The article demonstrates that the essential background for the formation of the Modern period science was the “socio-anthropic idealization” of objects and natural phenomena. Plato assumed that exact methods would enable us to study only man-made objects – a ship, a building, etc.; therefore, if we want to apply precise methods for studying natural objects or phenomena, they must be presented as something created, constructed. The author indicates that, following this idea, A. Vesalius likened a living organism to a factory, R. Descartes saw it as a mechanism, W. Harvey compared the work of the heart with the work of a mechanical pump, and I.P. Pavlov considered the work of the stomach through the work of a chemical plant. The basic method of the Modern period Natural science, the experiment, is nothing more than isolating from the chaos of natural phenomena the studied sides or processes in their pure form and presenting them in a way they would be amenable to observation and accurate measurement. E. Toricelli, for instance, discovered atmospheric pressure by artificially constructing it. In this way, as the author concludes, the exact knowledge of natural phenomena and the human organism relies on the human constructing activity.

This paper considers the issue of whether the knowledge society is only a product of the postindustrial economy, or it is a historically repetitive process that occurs at a certain level of scientific development within a certain time and education system. As the authors put it, the School of Chartres was the first European model of the knowledge society. Furthermore, a certain epistemic regime has a significant impact on the role of knowledge and information in society in the sense that the art of teaching becomes possible as long as the relevant techniques of mastering the material and holding discussions with students are provided.In the paper, the epistemic regime of the XII century is characterized as engaging both explicit and implicit types of knowledge in the same activity. This should be complemented by the mechanical and mathematical cosmology, the principles of which extended to the biological world, as well as by the theory of elementary particles being the fundamental constituents of matter in connection with the theory of flow that explains the force movement of bodies. All of these indicate the scientific maturity of the School of Chartres and the extraordinary refinement of its ideas. The importance of the School of Chartres for the modern knowledge society is very significant, as it teaches the methodology of thinking.

This article analyzes the cultural challenges, which are consequent to the emergence of a new information technology – the Internet. The protocol structure of the Internet has its own logic, which defines certain forms of creative activity that network users can implement. Clarification of the historical context of creation of the Internet protocols is the key to an adequate description of the protocol organization. While some forms of creative activity are encouraged by network users, others have become illiquid in the network space and are going to the periphery of the network. This article aims to analyze the cultural challenges that the logic of network communication bears. The author pursues the following tasks: to clarify the historical context of creating the fundamental Internet protocols; to discover and demonstrate the interconnection between the protocol organization of the network and forms of the network communication; to study the dominant cultural forms specific to the digital space. The current problematic and stable network trends are the following: the free and open access to the information; inability to enforce copyright; dissemination of quantitative criteria used to evaluate the quality of content; replacement of the expert community by the «wisdom of the crowds»; destruction of the established cultural hierarchy, as well as the constant acceleration of information exchange. The article also aims to describe the interdependence between these phenomena. The methodological basis of the research includes the digital method of analyzing the culture of software creation and usage, as well as the content analysis and the media analysis.

The article analyzes the modern historical epistemology as a topical research direction of scholar activities in historical context. It emerged at the end of the 20th century and is associated with the names of L. Daston, P. Galison, H.- J. Rheinberger, Y. Renn, B. Latour, I. Hacking and others. The analysis includes three main sections. In the first section, the author distinguishes within the research field different versions of historical epistemology. In the second section, the author clarifies the contexts of the emergence of modern historical epistemology as well as its structure, which determines the diversity of specific topics. There are five contexts described: the historical, the interdisciplinary, the non-classical epistemologies, the ontological and the practice turn contexts. There are four thematic areas distinguished: the history of epistemic concepts, the history of scientific objects, the macro and micro history of science and the history of styles of scientific thinking. In the third section, the author describes the problems of modern historical epistemology, among which are contextual issues determining the place of contemporary historical epistemology in current discussions, and reflexive issues associated with the identification, interdisciplinarity, and consideration of the basic principles of this research direction. As a result, the author suggests treating the modern historical epistemology as an open project.

