Museology as a humanitarian science

Gerasimov Grigory Ivanovich ORCID: 0000-0003-4479-2620 Doctor of History Scientific consultant, Tula State Museum of Weapons 300002, Russia, Tul'skaya oblast', g. Tula, ul. Oktyabr'skaya, 2 ggi1957@mail.ru Other publications by this author

1. Introduction and problem statement

Disputes about whether museology (museology) is a science arose in the last century, but until now scientists have not come to a consensus. There is also no unity in understanding what is the object, subject and methodology of museology, and it is even unclear to which branch of knowledge it belongs. Some attribute museology to the social sciences that study the museum as a social institution; others tend to attribute it to the cultural sphere ^{[1, pp. 445-460]}. In Russian science, "There is no consensus yet on what museology should be" ^[2]. There is also a strenuous search for the object, subject and methodology of museology as a science in the foreign one ^[3-5].

Since natural science is considered a model of science, which is based on a materialistic approach, the museum is most often considered as an object of the material world. However, there is no need for a museum in nature. A museum is not something natural and inevitable in this world. Therefore, it is presented as a social institution, research or educational institution, as a communicative system or "cultural form", i.e. as an object of the material objective world that exists separately from a person.

The uncertainty of museology as a science makes it necessary to intensify research on its fundamental foundations. In this article, the author, developing the provisions of his previous research published in the journal Questions of Museology ^[6,7], substantiates the main provisions of museology from the standpoint of humanities.

In the broadest sense, the object of the humanities is a person as a set of all his properties. In a narrow sense, the object of the humanities is human consciousness, which creates new ideas that a person brings to life with the help of his powers and abilities, as well as the entire arsenal of artificially created tools, devices, tools, machines, machines, and so on.

The object of the humanities is ideal – these are ideas created by the human mind and their embodiment in the objective world. One of them is the idea of a museum, which means that the most important part of the object of museology as a humanitarian science is the idea of a museum, implemented and functioning in reality. For example, the Military History Museum of Artillery, Engineering Troops and Communications Troops is based on the idea  To preserve ""for the memory of eternal glory" domestic and captured artillery pieces of historical value" (Website of the Military Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineering Troops and Communications Troops. https://www.artillery-museum.ru/ru/museum / (accessed: 12/29/2021)). The creation of the Penza Museum of one painting was preceded by the idea of G.V. Myasnikov "to discover the amazing inner world of the author-artist, his ideas, his plans, experiences" (Website of the Penza Regional Art Gallery named after K.A. Savitsky. http://penza.gallery/o-muzee/filialy/muzej-odnoj-kartiny.html (accessed: 12/29/2020)).

Museums are created by man, "museums exist for people" ^{[2, p. 192]} and change as a result of their activities. Any museum is the result of the realization of ideas created by human consciousness. It is needed only by a person, therefore, according to the author, museology is, first of all, the science of the person who created the museum, and of the person who perceives the museum reality.

A museum as an institution for the storage and use of heritage items, as a special space, is only a means of communication created to broadcast ideas and emotions from one consciousness to another.  In this sense, it is secondary to the idea that created it and the idea that it brings to the visitor. And from this point of view, museology is a humanitarian science. Any changes in it are the result of creative human activity, not natural forces.

Like any other, the idea of a museum exists within the framework of a hierarchical system – a worldview, therefore it depends on the main content prevailing at a given historical moment of the worldview. This explains the changes in museums with the change of ideological paradigms. With the change of political ideology, historical museums change; the creation of new scientific pictures of the world leads to transformations of scientific museums; the emergence of new aesthetic paradigms that change the concept of beauty, affects the content of art museums. The creation of fundamentally new views on the world leads to the creation of new museums, for example, the ecological approach led to the creation of eco-museums.

New ideas have generated and will generate new types and forms of museums.

2. Object and subject of museology

Museology as a humanitarian science studies the process of creating the idea of a museum and its implementation in reality, as well as the results of the functioning of the museum and its impact on the consciousness of other people – museum visitors.

The object of museology is human ideas that create an artificial reality to achieve certain goals. This is the activity of one human consciousness aimed at changing another consciousness by creating a new artificial subjective-objective reality functioning in the form of a museum.

