phenomenon of Russian artel (Vitaly V. Averyanov et al.). We conclude by asserting the methodological and philosophical significance of organicism for the study of contemporary development processes.
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