N.N. Moisseev. “Universe. Information. Society”

                          in the series “Conformation of the World”

In his book the great scientist and thinker gives an idea of a scientific world outlook – comprehension of information, evolution, selection, development of the Universe and our civilization. The keynote of the book is how to protect the mankind from self-destruction within possible ways of development. Analyzed the role and perspectives of Russia in modern global society. 

It is notable for its interdisciplinary approach and is useful for both students and teachers, who can, thus, deviate from the narrow bounds of professionalism and open the mind.

Table of contents

The Publisher’s Word to the Reader

Introduction (preface)

Part I Basic principles of universal evolutionism

Chapter 1. “The century of achievements ” and its view of the world (Weltanschauung)

1.        The world outlook of today is the key for the morrow

2.        Derivation of the world outlook

3.        Danger of another Middle Ages. SOS

4.        End of the Era. The no-win situation

5.       Philosophy, philosophizing and reasoning

Chapter 2. Root postulates  and conceptions about “original ideas”

1.        Basic principles of the system of the world understanding

2.        The principle of Occam (Ockham). The role of interpretations

3.        Problems of “what’s happening in reality?”

4.        The essence of modern rationalism

5.        Concluding remarks

Chapter 3. The most simple “Picture of the world”

1.        The “system” concept

2.        Elementary interpretation of the “Picture of the world”

3.        The key problem: description of self-organization mechanisms

4.        The problem of variability

5.        The problem of heredity

6.        The problem of “selection”

7.        Interpretation of the Universe as a dynamic system

Chapter 4. The Universe and life

1.        “Life” is another “ fundamental truth”

2.        The problem of metabolism and reduplication

3.        Life exists exclusively in the form of organisms

4.        The law of Pasteur – Curie

5.        What shall we do with the law of Pasteur – Redi?

6.        Concluding remarks

Chapter 5. The system of “geosphere + life”

1.        Life as a self-organizing system

2.        About the term of “information”

3.        Characters of variability and heredity in the world of vital substance

4.        Characters of selection in the world of creation

5.        Information in the world of creation

6.        Organized matter as a dynamic system

7.        Life creates new Nature. The term of “co-evolution”

8.        Concluding remarks

PART II  PROBLEMS OF SELF-ORGANIZATION OF THE SOCIETY

Chapter 6. The logic of the development of the mankind as a dynamic system

1.        The appearance of a human being – a new stage in the Universe evolution

2.        The sequence of catastrophes

3.        Transition to social evolution

4.       Cro-Magnon men establish their domination

Chapter 7. The preman turns into a human being. The beginning of history

1.        The human being – a qualitatively new form of matter organization

2.        Homo sapiens – the only reasonable being

3.        Phenomenon of the inward habit. Deformation of the value scale

4.        The Neolithic revolution

5.        What does civilization mean?

6.        The birth of civilizations

7.        Summing-up the Neolithic revolution

Chapter 8. The logic of social development

1.        Society as a self-developing system

2.        Society as a dynamic system

3.        Amplifying the above-stated

4.        The Mind in the context of the evolution of society

5.        The role of information in transforming society

Chapter 9. History of social development and philosophy of history

1.        A collection of facts or science? What we can expect of studying history

2.        Philosophy of history - the first steps

3.        Peculiarities of humanitarian knowledge

4.        History as the process of social development

5.        Further development of the theory

6.       Philosophy of history from a position of the dynamic systems self-organization theory

7.       History and myths

PART III  NEAR-TERM PERSPECTIVES. ALTERNATIVES TO THE FUTURE

Chapter 10. On the eve of another bifurcation

1.        The probability of a new global crisis

2.        In suspense of a possible catastrophe

3.        Signals of the coming cataclasm

4.        What  hasn’t been discussed yet

5.        Concluding remarks

Chapter 11. Modern tendencies of social development. The beginning of agony

1.        The logic of history about modern tendencies of social development

2.        Birth of new totalitarianism

3.        What might happen in the near future

4.       The fate of “helots” of the XXI century

Chapter 12. Russia’s suspense

1.        A crisis or survival?

2.        Several remarks about the essentials of the economic development programme

3.        Russia in the “no-alternative scenario”

4.        Let’s try to dip into a more distant future