Scientific metaphor «Human potential»: Analitical Capabilities of the Civilizational Approach

The article examines the concept of “human potential”, which has recently become widespread in the social sciences. It is shown that considering it as a multi-valued scientific metaphor opens up the prospect of research into the role and place of man in modern processes of economic and social development, in the sphere of labor and social creativity, and innovative activity. The difference from the already well-known concept of “human capital” consists not only in taking into account the personal qualities of the individual, but in new angles of research into the institutional and cultural conditions for the acquisition and accumulation of various resources, as well as the possibilities for their implementation in professional and labor, creative, social, cultural and other contexts. The metaphor “human potential” allows us to take into account and explore the connection between the past, present and future in its accumulation and implementation, as well as the connection between the individual and the collective, personal and institutional in the process of acquisition, accumulation and implementation. The modern civilizational analytical perspective, as interpreted by S. Eisenstadt, is considered as a fruitful methodological approach that allows one to study the activity of social agents in specific cultural and institutional conditions and taking into account historical contingency, i.e. explore the specifics of the human potential of specific social communities at a specific point in time. A civilizational analysis of human potential makes it possible to reveal the features of its historical formation and implementation, the nature of its diversity, dynamics in conditions of social transformation, the significance of dissent and protest movements in the emergence of new forms of human potential. The idea of “multiple modernities” substantiates the uniqueness of the paths to the formation of modern human potential of societies belonging to different civilizations. The civilizational approach also makes it possible to explain the diversity of responses of different societies to the challenges of digitalization for their human potential. The conclusion is drawn about the fruitfulness of civilizational analysis in studying the possibilities of forming and realizing the human potential of Russian society in the context of modern geopolitical challenges.