Subjective-objective reality, in a broad sense, is a reality that loses its essential qualities without a person. For example, an ancient book, just like a book, does not exist without a person who understands the text. Without it, it's just a stack of stitched sheets of paper, dotted with incomprehensible signs that acquire bookish meaning only in the mind of a person reading.

The museum begins in the mind of the person who creates his idea, is realized in reality in the form of a museum, as a public institution, and ends in the mind of the visitor who perceived the ideas and feelings that the museum employee wanted to convey to him.

Subjective-objective reality begins its existence in an ideal form in human consciousness. For example, Kulikovo Field, outside of the Russian historical consciousness, is only a locality that has certain geographical coordinates. The Kulikovo Field Museum and Memorial Complex is a new reality created by man and which has no museum content without the human mind perceiving it.

In museum practice, there are often objects of unknown purpose that have lost their true meaning, since their ideal component is unknown to us. This is an incomplete reality, deprived of its subjective part. A museum and a museum object cannot fully exist without a human consciousness that understands them.

The subject of museology is the idea of a particular museum, created by human consciousness, and then realized in objective reality in the form of a corresponding museum, the functioning of which is aimed at changing the consciousness of visitors through rational and emotional impact on them.

The realization of the purpose of museum activity – the impact on the visitor, is ideal and subjective. The idea of a museum to achieve its goal – to change the consciousness of another person, requires the creation of an artificial subjective-objective museum reality.

Different ideas give rise to different types and forms of museums. Depending on the content of the idea, the museum reality can create an image of the past or show the development of a certain kind of art or science, giving rise to museums of various profiles: historical, artistic, art history, architectural, technical, and others. In this process, the idea is primary, the embodiment is secondary not only in time, but also in content, which is entirely determined by the idea of the museum.

For example, the Moscow Darwin Museum is based on the idea of its founder A. Kotsa "to create a museum in his homeland that promotes the basics of evolutionary teaching" ^{[8, p. 92]}.

Different forms of museums are required to implement different ideas. There are already a lot of them, and there will be even more. All that unites museums is their public form, as well as an algorithm for the creation and functioning of an idea through the formation of a museum subjective–objective reality in order to transfer knowledge or emotions to change a person's consciousness, or to consolidate its ideological content.

Since a museum without a person and outside of his consciousness does not exist as a museum reality, the study of this reality should begin with the study of the person who creates and implements the idea of the museum, and the person who perceives the museum reality: the museum worker and the visitor. Both are historical, i.e. they are people of their time, the essence of which determines the prevailing worldview as a system of ideas that explain the world and determine the ways of its transformation, as well as the forms and way of life of societies and their museums.

The subject of museology is not only the ideas on the basis of which the museum is created, but also the process of their implementation – the functioning of the museum reality created on the basis of these ideas, as well as the process of perception of this reality by visitors. Thus, the subject of museology is complex, multi–component, procedural. This is a complex, multi-stage process that begins with the idea of creating a museum, its functioning and ends with the perception of museum reality by the visitor's consciousness.

The purpose of the museum is to make certain changes in the consciousness and attitude of another person – a visitor.

Thus, museology studies the ideas that the creator of a particular museum has implemented, and the whole set of processes of the museum's work to influence the museum visitor, aiming to change it in the direction necessary for the museum worker. Any influence on a person's consciousness: rational or emotional, if it is sufficiently convincing, changes the content of a person's consciousness; or strengthens certain ideas already existing in it. For example, the Museum of the Revolution had to convince the visitor of the loyalty of the Great October Revolution; the Museum of Atheism – to crush the religious idea in the mind of the believer and consolidate the idea of atheism in the soul of the atheist. The idea of the Tula State Museum of Weapons is to show the skill of Tula gunsmiths aimed at creating weapons to protect the Motherland.

3. Methodology of museology

The main ideological ideas determine the methodology for achieving ideological goals, for example, the Marxist approach asserts that "Museology is based primarily on dialectical-materialistic methodology and, as a social science, on the methods of historical materialism" ^{[9, p. 13]}.

