printScientific Innovations in Sociology Through the Prism of the “Vernadsky’s Paradox”
Kravchenko S.A.
Dr. Sci. (Philos.), Prof. of the Department of Sociology, MGIMO University, Moscow, Russia sociol7@yandex.ru
Kravchenko S.A. Scientific Innovations in Sociology Through the Prism of the “Vernadsky’s Paradox”. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2026. No 1. P. 26-40
There analyzed the increasingly complex dynamics of the sociological knowledge in the context of V. I. Vernadsky’s theory of the history of science, its basic methodological principles, which reflect the process of producing scientific innovations – now they are referred to as the “Vernadsky’s paradox”. It is stated that the foundation of the modern sociology is based on the great discoveries of the past generations of scientists, contributing to the qualitative increase in knowledge and its implementation in people’s lives. Specific scientific innovations formulated by the scientist are considered, and their typification is proposed. The author examines the factors leading to “explosions of scientific creativity” and restraining scientific innovations, resulting in the formation of the scientific worldview, the nature and the content of which are culturally and historically conditioned. If the theories created by the Western scientists are dominated by the principles of the formal rationality and pragmatism in assessing the effectiveness of the scientific innovations, their role in the production of material well-being of people, which is conditioned by the values of the Anglo-Saxon culture, in reverse their interpretations by the Russian sociologists the criterion of preserving spirituality and following humanistic traditions dominates. The conclusions are made that taking into account the achievements of the domestic and world scientific thought of all generations of scientists, adapting them to the complex realities of the new Russia, allows to orient the actors of scientific innovations towards the production of knowledge with a humanistic core, preserving, in the words of Vernadsky, the “spiritual value in human life”.
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