Nowadays, blockchain is seen as a new innovative technology with a potential influence on multiple social spheres. Ultimately presented to the world as a technical solution to a number of issues, it has recently been actively expanding its symbolic power. The need for a full-fledged comprehension of the blockchain technology leads to a thorough philosophical analysis of its genesis, its relation to a number of STS viewpoints and the discovery of its epistemological potential. This article attempts to find the roots of this technology in the intellectual history of accounting and double-entry bookkeeping, as well as its practical embodiment and prospects in global urban space. In order to characterize the relation of blockchain to theoretical and practical fields, the author performs an analysis of such categories as “decentralization”, “distribution”, “trustless technology”, etc. Another matter considered here is a question of how the embodiment of the basic blockchain principles is related to the prospects of broader social and technological development. Through a number of particular historical parallels (Ancient Schumer, Medieval Italy), as well as contemplation on the state of current affairs (De Soto Inc.) significant strategies of legitimation and rationalization of technologies are discovered in the framework of STS. The double-entry bookkeeping by the acknowledgement of its effectiveness and rationality fostered a new type of urban capitalist relationship. Blockchain centuries later, due to new technological advancements, has formed its own kind of urban social reality.

The article focuses on the analysis of a new type of urban space. The reasoning proceeds through consideration of various aspects of the sociospatial organization of a modern city. The aim is to identify the specific features of urban space in the era of digital and information technologies, which will allow to formulate a new attitude to the construction of the human life world in a technogenic society. The author concludes that the today’s formation of cultural forms is directly related to the influx of new information, so the monumental static image of the city of past eras is becoming exhausted. The modern culture of the city is a continuous updating and movement of information, with architectural forms expressing this reality, being, in fact, a product of complex engineering: people live in an environment of technological artifacts that form a dynamic set of “networks”. Within the accelerating urban life, the ambiguity and mobility of socio-spatial forms lead to a reduction in the perception of the meanings of the urban environment where the original meaning is becoming lost in the “mosaic” of constant space transformations. The focus is on the emotional and aesthetic aspect of the perception of space in which the form forms its own plans of reality, which, in our opinion, are most accurately described through the biological concept of “mimicry”. Mimicry becomes a kind of synthetic language within which humanity is forced to “talk” to oversaturated information and extremely complicated volatile environment. Thus, the development of technogenic civilization has not only changed our way of life, the language of culture and our thinking. The principles of human interaction with the environment have moved to a fundamentally different level: the forms of the modern city are now designed to reflect the changing state of human consciousness rather than express their own meanings. The mimicry of form has become an expression of transparency and virtuality of our contemporary being.

The paper considers the difficulties of reaching agreement on the theoretical level of the social sciences, their general objective and subjective reasons. The study looks into factors, which aggravate these difficulties in the modern Russian social sciences. In West-European science of the 16th and 17th centuries, such difficulties were overcome in mathematics and natural sciences due to the emergence of "the rapid discoveries machinery", i.e. the practice of establishing common criteria for solving problems, systematic verification of results (including those of other people), consensus building, as well as subsequent institutionalization and accumulation of results as scientific knowledge. The author also discusses the obstacles and opportunities for achieving scientific consensus and "rapid discoveries" in the social sciences.

The article discusses the problems and prospects for using the methodology of Digital Humanities in the historical psychological studies. The authors present the results of the search and analysis of the mentions found for the name of the outstanding psychophysiologist, psychoneurologist, and psychologist Vladimir M. Bekhterev (1857-1927) in the body of texts in the Google Books system in Russian and English languages. Hypotheses are advanced regarding the high or low frequency of references. The dissemination of the scientist’s ideas in various scientific fields is analyzed in both Russian and English. The results of the mentioning frequency study on the names of Vladimir Bekhterev and Lev Vygotsky are compared to define the factors that determine the use of the name and these scientists’ ideas. The advantages and disadvantages of qualitative and quantitative analysis and interpretation of texts within the framework of digital humanities are shown.

This paper focuses on the analysis of the design and expertise of humanitarian and social innovations. The author concludes that in the abovementioned processes experts face a number of unforeseen difficulties. These difficulties are caused by quite a peculiar “epistemological barrier,” which is associated with the fact that humanitarian and social innovations are commonly closely related to certain local contexts, while experts assess them basing on some common formalized knowledge, which is not necessarily referred to the local contexts. The discussion ends with the implication that to overcome this "barrier" it is necessary to use the informal knowledge and experience of ordinary people for whom local contexts form their everyday life background. The crowdsourcing technology serves the case, which becomes a part of the project expertise.

The article attracts attention to the fact that a scientific journal (not a magazine) today is an essential factor in the development of scientific research, as well as in the formation of a scientific tradition and cementing the disciplinary community. The history of philosophical journal serves to illustrate the different ways taken by the academic philosophy on the continent and in the Anglo-Saxon world and the role of social and cultural circumstances in the process. This divergence not only expressed a known pluralism of the philosophical trends, but also led to some negative consequences. The social technology of scientific journalism reflects the peculiarities and contradictions of modern science as a social institution, and in particular, the controversy between the commercialization of knowledge and knowledge as a public good. Scientific journal only then performs a positive role in the information society, when it promotes the strategy of dealing with and understanding science as a cultural value.

