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On April 27, 2026, the regular meeting of the scientific and theoretical seminar of the Center for Comparative Socio-Economic and Political Studies of the IMEMO took place. Yakov Georgievich Shemyakin, Doctor of Historical Sciences and Chief Researcher at the Institute of Latin America of the Russian Academy of Sciences, presented the paper "Paradox as the Basis of Civilizational Studies."

The speaker substantiated the concept that the cognitive foundation of civilizational studies is paradox: the combination in any such study of two fundamental human intellectual strategies that direct the human brain in completely different directions: the left-hemisphere (aimed at analytically "dissecting" the object of study) and the right-hemisphere (focused on understanding the reality being studied through the creation of holistic images of that reality). The report demonstrated that this initial paradox represents the primary foundation upon which a multitude of specific paradoxes unfold, permeating both the entire field of civilizational studies and the "spiritual body" of existing civilizations. The speaker addressed the paradox of culture, the civilizational paradox of modernity, and the paradoxes of civilizational classification as key points.

Participating in the discussion of the report and a series of questions and answers were Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences N.I. Ivanova, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences I.S. Semenenko (seminar chair), Doctor of Philosophy V.I. Pantin, Candidate of Chemical Sciences V.V. Lapkin, Doctor of Economics I.P. Tsapenko, Candidate of Political Sciences A.L. Bardin, Candidate of Political Sciences M.I. Sigachev, and Junior Researcher A.A. Sviridov. The discussion covered the interpretation of the concept of "civilization" in modern scientific discourse, the characteristics of border civilizations, and the author's experience of comparative analysis of the civilizational communities of Latin America and Russia.