GHA History and Prehistory:
People, Ideas, and Organisations
The GHA history covers five years: from the moment of its occurrence together with creation of the site “Peace from Harmony” on February 15, 2005, to now.
GHA, as an informal community, began in 2002 with the friendship and scientific cooperation in Tetrasociology as a theory of social harmony by a group of sociologists, psychologists, linguists, and artists from six countries. This group rose as a result of discussion of Leo Semashko’s fundamental sociological work: Tetrasociology: Responses to Challenges (2002, in Russian and English languages), which was presented to the 16th World Sociological Congress in Brisbane, Australia, in July 2002. Into this group have entered: Dr. Leo Semashko, the philosopher, sociologist, and initiator of the group; the professor of political psychology Alexander Juriev, linguist Boris Kondratyev, and writer Vladimir Kavtorin from Russia; doctors of sociology Martha DeWitt and Bernard Phillips from the USA; the doctor of sociology Bernard Scott from England; doctor Bernd Hornung from Germany; artist Hilary Roseman from Australia; professor of sociology Reimon Bachika from Japan; and others, totaling 15 persons.
The collective book: Tetrasociology: from Sociological Imagination through Dialog to Universal Values and Harmony (2003) in three languages, Russian, English and Esperanto, became the first collective fruit of this group and a prototype for all GHA subsequent projects.
In 2004, as a result of acquaintance with Prof. Ada Aharoni, President of the International Forum for Culture of Peace (IFLAC) and Dr. Leo Semashko in Beijing on the World Congress of the International Institute of Sociology, this group has replenished the new idea of “culture of harmonious peace,” and gained new members from IFLAC. As a result, the group grew to more than 30 scientists and peacemakers from 10 countries who became the primogenitors of GHA. This led to creation of the web site “Peace from Harmony” on February 15, 2005. And, from that, arose the community that generated GHA, received legal Statutes on November 30, 2007.
We opened our international site www.peacefromharmony.org with the definition of our Mission and with the first 18 publications written by the first 17 authors in 3 languages: Russian, English and Portuguese. This site simultaneously became the beginning for GHA as a union from the different countries of people devoted to harmony.
That is our history in the summary, the results of which for five years are presented, generalized and estimated in more details in “Jubilee Congratulations to GHA Members on our Fifth Anniversary” on February 15, 2010.
The basic ideological and organizational stages of GHA prehistory
in Leo Semashko’s activity
The GHA history will be not clear without reference to its long theoretical prehistory, which began in 1966.
1966–1970. Development of the idea of compatibility of formal (traditional) and dialectic logics as the necessary and mutually supplementing logic tools for thinking of any integrity and unity of its opposites. Leo Semashko doctor’s thesis, which was protected at the Moscow State University on chair of history of foreign philosophy in 1970, has been devoted to this question. The unity of formal and dialectic logics of thinking became the basis of Tetrism (Tetraphilosophy and Tetrasociology together) as the scientific theory of harmony and tetranet harmonious thinking. Unity of these logics creates multidimensionality or pluralism of harmonious thinking and excludes its one-dimensionality or monism as absolutization of one that is typical to the different forms of industrial disharmonious thinking. The logic formula of harmonious thinking is “different but the interconnected relations.”
1971–1980. Development of dialectic modeling and construction of the dialectic models of society (social production), its spheres, people, family, and other social institutions. Four-dimensional dialectic modeling became a basic tool of logic for Tetrism and tetranet harmonious thinking.
1971–1986. Creation of various student, youth, and family clubs from which the workers-students club “Demiurge” (1976–1980) was the first sphere (four-dimensional) association corresponding to four spheres of a social production. In this club was the foundation for development, discussion, and application of the first ideas of Tetraphilosophy and Tetrasociology. This club became the first embodiment of the four-dimensional sphere harmonious structure within the limits of a small social community. This club is the first scientifically conscious community in a harmonious civilization prehistory.
1974–1981. Development of the theory and dialectic modeling of the person, its activity and way of life. These works became a basis for the scientific tetrasociological theory of individual harmony.
1979–1992. Development of the integrated system-sphere approach constructed on recognition of four spheres of social production and the corresponding sphere classes, covering all populations. This approach synthesized all previous ideas and discoveries of Leo Semashko and became the first form of Tetrism. These ideas were published in Russian after collapse of the USSR in the book Sphere Approach: Philosophy, Democracy, Market, Person (St-Petersburg, 1992, 368p.).
1981–1989. Application of Tetrasociology in creation of the automated system of planned calculations of the city on the basis of matrixes of the sphere indices, making a statistical base of Tetrasociology as a science of social and individual harmony. Information technologies on a basis of sphere statistics.
1990–1993. Theoretical substantiation of the sphere harmonious structure of the legislative and executive power of the city. Creation of the group of sphere democracy in St.-Petersburg city Parliament.
1990–1998. Creation of the charitable Children’s Fund of Dostoevsky and development of the Family Code of Russia to which Chapter 1 has been devoted to the rights of children structured on four spheres.
1993–2003. Creation of the concept of harmonious education, starting with harmonious sociological education and practical approbation of its different elements in student teaching.
2004–2005. Creation of the Children Suffrage bill for Russia and development of the theory of a social priority of children as a necessary element of a harmonious society, harmonious democracy, harmonious state, and harmonious civilization.
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