Understanding the Course of Social Reality : The Necessity of Institutional and Ethical Transformations of Utopian Flavour

"This book offers a comparison between our earthly society and the society of a hypothetical twin planet with the aim to understand and deal with some of the main problems of our global society, as well as to advance interaction with some extra-terrestrial society no less advanced than ours that sooner or later will be discovered. The underlying premise of the book is that the contemporary world finds itself in what may well be the most confused age of human history. Growing technological changes and innovation make it difficult to understand the course of social reality, while the intensification of the relations between different regions of the Earth and the power achieved by financial capital on a world scale amplify the dimensions and visibility of disequilibria and iniquities, and sharpen frustration and sentiments of insecurity. Social thought, as it has developed at the service of a quasi-stationary world, lacks the ability to understand and govern the tumultuous economic and social processes in progress. The most efficacious way to meet this fleeting social reality is to scientifically highlight basic institutions and values and their steady changes caused by the accumulation of creative and choice processes. In doing so, long-run trends can be explored in order to understand and manage the disequilibrating-reequilibrating motion characterizing the life of dynamic societies. This book shows the 'necessity' of institutional and ethical transformations utilizing an utopian flavour"- - Springer Front Matter....Pages i-viii Introduction....Pages 1-7 The Scientific Frame of This Story....Pages 9-19 Prologue of the Tale....Pages 21-23 On Landing on the Planet Dunatopia....Pages 25-27 A Brief Historical Excursus on the Evolution of Dunatopian Society and Its Institutions. Structural Organization and Innovative Dash....Pages 29-36 Power Forms and Their Practice in Dunatopia. Service-Power and Domination-Power. Judicial Power....Pages 37-48 The Planetary Political System of Dunatopian Society....Pages 49-63 Dunatopian Economic System....Pages 65-83 Non-market Productive Activities and Other Aspects of the Dunatopian Social System....Pages 85-89 The Reasons Why the Ideologies, Political and Economical Institutions and Public Interventions on Earth Obstruct the Building of a Supranational Order....Pages 91-95 On the Methods of Science on Earth and on Dunatopia....Pages 97-105 The Ethical Problem on Earth and on Dunatopia. Ethics and Religion....Pages 107-113 On the Transition from Capitalism to Dunatopism....Pages 115-127 Conclusion....Pages 129-130 Back Matter....Pages 131-148 Introduction The scientific frame of this story Prologue of the tale On landing on the planet Dunatopia A brief historical excursus on the evolution of Dunatopian society and its institutions, structural organization and innovative dash Power forums and their practice in Dunatopia, service-power and domination-power, judicial power The planetary political system of Dunatopian society Dunatopian economic system Non-market productive activities and other aspects of the Dunatopian social system The reasons why the ideologies, political and economical institutions and public interventions on Earth obstruct the building of a supranational order On the method of science on Earth and on Dunatopia The ethical problem on Earth and on Dunatopia. Ethics and religion On the transition from capitalism to Dunatopism Conclusion Appendix: An overview on some methodological equivocations of the social sciences.