Ideas and Ideals

Contemporary economists dedicate their attention to progress, establishing the rate of economic growth – the volume of output per capita in real terms – as the primary
indicator for evaluation. To this day, the perception of culture’s economic role within the scientifi c community remains ambivalent. On the one hand, the objective
of the real economy – to improve the quality of life based on the understanding of the essence and quantitative assessments of economic processes – presupposes the
infl uence of prevalent values on the choices of economic agents. On the other hand, the values that form the foundation of culture do not infl uence events by themselves;
they operate in conjunction with formal and informal institutions and they are dependent on the preceding development path, and, fi nally, are closely intertwined with the material and technological environment of economic activity. To date, no methodological toolkit has been proposed to prove the defi nitive infl uence of culture on specifi c outcomes of economic activity. Consequently, analyzing the link between culture and economic development represents a vast fi eld of opportunity for scholars nowadays. It requires separate study of a multitude of diverse cultural practices to assess their impact on economic behavior and fi nancial outcomes. This paper proposes a set of scientifi c problems and methodological approaches for analyzing the interrelationship between economy and culture, offering broad opportunities for researchers. 

The business activity of trading enterprises is the most important indicator of business success, signifi cantly affecting the development and productivity of
companies, as a result of which it needs continuous monitoring and detailed study. Business activity analysis helps to identify problem areas and competitive advantages of retail chain organizations, formulating ways to improve operational effi ciency. Due to the fact that the level of business activity is an indicator of effective resource management and there are many methods for analyzing
business activity, some of which identify it with turnover analysis, this topic is important for research. The object of the study is the business activity of a trade organization; the subject of the study is methodological approaches to the
analysis of the business activity of a trade organization. The object of surveillance is LLC “OKEY”. The study of various scientifi c methods for assessing the business activity of an enterprise has shown that an integrated approach has
the greatest objectivity. For example, the assessment system proposed by D.A. Endovitsky, which characterizes business activity of a complex nature, includes the study of qualitative and quantitative components, dynamic changes,
structure and cash fl ows in all areas of the organization’s functioning, but does not pay due attention to the specifi cs of the industry in which the organization operates. Modern scientifi c publications often underestimate the importance of
taking into account industry specifi cs when assessing business activity, emphasizing the need for further research in this particular area. Taking into account the
specifi c features of the functioning of trading organizations, it is advisable to include in the analysis of their business activity such numerical indicators as asset
turnover in the form of right of use, inventory turnover, accounts receivable and payables, return on investment in rent, as well as qualitative indicators: the breadth of the trading network, the consistency of suppliers of products,
customer satisfaction, competitiveness, business reputation and others.

The specifi city of Indian epistemic culture is the inclusion of mystical intuition among cognitive abilities, and the absence of the concept of reason as the highest cognitive ability. In Indian traditional religio-philosophical texts
intuition, often referred to as mystical experience, was used by default. In the philosophical works of Aurobindo Ghosh (1872–1950), its epistemological status is revealed and substantiated. The purpose of this article is to reconstruct the concept of mystical intuition and its relationship with the mind in his book “The Life Divine”. The reason for referring to intuition’s legacy was the opportunity to explicate, with the help of explanations by A. Ghosh, the implicit grounds for the prevalence of mystical intuition over logical operations of thinking, similar to the rational methods of Western philosophy. The thinker’s epistemological ideas are inscribed in his system of Integral Vedanta, which is an intercultural phenomenon that unites Western and Indian traditions of philosophizing. The author of the article draws attention
to the biographical determinants of Aurobindo’s intercultural philosophical synthesis and to his choice of concepts claiming the status of intercultural values. These determinants are related to Aurobindo’s Western education in England, his turn from Western values to classical Hindu culture after returning to his homeland, his participation in the struggle for independence of Motherland, his departure from politics and immersion in the spiritual practices of yoga, which inspired him to create philosophical works.
The methodological framework of the article includes methods of linguistic and semantic analysis of similar terms of European and Indian philosophy, and a comparative method of reducing them to uniformity in order to establish
meaningful similarities and differences; a method of reconstructing the historicophilosophical context of the problem under study; a biographical method allowing to demonstrate the infl uence of the events of his life on his philosophy. The result of the study was the conclusion that the philosopher’s epistemological ideas are innovative, since he uses Western terminology at his discretion and
introduces new contents into the concepts of Vedanta.

