Contents
Editorial
Philosophy: Tradition and Modernity
Evidence for the Existence of God - the Case of Dostoevsky
Georgy Antipov
This theme was one of the main ones for Dostoevsky, he turned to it throughout his life and work. As everyone knows, its essence has taken the form of catchphrases like „If there is no God, then we can do everything.” The theme has given rise to a huge number of interpretations. Some of them go back to the discourse of proofs of the existence of God as it has developed in the history of philosophy. In Christian theology, the argument relating to the question of the existence of God has received the general definition of “ontological proof of the existence of God.” In general, the scheme of reasoning in the ontological proof can be represented as follows. An absolutely perfect being, such as God appears, must have the totality of perfections; existence is one of these perfections; God, as a perfect being, must have existence not only in our imagination, but also in reality; therefore, God exists. In the Western European philosophical tradition, Descartes, Leibniz, Kant, Hegel, and others turned to ontological proof. Kant, examining the classical proofs of the existence of God, showed that the existence of a thing cannot be seen in the content of its concept. Thus, it is impossible neither to prove nor disprove the existence of God. The appeal to this topic in the general cultural Russian discourse, and in the emerging Russian philosophical discourse, was due to two circumstances. First, the influence of European classical philosophy. One can recall Pushkin’s lines: “By the name of Vladimir Lensky, / With a soul directly Goettingent, / A handsome man in full bloom of years, / An admirer of Kant and a poet,” or Belinsky’s mental anguish about the Hegelian formula “everything real is reasonable, everything reasonable is real”. Secondly, the impact of Western technogenic civilization on Russian society, traditional in its type. One of the manifestations of this influence was the increased tension along the line “faith – knowledge” (“religion – science”). The article attempts to translate Dostoevsky’s plots into axiology and the theory of values. The general conclusion that follows from the analysis of Dostoevsky’s work in the context of the article can be formulated as follows: the denial of God leads to the legalization of his surrogate likenesses.
Dostoevsky: Foreshadowing of Philosophical Anthropology, Hermeneutics and Phenomenology
Galina Petrova, Nikolai Tarabanov
The purpose of the article is to substantiate the hypothetically expressed proposition that Dostoevsky in his work proposed for comprehension and understanding of the problem of man and consciousness such ideas that (and this is the performative potential of his philosophy) received theoretical conceptualization only in the XX-XXI centuries. We are talking primarily about his foreshadowing of philosophical anthropology, hermeneutics and phenomenology. The realization of this goal, framed in the article through the substantiation of the concept of ‘mystery’ as a category of philosophical anthropology, and the comprehension of Dostoevsky’s work in the context of the ideas of modern philosophy, are the novelty of the article. We argue that Dostoevsky supplemented the categorical apparatus of philosophy with the concept of mystery, foreseeing the specifics of the language of description, which became relevant to the specifics of modern philosophical and anthropological discoveries and socio-ontological constructions. The research methods of the designated topic are dictated by the target setting. With the help of the comparative method, we demonstrate the relationship between the provisions of these modern philosophical trends with the provisions expressed in the literary and philosophical form by Dostoevsky. The comparison shows the historical cultivation of anthropological content in the hermeneutic-phenomenological direction of the study of consciousness, which in Dostoevsky’s works manifested itself in all the complexity of its own structure, not reduced only to reason and intellect. In addition, we reveal the phenomenon of unhappy consciousness found in ‘Notes from the Underground’ and make an assumption about intersubjective (pluralistic) idealism, which justifies the uniqueness of a person and the ‘non-fusion’ of his consciousness, which is not amenable to generalizations of logic and does not fit into the laws of nature. Pluralistic idealism is an original metaphysical concept, which Dostoevsky substantiates with his work and within which he finds the definition of man as a mystery. On the way to the development of ‘new horizons’, the article supplements the categorical apparatus of phenomenology, when in the categorical series (‘intentionality’, ‘epoché’, ‘natural attitude’, ‘phenomenological reduction’) a concept appears, expressed in an artistic and figurative form, – ‘mystery’.
