Indian Journal of Science and Technology

Abstract

Objective: Institutional economics drew the attention of scientists to the fact that ideal constructions (laws, traditions, values, etc.) play an equally important role in the life of society than material systems (people, cities, cars, etc.). The purpose of the article is to search for principles of interaction between the ideal and material foundations of human society. Materials and Methods: Extensive interdisciplinary juxtaposition of the fundamental system theories of material and ideal systems (Jan Smuts’s holistic systems, body-mind problem in the lighting of Karl Popper). Finding: It seems to us expedient to introduce the concept of ideomaterial systems, some of the elements of which are material and some of them are ideal. In addition, we prove that human society (including the economy) is a polysystem, that is, a superposition of many fuzzy dynamic systems (economic, religious, scientific, cultural) interacting with each other; each human is simultaneously a member of many subsystems of society. The main resource of social systems is the time that every person gives to participate in them, be it a family, science or football. Applications: The proposed approach of ideomaterial polysystems opens a wide field of research for all social sciences, especially for economics and political science.

Keywords: Ideomaterial System, Mind-body Problem, Polysystem, Social Institutes, System Theory