A cycle of lectures Sadhana by Rabindranath Tagore in Harvard University (1913) was one of the fi rst in experience of description of religious philosophical views by Bengal poet. Being a Modern Indian philosopher and the inheritor
of the thought, Tagore declared himself as the thinker who is immediately connected with the Indian heterodox philosophy’s tradition. The author considers the becoming of philosophizing model in Tagore’s Sadhana as based on poet’s connection with Indian thought tradition and his own interpretation both for his compatriots and for the world audience. Following theoretical understanding of
Tagore’s philosophical legacy as fl exible Indo-Western synthesis, the author highlights the feature of Indian substratum in his religious and social thought. In this
polysemantic text about understanding human’s being in their correlation to God and the world in the context of the Indian spiritual tradition, Tagore had made the image of India and its civilization and presented the key ideas of its tradition
based on interpretation of its scriptures for the Other – Western audience. The explanation of the Self – scriptural heritage of India – Tagore constructs on his own interpretation of the ideal, goal and ways to achieve it, that were set by Indian civilization from its headsprings against the background of the Other – conventional Western civilization. Tagore presents key ideas of India spiritual
heritage on the foundation of scriptures such as the early Upaniṣads, Bhagavadgita and the teachings by Buddha. For Tagore himself, these ones are origins of his own philosophizing, and he describes them in Sadhana as the special cultural form of expression of universal meaning of human’s being in the world. The experience of the explanation of the Self for non-Indian audience is important
owing to that Tagore, on the one hand, built the description on the authority of sacred texts and doctrines, and on the other hand, it was constantly correlated with the Other such as religion and civilization of the West. As a result, Tagore necessarily establishes the resemblance of meanings and even its coincidence at the universal human level.

The article presents a critical analysis of the logical and pragmatic foundations of the “science of memory” as an independent subject area of socio-humanitarian
research. Articulation of the mechanisms and ways of functioning of group (collective) memory helps the authors to reveal the consistent logic of the formation and development of the memoriological paradigm. The methodological
principles and tools used in the work are designed to smooth out the contradictions of internalist and externalist strategies of scientifi c analysis, demonstrating the complementarity of internal and external factors in the genesis of memoriological
knowledge. At the formative stage, social memoriology developed in a specifi c polemic with historiology in terms of challenging the exclusivity of historiographical
methods and techniques for studying the past. The modern stage of the relationship between offi cial historiography and memoriology is characterized by the smoothing out of differences in understanding the nature and essence
of historiographical activity, and the convergence of their methodological principles and rules. In the pursuit of increasing inclusivity and plurality in the representation of the past, there is a noticeable local tendency towards the resacralization, remythologization and partially profanization of historical experience. The article attempts to problematize the epistemological status of modern memorial research in the logic of the Nietzschean strategy of ‘forgetting’ as an
opportunity and ability of society to balance and poise group ‘mnemonic experience’ and the experience of organized collective amnesia. The recognition of the redundancy and toxicity of a part of historical experience, the social provocativeness of certain fragments of world and national
history gives grounds to assert that oblivion can prevail over memories at a time when ‘memory events’ are explicitly or implicitly capable of deepening existing forms of intolerance and xenophobia, as well as becoming a dangerous manipulation tool on the part of the main benefi ciaries of confl ict and destructiveness in society. In the current mental context, according to the authors, it is not the
maxim of the existence and functioning of group (collective) forms of memory that is being problematized, but their modern institutionalized and codifi ed explications
and embodiments in mnemonic practices of subjects of media police and media culture.