Traditional Chinese Culture Transition into the Philosophy of the ‘New Era’
Shuo Wang, Xin Qiu, Lidiia Zolotykh
The global positive change in public opinion about China has been constantly growing in recent years. However, there is still some misunderstanding of China and the Chinese culture in the world due to ideological and cultural differences. The relevance of the development of theoretical innovations and their application in practice to disseminate traditional culture is an essential moment of state and public life in China. The article represents the natural transmission of traditional Chinese culture, the characteristics of which are clearly reflected within moral civilization and affirmed in the philosophy of a new stage of modern Chinese society development called the ‘New Era’. The importance of traditional spiritual culture of Chinese people in the process of realizing the value of human life towards the development of socialism whereas the Chinese specificity is shown. Historical and retrospective analysis determines the role of the stages of civilization and personalities in the formation of the spiritual values system of the Chinese nation. The semiotic method, as a basic one, is aimed at interpreting the elements of traditional Chinese culture, in particular the symbolic system. The article highlights the main spiritual characteristics and defines the meaning of the traditional Chinese culture in modern culture, defines the specific feature of the concept of ‘cultural gene’ as the Chinese spiritual culture, covering varied and differentiated content and characteristics of the Chinese national culture and defining the difference between the Chinese nation and other ethnic groups in the world. The value of harmonious and unified relations between a man and nature in the Chinese culture is considered using the example of bamboo, a typical traditional symbol that actively transfers traditional cultural information into modern everyday life in China and determines the continuity of the foundations of Chinese moral philosophy. The analysis of the expansion of Chinese cultural symbols to the west is given and the main problems in the work on the popularization of Chinese cultural symbols abroad are identified. The contemporary Chinese culture is represented as an open system that recreates a comprehensive hands-on process that effectively enhances the influence of the Chinese culture.
Individualism аnd Archaic Order оf Society In The 'Greek Worldview' оf Max Wundt
Tim Trendelkamp
In this article the Problem of the development of Individualism during the cource of the history of ancient Greece as described by Max Wundt is discussed. The development of Sophism is observed. Then, the philosophical Systems of Plato and Aristotle are being discussed as solutions to the problem of Greek individualism. Inner contradicitons in Max Wundt's argument in favour of Platonism are being discovered. Aristotelian arguments against the radical ascetic platonic system as described by Max Wundt are being given. The main material of this research are original texts of Max Wundt. The main subject of research is Max Wundts text "Greek Ideology". This text is read and analyzed to illucidate its inner philosophical systematic. The main method is thus the method of conceptual and systematic analysis. This analysis is combined with own commentary, to make an intuitive philosophical access easier for the reader. The aristotelian arguments against a radical ascetic style of culture and constitution of state are of surprising efficiency and sophisticated. These arguments have been studied and were better understood. The development of the problem of individualism in the course of the ancient Greek history can now be better understood. The concept of the naive archaic collectivism as explained by Max Wundt provides a further understanding of the motivating forces behind authoritarian and collectivist political systems. The meaning of the Greek tragedy and the works of Homer during the course of the development of Greek invdividualism can now be better understood. Inner contradicitions in the argumentation of Max Wundt have been discovered. Max Wundt gave an important text to better understand the development of ancient Greek individualism and the problems this development entails from his point of view. The discussion between the point of view of Max Wundt, who is supporting Platonism, with the arguments of Aristotle, gave a lot of insight into possible arguments in favor of different solutions in overcoming 'Sophistic' phases of the historical development of socio-cultural entities. My further research will pay attention to the political philosophy of Aristotle, which is centered around the concept of the „Doctrine of the Mean“. I suppose that this study can supply some interesting new insights and arguments for questions of political philosophy of concern to the thinkers of the „Conservative Revolution“ in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. I also think that historical research of Max Wundt's concept of „naive archaic individualism“ could be of interest. But perhaps it is just a working hypothesis to create a coherent philosophical picture of the development of ancient greece society and ancient greek thought.
Philosophy of science and technology
From the Principle of Objectivity of Scientific Knowledge to the Reconstruction of Different Situations of Knowledge Production
Vadim Rozin
The article proposes to move from the principle of objectivity of scientific knowledge to the reconstruction of different situations of knowledge production. To do this, it is first shown that this principle does not work in the humanities and social sciences and has partially ceased to work in natural science (in the field of micro and macro phenomena). A scheme of the genesis of the principle of objectivity is outlined (the need to substantiate knowledge in the natural sciences, the proposals of Kant and Hume). As an alternative to the principle of objectivity, a reconstruction of different situations of knowledge production is proposed, containing two plans: including an external position, on the assumption that we know how everything really happened, and a borrowed one, in which the concept of cognition of those subjects that are subject to analysis is characterized. To demonstrate the logic of this reconstruction, several situations of the production of new knowledge are considered: using schemes (Plato’s work), ideas about thinking (Aristotle), mathematics and experiment (Galileo), interpretations of the researcher (Z. Bauman). Criteria for the truth and effectiveness of new knowledge, which differ significantly in the natural and human sciences, are discussed. For the natural sciences, it is a mathematical description of the processes and mechanisms of a certain natural phenomenon, as well as an experiment that makes it possible to calculate and predict, and create engineering structures. For the humanities, it is an interpretation of a phenomenon that ensures its understanding and use in certain audiences. Since the social sciences are focused on solving two problems at once (the ability to calculate and predict social processes and to comprehend (understand) the social actors who initiated these processes and act in them), insofar as the criteria of authenticity and effectiveness in the social sciences partially coincide with the criteria of the natural sciences indicated here, partly humanitarian.
