Tugan-Baranovsky on Socialism: From Utopia to the Economic Plan

Tugan-Baranovsky's ideas on socialism are reconstructed with an emphasis on the relation between political economy and utopia. Utopia enters the stage after the critique of capitalism, in the definition of the realm of possibilities in the world of ideas. With the help of ethics, the notion of ideal socialism, unreachable by definition, is defined in the sphere of utopia. Thus, the task of political economy is first to show which of these possible worlds are reachable in the real world, and second to choose the one that conforms better to ideal socialism: this is socialism in practice through the economic plan. Thus, far from considering utopia and science as contradictory, Tugan-Baranovsky saw them as complementary, and his socialism is the result of the dialogue he instituted between them.

Fictions cartographiques

Considering normal maps that geographers do, it is possible to discuss strange maps in confrontation with the status of real maps. It is by using a precise epistemological model inspired by S. Lupasco that we will examine four relevant examples of fictuous maps. We will refer explicitly to a ternary epistemological model to confront extravagant situations furnished by litterature in regard to our normal maps. By using an explicite ternary language in relation here to the structure of the map, we will refer to the two fundamental concepts of scale and legend to show how those four fictions are emblematic and help us to understand the real maps. The ternary model scale/legend/mapmaking will be the reference model to illustrate how the Captain's map in L. Carroll, the Utopia Island of T. More, the Map of China of J.-L. Borgès and the Tender Map of M. de Scudéry are referenced in our model in regard of the real map, tertium datur, the mediator in the interaction of scale and legend.