MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY AS SOCIOHUMANITARIAN SCIENCES

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• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): 0005517539
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• Document Release Date: January 31, 2011
• Case Number: F-2010-00651
• Publication Date: January 1, 1991

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Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Status: [STAT]
Document Date: 01 Jan 91 Category: [CAT]
Report Type: JPRS Report Report Date:
Report Number: JPRS-USS-91-006 UDC Number:
Author(s): V.I. Shamshurin]
Headline: Medicine and Biology as Sociohumanitarian Sciences
Source Line: 915DO010E Moscow SOTSIOLOGICHESKIYE ISSLEDOVANIYA in
Russian No 1, Jan 91 (signed to press 03 Dec 90) pp
62-68
Subslug: [Editorial roundtable written up by V.I. Shamshurin]
FULL TEXT OF ARTICLE:
1. [Editorial roundtable written up by V.I. Shamshurin]
2. [Text] At present, in scientific and current affairs literature a
great deal of attention is being paid to man. However, very
frequently this is done in a strictly declarative manner, that is, we
must, supposedly, pay more attention to man, carry out concrete
research, for example, in sociology and so forth. But just what is
man? Who and what are studied in investigating man? His thoughts,
aspirations, hopes, desires, beliefs; ore x~erna #orms--conduct, -
deeds, way of life, morals, social, legal, moral and other standards
and views? Or possibly, the methods by which man organizes his own
life in a society of others such as him? Or do they search for
substantiation for purposefully compiled social schemes, utopias,
questionnaires, polls and so forth? The scientist, the sociologist,
must be clearly aware, for example, of with what he precisely is
concerned in conducting a poll, questionnaire and here clearly define
for himself the cardinal philosophical viewpoint which will determine
the various results of the research: Is man totally and completely
the product of external circumstances (natural, social), that is, a
mechanism, or as a living organism does he possess free will and an
independent spirit? For the sociologist these are crucial questions.
But what do the representatives of other sciences, for example of
biology, physiology or for instance medicine, think about this
matter? Seemingly, they are totally and completely involved with the
corporeal aspect of human life, with man's physical health and
external conduct. But there is also the interior world of man and it
is indispensable for the physician and biologist to consider this.
Participating in the discussion of this and other questions were:
R.A. Chizhenkova, candidate of biological sciences and senior .
science associate at the Biophysics Institute of the USSR Academy of
Sciences; A.S. Ivanov, candidate of medical sciences and senior
science associate at the Surgery Center of the USSR Academy of
325
Approved for Release
91010
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Medical Sciences; I.I. Sventitskiy, candidate of technical sciences
and senior science associate at the Institute of Soil Science and
Photosynthesis of the USSR Academy of Sciences; V.V. Semenov,
candidate of philosophical sciences and physician; A.I. Panchenko,
doctor of philosophical sciences and head of the department of
philosophical sciences of the INION [Institute of Scientific
Information on Social Sciences) of the USSR Academy of Sciences; V.I.
Shamshurin, candidate of philosophical sciences and editor of the
journal SOTSIOLOGICHESKIYE ISSLEDOVANIYA (chairing the session).
3. V.I. Shamshurin: I would like to raise the following questions
for discussion. What is the spiritual organization of man as a member
of society? What is the role of analyzing the nature of human
interests in their relation to social development? As is known, the
social conduct of people, according to M. Veber, is organized in
accord with their view or their understanding of social reality.
But, if we view these problems from the viewpoint of natural sciences
directly involved with man (biology and medicine), what can be said
about the implied importance of these problems?
4. If, for instance, a biologist merely examines a body organ and a
physician merely treats this, then there is no need for the
"questioning" which precedes contact with man. The only thing
needed is the practical skill of a "plaintiff," that is, a certain
questionnaire with questions which must -be-answered-bur-merely '1yea,_1____-____ _
or "no," as all the remainder is superfluous. This is like a
harnessed horse running in blinders. It runs but it does not know
where or who and, more importantly, why it is being guided. And
possibly it is not necessary to guide at all. Far from the best
coachman is in control here and at best he is idle and at worst he
gets in the way. What driver is needed?