Social philosophy
Nomenklatura Roots of the Russian Elite: 30 Years Later
Kirill Petrov, Maria Snegovaya, Denis Chubarov
The article is devoted to understanding the origins of the Russian political elite. Relying on the empirical material of 2021, the authors study whether social ties in the Soviet managing class called “nomenklatura” is an important factor determining the position within the top echelon of the Russian political elite. In order to explore the genesis of the Russian political elite, we used a cross-methodological approach as well as the research method based on tracking their social origin. Our empirical basis is an original database for identifying elites including two elite lists, positional and reputational ones. The positional list for our analysis includes 112 personalities who hold positions in power structures provided with significant influence at the beginning of August 2021. The reputation list for analysis includes 100 personalities, based on the widely cited expert model “Politburo 2.0”. To set up the connection between the current Russian political elite and the social group known to us as the Soviet “nomenklatura”, we use the combined method. The “nomenklatura” heritage rating given for career, family and educational environment we assigned and summarized. Based on the results of the study, the following results were reached: as for the positional list, 59 out of 112 personalities (52.6%) are related to the Soviet nomenclature (total ratings of 2 and above), as for the reputation list - 50 out of 100 (50%). Based on a descriptive comparative analysis of two independent lists, we conclude that at least a half of contemporary elite actors have this kind of background among the modern Russian top-tier elite, and another 13-15% can relate to it with a significant degree of probability. It is noticeable that the proportion we found approved regardless of the approach the list of elite personalities is based on.
The Main Trends in the Transformation of the Socio-Cultural Space in the Context of International Migration
Elnara Dumnova
The article presents an analysis of the main consequences of globalization in the context of changes in the socio-cultural space of globalizing societies. The methodological basis of the study was formed on the grounds of the triangulation of socio-philosophical, sociological and systemic approaches, the complex application of which made it possible to identify the consequences of cultural globalization that take place at different structural levels of social organization. A socio-philosophical analysis of the main potential scenarios for the development of cultural globalization has been carried out, which are defined as glocalization/localization and transculturalism. The role of the regional factor is revealed as determining the outcome of cultural globalization in a particular society and the choice of one or another trend in the transformation of the socio-cultural space, in particular glocalization. The significance of the factor of international migration in this process is substantiated.
The choice of the deductive logic of the presentation made it possible to illustrate some theoretical provisions with the data of an empirical study conducted in the spring of 2021 as part of a qualitative approach using in-depth and semi-structured interview methods. The sample design is determined by the following criteria: ethnicity (donor country), age, period of stay in Russia, educational status. The research case is presented by 12 informants - undergraduates and graduate students from China, studying at universities in Novosibirsk.
The interpretation of the data obtained made it possible to identify the mechanism for implementing the transcultural model for the transformation of the socio-cultural space of globalizing countries through educational migration on the example of Russia and China.
Based on the theoretical framework of the study, it was possible to come to the conclusion that in the process of cultural globalization, migrants are a very effective social category of “exporters”. However, depending on the type of migration and its subject, the results of such an impact vary and affect both the importing country, and to the exporting country of global culture. At the present stage of cultural globalization, the phenomenon of transculturalism has emerged as one of the trends in the transformation of the socio-cultural space, which is realized at the macro-, meso-, and micro-social levels. Its result is the expansion of living space to a transnational format, the formation of a drifting – transcultural identity and the diffuseness of cultures.
