Articles

Will a “Civilizational Approach” Become a Scientific Method?

Vostok/Oriens '2013, №3

 
This paper is a critical review of two books propagating so called “civilizational approach”, namely, A History of World Civilizations, prepared by professors of the South Federal (Rostov) University (2012), and Civilizations in the 21st Century: Problems and Perspectives of Development by A.V. Akimov and A.I. Yakovlev, scholars from the Institute of Oriental Studies, RAS. The author shows that there is no approved criterion to distinguish civilizations; that religion cannot serve as a criterion for their distinction. Therefore “civilizational approach” has no conceptual basis. The analysis of contemporary world should be based on division of countries into 1) agro-raw-materials appendages of industrial economies, 2) industrial appendages of post-industrial economies, 3) post-industrial economies. There are no evidences that new industrial countries will be able to overcome the post-industrial ones as these two groups are on different orbits.

Keywords: civilizations, industrial countries, post-industrial countries, religion, spirituality, state, government

Pages: С. 5–14