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Natan Solodukho - Professor, Doctor of Philosophy,
Head of the Philosophy Department of
Tupolev Kazan State Technical University

The situational approach to solution of global problems

From the latter to the beginning of the twenty-first century, the intellectual arena is marked by the emergence of a clearly pronounced “situational conceptuality” in scientific and philosophical thinking pertaining to all spheres of being distinguishing thus this period of history from that of the twentieth century on the whole.

During almost entire last century, the prevailing characteristics of “situational” worldview were the stability and dynamic equilibrium, regularity, and causal determinacy of phenomena; all of them served as the principles of the basic scientific and philosophic concepts of evolution of societal development. The basic aims of scientific theories and inter-disciplinary studies were pursued mainly to discovery of recurrent phenomena, stable interactions with previously programmable result, search of unified theories and different invariants, e.g., symmetry in micro- and mega-world. In the middle of the twentieth century, a number of corresponding general scientific means of cognition was developed; among them, one can call the functional and structural analysis, cybernetic approach, as well as computer science and systems engineering. As the general methodology of scientific cognition, use was made of the system approach and general theory of systems. The founder of the latter was the Austrian biologist Bertalanfi. According to him, “the world is the system of systems”.

Alongside these approaches and theories, the end of the twentieth century was marked by appearance of the crucially new theories in fundamental fields such as astronomy, physics, chemistry, and biology leading thereby to certain changes in the general pattern of the world. The swing-round in scientists’ thinking ensued when they began to study the nonlinear processes in mathematics, irreversible processes in thermodynamics, cooperative processes in quantum physics, oscillatory and unstable processes in chemical reactions, self-organization processes in the inanimate nature and wildlife, unstable objects in astrophysics, poly-variance of human civilization development in social sciences, and some others. The primary emphasis was placed thereby not only upon the studies of processes as such but also upon the attainment of possibility of their immediate mathematical simulation.

The new world vision with its unstable, chaotic, and ambiguous world pattern began to form as the theory of catastrophes, Prigozhin – Glensdorf – Nicolis – Stengers fluctuation theory of irreversible processes, synergetics of Eigen and Haken, computer-aided technologies of multidimensional virtual space were developed. These tendencies in the development of post-non-classical science were in harmony with the philosophy of post-modernism with its ideas of world treated as unpredictable chaos, indeterministic links, equiprobable possibilities of realization, equivalence of all structural elements of both natural and social order.

The state of the sphere of cognition in the end of the twentieth century and beginning of the twenty-first century is characterized by its special position, which can be expressed, for purposes of adequate reflection of reality by the notion situation. This position has a number of distinguishing features such as the dynamism of successively changeable states, probabilistic character of qualitative changes, multi-factor determination, low degree of predicting the domination of this factor or another one. The most important characteristics of situational comprehension of world are hence the mobility, fortuity, uncertainty, fuzziness of boundaries, factor equivalence, and poly-variance.

The situational approach assumes ever-growing significance in studies and researches of ecological, geographical, economical, political, psychological, and some other situations. The special case of interest here may be seen in the prevention and control of abnormal, emergency, and nonstandard situations.

Between the ecological problems and situational approach exists a certain internal meaningful link. By the term «ecology» arising from the Greek word «oikos», one is meant (in a wide sense) as the «location» or «housing»; the notion «situation» originates from the Latin word «situs» and is translated as «position», «situated», «dwelling» and bears explicitly an ecological load. If we take account of the fact that the ecological science deals, in a wide sense, with interrelations between the chosen objects and their circumambience, the situational approach that considers factors forming a situation is very close to the ecological problems.

If we generalize the existing definitions, we can conclude that the notion “situation” includes a totality of elements (conditions, circumstances, positions, states, and the like), which necessitate the dynamics (changes, variations) of both the situation-forming elements and the objects placed in the situation given. In the long run, the field of being can be represented as a totality of infinite number of interacting situations with different qualities; the world is represented as a situation of situations.

The situationalism as a theoretical discipline is the antithesis of dogmatism, including the dogmaticity of Situationality. We recognize the tendency towards situational thinking in contemporary thought, but the latter is by no means exhausted by it.

In a sense, the situationality is the anti-thesis of systematicity expressed as stability, structurization, clear differentiation, certainty, limitness, and programmable determinacy. On the other hand, systematicity can be treated as a special manifestation of situations; the system is considered as the stable and definite situation.

Situation is something that creates the system and precedes by it, as well as something that specifies the system state and is available in it; besides, it is something that leads to the disintegration of the system or its transformation. Situations are something that accompany the system from the moment of its origination up to its disappearance, something that serves as the constant determinating «background». Situations shake systems and stabilize them; they are the base of their functioning, evolution, and development; they unite and carry all factors influencing upon the state of the system and its own existence. Situations are the «cocoon», which «enswathes» the systems. Situation is a side of the system and it is larger than the system, since it exists beyond its boundaries as well as prior to and after the system existence. Situations vary, systems change.

If the twentieth century was the “century of systems,” thus manifesting the systems mentality, the twenty-first century is the “century of situationality” which necessitates the situational and situative thinking.

The “control of situations” is the supreme task of the situational approach.

The time is ripe for the situational movement to consolidate itself so as to meet the intellectual challenge of the new millennium, and for the special Situational research centers to be established devoted to concentrated situational research. And this process is now under way.

In connection with the above-noted tendencies in the present-day science and philosophy, the Center for Situational research in Field-Being (CSRFB) is created on the basis of the Kazan State Technical University. It unites a large number of specialists in such fields of science as philosophy, ecology, chemistry, geography, mathematics, physics, technology, economics, psychology, pedagogics, linguistics, and some others. The main aim of this center is to develop the general scientific theory of the situational approach and its application in different fields of cognition and human activity.