Temporality Disorientation and Its Consequences for Society and Personality Development: Sociocultural – Interdeterminist Metaperspective

Abstract

Identifying ourselves as to what the key psychological characteristics of the present are, we can quite reasonably state uncertainty and confusion as such. Confusion comes not when the future is obscure, as it is incomprehensible by definition; it comes when the present and its potential consequences are not clear. It is this circumstance that served as the basis for making the concept of temporality in the aspect of disorientation the focus of our research.

The author asserts that the deterministic and indeterministic directions in the development of socio-­humanitarian knowledge is a deadlock for the researchers. He suggests socio-­cultural dialogical interdeterminism as an alternative. The heterogeneous nature of social phenomenology is reflected in the three four-­dimensional heteroqualitative continua, the spheres of the psychic and the behavioral determinants. The prospects of analyzing temporality as a nonlinear dynamic system are quite promising. This approach enables researchers to consider the specificity of heterogeneity and the dynamic nature of social phenomenology. It also allows determining points of bifurcation which show the transition from one qualitative state to another one. The article gives a general description of the socio-­cultural dialogical interdeterminist metatheory of socio-­humanitarian knowledge integration and demonstrates its heuristic potential. It also shows a mutually influential and mutually changing nature of human interaction with the internal and external environment, which results in finding a good balance to ensure optimal interaction within a definite space-­time location. The specific character of interdetermination is manifested in the acquisition of a new quality that cannot be reduced to the simple sum of its parts. Human beings, like other animals, not only adapt themselves to the changes in the external environment but adjust it to themselves. An ill-­conceived adjustment can lead to ruinous consequences both for man’s mental functioning and for his being at large. In this context, dialogue is considered the best means to achieve balance. The author defines the terms for effective dialogue and gives examples of how cultural dialogical interdeterminism works.