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Home > Publications > Expressions and Interpretations. Our perceptions in Competition. - A Russian case
Expressions and Interpretations.
Our perceptions in Competition. - A Russian case
Presentation of the book “Expressions and Interpretations”
06.09.2006
"Expressions
and Interpretations started as a study on Russian law, but developed to be a philosophical
study of the most general nature. Due to its origins the work remains philosophy
through Russia and Russia through philosophy.
We may call this a philosophy of Competitionism
– people need names that encode thinking, so this name might serve as well to fill
the need in this case. We could also use other names, such as Scientific Pragmatism,
Philosophy of Infinite Variances, or why not Interpretationism, and even Expressionism
(for we are really dealing with subjective feelings that are raised to the level
of explanation of the objective observations) "
Jon Hellevig
Expressions and Interpretations.
Our perceptions in competition. – A Russian Case
This
book deals with philosophy, language, philosophy of law and political sciences, all
which are aspects (perceptions) of one. The book is a unique presentation starting
with the basic elements of philosophy and language and then building up to a description
of social and political life dealing with dimensions such as: democracy, law, economy
and moral, which are all showed to be perceptions resulting from social practices.
Competition is the key denominator for all these aspects of social life. With the
fundaments laid the presentation moves on to deal with post-Soviet Russian social
reality and especially with the emergence of Russian law from the ashes of Soviet
past. – It is argued that democracy is a function of competition, and therefore a
good political leadership manages society at whole the same way the economy is managed;
by creating maximum possibilities for free non-monopolistic competition free of any
abuse of dominant market position The main theses the book builds on are that: -
Language represents interpretation of feelings and there is nothing more fundamental
to it
- We need to make a sharp distinction between natural sciences and social sciences;
natural sciences deal with things and their movements while social sciences do not
have objects like things, but deal with expressions and interpretations (those fundamentally
stemming from feelings) – (Inspired by the sorry state of contemporary academic moral
theories and law I took in use the term ‘social science fiction’).
- Meaning is a
current balance of competing expressions and interpretations
- Competition like we
understand it in Economics is the organizing idea of all social cognition and sciences
(although we have to be on our guard with the notion science)
- We do not even have
a ‘scientific method’, but a ‘competitive method’
- The result is that in social sciences
we are dealing with expressions and interpretations which in the mind create perceptions;
these perceptions in turn being in constant competition.
- Law is first time ever
properly defined as a Competition of Arguments
- Moral is not a separate set of rules
(norms), but a the mode of relating
- Law is the result of social practices (legal
practices). Law in an emerging country such as Russia will develop only with the
development of people’s practices, not by mere issuance of laws and instructions
as it is usually claimed.
- It is claimed that the Russian leadership has been successfully
tackling these issues.
The author builds on the philosophy of Wittgenstein’s. In discussion
of law there are frequent references to the work of Richard Posner. The Platonic
– Kantian traditions are subjected to heavy criticism (Kant’s Copernican Contra-Revolution),
while the opposite tradition of treat the British empiricists, most notably David
Hume and Adam Smith are treated very favorably.
You can read further information
from Jon Hellevig's home site: www.hellevig.ru
About the author
Jon Hellevig is working with practical legal matters advising foreign investors in
Russia and is a co-founder and partner-in-charge at the law firm Hellevig, Klein
& Usov
In the late ‘90s Jon Hellevig established Awara in Moscow which consisted
of a legal advisory, accountancy service and executive search. Today these companies
have evolved to become the Awara Group of companies with the law firm Hellevig, Klein
& Usov; Awara Corporate, accounting and business administration outsourcing; and
Awara Executive Search. Mr Hellevig has been actively working on the Russian market
since 1990 in various areas of corporate law and financial administration.
Hellevig
deals in particular with investment consulting, corporate governance and investor
protection issues. Hellevig's field of specialization is Russian tax law. He is also
active in scientific work on the philosophy of law and presently involved in a study
of the coming about of Russian law and rule-by-justice issues in Russia.
Jon Hellevig
has published several books on Russian tax and labor laws in addition to contributing
with white papers on various topics in Russian law. He regularly lectures at international
scientific and investor seminars on these topics.
Before entering the Russian market
he worked at banks in Finland, first in legal positions, but later in more finance
related and managerial positions. Jon has a University degree in Law from the University
of Helsinki, Finland (1985). In 1998 he acquired an MBA with the Ecole Nationale
des Ponts et des Chaussees and University of Bristol Graduate School of International
Business with KPMG European Training Center, 1998