When the main ideological ideas change, the ways of cognition and transformation of the world change simultaneously. For example, for positivist science, when the object opposed the subject and did not depend on it, one methodology corresponded, and when it turned out that the subject had an influence on the studied object, another one was required, and if the subject actively participates in the construction of the object, as it happens in historical museums, a third methodology is needed. It follows that methodology depends on theory and is determined by it.

Initially, in science, methodology was considered mainly as a way of cognition, i.e. a way of achieving, extracting true knowledge. In the twentieth century, methodology already includes the development of methods of practical activity, understood mainly in a technological way. Methodology is increasingly becoming a theory of changing the reality surrounding a person, creating a new reality.

Often the main goal of the methodology is stated to be the study of the surrounding world, but knowledge alone cannot be the goal of the methodology, since the acquisition of knowledge for the sake of knowledge is meaningless. Methodology, as a way to achieve a goal by a person, is much broader, therefore, knowledge is only the first step to the action that should change a person's life, achieve goals determined by his worldview.

Theory is the idea of an objective and ideal reality, and methodology is the idea of how to study, understand, change and even create this reality. Theory and methodology are ideal concepts, but they differ in the scope of application of thought.

Thought creates a theory as a representation of an external or ideal object, its content, connections, functioning. Methodology, based on theory and proceeding from it, determines the ways, methods and methods of studying an object, understanding it, designing future states or creating a fundamentally new object and even a new reality. That is, methodology is the ideal activity of consciousness for cognition, transformation, design and construction of the object of cognition or its creation. It is based on theory and is itself a theory for activity cognition, change, and construction.

The difference between theory and methodology is thus only functional. Theory and methodology are two components of one ideal process for understanding and transforming a person and the world around him. At the same time, methodology is an ideal activity of consciousness aimed at changing both the external and internal world of a person.

Theory and methodology coexist in the general theory of cognition and transformation of the world, but it is necessary to recognize the subordination of methodological theory to the main scientific ideas. This is due to the fact that the methodology is not independent, it does not determine the subject of study and the purpose of its change, which are set and determined by the general scientific theory.

 The general theory of an object and an object sets the ways of its cognition, creation and transformation. For example, the ideas of geology about the Earth differ from the ideas of biology about the structure of living beings, therefore, the ways of studying them will be different. The methods of transformation of the earth's firmament and a living organism will also be strikingly different.

In its most general form, methodology can be defined as the path of cognition, design and transformation of the objective external world and the subjective world of a person, and this path is determined by the main ideas of the prevailing worldview.

According to O.S. Sapanzha, "the methodology of science is only able to identify the general principles of effective cognitive activity, but it cannot predict specific ways of cognition of the object under study. Methodology develops general approaches and principles, but it is not a methodological knowledge, a "recipe" and a "technology" for obtaining new knowledge" ^{[10, p. 5]}.

The methodology of museology as a humanitarian science is based on the method of understanding, which provides comprehension of the ideas underlying the museum. This method is universal for the idealistic-subjective approach, within which, in addition to museology, history also functions.

Since the museum exists in an objective natural reality, methods inherent in the study of this reality can be used for its study: radiography, spectrography and others.

Museology is related to the natural sciences by the method of experiment widely used by museums, which is carried out during experimental exhibitions and expositions. However, this is an external similarity, since a natural science experiment is "a method of cognition by which the phenomena of reality are investigated under controlled and controlled conditions" ^[11]. In museology, an experiment leads to the creation not of new knowledge, but of a new artificial reality that affects the visitor's consciousness in a different way.

The methods of ethnography, paleography, archeology, literary studies, textual studies, art criticism and others are used in the study of museum objects. When designing exhibitions and expositions, methods of design, historical reconstruction, psychology, collectible, ensemble, illustrative-thematic, artistic-mythological ^{[12, p. 25]} and others are used.

Museology studies methods and methods of communication, during which the museum worker transmits his ideas to the visitor, influences his consciousness and attitude.  Such methods include learning the language of symbols, information transmission, and others.

A special role in museology is played by the method of construction. It is used in most museums, even in those that aim to preserve the existing reality. Constructed: the past in historical museums; the process of evolution in biological; the development of art in artistic, and technology in technical. The method of constructing a new artificial reality is the basis for the creation of expositions and exhibitions. The study and development of the construction method, bringing it to the methods and practices is the task of museology.

