Ideas and Ideals

The article analyzes a number of stages of the formation of a generic and non-specific vocabulary in the period from 9-8 to 5-4 centuries BC in Ancient Greece. Cosmogonies of the period of ordering mythological representations in Egyptian, Phoenician and Greek cultures are taken as a source material. The article considers the interaction of basic metaphors that allow this ordering to be carried out-metaphors of genealogical (birth and change of generations) and metaphors of artisan-demiurge. The formation of the legislative space is investigated, yet namely this space allows to outline the first reflective steps in relation to mythological thinking. These steps are initially carried out within the limits of traditional mythological images. The most important stage of the movement towards general words in the process of the emergence of artificial concepts in the early philosophical systems – "apeiron", "ontos", "logos", "physis", which begin to be ordered through interaction with each other. In parallel with the personified mythological concepts the abstract concepts are gradually lining up and organizing systematically. From a beginning  they allow to integrate mythological ideas and present them in the abstract form. In the next phase, a fundamental role is played by the activity of sophists, whose attention is focused on the game with the general concepts, yet the content of these concepts starts to lose the reference to the outside world. At the same time, the language is discovered as an independent system. This is the content of the third stage of reflective activity. The attempt of Socrates to escape from sophistic relativism and return the contents to the general concepts leads to the overturning of the relations of names and reality, when it turns out that the general concepts are enclosed in the soul, and they are preset the understanding of the world. Plato and Aristotle are implementing this setting and transform this work with concepts into a separate sphere of activity, creating dialectics and logic that underlie the methodology of reasoning and research in different spheres of intellectual activity.

This is а translation of the interview with Saul Alinsky published in Playboy in 1972 and reprinted by the New England Review May 27, 2018.  American professional social organizer, he unilaterally created the new field of social engineering and the new profession of radical-organizer. His two books became handbooks for several generations of organizers. Magazine Playboy sent Eric Norden to interview him. “I accompanied him from the East Coast to the West and into Canada, snatching tape sessions on planes, in cars and at airport…”

The concept of liberalism is extremely unpopular in modern Russia. Modern hopes about the solution of Russian problems cling to conservatism based on traditional values which are defined by Orthodoxy to a great extent. In other words, Orthodoxy and liberalism in modern Russian political discourse are treated as contradictory to each other. It is noteworthy that historical liberalism in its conservative variant was rooted in Russian ground and closely connected to Orthodox tradition. But with generally Christian sources of liberalism being widely accepted, the liberal potential of Eastern Christianity is being questioned. It is universally believed that Orthodoxy seemingly “belittles” personality and discourages the development of independence and freedom. The aim of this paper is to demonstrate the inaccuracy of such views. Drawing from patristic heritage and the methodology developed by the classical Orthodox theologian V. Lossky and modern Orthodox philosophers (Ch. Yannaras, S. Khoruzhiy) the author elucidates the Orthodox understanding of personality (hypostasis) encoded in the Doctrine of Trinity. It was Orthodoxy that preserved and developed the concept of a human personality absolute value and uniqueness introduced by Christianity, this concept being later undermined by Western Christianity with “amending” the Trinity Doctrine by double procession of the Holy Spirit. Analyzing patristic attitude to a human the author comes to the conclusion that Orthodoxy is the religion of freedom. Its philosophy is pervaded with the pathos of freedom and hymn to the elevated predestination of a human who is able of becoming a co-Creator. The proposition is supported by the Orthodox ideal of deification and the theory of synergism, i.e. concordant action of Divine and human energies suggesting free and conscious efforts of a person. Of course, we are talking about inner freedom: the freedom "to" and not freedom "from", without which the realization of external freedom is problematic

The present work develops the traditions of intellectual history associated with the re-creation of «hyperreality» of the theatrical and cinema space through scenic biographies. Continuing to adhere to the right-conservative positions, the author made an attempt to touch upon a special facet of this space. He seeks to draw attention to the career of female actresses, who because of their sincere and dedicated service to the high art of the cinema and for the ideological and aesthetic sophistication of their images can be considered genuine «queens of the screen» not only of the Fifth Republic, but also of the world cinematography. Of all the numerous pleiad of French cultural figures of the investigated gender category, the author singles out three large-scale, legendary figures – Annie Girardot, Simone Signoret and Michel Morgan.

