Social Cognition in the Mirrors of «Cognitive Revolutions»

The article discusses the problem of the social determination of cognition from the point of view of «cognitive revolutions» (R. Harré) in dialogue between psychology, social theory and history, neurobiology and aesthetics. The research inquiry is the cultural-historical analysis of the social representations of the everyday life. The «aesthetic paradigm» (T.D. Martsinkovskaya) uses the art-based methods to study the cultural forms of social cognition. Theoretical discussions are illustrated by the social psychological, clinical and contemporary art research of the mass consciousness of the Russian society at the beginning of the 21st century. The article presents the experience of the genre analysis of the tragedy of culture (G. Simmel), personal drama (L.S. Vygotsky) and comedy of social life (A.P. Chekhov). The final result is a new aesthetic concept of social cognition.