Rethinking The Phenomenon Of Tradition In Modern Social Science And Humanities Studies

This article deals with the conceptology of the notion of “tradition,” and the problem of its interpretations in the 20th century and in current scholarship. The author addresses the incorrectness and limited applicability of sociological and historical concepts based on a rigid dichotomy of “tradition-modernity (contemporaneity). ”The confrontation between the two approaches to the phenomenon of tradition, “Weberian” (evolutionary) and “post-Weberian” (dialectical), is described. The article posits a dialectical view of tradition as a guarantor of the fixity of historical changes and social stability — an interpretation of tradition not as an ethno-cultural phenomenon, but as a broader social mechanism responsible for the transfer of social experience and ideals along a chain of generations. In the context of a traditionalistic view, the author offers the concept of a “greater society” based on a contract of generations. The role of tradition in national history is seen as a connection of Russianness with its Byzantine heritage.

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