On Ontology Within the Limits of Social Bein

On Ontology Within the Limits of Social Bein


Shchelkin A.G.

Dr. Sci. (Philos). Prof., Leading Researcher of the Sociological Institute of FCTAS RAS, St. Petersburg, Russia evropa.ru@gmail.com

ID of the Article:


For citation:

Shchelkin A.G. On Ontology Within the Limits of Social Bein. Sotsiologicheskie issledovaniya [Sociological Studies]. 2025. No 3. P. 15-26



Abstract

As interest in social ontology grows it becomes clearer what are the reasons for its difficult return to the intellectual atmosphere of our time. First of all, we can say that the age of the “Copernican revolution” perfected by Kant is not actually over. This means that interest directly in knowledge, rather than in the actual subject of knowledge, continues to remain a noticeable dominant of the mental landscape in the social sciences. A striking example is the books by B. Latour. In other words, the question of how “knowledge” and “consciousness” (including sociology) are formed and function in society, – this question has become overwhelming for a long time as compared to the “ontological paradigm”, which answers the question of what are the “true and authentic” forms of social existence. Free from this ontological imperative, free from the categories of “truth”, “good”, and even “beauty”, sociology is capable of perceiving social reality and itself in a purely positivist, “facticist” and – even worse – “non-conceptual” way in “essentialless”, narrative- postmodernist manner. The author of the article believes that a correct and sound diagnosis is a main condition for an effective prescription.


Keywords
Social ontology; authenticity of social being; “non-conceptual consciousness”; postmodern understanding of ontology
Content No 3, 2025