Проективный словарь гуманитарных наук

Far from every field in the humanities is covered in the dictionary. Virtually unrepresented are anthropology and historiography, as well as disciplines that study particular forms of art (art criticism, musicology, theater studies, film studies). At the same time, a particular emphasis is laid, reflecting the latest tendencies in interdisciplinary cooperation, on a range of issues previously considered marginal to the humanities: their intersection with biology, technology, information science, cognitive science, modality theory, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality.

A particular feature of the dictionary is that it projects one and the same concept onto different disciplinary fields. The concept of technomorality, for instance, may be examined in the section on technology and the section on ethics. How should ecofascism (environmental extremism) be categorized: under the rubric of life and nature, or society and politics? Insofar as new conceptual terms are formed precisely on the boundary of several disciplines, they may effectively belong to each, which is reflected in the subject index at the end of the book.

One may look up concepts in the dictionary according to the thematic sections and particular disciplines, or according to issues of interest, following cross-references to other terms and learning more about them via the sources cited, many of which are available online. Each section opens with a list of relevant terms, while the alphabetic and subject indexes at the end of the book provide shortcuts between sections. The dictionary entries have a uniform arrangement: the headword is followed by its English translation; its components and method of formation; its definition, and the rationale for introducing it into the conceptual apparatus of the discipline in question; discussion of how it relates to other concepts; and references to sources.

The dictionary as a whole is of a systematic nature, but this is a particular sort of centrifugal system, one that presupposes the articulation of multiple concepts that cannot be reduced to a single compact scheme or broadest-possible primary concept. A centrifugal system like this, with concepts spinning off into various subject fields, differs from the better-known centripetal systems exemplified by Hegel’s Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences. The centrifugal type of thinking does not subject all the material of culture and history to an overall initial principle, but to the contrary, spawns an “expanding universe” of manifold intellectual practices and discourses that keep spreading further and further away from each other in the space of potential readings and texts. This open system relies on the reader to be a co-thinker and co-creator. Dictionary entries the reader might begin with to familiarize him/herself with this centrifugal model include: “Conceptivism,” “Createme,” “Creativity,” “Total-difference,” “Humanistic Invention,” “Hypotheticism,” “The Interesting, “Potentiation,” “Proliferation of Essences,” and “Transculture.”

All the entries are connected by a system of cross-references, which renders the dictionary readable as a hypertext, a standalone work in the “humanities genre” – not, that is, in a particular discipline, but within the humanities field as a whole. Other writings of mine to which the dictionary refers may be seen as this work’s outer circle, a “beyond” that expands its scope. The dictionary introduces new concepts and terms into the semiotic system of culture through the act of their manifestation – and, as a “self-propagating logos,” prompts their further development in new texts created on the basis of this dictionary or according to its motifs.

ANNOTATION

The Dictionary offers a systematic description of concepts and terms in such fields of the humanities as philosophy (including ethics and aesthetics), literary, cultural and religious studies, and linguistics, as well as humanistic approaches to nature, history, society, and technology. The Dictionary contains 440 entries distributed among 14 thematic sections (in alphabetical order). Special attention is given to the development of new concepts and terms that reflect cultural and social processes of the 21st century and methods of intellectual creativity.