Social “Coordinate Axes” and Coordinate Thinking in Humanities Research

Abstract

This article describes the methods of graphic modelling of social phenomena and the general ideological foundation of visual-spatial thinking on the basis of coordinate and matrix analysis. The paper presents the cases of applying the coordinate axes method in social and political philosophy, which determine the variable vectors of understanding the social in general and its individual elements in particular. Specifically, the experience of synthesizing social matrices and coordinate axes is considered not only as a convenient way to visualize some of the points of socio-philosophical analysis, but also as a methodology for mental experimentation aimed at expanding the range of views on the chosen issue. coordinate modelling is analysed by the author as an important methodological technique in the study of social phenomena, overcoming the abyss of interdisciplinarity. This makes it possible to draw conclusions by analogy by transferring cognitive methodological structures that are neutral in terms of content from one field of knowledge to another, thereby providing fresh perspectives on the existing patterns of thinking and on the analysis of social phenomena. This paper does not claim to present a holistic study of the problems of the formalized representation of socio-philosophical concepts using the graphic language of axes and matrices, but simply points out possible ways of heuristic mediation of complex theoretical constructs by elements of graphic modelling. The article concludes by underlying the importance of using graphic techniques while working with information, concepts and theories for heuristic interpretation and epistemological restructuring of socio-philosophical problems.