5. Any humanitarian science is not only an analysis of the sense of
words and proper meanings (as in Ancient Greece, although Aristotle
mentioned the physician Hippocrates, Plato, and the God of Medicine
Askiepios in relation to politics). This is, above all, an analysis
of successful, beneficial social actions (as was felt in Ancient
Rome), that is, direct or indirect contact with controlling the
social behavior of man.
6. The essence of the latter approach is that if you have a good
idea or an ideal, whatever it might be, then show it in fact, in
practice, and thereby persuade me of your truthfulness. This does not
mean that a primitive utilitarian demand is being made of "let us
get a feel- for what you are thinking. No, this is a completely
reasonable desire to be certain that an idea or concept is effective
and that the system, as the cyberneticians say, "possesses
feedback." A social analysis of the actions of man, that is, his
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rights and duties reinforced in the word and with the aid of the
word-this is what we have in mind in the given instance. And this
means the actions related to the social body, to politics, the
economy, that is, to any concrete manifestation of human life
activity and in the given instance, with biology and medicine.
Certainly, the natural scientists and physicians know the ancient
philosophical truth that "a body without reason is dead." Then we
are no longer involved with biology, surgery or cardiology but rather
with pathologic anatomy. Plato wrote: "The person with a naturally
healthy body who leads a healthy way of life but catches some unusual
illness, for such persons and in such a state Asklepios pointed out
how they should be treated: with medicines and bleeding the illness
must be driven out, in maintaining, however, the ordinary way of life
so that social affairs do not suffer" ("The Republic," 407a).
Thus, what is the role of social relations in the health of man and
society?
7. V.V. Semenov: In actuality in recent years, one can hear more and
more often the opinion that the sociohumanitarian sciences must turn
to the living man, to his problems, and not be limited to abstract
cognitive limits of research or the "somatic" pragmatic questions.
In the literature there are enough examples of such an appeal, but
for now what results have we encountered? A separate area of
cognition has arisen entitled "border problems of science" and
"common scientific problems, and-here comp etely d fferent
disciplines are brought together reflecting one or another aspect of
human activity: political science, economics, natural scientific
research and medicine. Such an association thus remains a range of
disciplines which are unrelated except for the idea of man. The
futility of the attempts to isolate common grounds for such diverse
areas of knowledge is reflected in the problem widely discussed in
methodology of the incommensurability of theories. No general concept
of man is obtained nor can it be with such an approach. What one now
understands by this is in essence a mechanical or even an eclectic
bringing together of various disciplines. An effective general
concept of man as a social individual should be provided in such a
positive science as sociology in its interaction with political
science, political economy and other disciplines. The specific area
of research is the following. Dialectics asserts that there are no
positive phenomena which do not have a negative aspect and which not
only grows along with the positive but under certain conditions turns
the positive into the negative, and under certain conditions this can
also lead to ecological, medical-biological and then social crises
and disasters. In order that this does not happen, it is essential to
study the social mechanisms of crisis prevention. Such mechanisms
should be found in the structures of society itself, in its social
institutions as a legitimate resistance to the "positive" and which
grows as the positive phenomenon is converted into the negative. Here
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is one of the areas of social research and a point of contact between
the humanitarian and social sciences.
S. A.I. Panchenko: In my view, the interaction of the
humanitarian-social and natural sciences can be most beneficial in
the area of the problems of humanitarianizing biology and medicine.
This conclusion can be confirmed, in the first place, from the
example of literature on the mass information media and in books for
now basically published abroad. They raise the questions of
parapsychology, psychokinesis, extracensory perception, unidentified
flying objects, astrology and so forth and these at present are also
being discussed actively in our country. Here, it seems to me, the
basic object of discussion to a significant degree relates to social
psychology and it can be said the issue of the "social health of
society." In other words, during those moments of history when
society is in a crisis stage of its development, certain things which
"replace- reality are cultivated "above" and actively perceived,
supported and experienced "below." Moreover, on a general level the
rise of such things, in my view, is tied to a need-for "miracles"
and this is internally inherent to man. Here it would be possible to
argue about different historical forms of rationality or mentality,
about political regimes, about global crises, or whatever you wish,
but in man there is a need for a "miracle" and this is possibly
responsible for the maintaining of "social health" and for creative
activity. In my view, this need is -one -of -- the rces of------
human existence. And it must be supported, regardless of the
distorted forms of its employment, for example, in the mass
information media. Of course, here the role of medical workers is far
from the last.