The idea that there is a special aspect of cognition existing in art practices was introduced in antiquity. Nevertheless, the terminological form of ‘artistic cognition’ is found only in the Russian philosophical tradition. At the same time there is no clear historical and philosophical comprehension of the specifi city of this concept and the reasons why it turns out to be relevant precisely as compared with scientifi c knowledge. The author of the article believes that the concept of artistic cognition was born and developed in the fi rst years of
Soviet power against the background of the convergence of art and science, especially in the context of futurism and socialist realism. This term can be traced to the work of the ‘cardinal’ of the Russian avant-garde N.N. Punin named “Art and the Proletariat”. It has two epistemological aspects. On the one hand, the new concept satisfi ed the existing ideas about the ‘objective reality’ as concrete for art cognition. On the other hand, largely due to the use of literary examples in the works of K. Marx, F. Engels and V. Lenin, artistic cognition was considered as a way of analyzing the historical and sociological aspects of the class struggle which is comparable to the scientifi c one. Although N.N. Punin’s work caused a resonance in the periodicals of the fi rst decade of
Soviet power, it was forgotten later on. A few decades later it was rediscovered in a purely philosophical environment in the critical representation of P.V. Kopnin, who proposed an epistemological version of the connectivity between
scientifi c and artistic cognition. The philosopher believed that scientifi c and artistic cognition are in fact just two sides of a united cognitive process. At the same time, he denied the signifi cance of the image in artistic cognition
which distinguishes his position from both subsequent and modern philosophizing on the topic. In the consideration of P.V. Kopnin, the specifics of artistic cognition turned out to be insuffi ciently defi ned and became the subject of research of the subsequent tradition.

The object of research of this paper is the subject fi eld of philosophy of education in its domestic historical and cultural empirical data. The subject of analysis is such a component of the philosophy of education as Russian pedagogical anthropology, which originated from the pedagogical research of K.D. Ushinsky; developed in the philosophical, theological and pedagogical works of L.N. Tolstoy and became an integral part of the cultural and creative activity
of the ‘senior’ symbolists of the Silver Age (Merezhkovsky, Gippius, Filosofov, etc.). Philosophy of education as a cultural phenomenon is considered from the position of identifying the fundamental issues of the educational process and
determining the signifi cance of educational activity in the formation of a person as an individual. In Ushinsky’s pedagogical anthropology, for example, the process of
upbringing is conditionally divided into natural (associated with family upbringing with its spiritual and moral guidelines) and artifi cial, schematised and quite aggressive
in relation to the traditional socio-cultural tradition. In Tolstoy’s work with his adherence to the philosophy of non-violence and free upbringing – the upbringing of children should be based on the beginnings of metaphysical or religious. Only
Christian values instilled through education, Tolstoy believed, are able to reveal in man his spiritual essence. This is one of the most important issues of the pedagogical
anthropology of the founder of the Silver Age culture. The methodological foundations of this study are based on the application of the principle of historicism,
the method of cultural-comparative analysis and the cognitive possibilities of philosophical refl ection. The results of the research are confirmed by the theoretical and practical relevance of the chosen topic, empirical material from the history of pedagogical practice and its comprehension in Russian philosophy of the turn of the XIX–XX centuries. The article formulates conclusions about the methodological
signifi cance of Russian pedagogical anthropology for the development of philosophy of education in Russia.

The development of digital technologies and the transformation of media spaces are reshaping not only the tools of artistic production, but also the very
paradigm of image perception. The aesthetics of fragmentation, the rejection of stereotypical smoothness and harmony – all of this creates a unique visual environment
for experimentation and the rethinking of artistic norms.
This scientifi c article analyzes three digital styles that fall under the term «ugly»-anti-design, meme art, and digital brutalism – united by a common visual aesthetic, the unconventional use of “marginal” imagery and surprising popularity. The classifi cation of contemporary visual styles is based on tools, creation techniques, contextual usage, as well as presentation and design features. The phenomenon of new ugly, expressed in these styles, is a sought-after trend
in modern culture, which tends to disorganization and the disruption of established rules. Aesthetic expression and symbolic meaning take precedence over functionality and practicality. These characteristics of «ugly styles» refl ect contemporary culture, serve as a means of communication and identity expression, and embody the challenges and changes of the modern world. The study includes a brief overview of the origins of these movements (where applicable) and their transformation under the infl uence of digital technologies, internet culture and social media. The cultural and social context of these phenomena is linked to the «new ugly» trend, which vividly demonstrates
how “ugly” styles become a language of visual protest, a form of ironic self-expression, or an approach of showcasing new ethics. The article examines and clusters visual practices that go beyond traditional notions of beauty and harmony,
as well as interprets the phenomenon within the broader context of contemporary culture.