The study focuses on the most important stages of the cinema career of these actresses and the concrete results of their activities that make up the contribution to the cinema art, which is considered in direct correlation with the main tendencies of France's social and political development in the newest period of time.

Because of this, a historical and cultural comparative analysis of «being-in-the-art» based on the use of various kinds of sources is carried out in the work.

They, except for sources of personal origin, are of paramount importance media materials in the form of film productions, films, the conceptual evaluation of which is based on both the personal impressions of the author and the research reserve that exists in historiography and cinematography

The article describes the New Year celebration in a historical context. In the 19th century, Armenians for the first time witnessed the celebration of the New Year (1827) by the Russian army under the command of General Krasovsky at Yerevan Fortress. In the 19th century, there was a common for both countries (Armenia and Russia) typological tradition of singing Christmas carols by children going from one house to another. The empirical analysis showed that all the New Year's attributes of the Soviet era were the same in both countries (Christmas trees, Ded Moroz, Snegurochka[1], New Year decorations, etc.). The same trend remains in the post-Soviet era but this time in the context of global trade. Alongside with the other consumer goods in Armenia, there appeared the New Year decorations reflecting the national and religious consciousness and symbols of Armenians. The channel of the Armenian Apostolic Church "Shoghakat" played an important role in the transformation of the New Year's festive atmosphere and the attributes of post-Soviet Armenia. The commonality of the New Year celebrations in the post-Soviet era can be seen in the following facts: almost the same number of non-working days in both Armenia and Russia, the New Year's speeches of the presidents of both countries in the post-Soviet era, participation of the Russian and Armenian presidents at the Christmas Liturgy. But there is one significant difference. The Catholicos of All Armenians continues congratulating the nation before the New Year's congratulation of the RA President, while the Patriarch of all Russia no longer congratulates Russian people together with the President on the New Year (since 2009), in order not to hurt the feelings of multi-religious citizens of Russia

[1] Snegurochka, a character of Russian folklore, the beautiful granddaughter to the equally mythical Ded Moroz (Russian, “Grandfather Frost”). Snow Maiden assists Grandfather Frost in delivering gifts to children at New Year's in those countries that were formerly constituent states of the now-defunct Soviet Union.

  The article considers social and socio-psychological prerequisites of Eurasianism coming on the stage. Eurasianism emerged in the early twenties of the last century as an ideology and a political movement. But its social origin dates back to the earlier period. Eurasianism is a consequence of the world war and the revolutionary situation. The active participation of Caucasian and Asian peoples of the Russian Empire as well as some features of the revolutionary everyday routine formed a part of the Russian intelligentsia`s perception of the revolution as the Eurasian matter. This was facilitated by the complex nature of the Russian identity which comprised two hearts of the Russian peoples – European and Asian. The specificity of the Eurasian perception of the revolution was the reassessment of the European and Asian components of the Russian identity. In the Russian public consciousness of the nineteenth century the Asian component was perceived negatively, but the European one - positively. A group of writers and poets, who in 1917 and 1918 called themselves “The Scythians”, under the influence of Nietzsche and Vladimir Solovyev and under the influence of tragic experience of the First World War, re-evaluated the two components of the Russian identity. The result of this re-evaluation was the birth of a Eurasian myth as an artistic reflection of the experience of the world war and the revolution. This myth was used as the basis for the creation of Eurasian ideology by a group of Russian emigrant scholars.

The author considers the opportunity of management activities optimization, which has been the subject of numerous scientific studies during a long period time. Today this area is still of the utmost importance. The structure of management activities is complex and it is built on multilevel psychological, socio-psychological and other phenomena. This article presents the data of modern studies aimed to support its distinctive features in perception, information processing, cognitive, emotional-volitional sphere of the right- and leftlateral respondents. This article is devoted to the study of individual styles of management activities of the executive educational team (school principals, head teachers). The study (n=140) proves that an individual management style is predefined by the peculiarities of lateralization of prefrontal lobes hemispheres of the brain. The significant differences are defined between individual management style of school principals and head teachers with different lateral organization of the brain. The study uses psychological tests (n=6) and statistical methods of data processing. It is proved that superintendents with left lateral and right lateral organization of the brain use different management tools. For example, in the activities of the left hemisphere superintendents stronger organizational skills are expressed, the authoritarian management style is used more often and motivation for success is expressed greater than motivation to avoid failures. The right hemisphere superintendents express stronger communication skills at a lower intensity of managerial skills, the democratic style of management is used more frequently, this type of individuals often focuses on avoiding failure than on achieving success. The main methodological principle laid down in the program of the study is the system approach. This study is in the "mainstream" of theories of individual differences that are explained by the features of braking force of regulatory unit in expression of the general properties of the CNS. This article contains recommendations that provide an opportunity to optimize managerial activities of individuals engaged in educational supervision. These recommendations are aimed at expansion of the components of management style.

