Science Producing As Entrepreneurship Download PDF

Journal Name : SunText Review of Economics & Business

DOI : 10.51737/2766-4775.2022.073

Article Type : Short commentary

Authors : Levintov A

Keywords : Producer; Entrepreneur; Impresario - conceptual nuances

Abstract

These three concepts from three different languages, English, French and Italian, are quite synonymous, but there are some persistent nuances.


Introduction

Producing and producers originated in the American film industry and were born in the 20s of the last century directly from the enterprise theatre, which was widespread in the United States, where not only actors were invited, but also directors, artists and other participants in the theatrical production. In the USSR, at the same time, all theatres became state-owned, and, consequently, only repertory - no enterprises, entrepreneurs and other amateur performances, since any entrepreneurial activity in the USSR was outlawed (up to 8 years in prison). After the collapse of the USSR, film producers were first copied from Hollywood, then theatre producers, art producers, etc. appeared, most often just burdensome apeism, monkey job, mediation rather than entrepreneurship. The impresario had a broader scope of activity: theatre, musical activity, concert activity, art activity - at the individual and collective level of performers and producers of show products. All of them, producers, entrepreneurs and impresarios, as well as literary and sports agents, are essentially entrepreneurs (tracing paper from the German der Unternehmer) in a specific show environment.


Entrepreneurship

Not citationally, but, in fact, the definition of entrepreneurship is an activity to generate new activities. Production as a process of converting the source material into a product through a sequence of procedures and operations needs fishing, fishing (including design), while the fishing itself is generated by the enterprise, entrepreneurship. In this sense and understanding, there were no enterprises in the USSR, including industrial ones, because entrepreneurial activity was prohibited. In many ways, this is precisely why practically all Soviet productions were meaningless, both material and non-material (for example, the production of knowledge and the production of educated people). The main thing that entrepreneurship does is the transfer of a product into a commodity: in the USSR, products were simply exchanged, hence the incredible price leapfrog and the conventionality of money. Commercial and entrepreneurial activity should not be confused and synonymized: at the turn of the 80s and 90s, I was writing a textbook on the history of commercial and entrepreneurial activity and easily found one and a half hundred Russian-language textbooks on the history of commerce and not a single one on entrepreneurship. The vast majority of entrepreneurial projects and ventures do not have commercial goals and aspirations. From personal experience: such serious entrepreneurial undertakings as the Private University for the Humanities, the Ecological University in Gorny Altai, the corporate universities of Viance (WeAnswer ) and Moscow State Pedagogical University, the Silver University, a new type of business school, the Workshop of Organizational and Activity Technologies did not have and do not have a commercial component. In the USSR, entrepreneurial activity was banned not so much as commercial, but as social, socio-cultural and cultural initiatives, which was usurped by the party, it also usurped the future and all design as work with the future. It is important to emphasize that entrepreneurship, even in the absence of a history and a formalized profession, is an activity, albeit a very peculiar one (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Scheme of industry.

To the concept of activity

Bypassing the value theory of activity of L. von Mises, the psychological theory of activity of Vygotsky-Leontiev- Luria - Galperin-Elkonin Sr. - Ilyenkov -Davydov, as well as the systemic thought -activity approach of G.P. Shchedrovitsky, we will try to stay within the framework of a purely conceptual work. Figuratively speaking, activity is what sets us eternal problems that must be solved daily. Any activity, metaphorically speaking, fits into the dualism of matter or the corpuscular-wave theory of light and everything else: it is both actor and process, and therefore cannot be placed in the Procrustean bed of the structural matrix. Culturally and historically formalized activity is usually called a profession. The topic, according to Aristotle, is the key, fundamental position from which both ontology and logic flow. Without a topic, activity turns into a utopian (placeless), useless and uninteresting vanity of actions from any direction. The paradox of the topic of activity lies in the fact that its place is determined and described not by itself, but by its place among other activities, by its penetration into other activities. If you imagine a hypothetical picture of an activity that is not woven into other activities, then it will be very similar to the king's new outfit, a thorough emptiness. Each activity is a kind of daisy, the petals of which are the activities associated with this activity, but it itself is a petal in the daisies of other activities. At the same time, there is a core of the activity-flower (what we are used to seeing and drawing in yellow), which is immanent precisely in this activity and has an independent value and meaning. Here lies the history of activity - both as its own history and as part of world history, and its mythology, and its theory, culture (traditions), metaphysics, ethics, etc. Entrepreneurship, therefore, is never limited to the activity it generates and extends one way or another to related activities: McDonalds is not just fast food catering, but also an educational environment, agriculture, the world of advertising, social policy, primarily youth , and many others. Oddly enough, but the essence of this or that activity is not given immediately and not always. Moreover, for an external and extraneous look, it is usually given as a manifestation, and only by plunging into it seriously and for a long time, you begin to understand it. So, for example, only after several decades of being in education, I seem to understand what it is in essence.

