Shipovalova L.V. Practices of the search for consensus: between terror and contention

Abstract: The subject of this research is the conditions for the practices of the search for public consensus. The practices themselves are defined by the Aristotle’s concept of golden mean, which proposes moving away from extremes. As extreme types of public consensus we introduce terror or totalitarian society (where appearance of a consensus is achieved by elimination of those who disagree) on one hand, and “contention” as the state of socio-political and cultural practices (for which it is characteristic to have heterogeneity of participants) on the other. The conditions defined in the article carry an empirical, transcendental, existential and epistemological character. The methodological course substantiates these clear practices of the search for consensus. This substantiation includes description of the extremes, demonstration of the need to avoid them, as well as definition of the conditions of this avoidance. The author’s idea of defining the practices of search for consensus, not through the positive movement towards some form of a clear consensus, but as a negative movement from extremes, can contribute to avoidance of problems of relativism of the multiculturalism, as well as the dictation of universalism.

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