9. Secondly, in that same literature all the sought or supposedly
visible "substitute,, things and abilities are established from the
"scientific" viewpoint. Here it is essential to figure out what a
scientific viewpoint means. This has a common cultural point as
there is the old tradition of putting natural science into opposition
to the "'sciences dealing with the spirit" (0. Dilthey). If such a
tradition is valid, then we cannot view biology as a
sociohumanitarian discipline. I propose that the designated tradition
is not quite valid. Certainly any sciences in one way or another
derive from the needs of man and ultimately arrive at disclosing the
conditions of his life. Natural sciences disclose the natural
conditions, while the sociohumanitarian sciences show the social and
spiritual ones. Understandable in this context is the great interest
which is now being shown in the so-called anthropic principle in
cosmology: together with physics, cosmology shows that the
organization of the Universe is precisely one where life could arise
in it and where man could appear along with life. The opinion of V.I.
Vernadskiy is confirmed that life is a cosmic phenomenon.
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10. But is there a natural science on human capabilities and human
conduct (social) in that very sense as a science on inanimate
objects? The impression is gained that many parapsychologists would
like to fit their subject of research into the framework of methods
worked out by natural science. Parapsychology has a rather long
history. Thus, in 1882, the Society of Psychic Research was founded
in Great Britain and this set as its goal the study of those human
abilities which "are inexplicable on the basis of any broadly
accepted hypotheses." Since the, parapsychology has acquired an
institutionalized development. The anthology "Basic Experiments in
Parapsychology" published in 1884 in Great Britain under the
editorship of K.R. Rao has pointed out that around 2,000 such "basic
experiments" have now been carried out. But what is the interesting
point? The interesting point was that the rate of definite results
for all these experiments was assessed at 50 percent. This means that
the experiments did not produce anything definite. Certainly for
physics a result with a probability of 50.0001 percent would be more
definite, but 50 percent is complete ambiguity. In turn, this can
mean only one thing: experimental methods in physics which are
perfectly applicable to investigating inanimate objects cannot be
applied unconditionally to researching the phenomena of the psyche
and consciousness. Psychic and psychophysical relationships can
scarcely be modeled in the same manner as physical causal
relationships (and actually a majority- of- the-experiment-a3 - -----
parapsychologists is involved in this).
11. Thirdly, on the basis of the so-called "experiments" and
practice of parapsychologists, numerous speculations and
falsifications have arisen. Parapsychology has been even turned into
a sort of "business." An example would be the activities of the
famous conjuror, U. Geller, who appeared recently on our Central
Television. Somewhat before, 15-20 years ago, Geller demonstrated his
tricks on British Television and he not only "wound" and
"stopped" watches, but also taught "spoons and forks to bend,"
and this was enormously successful (particularly with children). So,
the screens of current Soviet television are offering us rather
obsolete information. This information, incidentally, has not
informed us that in 1975, another famous magician, J. Randy,
published a book entitled "The Magic of Uri Geller." It condemns
Geller for violating professional ethics of illusionists evident, in
particular, in Geller's use of the terms "psychokinesis, "
"extrasensory perception" and "parapsychology." "This,"
commented J. Randy and the English physicist G. Taylor, "as well as
the story of Geller's doctoring photographs for the Israeli
newspapers showing him together with Sofia Loren led to a decline in
Geller's popularity...."
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12. I do not want to doubt the abilities of Geller or the necessity
of investigating the depths of the human psyche, but at the same time
it cannot be doubted that tricks are possible in such practices. The
same Randy describes a case when young persons trained by him joined
a collective at the Parapsychology Laboratory of Washington
University, convinced the co-workers of this laboratory of their
"supernatural" abilities and then at a press conference unmasked
both this "supernaturalness" and the convictions and activities of
the parapsychologists.