Since the museum is aimed at changing the consciousness of visitors who are part of society, methods of social sciences, for example, sociology (survey method, content analysis and others) can be used to study these changes to study the impact of the museum on public consciousness.

Unlike the natural sciences, where the truth is proved, in humanitarian museology the truth is understood. Although this process is mostly rational, but there is an essential emotional component in it, especially in art history museums, when understanding comes not as a result of rational evidence, but through emotional insight. In this part, museology is close to art, which creates a worldview that is so important in forming a convincing picture of the world. The museum uses its own specific methods to create this worldview, and understanding how this happens is one of the tasks of museology. The worldview can be created not only for the picture of the modern, but also of the past, which is what historical museums do.

4. Objectives of the museum

The ideal essence of museology is manifested not only in the fact that any museum is based on an idea, but also in the goal it pursues – changes in the mind of the museum visitor, which can only be ideal. At the same time, in some cases, these changes are achieved not only through the use of rational means, but also through emotional impact.

The purpose of the museum may be: national identification or national cohesion based on a common past, strengthening the state; showing the stages of art development; proving the fidelity of any doctrine (Marxist, liberal, national); and others.

The Tretyakov Gallery has three main goals: to explore, preserve, present and popularize Russian art; to form Russian cultural identity; to make people's lives better by opening wide access to masterpieces of Russian and world art (The museum's mission. Website of the Tretyakov Gallery. URL: https://www.tretyakovgallery.ru/about/mission / (accessed: 08.09.2021)).

The Tolerance Center of the Jewish Museum strives to establish a dialogue between people of different cultures, religions and worldviews, helps visitors to form their attitude to complex social problems, deal with issues of discrimination and expand the boundaries of human rights and freedoms (About the museum. Website of the Jewish Museum and Tolerance Center. URL: https://www.jewish-museum.ru/about-the-museum / (accessed: 12/29/2021)). 

 Garage Museum of Modern Art — a place where people, ideas and art meet to create history" (The museum's mission. URL: https://garagemca.org/ru/about (accessed: 12/29/2021)). According to its director A. Belov, "The purpose of our work is to create a unique experience of experiencing art" (Ibid.). The goal of the Moscow Polytechnic Museum is to open up to people the past, present and future of science, to create a territory of enlightenment, free thought and bold experiment (The mission of the museum. The website of the Polytechnic Museum.  URL: https://polymus.ru/ru/museum/about/mission / (accessed: 12/29/2021)).

5. Functions  

Among the functions of museums are often distinguished: documenting, educational, educational, cognitive, scientific, entertaining, communicative, authoritative, ideological, informational and a number of others. Indeed, all these functions are performed by one or another museum, but none performs them all. And this logically explains museology as a humanitarian science: since the ideas that created specific museums differ, their goals and functions performed by them will also be different.

From the standpoint of an idealistic approach, the most important function of the museum is communicative. It is she who realizes the main goal of the museum – to convey ideas and feelings from the museum employee to the visitor. Museum communication is not a conversation between a museum object, an exhibition or the culture of the past with a visitor, it is a conversation between people: museum workers and museum guests. This conversation is conducted with the help of a specific sign-symbolic form and other means and methods used when creating an exposition or exhibition ^{[13, p. 11]}.

Society, the state or an individual, creating a museum in accordance with a specific purpose, endow it with its corresponding functions. At the same time, they can refuse to implement the idea previously laid down in the museum and then the Museum of the Revolution turns into the State Central Museum of Modern History of Russia. At the same time, the purpose and functions of the museum change accordingly, although most of the exhibits remain the same, only now they create a new museum reality, different from the previous one. The museum broadcasts new ideas and feelings to its visitors. At the same time, previous ideas are declared false, which, however, does not guarantee the truth of the current ones.

The ways to achieve the goal may change with changing attitudes in society. For example, now museums very often perform the function of entertainment, which was considered unusual for them earlier. However, the museum is forced to change in order to achieve the goals of its existence, therefore, along with the traditional functions and tasks, new, previously unthinkable and impossible ones will appear over time.

A person as a demiurge of the museum has the right to change its essence at his discretion.  The reasons for museum changes, as well as the creation of new and the oblivion of former museum ideas, are well explained from the idealistic positions of the humanities, which is museology.