The novel “The General and His Family” develops and summarizes the style of Timur Kibirov. It actively uses the quotation technique, so that the text gravitates toward centonicity. The genre subtitle “historical novel” emphasizes the traditionalist component of the writer’s artistic thinking. The breadth of coverage of Soviet reality prompts us to see in Kibirov’s novel a continuation of Pushkin’s text – “an encyclopedia of Russian life” at the Soviet stage. The author not only accuses, but also loves this past, which is an essential feature of the so-called artistic method of “critical sentimentalism” by Sergei Gandlevsky, implemented by
Kibirov following the members of the “Moscow Time” group. The image of the narrator in the novel is largely autobiographical, and at the same time he is the
bearer of the generalized voice and point of view of the post-Soviet intellectual with its characteristic socio-cultural features. The most important character in the novel is General Vasily Ivanovich Bochazhok. In it, the writer deconstructed the Soviet and especially post-Soviet stereotype of an offi cer as a narrow-minded soldier. General Kibirov is a knight without fear or reproach, devoted to his
military duty and his family. He does not swear, does not drink, does not cheat on his wife. In addition, he deeply and almost professionally loves classical music. In the character of General Bochazhok, Kibirov, by his own admission, tried
to continue Dostoevsky’s project in the novel “The Idiot”: to depict a positively wonderful person. General Bochazhok dreamed of a feat all his life and fi nally accomplished it: this is a completely Christian feat of love for his daughter, when
her father let her emigrate, thereby putting an end to his own military career. In his novel, Kibirov solves a diffi cult question: can there be an atheistic righteous man in an atheistic era? Having created the image of General Bochazhok, the writer answered this question in the affirmative. The novel “The General and His Family” was staged the following year after its publication at the Novosibirsk Academic Youth Theater “Globus.” Director Alexey Kriklivy paid close attention to the source material, creating an authentic production that faithfully embodies
the essence of the author’s idea by stage means. The performance is noteworthy in itself as an artistic event with deeply thought-out staging moves and talented acting by actors from the Novosibirsk. 

The aim of this study is to analyze the socially conditioned concept of ‘maiden beauty’, quality of all unmarried maidens in Russian folk tradition. The analysis of beauty is supplemented by consideration of such categories of folk culture as: fate, will, freedom, playing an important role in refl ection within maiden and wedding folklore. These categories of worldview have retained their archaic connotations, characteristic of the Indo-European and East Slavic archaic worldview in general, and at the same time are key to describing youth as a social group within the Russian agricultural community. Considering the general confusion of
terms, their layering on each other within folklore, in this article an additional category of ‘force’ was introduced. ‘Force’ is also a part of the language of folk culture
as a synonym for vital forces: age, skillfulness, glory, fate, holiness, both for a person and for the mythopoetic ‘forces’: spirits-masters of the land, folklore characters and folk Orthodoxy. But devoid of mythopoetic connotation, ‘force’
acts as ‘that which allows the possible to become real’. In its most general form, ‘force’ is inherent in everyone, not only people, but also events, deities, spirits, the dead, things, due to the anthropologization of the world around us within
the framework of the folklore picture of the world. Revealing the Slavic idea of ‘vampirism’ as a variation of the archaic concept of ‘closed space’ in which all who are endowed with ‘force’ act, a value confl ict is shown: the danger of acquiring
power for an individual, and those who are allowed to do so: monks, elders. Maiden beauty becomes a form of power, a conscious act of invading oneself as the Other, into the perception of the people around, but also as a purely maiden
ability, it is also a manifestation of one of the forms of feminine essence, which must be realized in the short time frame of youth and a form of acquiring this force permitted within the framework of Russian folk culture.

The article is a response to V.I. Razumov’s work “The Cognitive Turn: Changing the Foundations of Intellectual Culture”, published in “Ideas and Ideals”, issue 3/2025. The author of the review notes that V.I. Razumov is right, seeing
one of the elements of the cognitive turn in rejecting the positions of naive materialism, objectivism and rationalism and recognizing the equally important ideal, subjective and non-rational components in cognition. It also emphasizes
the validity of the author’s view on the Universe as an organic unity and the mutual infl uence of its physical, mental and knowledge levels. This requires a multiaspect approach to their cognition. There is also no objection to the author’s thesis about the most important role of the subjective principle not only in cognition, but also in the existence of the Cosmos. However, the author of the review emphasizes the need to distinguish between ‘false’ and true subjectivity, where the latter is just the most important condition for acquiring objective knowledge. Finally, the methodological position of the author of the reviewed article requires support, where he aimed at developing a categorical-refl exive methodology. The analysis of V.I. Razumov’s article ends with the suggestion that in the near future we will face not only a cognitive, but also a global anthropological and cultural turn with a new postpostclassical rationality and justifi cation of
many undeservedly forgotten names, books and knowledge.