Contemporary world is a world of memes, minimal units of information, which drift around societies and, in a large number, have a tremendous potential for resonance in social systems, penetrating language and space borders. The circulation of everyday’s memes of revolution test the society’s “immunal system.” The purpose of this article is to identify the general ways in which the government system tends to resist to the meme of revolution in the context of democracy and the lack of censorship in the dissemination of information. Our tasks include determining the potency of the media in spreading the idea of revolution and the capacity of discursive power. It is especially relevant in the conditions of usurpation of power while maintaining democratic rhetoric. For this, in our study we use a comparativehistorical approach, the philosophy of "cultural hegemony" by Antonio Gramsci and the theory of the dissemination of minimal information units proposed by Richard Dockins. Our conclusions embrace three points for preventing the turning of the revolution meme into the practice of civil disobedience: the promotion of prostate communication platforms in real and virtual spaces, the expansion of funds for financial support of research containing the necessary rhetoric, and increased political control over education institutions.

The presented paper brings up an issue on metacognitive regulation of learning processes and possibilities to develop learners’ metacognitive skills. Metacognition as the knowledge on qualities of cognitive process and ability to manage intellectual activities is a burning issue in the context of the lifelong learning concept. Stakeholders of educational process and their current interests, approaches to learners’ metacognitive competencies development are characterized in the paper. The discussion ends with the implication that metacognitive skills are based on the mind’s natural abilities, which reveal themselves over a lifetime. That means metacognitive abilities develop in accordance with learners’ age, background and goals to be accomplished. Thus, in order to be successful in teaching and learning we need updated methodological approach to education, based on modern theories on psychology, pedagogy, and neuroscience. The educational model proposed in the paper is syncretically based on the Galperin’s theory of systematic gradual development of intellectual activity of a person (“cognitive activity” stage), Vygotsky’s cultural-historical theory (“systems thinking” stage), Shchedrovitsky’s system-based methodological approach (“methodological thinking” stage), Tokuhama-Espinosa’s contemporary learning and teaching concept found upon the results of interdisciplinary research in thу area of Mind, Brain and Education.

The paper considers the changes that occur in scientific revolutions in all three aspects which science exists in. The science as a system of knowledge is the objectified knowledge or the third world of K. Popper. It is solid knowledge as the result of history. One cannot change this system, which, however, is open for new interpretations and assessments. Such creative impulse goes from science as a human endeavor. The whole demarcation of the basic aspects of the science existence is an impossible procedure; otherwise, it would not always give us an understanding of the fundamental transformations taking place in science as some fixed objectified knowledge system. Nothing has happened to the wave-particle duality – it was the Niels Bohr’s interpretation that produced radical changes in science. The idea he suggested seemed “mad” for his time – he introduced an operational scheme in the physical picture of reality, which directed the science evolution in a particular way. The representation of science as becoming, rather than being, enables to explore it not just as the history of ideas but also as a rivalry between schools, directions, and personalities; to trace the inextricable link between science and philosophy. This approach will facilitate the understanding of the science evolution as having a variety of ways, and the introduction of modal dimension into it. The study of science as a social institution looks more specific if one can trace the connections between organizational changes in science and the ongoing scientific revolutions.

In March 28, 2017, a discussion on the role of philosophy in the understanding of social technologies took place at the Faculty of Social Science, Lobachevsky State University of Nizhny Novgorod. The discussion focused on the conceptual analysis of this phenomenon and the possible involvement of philosophy in constructing the theory of social technologies. During the discussion, social technologies appeared as a philosophical, political and scientific issue shaped by their definition. The participants considered a variety of approaches to the analysis of this phenomenon.

