Defining the phenomenon of socio-political movement through the concept of human alienation

DOI: https://doi.org/10.17072/2078-7898/2022-2-254-263

Defining the phenomenon of socio-political movement through the concept of human alienation

Viktor O. Melnikov
Lecturer of the Department of Cultural Studies
and Social-Humanitarian TechnologiesPerm State University,
15, Bukirev st., Perm, 614990, Russia;
e-mail: viktor_melnikov_psu@rambler.ru
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0483-7364
ResearcherID: GLS-8750-2022

In modern society, socio-political movements are increasingly attracting attention as more and more people are becoming involved in political activity. These processes become the object of analysis in numerous social and political studies. Unfortunately, socio-political movements receive little attention in modern socio-philosophical literature. It must be acknowledged that today there is even no established socio-philosophical definition of this phenomenon. The paper suggests developing such a definition through the concept of alienation since politics and its institutions, including socio-political movements, appear as a result of a human’s alienation from his generic essence, from himself. The article also demonstrates that alienation is not only the key reason for the emergence of these movements but also, ultimately, their main (but not always realized) goal: every movement seeks to remove alienation, at least partially. In this sense, all socio-political movements objectively struggle to destroy the conditions for the emergence and existence of socio-political movements. However, the implementation of this aspiration may lead to both a social progress, understood as an increase in the diversity of human essential forces, the complication of a human, and to regression.

Keywords: socio-political movements, alienation, human essence, capitalism, progress, regression.

References

Batischev, G.S. (1997). Vvedenie v dialektiku tvorchestva [Introduction to the dialectic of creativity]. St. Petersburg: RHGI Publ., 464 p. 

Bulavka-Buzgalina, L.A. (2018). [Dealienation: from philosophical abstraction to sociocultural practices]. Voprosy Filosofii. No. 6, pp. 167–179. DOI https://doi.org/10.7868/s0042874418060146

Buzgalin, A.V. and Kolganov, A.I. (2019). [Determinants of the social-class structuring of the society and its specificity in the conditions of system transformations]. Voprosy Filosofii. No. 6, pp. 50–61. DOI: https://doi.org/10.31857/S004287440005336-4

Frolov, I.T. (2008). Perspektivy cheloveka: opyt kompleksnoy postanovki problem, diskussii, obobscheniya [Human perspectives: experience of complex problem formulation, discussions, generalizations]. Moscow: LKI Publ., 296 p.

Fromm, E. (2005). Zdorovoe obschestvo. Dogmat o Khriste [The sane society. The dogma of Christ]. Moscow: AST Publ., 574 p.

Gritsenko, V.S. (2012). Trud v postindustrial’nom obschestve: dis. … kand. filos. nauk [The labor in post-industrial society: dissertation]. Perm, 221 p.

Kondrashov, P.N. (2019). Filosofia Karla Marksa: ekzistensial’no-antropologicheskie aspekty [The philosophy of Karl Marx: existential and anthropological aspects]. Moscow: URRS Publ., 216 p. 

Konovalov, V.N. (ed.) (2001). Slovar’ po politologii [Dictionary of political science]. Rostov-on-Don: RSU Publ., 285 p.

Lenin, V.I. (1953). Materializm i empiriokrititsizm. Kriticheskie zametki ob odnoy reaktsionnoy filosofii [Materialism and empirio-criticism. Critical comments on a reactionary philosophy]. Moscow: Gospolitizdat Publ., 352 p. 

Lukács, G. (1987). Molodoy Gegel’ i problemy kapitalisticheskogo obschestva [The young Hegel and the problem of capitalistic society]. Moscow: Nauka Publ., 616 p.

Marcuse, H. (2003). Odnomernyy chelovek [One-dimensional man]. Moscow: AST Publ., 331 p. 

Marx, K. (1960). [Capital. Vol. 1]. Marks K., Engels F. Sochineniya: v 50 t. [Marx K., Engels F. Works: in 50 vols]. Moscow: Gospolitizdat Publ., vol. 23, 908 p. 

Marx, K. and Engels, F. (1955). [The communist manifesto]. Marks K., Engels F. Sochineniya: v 50 t. [Marx K., Engels F. Works: in 50 vols]. Moscow: Gospolitizdat Publ., vol. 4, pp. 419–459.

Marx, K. and Engels, F. (1955). [The German ideology]. Marks K., Engels F. Sochineniya: v 50 t. [Marx K., Engels F. Works: in 50 vols]. Moscow: Gospolitizdat Publ., vol. 3, pp. 7–544. 

Narsky, I.S. (1983). Otchuzdenie i trud: po stranitsam proizvedeniy K. Marksa [Alienation and labor. Through the pages of K. Marx’s works]. Moscow: Mysl’ Publ., 144 p.

Ogurtsov, A.P. (1967). [Alienation and man: historical and philosophical essay]. Chelovek, tvorcherstvo, nauka. Filososkie problem: tr. Mosk. konf. molodykh uchenykh [Man, creativity, science. Philosophical problems: proceedings of the Moscow conference of young scientists]. Moscow: Nauka Publ., pp. 41–82.

Orlov, V.V. and Vasil’eva, T.S. (1991). Trud i sotsializm [Labor and socialism]. Perm: PSU Publ., 204 p.

Orlov, V.V. and Vasil’eva, T.S. (2006). Filosofiya ekonomiki [Philosophy of the economy]. Perm: PSU Publ., 266 p.

Parsons, G. (1985). Chelovek v sovremennom mire [A human in the modern world]. Moscow: Progress Publ., 430 p.

Prozumentik, K.V. (2020). [The phenomenon of human alienation: socio-ontological aspect]. Filosofiya i kul’tura [Philosophy and Culture]. No. 3, pp. 45–57. DOI: https://doi.org/10.7256/2454-0757.2020.3.32269

Ragozin, N.P. (2019). [Problem of universal labour and its alienation in K. Marx’s «The Capital»]. Kul’tura i tsivilizatsiya[Culture and Civilization]. No. 2(6), pp. 36–59.

Shetulova, E.D. (2010). Sotsial’no-filosofskiy analiz otchuzdeniya v istoricheskom protsesse: dis. … d-ra filos. nauk [Socio-philosophical analysis of alienation in the historical process: dissertation]. Nizhniy Novgorod: 310 p.

Received: 08.12.2021. Accepted: 15.03.2022

For citation:

Melnikov V.O. [Defining the phenomenon of socio-political movement through the concept of human alienation]. Vestnik Permskogo universiteta. Filosofia. Psihologia. Sociologia [Perm University Herald. Philosophy. Psychology. Sociology], 2022, issue 2, pp. 254–263 (in Russian). DOI: https://doi.org/10.17072/2078-7898/2022-2-254-263