Kolesnichenko S. The phenomenon of communicative power: a socio-philosophical analysis

The dissertation is devoted to the attempt to carry out a social and philosophical analysis of the phenomenon of communicative power. The author investigates the historical genesis of the phenomenon of communicative power as a progress of human freedom. In the context of the “communicative turn” of modern philosophy and relevant communication projects, the conceptual bases of the role of communication in modern processes of social life are analyzed, the definition of the concept of communicative power is given. The theoretical and practical significance of the study lies in the holistic socio-philosophical conceptualization of the phenomenon of communicative power in the modern socio-political coordinate system, formed by a new civilization stage of development of society (“information society”, “knowledge society”, “network society”, etc.). The dissertation author tried to solve the series of following research tasks: to analyze the specificity of the genesis of ideas about the phenomenon of power in the history of philosophical thought; to investigate the peculiarities of interpretation of the concept of “communicative power” by the representatives of communicative philosophy; to conceptualize the essence of the link between the actualization of the communicative power and the processes of approval of the information society; to investigate the connection between intensification of mass communication and transformation of the phenomenon of power; conceptualize the principles of civil society approval in connection with the actualization of the phenomenon of communicative power; substantiate the system of value priorities for the establishment of communicative power; to justify social and cultural mechanisms of the implementation of the principles of communicative power in domestic social practice and to evaluate the potential of ones realization. The dissertation author investigated the main contemporary factors of influence on power, namely: the new discourse of power through the modern development of society (information society, etc.), the transformation of the understanding of freedom (“freedom for”), the expansion of the level of justice (both material and spiritual levels), technical-technological and rationalization of human existence, globalization of the “lifeworld”, multiculturalism and else. Within the framework of the development of the problem of becoming an information society and the impact of media technologies on the phenomenon of power and power relations, the dialectical and reverse nature of communication and legitimization procedures is actualized. The paper also analyzes the basic principles of the ethics and axiology’s foundation of communicative power and relevant discursive practices. These research steps have been made taking into account the current political situation in Ukraine, in particular, taking into account its transitional nature in the content and system of the state system, identifying possible prospects and consequences of the implementation of the completeness of communicative power. The obtained results have theoretical importance for socio-philosophical thought, as they broaden the content of the communicative discourse of power, providing greater opportunities for understanding political transformations, broadening approaches to contemporary understanding of power.