Thesaurus Analysis in Humanitarian Knowledge: Project Outcomes
The research project titled “Thesaurus Analysis in Humanitarian Knowledge” was executed in 2012-2014 with support from the Russian Foundation for the Humanities (Project No. 12-33-01055). The idea of the project was to discover the common foundations of the thesaurus approach as a history and a methodology and apply it to the humanities. The thesaurus approach has been widely appreciated in the scholarly community. Applying it as one of theoretical or methodological tools alongside with other subject-oriented concepts allows us to complete the transition from a group of separate disciplines - cultural studies, social studies, psychology, philology, etc. - to the humanitarian knowledge proper as a comprehensive subject-oriented understanding of the world, man and culture. The article analyses the outcomes of the project titled “Thesaurus analysis in Humanitarian Knowledge” which had been researched at the Institute of Fundamental and Applied Studies at Moscow University for the Humanities. The project team consisted mainly of young scholars and was headed by the outstanding Russian philologist and scholar of culture Vladimir A. Lukov (1948-2014). After his death, the research was led by Valery A. Lukov. We present the basic provisions of the thesaurus approach, a structure of its description and its main features. A prospect of further developing the thesaurus approach in the humanities can be linked to the New Encyclopaedism - a large-scale conceptual program of intellectual and educational work which arose from the practice of the thesaurus analysis. Also shown is the contribution of young team members into the development of theoretical provisions of the thesaurus approach and its application in practical research. We trace the way the approach must take to find its place among the major theoretical and methodological concepts of sociology of culture.