Authors : Gulnaz K. Gizatova, Olga G. Ivanova and Ekaterina V. Snarskaya
Abstract: The issue of choice has always been the core one in the philosophy, at that choice was traditionally considered through the prism of the moral-ethical problematic as choice of an individual enjoying the freedom of will and therefore, being able to choose. In the Western science, this phenomenon is investigated primarily within the frameworks of the theory of social choice, the decision-making theory. In the proposed study, the attempt is made to analyze the social-historical choice, its socio-cultural grounds and the role in the social-historical process. The topicality and relevance of the theoretical reasoning of this issue is determined by the current situation established in the world in general and in particular countries including Russia. Choice is considered as the essential link of design of the individual and social reality as it is the act of choosing through which the latter becomes real from a potential one. The essential aspect of the issue of choice is the correlation between rational and irrational. We believe choice always includes both rational and irrational but in different conditions one or another component prevails that determines the final decision. The issue of the social-historical choice still does not occupy the appropriate position in the social-philosophical studies of both the Western and national researchers, encyclopedias do not contain items dedicated to this phenomenon, no attempts to classify it are taken. We believe that the category ‘social-historical’, ‘historical choice’ features great heuristic potential; it enables the more adequate analysis and cognition of the social reality, allows investigating the mechanism of alternativeness in the history. The theory of social choice also features wide heuristic opportunities of analyzing such a ‘slice’ of the society as the national-ethnic relations.
Gulnaz K. Gizatova, Olga G. Ivanova and Ekaterina V. Snarskaya, 2015. Historical Choice as the Unity of Rational and Irrational. The Social Sciences, 10: 1946-1949.