13. Fourthly, and now from the truly philosophical viewpoint (that
is, from the metaphysical and metaspiritual viewpoint divorced from
the concrete realities of our life), here the problem arises of the
relationship of the spirit and the body, the psychic and the
physi(ologi)cal, the mind and matter. Again the old "accursed"
problem arises of what was first-matter or mind? Clearly, on the
abstract level the positing of this question makes no sense. Clearly,
for philosophy as well as for life, science, practice and medicine,
both are important, although in concrete situations, at specific
historical stages and in specific concepts (including in sociology!)
preference can be given to one or the other. The idealistic system of
Hegel did not prevent him from disclosing the development dialectics
of the conscience. The dualistic philosophical position of the
Australian neurophysiologist G. Eckles did not prevent him from
investigating the ion mechanisms for the transmiss of n of nerve impulses (he received the Nobel Prize for this). Profound
materialistic convictions also do not prevent the carrying out of
scientific research and the achieving of outstanding results.
However, up to the present no philosopher has been able to reduce the
entire diversity of the world to just the spiritual or just the
corporal. For this reason, of course, we do have grounds for putting
medicine and biology into a sociohumanitarian context.
14. I.I. Sventitskiy: I would like to examine the relationship of
social and natural sciences from the following position. The
exacerbation of the global natural scientific, social and production
problems clearly has a common prime cause. The essence of this is
that man in his activities has not considered the important laws of
nature. One of these is the energy extremality of self-organizing
and, particularly, living systems. The latter in their development
spontaneously strive for the fullest utilization of the free
(accessible) energy under the existing external conditions. Modern
achievements in the 1970s and 1980s in nonequilibrium thermodynamics
(G. Nicolis, I. Prigogine), the physics of self-organization and
evolution (V. Ebeling, R. Feistel) as well as ecological
bioenergetics show that the structural organization of living systems
and their functional relations have a common energy extremality or
bioenergetic purpose. An energy economicness of living nature can be
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traced in all stages of its development and in all its
manifestations, with the exception of the present stage in the
development of human society.
15. The destruction and pollution of the environment, in reaching a
scale threatening the health of people and the possibility of their
further existence, is the result primarily of the wasteful,
noneconomic use of enormous energy capacity which human society has
gained in recent decades. The ecological problem is largely
exacerbated by the food problem. The intensification of food
production everywhere has been accompanied by an exceptionally rapid'
rise in the expenditures of anthropogenic energy per unit of product,
by an accelerated growth of pollution and'destruction of the
environment, by a deterioration of food quality and by a negative
influence of it [food?] on human health.
16. The genesis and initial development of culture and social
relations of all peoples, regardless of their nationality and
geographic location, obviously and with good reason are permeated
with and accompanied by artistic images of the methods of securing
food, the most precious and irreplacable type of free energy.
17. V.I. Shamshurin: You are right. At present, this is being
intensely studied by representatives of a recent current in foreign
sociology, the followers of "figurative-vFT socFoiogy ot-L. El-
18. I.I. Sventitskiy: And they are right to do this, as the needs of
man in the preindustrial period were very largely determined by the
energy found in food. During extensive industrial development, the
technogenic energy consumed by man surpassed by many-fold the energy
consumed in food. During this period technologies wet. clearly
energy-wasteful and this became the main reason for the exacerbation
of global problems. Precisely man's awareness of the particularly
important social importance of bioenergetic extremality in the
development of living systems, including human society, and the
inevitability of shifting it to autotrophy will make it possible to
accelerate the development of energy-saving and ecologically safe
technologies, protect nature and ensure the survival of man under the
conditions of the biosphere.
19. V.I. Shamshurin: Thus, the points of contact and similarity of
social and natural sciences can be seen. What about the differences?
In what way does philosophy differ from medicine?
20. A.S. Ivanov: The difference is as follows. Our main
philosophical aphorism "know thyself" (or "nature" or
"society") belongs to the realm of recommendations, advice for long
research, wishes and desires for ideals that would be difficult to
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achieve at the given moment, ones more desired than urgent. This is
proper but not the one needed now. Our aphorism is "physician, cure
thyself." It has a concrete appeal and offers clear practical
guidance. In the mouth of any patient, it can be a direct demand and
a "verb in the imperative" and moreover has the character of direct
completed action.
21. What sort of art can you have, he [the patient] might say, if
you yourself are not healthy and look bad; I will not come to you for
treatment. Such an understanding in medicine of one's own purpose has
come down from the times of Hippocrates who said that a physician
should look decent in order to extol his ability by his appearance.