The article deals with the problems of the essence of consciousness manipulation in the process of self-preservation of a social group by holding holidays. One of the most complex and unambiguously interpreted scientific problems at the present time is the problem of determining the place and various functions of the sacral in the everyday life of society. Of course, the traditional understanding of a holiday as a ritual action that transcends the transcendental nature of being has been preserved to some extent to this day, however, with the development of different social arrangements in the context of life, not only collective, but also individual, has somewhat changed its character. Strictly speaking, the development of philosophical thought with respect to this problem was extremely diverse, but at the same time it had certain homogeneity, manifested in the traditional understanding of a particular area of this aspect. The original understanding of the holiday as sacralization of being, which really exists here and now, was extremely important in the development of the history of the existence of an individual and his relationship with the objectively surrounding world. Of course, the birth of manipulation should not be directly proportional to the existential aspect of life as such. On the contrary, life, according to its dual nature, can not but perform various kinds of manipulation to determine the essence of its existence. The concept of dualism of being has acquired completely different features with the development of a philosophical view of the problems of this kind in the process of historical and philosophical consideration. The initial perception of this phenomenon was absolutely authentic, for it found responses in the determination of the One as the Absolute in its individual kind through the disintegration into plurality, revealing certain regularities in terms of transcendental being. Manipulation of consciousness in the process of research actually appears as a kind of technology of domination of the sacral over everyday life. Holiday as a ritual allows us to manifest the essence of sacralization, determining the place of man in the process of his own being through manipulative character in the context of interaction with the objective world.

This article presents an attempt of retrospective excursus done through analyzing the causality between events and artifacts concentrated around the known fact – i.e. using the authentic Eastern (Oriental) melody in the Persian chorus from "Ruslan and Lyudmila" opera by M.I. Glinka. Their blending in a single chain contributed to identifying and comprehending the circumstances and historical-cultural context that predefined emergence of domestic musical Persiana - the phenomenon almost unexplored hitherto. Diaries analysis of the composer's contemporaries, as well as that of memoirs literature, revealed that "interest group" of M. I. Glinka included both Russians who were visiting Iran (Ambassador A. S. Griboyedov; traveler and the author of "Journey to Persia" treatise, prince A. Saltykov etc.) and direct representatives of Persian culture. Among them was the university professor M. J. Topchibashev (who formerly taught him the Persian language) and participants of the Apology mission of the crown prince Hosrov-Mirza sent by the Iranian Shah in connection with murder of the Russian ambassador Alexander Griboyedov. Archival documents showed that the mission included such highly educated people as the poet Fahil-khan Sheida who later adopted Russian citizenship, and Mustafa Afshar - a connoisseur of Russian culture, fluent in the language. Study of documents and researches dedicated to this mission enabled to assume the name of the prince’s secretary who initiated M. I. Glinka in the chorus’s melody and, accordingly, in the national origin of this tune. However, it requires confirmation with the aid of further research. As a result, on different levels – the personal one (the composer’s success in studying Persian language, communication with its native speakers and connoisseurs of culture), the social one (conditioned by mutual relations of Russia and Persia/Iran), the advantage of the "Persian version" (marching melody) is cleared out in defining the original source, along with identity of the person who has sung this melody to the composer. The article shows that additional argument in favor of this march version might be the relatively similar marching theme in "Persian March" by Johann Strauss. A great many details drawn from non-musicological sources made it possible to grasp the idea of "Persian context" presence in Glinka’s life, thus aiding to form interest to the Persian culture. Thus, the "Persian chorus" can be described as a reference point in establishing the domestic musical Persiana– the phenomenon having in its basis the respective socio-cultural context augmented by competence of its initiator.