Vol 2, No 3 (2022)

Full Issue

PHILOSOPHY

St. Lem about the impossibility of life and prediction

Anisov A.

Abstract

The article analyzes the philosophical ideas of St. Lem, expressed by him in the short story with the double title "On the Impossibility of Life" and "On the Impossibility of Prognostication". It shows that the story is based on ontological issues related to the existence status of unique future events. Lem demonstrates the features of this status through the example of a fictional story of future Professor Kouska’s birth, on whose behalf indeterministic conclusions about the nature of unique events are made. Lem's thesis that the information about future unique events objectively does not exist is one of the key conclusions. For this reason, prognosticating events of this kind is basically impossible. The lack of information is related to the fact that ontologically there is no future, it has not happened yet. This Lem’s thesis is supplemented by the author's reasoning that the past no longer ontologically exists that appears in the indeterminate traceless disappearance of a part of unique events from the past as time passes. Defense to indeterminism includes criticism of the dogmatic determinism of Parmenidean science and philosophy, that dispel time and change from being. As a result, dogmatic determinism ignores history as an ordered set of unique events. A new understanding of the possible is substantiated, unrelated to the idea of probability theory elementary events and a great number of modal logic possible worlds.

Semiotic studies. 2022;2(3):8-17
pages 8-17 views

Semiotics of spirit: philosophical and psychological discourse

Faritov V.

Abstract

The article provides a comparative study of the Hegelian philosophical system of the spirit and the Jungian collective unconscious psychology. The basic conceptual courses of the Hegelian dialectic are compared with the fundamental concepts of Jungian school, such as the collective unconscious, personality, individuation, selfhood, projection. Despite Jung's pronounced negative attitude towards the Hegelian system, the psychologist's school has numerous parallels with Hegel's philosophy of spirit. The article reveals contradiction between Jung's commitment to the Kantian metaphysics and the abundance of the Hegelian motives in his psychological theory.

Semiotic studies. 2022;2(3):18-25
pages 18-25 views

New hunt for Sataur

Konev V.

Abstract

The author suggests that the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic, that humanity faced in the 21st century, can be considered as a reaction of the planet Earth nature to the aggressive man-made behavior of the modern civilization. If tensions arise in the noosphere, and the law of the struggle of species for existence is the way the living sphere exists, then there must be a counteraction between the "wild" life and the "wise" life. Perhaps the sudden appearance of SARS-CoV-2, that so "skillfully" resists all the tricks of the human belonging to technogenic civilization, makes it clear to the mankind that the type of attitude to the world that was chosen by Western European civilization and assumed a global character is flawed and requires, if not a change, then at least a significant correlation.
Stanislav Lem's story "The Hunt for the Sataurus" tells about a robot that was accidentally damaged and started doing unpredictable actions that are dangerous to people's lives. A group of spaceport armed people is intent on neutralizing the damaged robot by organizing a hunt for the "crazed" robot.
The new hunt for the Sataur - the hunt for the virus of the COVID-19 pandemic - is different from the one presented in Lem's story. The emergence of the SARS-CoV-2 virus is not the result of a "damage" of something but the result of such civilization development, that is based on the opposition of culture and nature. Therefore, the victory over SARS-CoV-2 requires change in the cultural framework for the civilization development.
Humanity should learn a lesson from the “hunt” for the coronavirus COVID-19 – it’s time to get serious about modifying the values of our culture and developing a new ethics that would orient its categorical imperative not to the first, but to the second person (YOU, not I, determine the rightness of the act).

Semiotic studies. 2022;2(3):26-31
pages 26-31 views

Science fiction as a source of realistic description of behavior (based on the short story by Kir Bulychev "I'm dialing a number")

Serikov A.E.

Abstract

The article disputes the assertion of N. Frye and Tz. Todorov that fiction is created only on the basis of fiction. It is reality that is ultimately the source of works of art. Realistic descriptions may be perfectly present in fiction, and most readers intuitively know what description is realistic and what is fantastic one. But this is a rather difficult task for AI. In order to teach AI to understand tests better, it is necessary to investigate how people build their understanding of the information that is not stated in the text clearly. The article describes the method of behavioral analysis of texts and provides an example of the fantastic story analysis. It shows that a significant part of the knowledge about the characters, their state, circumstances and forms of behavior is extracted on the basis of common sense as something taken for granted for a person belonging to the given culture, but not for a representative of another culture or a computer program. The same applies to the difference between real and fantastic events. For AI to understand the meaning of the described events, it is to be able to rely on common sense knowledge, extract common sense judgments, that are appropriate for a current context, and draw appropriate conclusions based on them.

