Use of content analysis and information-oriented text analysis to study the concept of social ideal developed by the school of Pavel I. Novgorodtsev

Abstract

The article investigates how such sociological methods as content analysis and information-targeted analysis are applied in studying the heritage of Russian sociologists – P.I. Novgorodtsev, B.P. Vysheslavtsev, I.A. Il'in and N.N. Alekseev. The author uses the methodological model called semantic structure analysis which is based on combination of qualitative and quantitative content analysis and information-oriented analysis. At the first stage the author verified and proved the proposition stating that the theoretical basis of the concept of the social ideal is identical to the stylistic similarity of its representations. At the second stage the author made semantic analysis, and at the third stage – semantic structure analysis. The study proved the existence of the unified school of Novgorodtsev represented by his students Vysheslavtsev, Il'in and Alekseev. Representatives of this school developed the concept of the social ideal which is characterized by the similar conceptual positions. The author proves that the conception is ill-conceived, ambiguous and fundamentally unrealizable. The concept of social ideal developed by the Novgorodtsev School is an abstract ideological scheme which has nothing to do with the actual social practice.