Newsletter on the Results of Scholarly Work in Sociology, Criminology, Philosophy and Political Science

Seeing and Not Seeing: Unexplained Phenomena in Science

Jerome Krase — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0800

Why, beyond competitive and pecuniary interests, do scientists disagree with each other when presented with the same evidence. As they are also ordinary social beings much can be explained by their different socialization experiences and especially their professional education. To better understand these difficulties it is suggested here that a visual ethnographic approach might be of value. Metaphorically scientists are either unwilling or unable to "see" the validity of the evidence presented to them. Therefore in order to demonstrate such valid yet varying interpretations of the same data, this brief visually enhanced essay focuses on two photographs that might defy agreement among viewers as each depends upon either prior knowledge and/or different orientations to the subject/object.

What Is Antisemitism and Why Does It Continue to Exist?

Liah Greenfeld — Tue, 31 Dec 2024 00:00:00 +0800

Antisemitism is often regarded as a peculiar expression of xenophobia, the natural hostility towards those perceived as outsiders. However, this article argues that xenophobia is a modern construct rooted in historical and ideological developments rather than instinctual human or animal behavior. Antisemitism precedes xenophobia by two millennia and therefore cannot be the latter’s expression. The article explores the unique characteristics of antisemitism, its persistent presence in human societies, and its intersection with nationalism. It is composed by the editors out of passages from Liah Greenfeld’s essay Antisemitism as a Civilizational Phenomenon: An Analytical Essay, the winner of the 2024 Bernard Lewis Prize, and quotations from the interview with the author.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.61439/ABYI4823

Digitalization and mediatization as tools for forming new types of subjectivity

Vadym Palahuta — Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0800

The article explores the latest opportunities for refined control over individuals by power structures within the so-called surveillance capitalism of contemporary society. It highlights the use of advanced tools of digitalization and mediatization, as well as the formation of new types of subjectivity. It identifies the mechanisms through which modern power relations in a control society (domination and coercion of individuals) emerge, differing significantly from traditional forms of governance and control in pre-modern and early modern European societies. The discussion is based on Michel Foucault’s concept of socio-historical types of power relations in societies, including sovereign power, disciplinary society, and control society in its current digital form.

The paper analyzes the history of concepts such as biopower, biopolitics, and biomass introduced by Foucault, starting with his studies of disciplinary society. It demonstrates that biopower, aimed at managing masses and controlling individuals, implemented mechanisms during the disciplinary society that have evolved further in today’s control society through digitalization and mediatization. Its essence involves transforming people into civilian individuals with formal democratic rights and freedoms while simultaneously maintaining the totalization of the population as biomass.

The state is shown to simultaneously undertake the functions of totalization and individualization in the formation of modern subjectivity, from which individuals attempt to escape through nomadic practices and techniques of freedom that guarantee authentic subjectivation.

It argues that with the extensive use of the socio-philosophical doctrine of neo-behaviorism, the formation of representations and behaviors of individuals is justified at all levels of their life activities. This creates conditions for the emergence of new types of subjectivity that fully satisfy neo-globalists. As a result of this long-term process of modern biopolitics, not only has the role of democratic institutions in contemporary society diminished, but neoliberalism could become the "breeding ground" for digital totalitarian regimes of governance and control.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.61439/ABYH1234

War at the Gates

Enrico Tomaselli — Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0800

The conflict in Ukraine, now in its third year, has evolved into a complex geopolitical confrontation with limited prospects for resolution. Initially, diplomatic efforts focused on compromises or territorial concessions failed, as both Russia and NATO consolidated their positions. Strategic miscalculations on both sides have raised the stakes, transforming the conflict into a broader struggle for influence. For the West, the conflict represents a test of NATO unity and US global leadership, while for Russia it is an existential battle against perceived NATO encroachment.

The protracted war has shifted the goals. Russia, initially seeking a quick victory, now prioritizes dismantling Ukraine’s military potential and providing a buffer against NATO expansion. In contrast, the US and its allies aim to shore up Ukraine’s resistance while preserving NATO cohesion, despite mounting financial and logistical challenges. With diplomatic solutions stymied by mutual distrust, military escalation seems increasingly likely.

Demographic and economic constraints are further pushing both sides toward decisive action. Russia faces time pressures from demographic decline and NATO’s ongoing rearmament. Likewise, prolonged engagement strains NATO unity and risks exposing broader vulnerabilities in the Western alliance. A potential U.S. withdrawal under a new administration could shift responsibility to NATO’s European members, threatening Ukraine’s cohesion and defense capabilities. As entrenched positions and geopolitical imperatives harden, the conflict underscores a critical inflection point in global power dynamics, where the window for a negotiated solution is narrowing and the risk of a broader confrontation is growing.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.61439/ATRYH4812

Postwar Ukraine, Democracy, Kurt Lewin, and the Reconstruction of Germany

Gilmore Crosby — Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0800

Ukraine will face unique challenges if and when the Russian invasion has ended. The transition from wartime to peacetime can result in many social and political outcomes. The possibility of a persistent threat adds to the complexity. The transition from the more autocratic needs of wartime society to a non-militaristic democracy is by no means guaranteed. Lessons can be learned from past experiences, such as post WWI and WWII Germany, and the failed reconstruction of the Civil War in the United States. Social scientist Kurt Lewin (1890 – 1947) provides a theoretical basis for contrasting democracy and autocracy. Lewin applied his theories to understanding the failure of democracy in post WWI Germany and the reconstruction of Germany after WWII. Using Lewin’s work as a foundation, this article considers lessons learned in hopes of being a guide for the eventual cultural reconstruction needed in post war Ukraine.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.61439/LBYH4898

The Singularity of “Blind Spots” as a Self-Organization of Uncertainties and Risks in a Digitalized Society

Maxim Lepskiy — Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0800

Topicality. Digitalization of society is accompanied by deep changes in social, economic and political relations, generating uncertainties and risks. The growth of technology, particularly artificial intelligence, is transforming the nature of information, communication and management, creating "blind spots" that require insight and systemic analysis.

