METHODOLOGICAL LIMITS OF SOCIAL-PHILOSOPHICAL FUTUROLOGY: EXPERIENCE, THOUGHT EXPERIMENT AND RHETORIC
The article makes an attempt to critically analyze the methodological basis of social-philosophical futurology. The author argues that the ways of philosophical thinking about the future became common not only in contemporary culture but also colonized social and cultural theories. The futurology obsession was an answer to the growth of the speed of changes and the fragmentation of the grand narratives. Social-philosophical futurology replaced philosophy of history and competed with utopia dimension of classical ideologies. Eventually the appellation to the future de facto becomes a part of thinking about the present, the always-present continuation of the scientific data analysis. The author proposes to find the limits of its methodological borders, that would distinguish it from other scientific and cultural spheres, in which it tends to dissolve. The latter became not just a problem for philosophy but also for concrete disciplines (economics, sociology etc.). The article shows that in the basis of social-philosophical futurology have to exist unique methods born inside philosophical tradition: logical analysis, thought experiment, performative critique of rhetoric and ethical (value) evaluation of the present. The main risks are, however, temptations to treat empirical data freely and to produce fantastic narratives. Among other things the author specifies the ways of social-philosophical functioning in the borders of contemporary cultural logic of capitalism and points out the most effective strategy to deal with it. The latter is understood as social-philosophical analysis of actually existing capitalist system.