Evolutionary challenges of social development in the 21st century

The article examines the problems of updating evolutionary theory in the context of the need to develop a strategy for a secure future, reveals its heuristic potential, and highlights the multiplicity of meanings in defining the contours of a new civilization. The article notes that a new civilization is associated with an environment for the preservation and possible transmission of cultural and civilizational heritage. Changes in human life imply a change in the functions of culture, a rethinking of the deep meanings of human existence and its values. However, these changes will not be borrowed from outside sources, but rather must grow within the framework of the old civilization. Culture encodes the historical experience of humanity’s civilizational development. It is argued that, under the current conditions, it is necessary to either choose the path of harmonizing socio-economic development with the laws of the biosphere and affirming a co-evolutionary strategy of interaction between society and nature, or face the inevitable path of self-destruction. This involves rethinking the challenges of civilizational development, overcoming entrenched stereotypes in the way we understand “civilizational theory” and “civilizational development”, and identifying the growth points of a new civilization. In modern conditions, evolutionary theory is complemented by a strategy of co-evolution: it forms and establishes new guidelines for human activity, puts forward new ecological regulations for nature use and the organization of social life, and affirms the values of biospheric ecological ethics, which aim to maintain and protect safe life and increase its diversity.

1. Moiseev N. N. Thoughts on Russia’s Future. Moscow, 1997. 210 p. (in Russian).

2. Lektorsky V. A. On the Past and Present. Memories and Reflections. Moscow, 2025. 362 p. (in Russian).

3. Stepin V. S. The Era of Change and Scenarios for the Future. Selected Social and Philosophical Journalism. Moscow, 1996. 175 p. (in Russian).

4. Stepin V. S. Man. Activity. Culture. Saint Petersburg, 2018. 800 p. (in Russian).

5. Stepin V. S. the problems of forecasting of complex social systems developing. Zhurnal Belorusskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Sotsiologiya = Journal of the Belarusian State University. Sociology, 2018, no. 3, pp. 4–10 (in Russian).

6. Moiseev N. N. The Fate of Civilization. The Path of Reason. Moscow, 2000. 223 p. (in Russian).

7. Vodopyanov P. A. At the Turning Point of Eras: Choosing a Strategy for Creating the Future. Minsk, 2023. 469 p. (in Russian).

8. Liseev I. K. New methodological and ontological accents in the development of modern life sciences. Voprosy filosofii, 2020, no. 9, pp. 99‒105 (in Russian). https://doi.org/10.21146/0042-8744-2020-9-99-105

9. Vodopiyanov P. A., Burak P. M. Global challenges in the modern world and a coevolutionary approach to achieving a secure future. Zhurnal Belorusskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta. Sotsiologiya = Journal of the Belarusian State University. Sociology, 2022, no. 3, pp. 7–14 (in Russian). https://doi.org/10.33581/2521-6821-2022-3-7-14

10. Zuboff Sh. The Age of Surveillance Capitalism: The Fight for a Human Future at the New Frontier of Power. Moscow, 2024. 784 p. (in Russian).