The aim of the article is to analyze modern communication, which became a self-contained system of social relations, dictating a new status to the subject represented in it. The basic thesis is that communication as a social phenomenon evolves and leads to the dehumanization of social space. The author comes to a conclusion about the degradation of its most important principle that is intersubjectivity, relying on the theory of communicative rationality by Habermas and the developing of it. The old notions of communication, as an immense space of information opportunities, run into more and more obvious tendencies toward self-isolation of subjects, to the impossibility of finding a common language between representatives of various communicative systems. The research tasks include the identification of factors that affect this process. In particular, it is emphasized that the technological supply of communication links becomes a constant value that determines all information interactions in magnitude. There is a situation when communicative technologies begin to replace the very fact of human interaction. There is a situation when communica-tive technologies begin to replace the very fact of human interaction.Personality, forced into the reality of the communicative technosphere, receives at its disposal unprecedented technological opportunities, which make it extremely important to raise the question of the ethics of interacting subjects. Communication technologies destroy former moral guide-lines, turning social deviations into "norm". The article raises the question of new ethical imperatives in the media reality, based on social antagonism and rejection of the Other, on a hostile attitude towards it.The results of the researches conducted by the author lead him to the paradoxical conclusion that the evolution of communication, inverted inside itself, generates a new phenomenon, designated by the author as an "ego-medium". The individual becomes the source and consumer of his own news, isolating himself from the Others, who appear not as a reference group, but as material for self-affirmation. The human element in personality, in contrast to this, begins to manifest itself in overcoming the dictates of technology. The method of interpretation and reconstruction of social and philosophical concepts of various authors, the method of situational analysis and phenomenological description is used.

The article discusses the problems and prospects for using the methodology of Digital Humanities in the historical psychological studies. The authors present the results of the search and analysis of the mentions found for the name of the outstanding psychophysiologist, psychoneurologist, and psychologist Vladimir M. Bekhterev (1857-1927) in the body of texts in the Google Books system in Russian and English languages. Hypotheses are advanced regarding the high or low frequency of references. The dissemination of the scientist’s ideas in various scientific fields is analyzed in both Russian and English. The results of the mentioning frequency study on the names of Vladimir Bekhterev and Lev Vygotsky are compared to define the factors that determine the use of the name and these scientists’ ideas. The advantages and disadvantages of qualitative and quantitative analysis and interpretation of texts within the framework of digital humanities are shown.

This paper aims to analyze some difficulties encountered during the interdisciplinary practices in the production of new scientific knowledge. The major one is the problem of understanding, viewed in terms of forming a shared language and a communication environment, and, as a result, a choice of a mediator. These questions involve considering the concepts of the “trading zone” (Peter Galison) and the “interactional expertise” (Harry Collins and Richard Evans). The author estimates the trend in obtaining several higher educations (a so-called “multi-specialist”) as hardly facilitating successful trading zones, particularly, if the areas of study are distant (a “physicistlawyer”). Such practices are described in terms of the “imposed rationality”. Along with it, the author problematizes the efficacy of an interpreter between different scientific subcultures (Collins, Evans). As a more productive alternative, he considers a shared communication environment and a relevant mediator to “encourage” its functioning.Contemplating on the figures of a possible mediator, the author suggests the philosopher and discusses their peculiarities in such a capacity. At this point, he also regards several conceptions connected to the mediating role of philosophy, such as the views of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries German thinkers Wilhelm Dilthey and Wilhelm Wundt; also modern trends and ideas: philosophical counseling, “philosophy as interdisciplinarity” (Steve Fuller), epistemic analysis within the participation of philosophers in interdisciplinary projects (Nancy Tuana). The author depicts a variety of obstacles awaiting the philosophy in such a mediation.

The paper presents critical analysis of social constructionist approach to the problem of the subject. This problem is regarded in two main aspects – the subject as the Self and as a person on one hand and the subject of scientific knowledge on the other. The definitions of the main concepts used by social constructionists (social construction, discourse, voice) is given. The specifics of social constructionism in comparison with constructivism and social constructivism is considered, and principle features of social constructionism are analyzed. Constructionist critique of the classical concept of the subject is analyzed and the principle alternative concepts of Self proposed by social constructionists are researched. The constructionist ideas of the social bias of the subject of scientific knowledge and of the impossibility to have knowledge about reality behind the social constructions are analyzed. The conclusion is drawn that the subject cannot be deleted from any research of cognition and that the renouncement of the concepts of the Self, reality, truth and objectivity that is proposed by social constructionists is unproductive.

This paper discusses the practical roots of social constructionism, interpreting a social construction as an aggregate of social roles. The author substantiates the argument that this theory partly results from psychological practices as such. The study of an individual subject self-report leads to the formation of a specific set of texts that contains objectified descriptions of mental states, yet not a subject. Consequently, the author defines subjectivity as a function of the speaker’s relations to the spoken, what actually constructs its content. The function of the relation to a certain set of propositions can build up standpoints in a variety of communities, including scientific ones.