The purpose of the article. To identify and investigate the mechanisms of the formation of "blind spots" as a phenomenon that characterizes the self-organization of uncertainties and risks in a digitalized society. Special attention is paid to illusions of cognitive perception and their impact on social interactions.

Research methodology. The methodological basis includes the concept of singularity, the ideas of scenario planning by Pierre Wack, of the singularity by Ray Kurzweil and the theory of self-organization of social systems. Metaphors of "black swan", "gray rhinoceros" and other images are used to structure risks and uncertainties.

The main conclusions of the discussion. The article emphasizes the importance of critical thinking, a universal approach to education and the introduction of ethical norms for the use of artificial intelligence as key aspects in countering the formation of "blind spots" and overcoming risks in the modern digital environment.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.61439/DDYH4821

Unexplained Phenomena in Science

Marco Andreacchio — Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0800

While the enterprise of modern science seeks to explain phenomena, its own methodology (viz., the scientific method) tends to blind scientists both to phenomena in their original, pre-scientific context and to the very nature or essential motive of science. In order to explain phenomena as they are we need to see them on their own ground or in their own genesis. This applies to the phenomenon of science, as well. Science itself begs to be explained pre-scientifically, or more precisely it begs for an explanation unfolding out of an exploration of the hiatus between science and its pre-scientific world. Only by standing phenomenologically in the interstice between the scientific and the pre-scientific can we truly explain the phenomenon of science, thereby exposing ourselves to an understanding of phenomena as they are and not merely as they are supposed to be relatively to ends alien to them.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.61439/AMNH4875

Science Fiction Heterotopia: The Economy of the Future

Alan N. Shapiro — Fri, 10 Jan 2025 07:13:40 +0800

Abstract

This article uses the cultural theory of hyper-modernism, to scrutinize the present and potentially future impact on society of advanced digital media technologies like Virtual Reality, ubiquitous computing, and Artificial Intelligence. I did this by writing in a hybrid way about the portrayal of the given technology in science fiction films and the realization of the technology in the so-called “real world.” It studies the examples of blockchain, 3D Printers, and moral algorithms and their connections to ideas about post-capitalist transformation of the economy. My theoretical perspective is explicitly critical of capitalism. The article draws from a chapter of my latest book, Decoding Digital Culture with Science Fiction: Hyper-Modernism, Hyperreality, and Posthumanism.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.61439/MEYH4870

Dialectic of Predisposition and Ability in Human Professional Activity

Iryna Lopatiuk — Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0800

In the following scientific study, we consider a logical model, which for the first time brings us closer to the integrated perception of barriers and obstacles existing in the memory environment, "refracting" human predispositions and transforming them into skills. The area of human orientation in the world of changing opportunities, as well as in the solution of the "predisposition-ability" conflict at the stage of the formation of new professions in an intelligent society of cognitive and innovation perspective, defined by the criteria of technological development, digitalisation and transition to a virtual world of communication networks and the Internet, is justified.

From a scientific point of view, however, it is possible to grasp the characteristics of the memory environment and to search for an "exhaustive list of predispositions" as well as an "exhaustive list of characteristics of each memory environment unit". However, this usually requires years of research with a single person. From the practical point of view, this is unacceptable, because in modern circumstances such recommendations are required, which allow to predict professional activity in a few hours, and in the future to allow a person to learn to navigate independently in conditions of changes in the environment of his life and activity.

The correlation of the activity approach developments within the subject's life development, as well as the model of predisposition realisation mentioned by M. Achtnich as holistic and optimal, maintained by the specific-historical conditions of the figure, have mostly determined the key problem, to which this article is devoted.

The purpose of this scientific exploration is the philosophical understanding of predisposition and skill dialectic in human professional activity (on the example of models by Martin Achtnich and Gregory Popov).

Moreover, the tasks of academician G.Popov largely echo the original formulation of P. Drucker's smart approach, whose paradigm is now being applied to reflect on the smart approach to any areas of activity, defined by the speed of environmental change, the rapid circulation of information, and the circumstances of uncertainty. The recommendations of G.Popov, discussed in the following article, and the concept of P. Drucker do not conflict, mutually complementing each other.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.61439/IORH4863

Emotions on the Battlefield: Towards A Sociological Analysis

Siniša Malešević — Wed, 01 Jan 2025 00:00:00 +0800

The focal point of this article is the relationship between emotions and close-range fighting. Emotions play a central role in warfare. Nearly all soldiers who encounter combat zones experience intense emotional reactions. Some of these emotions are negative, such as fear, panic, anger, rage, or shame, while others are more positive, including pride, elation, joy, or exhilaration. Some scholars argue that there is inherent uniformity of emotional reactions on the battlefield. However, recent studies indicate that the emotional dynamics in the combat zone are more complex and flexible. Following this research, I argue in this article that there are pronounced historical and cultural differences in the emotional responses of fighters in combat zones. Facing the same realities of close-range fighting, soldiers tend to display different emotional reactions and these reactions are more variable as the cultural and historical contexts change.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.61439/UNYH4829