From Economic Interests – to Noo Values

Abstract

The growing crisis of human civilization urgently requires us to understand what role the system of interests and values that has developed in modern soci­ety plays in the development of this crisis. Are not the interests associated with economically rational behavior and the elevation to the rank of the highest va­lues of economic benefits and consumption volumes, one of the reasons for this crisis? Behavior based on the criteria of economic rationality cannot be considered truly reasonable if it leads us to a dead end of overconsumption, which causes an unacceptable load on the natural environment and depletes its resources. The necessary material prerequisites are already being formed to change such value attitudes. Modern knowledge-intensive technologies, pre­paring the transition to a new industrial society of the second generation, allow us to meet the developing human needs with much less expenditure of material resources. It is necessary to move from the society of economic rationality to the noo-society, from the economy to noonomy. At the same time, it becomes possible to prevail in the system of human values such as the development of culture, the elevation of the human personality, the formation of relations of solidarity, and not of conflict, growing on the basis of the struggle to absorb more and more resources.