performative utterance, which of course differs from a description or a statement of fact: the performative utterance accomplishes that which it communicates, by the very fact of its being uttered. Such statements as “I promise” or “agreed” themselves enact what they speak of (a promise or agreement). Thus does the predictionary aspire, by the very fact of communicating certain ideas, to enact them, to introduce them into the field of humanities theory and intellectual practice. A performative dictionary is an action in the sphere of language and culture.
The dictionary consists of fourteen sections in a specific thematic order. First, from general issues of the humanities to philosophy and such subdivisions thereof as ontology (being and the world), epistemology (thought and knowledge), and modality (potentiality and creativity). Then comes consideration of the central themes of humanities research: time and history, religion, the individual and ethics, culture and aesthetics, literature, text, and language. The final sections turn to those fields of human existence where the humanities intersect with the interests of other – biological, social, technological – disciplines: life and the body, society and politics, technology and information science.
Naturally, the genre of dictionary does not presuppose reading every section in precisely this sequence; the choice depends on the reader’s interests. For an overall orientation as to the dictionary’s subject matter, it is recommended that the reader first acquaint him/herself with section one, “The Humanities As a Whole” (especially the entry “The Humanities”). Within each section, terms are presented in alphabetical order.
Far from every field in the humanities is covered in the dictionary. Virtually unrepresented are anthropology and historiography, as well as disciplines that study particular forms of art (art criticism, musicology, theater studies, film studies). At the same time, a particular emphasis is laid, reflecting the latest tendencies in interdisciplinary cooperation, on a range of issues previously considered marginal to the humanities: their intersection with biology, technology, information science, cognitive science, modality theory, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality.
A particular feature of the dictionary is that it projects one and the same concept onto different disciplinary fields. The concept of technomorality, for instance, may be examined in the section on technology and the section on ethics. How should ecofascism (environmental extremism) be categorized: under the rubric of life and nature, or society and politics? Insofar as new conceptual terms are formed precisely on the boundary of several disciplines, they may effectively belong to each, which is reflected in the subject index at the end of the book.
One may look up concepts in the dictionary according to the thematic sections and particular disciplines, or according to issues of interest, following cross-references to other terms and learning more about them via the sources cited, many of which are available online. Each section opens with a list of relevant terms, while the alphabetic and subject indexes at the end of the book provide shortcuts between sections. The dictionary entries have a uniform arrangement: the headword is followed by its English translation; its components and method of formation; its definition, and the rationale for introducing it into the conceptual apparatus of the discipline in question; discussion of how it relates to other concepts; and references to sources.
The dictionary as a whole is of a systematic nature, but this is a particular sort of centrifugal system, one that presupposes the articulation of multiple concepts that cannot be reduced to a single compact scheme or broadest-possible primary concept. A centrifugal system like this, with concepts spinning off into various subject fields, differs from the better-known centripetal systems exemplified by Hegel’s Encyclopedia of the Philosophical Sciences. The centrifugal type of thinking does not subject all the material of culture and history to an overall initial principle, but to the contrary, spawns an “expanding universe” of manifold intellectual practices and discourses that keep spreading further and further away from each other in the space of potential readings and texts. This open system relies on the reader to be a co-thinker and co-creator. Dictionary entries the reader might begin with to familiarize him/herself with this centrifugal model include: “Conceptivism,” “Createme,” “Creativity,” “Total-difference,” “Humanistic Invention,” “Hypotheticism,” “The Interesting, “Potentiation,” “Proliferation of Essences,” and “Transculture.”
All the entries are connected by a system of cross-references, which renders the dictionary readable as a hypertext, a standalone work in the “humanities genre” – not, that is, in a particular discipline, but within the humanities field as a whole. Other writings of mine to which the dictionary refers may be seen as this work’s outer circle, a “beyond” that expands its scope. The dictionary introduces new concepts and terms into the semiotic system of culture through the act of their manifestation – and, as a “self-propagating logos,” prompts their further development in new texts created on the basis of this dictionary or according to its motifs.
ANNOTATION
The Dictionary offers a systematic description of concepts and terms in such fields of the humanities as philosophy (including ethics and aesthetics), literary, cultural and religious studies, and linguistics, as well as humanistic approaches to nature, history, society, and technology. The Dictionary contains 440 entries distributed among 14 thematic sections (in alphabetical order). Special attention is given to the development of new concepts and terms that reflect cultural and social processes of the 21st century and methods of intellectual creativity.
The author and compiler of the Dictionary is the prominent Russian-American cultural scholar, philosopher, and philologist Mikhail Epstein, professor of Emory University (USA) and honorary professor of Durham University (Great Britain). His unique approach enables a significant broadening of the conceptual system of the humanities: the linkage of various disciplines with one another, and with the creative practices arising on their theoretical basis. The ictionary expands the constructive potential of the humanities, revealing their capacity to generate new intellectual, literary, and artistic movements, cultural institutions, and even spiritual communities. Many terms and concepts initially proposed by the author have already entered general usage in cultural and literary studies. The book aims to develop innovative and imaginative ways of thinking on the part of researchers and students. It is addressed to all those interested in new perspectives on the humanities, as both the science and the art of human self-awareness and self-transformation.