Social Philosophy and Science: Causality, Patterns, and Invariants of Social Development (“Round Table” Materials)

In June 2024, the “round table” “Social Philosophy and Science: Causality, Pat­terns, and Invariants of Social Development” was held at the Faculty of Philoso­phy of Lomonosov Moscow State University. The event was organized by the Fa­culty of Philosophy of Moscow State University, the journal Voprosy Filosofii, and participants of the research project “Analysis of Social Causality and Invari­ants of Social Development as a Method for Overcoming the Fragmentation of Socio-Philosophical Knowledge”, supported by the Russian Science Founda­tion. The following questions were proposed for discussion: 1) What is the episte­mological status of contemporary social philosophy? 2) Social philosophy – so­cial theory – sociology: issues of correlation; 3) What are the causes of the crisis of fragmentation in social philosophy, and how can it be overcome? 4) What are the criteria for a “good social theory”? 5) What are the possible forms of interdis­ciplinary collaborations in modern social research? The core of the discussion was the problem of the high fragmentation of socio-philosophical knowledge and the discussion of possible ways to overcome it (particularly focusing on the intel­lectual resources of systemic-communicative theory as the most “economical” approach). The speakers highlighted the diversity of methodological approaches in contemporary social research and discussed the search for possible ways of ef­fective interdisciplinary interaction in the absence of a stable consensus regard­ing the conceptual status of social philosophy. Drawing on historical experiences of discussing relevant issues, the participants demonstrated that one way to over­come the crisis is the concretization of social realities.