22. V.I. Shamshurin: Plato in this sense makes a very accurate
comment: " Certainly in my opinion they treat the body not with the
body, otherwise it would be inadmissible to have a poor corporeal
state of the physician himself, rather they treat the body with the
soul, and the soul cannot treat well if the physician's is poor or
has become such." Why do I recall Plato? He, in my view, provides
the most surprising correlation between medicine and the sciences
dealing with society. Thus, in one of his sociopolitical works, "The
Republic" in comparing medicine and legal art, he legitimizes them
only under the condition that "both of them are concerned for the
citizens viable both in terms of body and soul.... " ("The
Republic," 410).
23. A.S. Ivanov: That is precisely the point. I constantly take
instantaneous decisions in operations and I bear an enormous burden
of responsibility-both moral and, incidentally, legal. On this level,
precisely from the legal viewpoint, philosophers and sociologists in
their activities are not involved in the law. I have never heard that
they had responsibility stipulated precisely by the law and not by
arbitrariness (since there has been more than enough persecution of
the social scientists) for socioideological recommendations that have
been ineffective or even lethal for society. Physicians treat both
the body and the soul. And here I am a member of the humanities.
Incidentally, I, as a cardiologist, am extremely close to the
philosophical principle that "truth passes through the heart" which
is rather well known and is inherent to the ancient philosophical
cultural tradition which bears a name similar to the name of my
profession, crypto- or cardiognosis. Hippocrates put it clearly:
"The physician-philosopher is like God." Let us recall again the
classic Russian literature of the 19th Century. Prince V.F.
Odoyevskiy in his "The Story of the Cock, Cat and Frog" very
precisely examines the role of psychoanalysis in.the treatment of
hypochondriacs. And this is from the viewpoint of surgery! At
present, unfortunately, an analysis of the inner motives of man is
applied basically in psychotherapy and sex pathology.
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24. V.I. Shamshurin: Is there a difference (and in what manner)
between the inner world of a patient and the inner world of a healthy
person? In other words, if we turn to the specific work of a
physician, is it helpful for him to know the particular features of
the mind of his patients-both ailing and healthy? For instance,
preop, during the operation and postop? What mental sets of the
patient favor the achieving of health and which ones harm it? On this
level, what are your tested procedures for "translating" or
converting certain mental sets of the "respondents" into others?
Are these being studies?
25. A.S. Ivanov: How can these be combined or, more accurately, how
can healthy internal spiritual activity be made from sick? This
question is important, in my view, from any viewpoint. Both as a
"eternal, fatal- question of philosophy as well as an urgent,
applied question for the research sociologist developing a concrete
social program in the area of state, ethnic relations or a physician
struggling directly for the health of a specific person.
26. Unfortunately, in medicine the answers to the given question is
a particular matter worked out by each physician by trial and error.
And as a result-everyone knows to say the least. Basically, this is
studied in the medical schools and this is written about in the
special scientific research and practical-manuals. u nowhere-
do----_--they write or teach about what a person thinks in experiencing pain!
27. Generally, the role of thought and conscious motives in our work
(both for the physician and for the patient) for me has assumed an
ever-greater role. Seemingly, this is a philosophical question but in
medicine it is pertinent as never before. Who should be considered
sick? How does ailing flesh influence optimistic spirits? These are
not abstract questions. Behind them, in essence, stands society's
attitude toward the disabled. To what degree are they to be
considered equal to persons with normal motor activity? Regardless of
all declarations about humanism, the very fact that our subway and
underpasses, our stairwells are not adapted for wheelchairs (which,
incidentally, are produced in insufficient numbers and of poor
quality) bespeaks a great deal. And the birth of sick children? In
antiquity this question was easily resolved as they were thrown off
the Tarpeian Rock. Our culture based upon charity and veneration of
life, that is, on principles deriving from Christianity, cannot
permit itself such a harsh equating of the internal and external
world, such vulgar and even harsh materialism of paganism: "In a
healthy body is a healthy mind." Here medicine should be clearly
aware of its own philosophical positions. The mystery of life must be
held secret, "it must not be harmed," as the same Hippocrates said.