The article is devoted to the analysis of such a phenomenon in modern philosophical thought as the ‘cognitive turn’. The ‘cognitive turn’ became the subject of research in the discussed V.I. Razumov’s article “Cognitive Turn: Changing
the Foundations of Intellectual Culture”. However, the ‘cognitive turn’ is not the only phenomenon of this kind. There are many known ‘turns’ of this nature. So, in modern literature there is a ‘linguistic turn’ mentioned, an ‘iconic turn’, an ‘epistemological turn’, etc. Each of them is realized as a signifi cant increase in publications on a specifi c topic. Each such ‘turn’ includes an ontological and epistemological aspect. The ontological aspect refl ects the changes taking
place in the object of philosophical understanding. The epistemological aspect includes the changes taking place in the very process of philosophical cognition.
At the same time, the ‘cognitive turn’ occupies a special place among them. The ‘cognitive turn’ is associated with the awareness of the role of cognitive constructs in cognition. Therefore, here the object and the process of cognition
appear in unity. Appeal to the analysis of cognitive constructs allows for a more adequate understanding of the nature of other ‘turns’ in cognition. Each of them is a manifestation of certain cognitive constructs. The analysis of cognitive
constructs makes philosophical research interesting not only for philosophers. An example of this is the analysis of inverse relationships in hierarchical systems; the model of systemic inversion is also a cognitive construct. Systemic inversion
is a form of intra-system relations in which a lower, subordinate element acquires a dominant meaning in a hierarchical system. The cognitive construct describing
this form of relationship, in addition to being purely theoretical, has wide practical signifi cance in many different fi elds of knowledge.

The article offers an analysis of the cognitive turn as a new stage in the development of philosophical knowledge associated with focusing on the internal processes of thinking, perception and consciousness. Based on the works of V.I. Razumov, the key metaphilosophical consequences of this turn are considered,including the transformation of the methodological foundations of philosophy, the integration of data from cognitive sciences. The importance of the cultural
context in the formation of cognitive models and the need for harmonious human development in the context of technological progress and the growth of challenges from artifi cial intelligence are emphasized. The author comes to the conclusion that the cognitive turn is not just a change in the substantive component of philosophical knowledge, but implies the possibility of a deep epistemological
and methodological reorientation, which is of strategic importance for the future of philosophical knowledge and human development in general.

The article analyzes the cultural transformation and strengthening of conservativepatriotic sentiments in Soviet society during the fi rst Brezhnev decade (1964–1974). The widespread thesis about the deliberate curtailment of the
‘thaw’ by the country’s new political leadership is being questioned. The conservative shift that occurred in the late 1960s and early 1970s was natural and was caused by a number of factors. The fi rst is connected with the strengthening of consumerism in Soviet society. It objectively led to the de-ideologization of mass consciousness and a focus on personal problems and life arrangements. The second factor concerns the liberal discourse of the ‘thaw’. Liberalism had a protest character. This led to its exhaustion at a certain stage of development. The supporters
of ‘socialism with a human face’ were distinguished by utopianism and the absence of a positive program of transformations. The third factor is the intellectual
crisis and ‘spirituality defi cit’ of the late 1960s. It gave rise to nostalgia for lost roots. The strengthening of national self-awareness, turning to the past and movement towards strengthening patriotism began. Particular attention is
paid to the analysis of Russian village prose as the most vivid expression of the “pochvennichestvo” direction of culture. The reaction of the population to the invasion of troops into Czechoslovakia and the armed confl ict with China became
the evidence of the weakening of liberalism, internationalism and the assertion of the imperial principle of the state. The rehabilitation of the White Guard offi cers cemented the conservative shift in Soviet culture.