Semiotic studies. 2022;2(3):32-38
pages 32-38 views

Harry Potter and technopessimism: are «zoomers» ready for the technological progress?

Yastreb N.A.

Abstract

The article reveals the conditions for the science fiction and fantasy fiction to affect formation of technooptimistic and technopessimistic attitude of young readers. Primarily, the work assumes the way fiction heroes understand artefacts with reservations can be considered as the basis to reveal the attitude to engineering among those generations for whom these works were notional points. Technooptimism is defined as a worldview attitude within which nature and the humanbeing cause problems. The article shows that technopessimism identifies the human activity as the problem source. Harry Potter series proved to shape technopessimistic worldview and excuse technology inequality. Through the example of T. Pratchett books the article demonstrates that literature can formalize readers’ responsible attitude towards equipment if it shows not only the threat that pose technologies (the Promethan mentality), but also remedies to manage effects of machinery use, including those resulting from improper decisions (the Epimethian mentality).

Semiotic studies. 2022;2(3):39-45
pages 39-45 views

Cinematic interpretation of psychoanalysis: to the difference between black-and-white and colour cinema

Markov A.

Abstract

Proposed by V.V. Bibikhin comparative analysis of the poetics of On the Nature by Parmenides with early cinematography combines cinematography symbolism and avant-garde understanding, representing a kind of a laconic number of theoretical views on the causes of developing the expanded plot out of the story line or hidden plot. Cinema poetics here phenomenologically reflects the birth of literary fiction. These conceptions turn out to be combined by the Freudian concept of affect overcoming, that is incidental in traditional Freudianism, but fundamental for understanding the expressive gestures of early cinematography and principles of the plot creation. Parallels with other cinema avant-garde concepts allow to clarify how symbolization of the gesture, colour composition and cinematography minimum technical support could be conceived in perception raised on literature. Bibikhin сinema analytics specifies understanding of screen sensibility and colour in the literature and psychoanalysis symbolism tradition.



Semiotic studies. 2022;2(3):46-51
pages 46-51 views

LITERATURE STUDIES

S. Lem as a literary theorist: an existentialist underneath the mask of a structuralist

Darenskiy V.

Abstract

The article examines the concept of the literary work essence, theoretically developed by S. Lem in his book “The Philosophy of Chance”. It shows the principles of his criticism of the structuralism approach, and also it compares S. Lem’s theory of the work with the concepts of R. Barthes and U. Eco. The fundamental characteristic of S. Lem’s approach here is that his understanding of the work polysemy and its multiple interpretations does not contradict the existence of “best” interpretation. According to S. Lem, the basic principle of the work understanding is the investigation of its deep ontological model, that is bringing chaos to the order structure. At the same time, the order is of procedural and intersubjective nature. S. Lem adopts the “classical” principle of searching the work “best interpretation” so that it should be the result of the selection and synthesis of several variants. Furthermore, S. Lem employs the archetype of the Word creating the world, that builds up the reality. Thereby, S. Lem’s thinking continues to be determined by biblical archetypes, despite all his external scientism. Such way of thinking is still a valuable pattern for us, since it allows us to combine the analysis of the latest phenomena and situations in culture with understanding of its deep archetypical foundations.

Semiotic studies. 2022;2(3):52-60
pages 52-60 views

Semiotic capacity of insanity: thought disorder modelling as a tool for possible text world making (based on texts by S. Lem)

Smerdowa E.

Abstract

The thought disorders issue is common for the literature and is supposed to be used in different ways: from revealing the conundrum between the psychic of the character and the outer world to creation of the hypertext, multifunctional view of the text world. It was S. Lem who did use the thought disorders to create the fantasy view of the world which was supposed to be drastically different from the reality. The focus of this article will be on the study of examples of making the possible text world by means of thought disorders expressions in the texts by S. Lem (“Fables for Robots”, “The Star Diaries”, “The Futurological Congress”). Particularly, we are inclined to analyze indexes, icons and symbols as the sign system of the text, that enable the author to create the fantasy view of the text world. Thus, one might recognise an example of the dissolved thinking in the dialog between Ijon Tichy and the sales-assistant about sepulkas. This thought disorder is characterised by wrong, unusual complex of opinions, when random concepts are wired one after another without any sense. As a result, the chain of senseless and incomprehensible concepts is made, for instance: sepulkas, sepulkarium, kachezh and so on. The semiotic capacity of these signs comprises the distance from reality, when characters use unknown concepts seemingly well-known for other characters in the text. In conclusion, the fantasy view of the text world appears to be more seomiotically autonomous and independent from the real world.