To assume that the spirit, mental richness and fullness of life can
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be apparent and, consequently, accessible to all, both to those who
are now well situated as well as those who are still powerless, but
he [the physician] must remember that the key to recovery is in his
hands. The forces of his spirit are in a potential state. Here we
might refer to the experience of V. Dikul who literally worked
miracles. Certainly, the imparting of a courageous attitude toward
life and to the vicissitudes of life is a function of humanitarian
science, for example philosophy, which must go hand in hand with
medicine. It is a different matter that the philosophy needed by man
should be oriented precisely at him, and consider the concrete
difficulties, joys, hardships, ideas, sadness and hope. It should not
be on impersonal schemes and distant social abstractions behind which
man cannot be seen and which provide no rosy glow for anything, no
comfort, hope or certainty and no real way to achieve any of these.
For this reason, we, the physicians, as no one else understand the
representatives of the humanities who speak about the moral or
"prophylactic" essence of their work. On this level, the role of
domestic philosophical culture-the Russian philosophy at the end of
the 19th Century and the beginning of the 20th-for the physicians are
as important as for the researchers of the history of culture. The
names of V.S. Solovyev, N.I. Berdyayev and others for us represent
not only a distant cognitive but also practical professional
interest. As for the study of motivation, ideas and images, this is a
matter for the humanities, for the philosophers and sociologists.
Here also there are great opportunities for n-tar d'ss- ciplinary
contacts as the physicians have enormous concrete material which
requires professional sociological analysis. And now I am speaking
responsibly as an official representative of the All-Union Scientific
Surgery Institute of the USSR Academy of Sciences. Here we perform
diverse operations on vitally important organs including the
intestines, liver, lungs and heart, including the transplanting of
these organs and the reimplantation of extremities. We also observe
persons in the "distant" period after the operation, considering
here the most diverse factors. We monitor not only the function of
the organ operated on, but also the quality and way of life as a
whole of our patients. This, in my view, is what we are now talking
about.
28. At present, we at the Center operate under conditions of cost
accounting (here is the importance of the socioeconomic factor for
you) and this has opened up great opportunities both for the
physicians, for the patients, and both on a creative and
applied-organizational level. It has become easier for us to
establish contact as the physician has moved closer to man. For
example, contracts are being concluded with various enterprises of
not only Moscow but also the entire nation to study and treat both
employees and their relatives. This brings enormous benefit to the
health of specific individuals (and not to the abstract
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"population" as a whole, as was the case before) and makes it
possible to thoroughly study man on a modern level (we have the most
advanced equipment) and promptly treat the illnesses.
29. V.I. Shamshurin: In actuality, what principle should underlie
the definition of man's health? Real altruism and humanism with its
assertion of the generic essence of human mental activity preserving
in his "image and likeness" the equal rights of all persons to the
spiritual and material values of mankind's culture? Or misanthropy
and xenophobia based upon the principle of "ethnic selectivity"
with its constant -veterinary- desire to place people, as Chaadayev
wrote, in closed stalls? Here the arguments inherent to these social
concepts and drawn from one or another "national geneology" must
prove that the harmonious combination of the fullness of thought and
physical activity are possible only within the limits of one but only
one nation more often understood biologically, in the form of a
certain "selection," when the possibility is admitted of achieving
a certain "purebreed strain of new people" and "builders of a new
society."
30. R.A. Chizhenkova: The role of social science and particularly
culture in the natural sciences is much greater than the most
convinced representatives of the humanities can imagine. For me, a
natural scientist, this is indisputable.
31. In recent decades in reviewing the problems of the development
of society it has become a rule to discard psychological questions
with extreme decisiveness and with extraordinary closeness seek out
the boundary between the social and biological aspects of man,
thereby splitting social sciences away from natural sciences, that
is, from the foundation. Social sciences were being turned into the
area of a parascience. As for the biological characteristics of man,
such a deep abyss was created between them and social phenomena that
man was actually no more than a "cog " in the social mechanism.
Here there was a confusing of such concepts as society and the crowd,
the individual and personality.
32. V.I. Shamshurin: How do you view the consequences of the notion
of a "cog" in biology and in the social sciences?
