Symbols of Social Transcendence: A Structural Semiotic Analysis

This study is devoted to the problem of man's ability to change social reality, which is defined by the concept of subjectivity. It consists in the subject's overcoming of his inner and outer definiteness. Every concrete manifestation of subjectivity is a social transcensus - a leap from a given social certainty to a new quality. The mechanism of subjectivity realization is revealed as an interaction of subject's internal reserves, his free space, and value-normative distance. The research integrates the European and Russian traditions of understanding subjectivity, regarding it as a modus operandi of the subject's creative essence. The book marks the initial stage of the method of structural-semiotic analysis, which the author is developing and which reveals the symbolic side of subjectivity. The study is intended for a wide range of readers, including undergraduate and graduate students, young scholars, teachers and researchers specializing in philosophy, history, social sciences, anthropology, and cultural studies.