Synergetic Principles in the Methodo­logy of Criminological Thinking and Dialectics: Modern Approaches

Abstract

The current stage of post-modernism and technoscience, the rethinking of the role of fundamental philosophy with its basic principles and its general method of scientific cognition have brought to light many methodological problems that have so far been considered immutable. The article discusses the current relations between criminology and dialectics viewed as a basic methodological paradigm of social sciences, specifically, the humanitarian knowledge, as well as the role and meaning of synergetic thinking in this process. As a social-legal science, criminology made a wide use of dialectics and its principles as its general scientific methodological foundation. The role of synergetic principles in the development of the theory and practice of criminological knowledge, the correlation, interconnection, and borders of the dialectic and the synergetic approaches have been considered in the ideas of a small number of Russian experts, which could be assessed from the standpoint of their practical value. In the present context, it is important to stress the coexistence of dialectics and other methods of philosophic cognition, the need for a form of dialectics that better corresponds to the new conditions of a technogenic society, and is based not only on the descriptions of the general regularities of development, but also the description of its actual stages and the mechanism of their existence. The correct vision of dialectics in a specific situation acts as its adequate assessment, and is an essential moment in answering the question of the unity of scientific knowledge. Synergetics in this case is a sphere of dialectics in the context of applying a systemic approach to the analyzed phenomenon, it refers to one of the consecutive stages of the development of scientific knowledge. Synergy effect with the principles of self-organization should be viewed in the sociological-legal criminological context as a transformation of dialectic thinking in the new conditions, where the principles of dialectics are adequate to and, according to the rules of logic, incorporated with the synergetic potential of science. The research of the applicability of synergetic approach in criminology promotes the theory of the meaningfulness and possibility of using the principles of self-organization in the research of crime and its regularities, as well as the development of a strategy of crime counteraction at a qualitatively new level of cognition, when a systemic explanation of crime, of its trends and determination processes is not sufficient, and we need to reveal the integrative qualities of its unifying elements, which constitute crimes with features that are different. The goal of the research is to determine the attitude to dialectics and to synergetics, to assess their significance for the further development of the methodological principles of criminology, and to formulate the criteria and principles of applying social synergetics and its methodological techniques to criminological thinking.