Educational activity is, first of all, the formation of a human in a person, the artificialization of a person, and in this sense, both education and development are applicable only to a person, but not to society, society, institutions, organizations, and even more so to natural objects [1-3].



Scientific Activity

The concept of "collective mental activity" was developed and introduced into scientific, philosophical and methodological use by G.P. Shchedrovitsky and his followers. Science is a complex organized collective activity, characterized by a number of features:

  • Scientific technologies are very flexible even in the most rigorous scientific disciplines;
  • Science is based not on facts and practice, but on theoretical foundations up to “if the facts contradict my theory, then so much the worse for the facts”.
  • Science consists of two most important processes: search ( search ) - literary, bibliographic, informational, statistical, forwarding, etc. - and reflection (theoretical, typological, conceptual, conceptual, etc.) of search, research ( research ); since both processes are usually carried out by the same person, hopes that the search can be redirected to robots, cyborgs and computers are untenable;
  • The role of a scientist, his personality and talent, even in very large and crowded developments, is noticeable and expressive;
  • In science the role of chance is very great; it is normal if the search and all the intellectual efforts of a group of scientists, sometimes for many years, are in vain and fruitless - this should be treated calmly and calmly, since they make up the vast majority of research; everything happens by chance, but special conditions are needed for the case: solitude and detachment [4-6].
  • Scientific production differs from any other production and entrepreneurship in that, in addition to the standard set of producer functions (financial, organizational, PR functions, etc.), it must provide conditions for the emergence of ad hoc. Ad hoc (on occasion) as a phenomenon of scientific life is most fully described by P. Feyerabend [7,8]. Ad hoc of Archimedes was that, while taking a bath alone, he understood how to measure the volume of a complex piece of jewellery made of pure gold using the law he discovered: “a body immersed in water [or any other liquid or gas] loses so much weight how much the water displaced by it weighs. Of course, Archimedes was not focused on this law, but on how to determine whether the goldsmith mixed foreign metal with gold when forging the crown of King Hiero II. Ad hoc Galilee - a task he received from the Duke of Tuscany Cosimo II Medici, who wished both to be in the thick of the battle and to be safe. Galileo, like Leonardo da Vinci, and the Dutchman Leeuwenhoek, and Kepler, and later Galilee Newton, made a telescope with successive lenses. He preferred to do this in solitude, at night. Another night owl, a cat, always spun under his feet. Driving away the purr, Galileo accidentally touched his pipe with his elbow and suddenly saw through the telescope the sky and the Moon, its mountains and craters, similar to those on the earth. Dmitri Mendeleev dreamed of his periodic table of chemical elements, according to legend, in a dream, like a card solitaire, which the chemist was fond of: on the other hand, its atomic weight and the formulas of the main compounds. For hours in his office, he shifted this chemical "solitaire", lining up the elements according to their properties in logical rows. In the end, like a chess player, he imagined in his mind the entire field, consisting of sixty-three cells [as many elements were then known], in which the elements were to be placed. But none of the options satisfied him. And then one day in a dream he saw the only order that he could not imagine in reality. The picture was so clear and distinct that he woke up and wrote it down on a piece of paper. And in the morning the periodic table was ready. The story of solitude tells of Isaac Newton and the apple that fell on him on his parents' farm, of the ship's doctor Robert Mayer, who discovered the law of conservation of energy by comparing the blood tests of sailors taken in temperate and equatorial latitudes, of Steve Hawking, who turned the physical ontology of the universe upside down, sitting in a suburban train compartment. And there are many such examples. They say that God helps only those who are focused on a particular problem and slip ads to the seeker in time. Hoc and solution. In the conditions of collective scientific activity, the scientific producer is obliged to organize the scientist's space in such a way that it is not just solitary- it must be methodologically oriented and coordinated. The scheme of methodological work was proposed by R. Descartes. Scientific activity is not only not standardized in time, it can be carried out at any time of the day, in moments, flashes, short intervals, continuously - by any impulsiveness, most often in solitude, but can also be dialogical, in a laboratory, in a pub, at night in a dream or in insomnia. This flexibility of conditions and environment, unpredictability and dependence on chance requires patience and composure of the scientists themselves, and of the scientific management, and of the scientific producer. But at the same time, subject knowledge, an arsenal of tools, and the organization of work should always be at hand and be in a mobilized state. 