6. The place of the museum in culture and society

The museum as a historical phenomenon has no predetermined place in culture and society. This place is determined by the relevance of the ideas laid down in museums, the correspondence of their functions to the needs of people and the prevailing circumstances. For example, in the last decade we have seen a surge in interest in museums, as evidenced by an increase in their attendance. So, in the pre–pandemic period - 2012-2019, the attendance of museums increased by 1.7 times, reaching 155 million visits per year. At the same time, museum revenues increased 2.5 times (Culture in Russia 2012-2019. Facts and figures. p.18. URL: https://culture.gov.ru/activities/reports / (accessed: 12/29/2020)).

The increased interest in museums is primarily based on the activities of the museum community itself, but the fashion for visiting museums also has its influence; increased interest in history and art; the growth of the economic importance of museum tourism; and some other external factors.

The main factor determining the role and social significance of museums is a person's interest in them. The more people who are interested in museums, the higher their social role and status.

Interest in museums appears when the ideas laid down in their foundation correspond to the main ideological ideas prevailing in society, and help people in solving their vital problems and meeting urgent spiritual and emotional needs. The museum should be relevant, only then it plays an important role in the life of society.

Museums play an increasing role in the field of culture. Culture, considered in the broadest sense, is the whole artificial world created by the human mind. It is in museums that the best and most significant cultural samples from the point of view of the prevailing worldview are concentrated, which ensures that museums have their significance in this area.

Since museums are exploring new areas of artificial reality, it can be assumed that their cultural influence will increase as long as human progress continues. Our present has already been placed in the museum exhibition. The State Museum of the History of Cosmonautics named after K.E. Tsiolkovsky has been in existence for quite a long time, in 2012 the Museum of Information Technologies was established in St. Petersburg. The museum is increasingly turning from preserving the past to preserving the present, because the museum is not about time, but about today's man, his ideas, actions and creativity.

However, the potentially limitless possibilities of museumification of past and present artificial reality will be realized only if the ideas that create new museums are relevant and interesting to people.  Unfortunately, not all of them are original, many have been artificially transferred from an alien ideological environment, and when the fashion for museum tourism wanes, these museums will be doomed to die.

7. Discussion of the results

In this article, the main theoretical and methodological provisions of museology as a humanitarian science are substantiated. From idealistic positions, new concepts of the object and subject of museology are formulated, its methodology is defined.

Focusing on the Person as the creator and the purpose of the museum made it possible to explain its historicity, as well as the dependence of the types and forms of museum reality on the change of ideological and ideological paradigms.

The development of the concept of subjective-objective reality made it possible to organically connect the ideal world of a human creator with the objective world in which he implements his ideas, including in museum form.

The definition of the object and subject of museology as a humanitarian science makes it possible to understand a person and the museum reality created by him in all its diversity; to explain the reasons for the development and changes of museums, the diversity of their types and forms; to outline the prospects for their evolution.

The definition of the methodology of museology as a representation of the ways of studying, understanding and changing the subjective reality of the inner world of a person and the objective museum reality, gives an opportunity to take a fresh look at the methods used in museology, their causality and highlight among them the main one – the method of understanding the ideas underlying the creation and functioning of the museum, the impact on consciousness and the feelings of a museum visitor. Communication and design methods play an important role in realizing the purpose of museums.

The ideas that create museums determine the goals of their existence and activities, as well as the functions performed.

The idealistic approach to museology naturally assigns the main role to human activity and, above all, his consciousness in the process of creating and functioning of museum reality. Determines the subordination of goals, forms, methods to the ideological content of any museum.

The humanitarian approach increases the role and importance of the figure of the museum visitor, whose change of consciousness becomes the main goal of the museum's existence. Allows you to better understand the role and importance of museums in society and culture, the prospects for their further development and change.

At the same time, the author is aware that any new theory and methodology will be accepted by the scientific community only when it proves its effectiveness in specific museum studies. Therefore, the next stage in the development of museology as a humanitarian science is its approbation in the course of solving scientific and practical tasks facing a museum employee. The application for the creation of museology as a branch of the humanities will turn into reality only when real museological research begins to be conducted on its basis.