Semiotic studies. 2022;2(3):61-68
pages 61-68 views

Poetics of the variant. N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky’s stories in the Samara periodicals of the 1890s-1900s.

Perepelkin M., Perepelkin I.

Abstract

The article considers the original versions of three stories by N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky, published in the 1890s–1900s in two Samara periodicals – «Samarskaya Gazeta» and «Samarsky Vestnik». Comparing these variants with later editions of these stories, known from book publications, the authors of the article reconstruct the process of writing, and also try to imagine the creative laboratory of the artist. Although he «wrote on the fly», while working on each story, he moved consistently from specifics to generalization, from observation to meaning, and from emotion to an image. Thus, comparing the original and edited versions of the story «Rebekah», the authors stated a significant text reduction by the writer, who in the editing process tried to shift the main focus from the everyday aspect of the heroes' drama to the inner, spiritual one. If the original version showed the whole story of the hero's madness, the edited text focuses on key points that allow readers to complete the whole story about the «martyrs to love» themselves. The other two writer’s stories considered in the article – «Adochka» and «Genius» – were also significantly changed. While editing these stories, N.G. Garin-Mikhailovsky solved one main problem: the life truth was to become an artistic one that would speak for itself in its own language having little in common both with the specifics of real events and with attempts at rhetorical generalizations and philosophical insights.

Semiotic studies. 2022;2(3):69-80
pages 69-80 views

Oh brave new world of A.K. Goldebaev

Morozova K.

Abstract

This article analyzes the creative concept of the fantastic work of A.K. Goldebaev "Bez letoischisleniia" ["Without chronology"], which was described in the "diary" of the writer. Comparing the plot frames of some of Goldebaev's published novels and stories, such as "V chem prichina?" ("Ssora")["What is the reason?" (“Quarrel”)] (1903), "Podonki" [“Scum”] (1904), "Podloe sostoianie" [“Mean Condition”] (1906), "Letniy otdykh" ("V stepi") [“Summer Vacation” (“In the prairie”)] (1907), "Galchonok" ["Young jackdaw"] (1910), "Mama ushla" [“Mom is gone”] (1910 ), "Gnomy" [“Gnomes”] (1911), the author of the article comes to the conclusion that, according to the idea, the novel or story "Bez letoischisleniia" ["Without chronology"] should have contained a solution to all the problems raised by the writer at different creative stages. Thus, the writer models an ideal, utopian, in his opinion, world, cleansed of the sins and problems of contemporary society, including poverty, illness, prostitution, adultery and, as a result, unhappy children. The main research methods in the article are comparative and structural. The novelty of the scientific work is, firstly, in the attention to the plot of the work, described in the writer's "diary" not presented to the general reader, and secondly, in comparison of the creative sketch with the already published works, that reveales it deep meaning. It is worth noting that it is quite possible that the plot of the final version, stored in the form of a manuscript in the Russian State Archive of Literature and Art, is fundamentally different from the sketch. Thus, the author of the article emphasized the value and seriousness of the problems of the “literary sketch”, which, at first glance, seems to be a naive fantasy of the writer.

Semiotic studies. 2022;2(3):81-86
pages 81-86 views

SOCIOLOGY

Conceptual framework for students’ social psychological monitoring

Avdoshina N., Egorova S., Vaskina Y.V., Zorina S.V., Demina A.I., Nesterov A.Y.