    Figure 2:  Scheme of the methodological organization of the space of scientific activity (according to R. Descartes).

    Figure 3: Induction/creative contour of the dialogue between the explorer and the Navigator.




The organization of the scientific research space is the prerogative of the scientific producer and manager, but it must take into account the individual characteristics of the performers: someone cannot work without music, someone needs absolute silence, someone needs the presence of pretty and young girls, someone is inspired landscape outside the window, but all this should contribute to concentration and depth, detachment. Perhaps the concept of detachment is the key here. Detachment is the state of the scientist himself: the scientific producer and scientific manager does not interfere here and cannot interfere. Detachment is a kind of sterilization of the communication channel and communication between the scientist and the Navigator, freeing him from interference and noise. Detachment is a necessary state close to action crisis, voluntary refusal to search for solutions, all but one, cutting off all sociocultural ties and contacts that act as external interference and noise, showing trust in the Navigator, the description of which is difficult and therefore most often it is perceived intuitively: it can be a teacher, an opponent, God, Cosmic Mind, student, pet and any other external entity. An induction (read creative) circuit is installed with it: It is important to note that the role of "induction coil" (L) and "capacitor" (C) is performed by the researcher and the Navigator alternately and rather arbitrarily. The scientist, as the subject of research, most often finds it difficult to indicate who made the necessary push, he or the Navigator, and therefore usually refers to a fallen apple, a cat underfoot, a dream, a junction of train cars, a blow of billiard balls (Figures 2,3).


Scientific Production as a Product of Scientific Activity

How is live music different from any sound recording, including video? - in live music there are overtones and vibrations that we do not feel, but are experienced by us, no matter if we are in a stadium with a hundred thousand people in the midst of a huge crowd or listening to a chamber piano. Live music, perhaps, is only one ppm richer than a recording, but this tiny ppm decides everything and can cause us to flow tears, emotions, tenderness with its momentary presence with us. We experience the same thing in the theatre from the live, non-cinema play of actors, we, breaking through the fourth wall towards each other, begin to empathize with what is happening not on the screen, but much deeper and more vital. And the same effect is produced by a living word - a speaker, a politician, a preacher, a reciter, a person who owns a living and penetrating word. So it is with scientific activity. With scientific activity, not science. And here there is the magic of living thought, a thought that generates other thoughts, among other people - whether inside science, on its educational threshold or in a social, public environment that sincerely needs to excite minds, in the presence of rulers of thoughts, not truth or knowledge spewing out of themselves, but inducing the breath-taking thinking of many and many, rushing for a new and living thought, an idea with its conjectures, refutations, appendices and additions. Actually, this is what scientific production should be doing: shaping science as an activity and, therefore, immersing it in the scientific sphere and engineering, in education as an entrance to science and to the socio-cultural space where the sacraments of communion with science take place.


References

  1. Galileo G. Dialogue on the two main systems of the world - Ptolemaic and Copernican. 1632.
  2. Descartes R. Discourse on the method to correctly direct your mind and seek the truth in the sci. 1637.
  3. Levintov A, Skolkovo M. Education as an activity. Scientific report. Center for educational development of the Moscow School. 2014; 204.
  4. Popper K. The logic of scientific research (Logik der Frosting, in Russian translation. "Logic and the growth of sci knowledge"). 1934.
  5. Schumpeter J. Theory of economic development. Capitalism, socialism and democracy. M, Eksmo. 2007.
  6. Shchedrovitsky G. P. Problems of the logic of scientific research and analysis of the structure of science. Moscow, “From the archive of G.P. Shchedrovitsky". 2004; 400.
  7. Feyerabend P. “Against method”, in: Selected Works on Methodology of Science, Moscow: Progress. 1986; 125-467.
  8. Levintov A. The problems of modern science and the development of scientific producing in Russia. J Modern Edu Rev. 2020; 11: 999-1023.