33. R.A. Chizhenkova: The complete adaptation of a biological
species to surrounding reality paralyzes its development and
ultimately leads to extinction (P. Teilhard de Chardin). This is the
case in biology. In and of itself social adaptation is a good thing.
However, the variation of it which is optimal for the individual as a
rule is an impediment in the development of society. To some degree
it works for the good of the individual but not for the social
organism. Those who rested on their laurels during the "cult of
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personality" and "stagnation" evolved with maximum accuracy an
optimum method of conduct for themselves. The policy of carrot and
stick and the corresponding notion of a "cog" gave rise to the
committing of certain actions and the abandoning of others. But the
population ,which does not know how to live- is the engine of
progress. Precisely those who were unable or who could not adopt the
line of conduct imposed on them are the hope of society, even
posthumously. The Russian intelligentsia has always stood out both in
its high morality and in its low socioutilitarian adaptation and in
its absence of what previously was called "mercenariness." In
Russia, the intellectuals were always the pioneers, the defenders of
law and...perished under the wheel of history in order years later to
return to the people as an achieved long-term social good and social
charity. Tragicness went hand in hand with the development of
progressive thought.
34. The portion of the people who possess high adaptation abilities
on the social level allowing them to secure the goods of life, can
adapt to any conditions. But for the personality, for its development
and activity, it is essential to have space and the possibility of
choosing also inner spiritual freedom. Without this, the personality
is not realized and this is always a tragedy.
35. V.I. Shamshurin: Spirituality, morality-are these ordinary
concepts for a biologist...?
36. R.A. Chizhenkova: No. Merely abstract appeals to restore
morality are futile. These cannot operate in isolation from the other
aspects of social life. Nevertheless, the perfection of a society
should be measured by the attitude to the living and even the
nonliving world and not only and not so much by the attitude toward
women (this is too narrow). This is what comprises the higher
spirituality which brings together the entire noosphere. Possibly it
was something like this that E. Le Roy had in mind when in 1927 he
proposed the term " noosphere." Reason will embelish the new
(anthropogenic) age in the world. The last (incomplete) book by V.I.
Vernadskiy "Nauchnaya mysi kak planetarnoye yavleniye " [Scientific
Thought as a Planetary Phenomenon] was devoted to an optimistic
belief in human reason. At present, in relation to perestroyka, we
are rethinking the economic principles of the life of society. But
the measure of economic gain cannot completely serve as the
fundamental criterion for the reasonability of one or another
innovation. This criterion must be employed only in an aggregate with
other ones. Neither economic successes nor technical progress are a
justification of human suffering or the fading of nature. Priority
lies with the principles of morality. The Hippocratic medical oath
"Do Not Cause Harm!" should be found in all spheres of social life
as a "symbol of belief" in the modern age.
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37. Culture requires urgent concern. K. Marx warned about the danger
of combining a revolution and a low cultural level and concern was
voiced over this in Russian in 1917. Even if it is admitted that
positive changes occurred over the decades, there has not been the
proper optimism since no judgments have been made. Undoubtedly,
illiteracy has been eliminated, however to some degree the cultural
heritage was destroyed and it is this which preserves the wisdom of
previous generations.
38. Man should correspond to his proud name of Homo sapiens, both as
a biological species, as a moral personality and as a social
principal.
39. V.I. Shamshurin: Certainly we must not allow a pagan denial of
the Christian culture which has come down to us or the destruction of
the higher accomplishments of modern civilization and its common
human values.
40. The hard-hearted social theories with all their reciprocal
disdain generally derive from the same primitive interpretation of
the social ideology first expressed by the Ancient Jews, the chosen
nature of one, separately taken people or social group. The
falaciousness of the various "veterinary" solutions to the very
complex problems of man, society (their purpose an word"hisry- #
not merely obvious, but also involves the blood of an enormous number
of victims and literally shouts inhumanity. When, for the sake of an
abstract scheme which Justifies the inequality of people, peoples and
classes, they begin killing, then this is inadmissible from any
viewpoint, from the philosophical, the sociological, the medical and
the biological.
41. COPYRIGHT: Izdatelstvo "Nauka" , "Sotsiologicheskiye
issledovaniya " , 1991