Тоска по целостности. Этнософский проект В.Р. Арсеньева

Философский журнал. 2026. Т. 19. № 1. С. 63–80.

Malinov A. V.

The article examines the project of a new scientific discipline, ethnosophy, which was proposed by the Africanist V.R. Arseniev (1948–2010) and emerged at the intersection of ethnographic knowledge and philosophy. The features of V.R. Arseniev’s worldview that led him to the idea of a new science are noted: the study of archaic societies; anticolonialism; criticism of Eurocentrism, positivist (scientistic) worldview and technogenic model of society development; leftist political beliefs. The main formulations and definitions of ethnosophy given by Arseniev in his works are presented. He understood ethnosophy as a transitional discipline during the inevitable change of the civilisational paradigm, specifically the transition from modern technocratic civilisation to a new archaic model, the main parameters of which he studied on the example of the West African Bambara tribe. He gave ethnosophy, above all, a methodological and cognitive role, important for the change in the world view and the change in the norms and values of modern society. Ethnosophy’s reference to archaic consciousness meant an orientation towards a holistic perception of the world. The main categories of ethnosophy are the notions of wholeness, interconnectedness and oneness. According to Arseniev, ethnosophy, in his interpretation, has clear features of social and epistemological utopianism. It is noted that Arseniev’s ethnosophical project was not integrated into contemporary humanitarian knowledge; it responded to certain critical tendencies in the social sciences but re - mained only as an example of near-scientific exoticism. It has not been developed in the works of other researchers, mainly because of its sheer publicism and weak concreteness.

Keywords: философия, этнография, утопия, philosophy, целостность, ethnography, utopia, integrity, социальная критика, ethnosophy, этнософия, archaic society, social criticism, архаическое общество

Publication based on the results of: Human in the Digital Environment: Inclusive and Adaptive Strategies of Culture, Biopolitics and Biosemiotics (2025)