Abstract

The article states and grounds the task to develop and introduce the system of university students’ monitoring as a tool to manage education process that enables to solve the problem of lack of knowledge about the object under control. The article describes theoretical and methodological reasons for the monitoring system. It analyses comprehension of «competency profile», taken as an integrative index of the education result: this index enables to evaluate the learning process efficiency from the point of view of the requirements applied to the subject-matter specialist. The authors describe the monitoring conceptual framework and the possibility of its adaptation to reveal students’ readiness to maintain business activities and research. The conceptual model of the student’s competence profile is based on understanding the concept of readiness for any activity as personality integrative characteristic including needs, motivations, values and social attitudes. The article proves the procedure of students’ motivation diagnostics, the diagnostic procedure of their value system and intentions, and social attitudes. It articulates the way of developing and introducing the social psychological monitoring system, associated with sociological and psychological methods being included into the complex evaluation technique. These methods comprise: 1) estimation technique for the personnel involvement into the company activity; 2) Likert scale; 3) adopted motive classifications by P.M. Lapin and T.V. Razina; 4) M. Rokich’s methodology for value orientation study; 5) S. Schwartz’s methodology for measuring value orientations; 6) methods for IAT and VAAST attitudes indirect diagnostic.

Semiotic studies. 2022;2(3):87-101
pages 87-101 views

Experience of interaction with the ecological framework of a modern city

Korsun M.A.

Abstract

The article considers various aspects of constructing and applying the concept of «urban ecological framework», and also practices of direct interaction. The environmental discourse assumes a more reflexive attitude towards the flora and fauna representatives, regarding them as full social structure subjects. Taking into account high rates of urbanization, it tends to be more topical to analyze human interaction with the plants within the urban space. In the scope of this paper, we reviewed theoretical approaches to the conceptualization of the concepts related to urban vegetation, highlighting the concept of «city ecological framework» as the most optimally corresponding to the New Ecological Paradigm. Further, the author analyzed the urban planning documents of 15 Russian million cities where the city garden problems are reviewed at various reflective levels. Besides, the work presents the results of an experiment on the environmental audit of urban areas, when participants analyzed the structure of urban ecological framework and its separate elements. The experiment showed a low level of the participants’ ecological culture, because the identification of specific plant species caused serious difficulties, and the scenarios of personal interaction with plants were rather poor and were limited to passive perception. However, the informing orientation of the experiment encouraged the participants to self-reflect, that raised the participants’ awareness about the structure and functions of the ecological framework and expanded personal strategies for interacting with it.

Semiotic studies. 2022;2(3):102-109
pages 102-109 views

Cultural (medical) ideas of long-term care patients during the period of the COVID-19 pandemic: mechanism and formation of cultural knowledge in an uncertain situation

Finkelstein I.E.

Abstract

In the period of the new corona virus spread we saw major changes in traditional daily living in total uncertainty. This work investigates the experience of making therapeutic decisions by long-term care patients during the COVID-19 pandemic. Theoretically, the long-established medical decision patterns introduced into the chronic patients’ daily living can stop being effective in a such situation. Conceptually, the study was based on the core principles of the cognitive medical anthropology, when human cultural ideas about the disease and its treatment become fundamental for therapeutic decision making. In the pandemic time, formation of new knowledge about the virus, its consequences, its interaction with chronic diseases ran in the “here and now” mode. The research was to describe the mechanisms of the prepandemic cultural knowledge and creation of new knowledge in an unconventional situation that the long-term care patients had as the most important factor for the patient choice. Within the investigation framework, 11 depth interviews with chronically ill people were held.
The carried out analysis enabled to distinguish two basic models of long-term patients’ medical decision during the pandemic: (1) the model, comprising correction of a prepandemic treatment regimen and (2) the model, omitting correction of a prepandemic treatment regimen. The cultural (medical) knowledge and the problem of health care access proved to be the primary factors, affecting the long-term care patients’ medical decision in the pandemic period. The paper also describes the role of personal experience and the experience of “significant others”, “expert knowledge”, “stories of other people” (experience of unfamiliar people).

Semiotic studies. 2022;2(3):110-118
pages 110-118 views

Political communications and game mechanics

Kolesnik N.V., Khosueva S.

Abstract

The article overviews the issue of interaction and mutual influence of political communications and game mechanics. Gamification of politics is postulated as a basis for understanding new forms of civil and political activity emerged in the digital age. The presented overview of research literature defines that gaming technologies, as a set of methods and techniques, influence the behavior of modern users by overcoming their passivity and involving them into political and civil processes. The paper discusses theoretical approaches to the study of digital gamification: sociological, cultural, and political economic. Particular attention is paid to the analysis of the political communication - through the prism of gamification - along with digital media having characteristics of a new political subject. Separately the work considers election campaigns and the impact that new technologies and gaming practices have on the political activity of citizens.

Semiotic studies. 2022;2(3):119-127
pages 119-127 views

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