THEORY OF O.M. MEDUSHEVSKAYA’S COGNITIVE HISTORY: PRECISE KNOWLEDGE IN HUMANITIES AND PROFESSIONAL CHOICE OF ACADEMIC COMMUNITY

The theory of cognitive history elaborated by Olga M. Medushevskaia (1922-2007) has obviously been the most important and influential paradigm in Russian philosophy of history and historiography since the collapse of the official Soviet version of Marxist-Leninist methodology at the end of the 20 th century. In this regard the author analyzes the main intellectual roots of the paradigm, its structure and influence on inter-disciplinary debates on the possibility of the precise and verifiable reconstruction of historical past. The author emphasizes the fundamental role of the cognitive theory in the current process of paradigm-change in Russian historiography, in the creation of new research areas, pedagogical practices and the establishment of new professional ethics of academic community.

Olga M. Medushevskaya, methodology of history, macroobject of historical science, theory of cognitive history, anthropological method, cognitive-information model