The Role of an Individual in History: A Reconsideration

IF 0.3 Q4 SOCIAL ISSUES
L. Grinin
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引用次数: 17

Abstract

This article is devoted to the significant at all times and sounding anew in every epoch problem of the role of an individual (also a Hero, Great Man) in history, including such an aspect as the role of an individual in the process of state formation and progress. It is argued that in the age of globalization, when the humankind has found itself at the new developmental turning point, in the epoch when the influence of various individuals could affect dramatically the further development of the whole world, there is an urgent necessity to return to the analysis of this issue. In the first part of this article the history of views on this problem from the antiquity to contemporary counterfactual history is considered. In the second part the author aims at presenting the complex of factors affecting the role of individuals as a conceptual system. He suggests that depending on various conditions and circumstances and with the account of specific features of historical place and time and personal characteristics, the historical role of an individual may fluctu-ate from the absolutely invisible up to the greatest one. A conclusion is made that the weaker and less stable is a society, the more destroyed are the old structures, the greater may be the personality's impact. In other words, the role of an individual is inversely correlated with society's stability and strength. The paper presents the model which includes four society's state phases: 1) stable society of the monarchic type; 2) social pre-revolutionary crisis; 3) revolution; 4) creation of a new order. It is shown that a personality's greatest influence is observed at the third and fourth stages while at the first stage the influence is usually considerably weaker.
个人在历史中的角色:再思考
本文致力于探讨个人(也包括英雄、伟人)在历史上的作用这一在任何时代都具有重大意义的问题,包括个人在国家形成和进步过程中的作用等方面。文章认为,在全球化时代,在人类处于新的发展转折点的时代,在个人的影响可能极大地影响整个世界的进一步发展的时代,迫切需要重新对这一问题进行分析。本文第一部分回顾了从古代到当代反事实史对这一问题的看法。在第二部分中,作者试图将影响个人角色的因素的复杂性作为一个概念系统来呈现。他认为,根据不同的条件和环境,以及对历史地点和时间的具体特征和个人特征的描述,个人的历史角色可能会从绝对不可见到最伟大的角色波动。结论是,社会越脆弱,越不稳定,旧的结构越被破坏,个性的影响就越大。换句话说,个人的角色与社会的稳定性和力量呈负相关。本文提出了一个包含四个社会状态阶段的模型:1)君主型稳定社会;2)革命前社会危机;3)革命;4)建立新秩序。研究表明,人格的最大影响出现在第三和第四阶段,而在第一阶段,这种影响通常要弱得多。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
0.80
自引率
33.30%
发文量
8
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