Woken Capitalism: How American Oligarchs “Are Saving” Democracy
Irina Zhezhko-Braun
The article is a continuation of the series on US presidential campaigns. The latest of these, “A Shadow US Presidential Campaign”, revealed that the donor consortium Democracy Alliance sponsored a secret campaign against candidate Donald Trump in favor of the Democratic candidate, ostensibly “to save democracy”. The alliance-funded political infrastructure has given itself a mandate to transform the electoral system in 2020 under the pretext of ensuring safe voting amid the pandemic. The article describes the history of the emergence of oligarchic alliances in the United States and the extent of their influence on the political life of the country, and in particular, how private foundations directly interfere in elections and donate millions of dollars to organize and finance official counting of votes at the presincts, as happened in 2020. It is noted that the academic study of the influence of oligarchs on the electoral system is difficult due to the secrecy of this activity and, as a result of it, the insufficiency of the sources. The reasons why the classifications of oligarchies available in the literature do not clarify the essence of this problem are analyzed. The author gives a new interpretation of oligarchs and donor political consortiums as independent political subjects. The conditions and limitations of the compatibility of the oligarchs and their consortiums with democracy are discussed. The oligarchs are not divided into Republicans and Democrats, although they have to decide from time to time for which team (party) they are going to play in the next election cycle. There are currently two main opposing consortiums of donors in the US: conservatives and liberals, or “right” and “left”. The article describes the characteristics of consortiums as political entities distinct from other donor entities. The author analyzes a separate cycle of political philanthropy, as well as the political infrastructure of both consortiums. The conditions and limitations of the compatibility of the actions of the oligarchs and their consortiums with democracy are discussed. The article analyzes what exactly are the specific threats to democracy from the oligarchs, their consortiums and political structures sponsored by them, as well as where the actions of the oligarchs come into direct conflict with democratic institutions. The author discusses various deoligarchization strategies in the US and their effectiveness.
On the Emergence of Ideals for the Development of Society
Andrey Teslinov
The article substantiates the approaches to the generation of social ideals and the ways of their fulfillment in the situation in which Russian society finds itself in the spring of 2022. The general characteristic of this situation is the development of society, which takes place in the mode of a jump-like transformation of its foundations.
It is known that development is a change of the unchangeable. How can one think of new, qualitatively different forms of society’s existence without an improved repetition of the known? How is it possible to think of a way into the Unknown, which threatens society’s spiritual, moral and existential existence if not its physical one? Such questions arise for any thinking person, but with a special tension for those responsible for the step into the Unknown, which will permanently determine the fate of the people entrusted to them.
The methodological approach to answering these and related questions consists in finding the conceptual foundations of existing and possible solutions about the long-term ideals of social development and justifying the very approaches to their development. It is shown that such foundations cannot arise in the course of deployment of ideas about the development that are proposed in economics, sociology, political science and other aspect evolutionary theories. The foundations for ideals of social development are found in the synthesis of discoveries of systemology, physical economics, quantum physics and cultural science based on its semantic-genetic concept. The author shows that the lines of development of these scientific approaches to comprehension of reality gradually converge in explaining the possibilities of humanity in creation of long-term stable trajectories of its existence.
The result of the undertaken study of possible approaches to the choice of society’s path to the future is the identification of three significantly different types, which can be deployed in the form of five ways of generating the social ideal. The possibilities of their fulfillment with a matured demand are substantiated.
Analytics of Spiritual Culture
Clip Thinking and Post-Truth Gestalt in the Space of Narcissistic Culture
Olga Khlebnikova
The article considers various aspects of the existence of clip thinking and its individual gestalts. Corresponding study looks quite relevant in the context of an actual philosophical agenda, since the current cultural situation decisively affects not only the practical thought algorithms of a modern person, but also the transformation of the structures of Reason as such. Actually, a modern person, as a subject of specific thinking, first of all, demonstrates the narcissistic nature of his/her identity, which is revealed in certain stable intellectual patterns. These patterns include the idea of a person’s existence as a series of events of appropriation of everything that was captured by this existence, the idea of the automaticity of the onset of the human right to be heard, the idea of the possibility of deriving direct references to an individual’s personal experience as a universal transcendental basis and the idea of the inalienable right of a person not to follow the discovered “truth” at will. The most important gestalt of clip thinking, functioning in the horizon of its essential qualities and narcissistic patterns, is post-truth. The very appeal to the concept of post-truth is a statement of the prevailing clear order in the modern world of a situation where on the one hand truth is always less important than the private comfort of a narcissistic personality, and on the other hand truth is no longer significant for the acting sociocultural practices. Among the most significant circumstances accompanying the action of post-truth as a gestalt, it needs to pay attention to the following. First, post-truth can be considered as one of the markers of the actualization of the desire for social escapism, which is characteristic of a modern man. Secondly, the phenomenon of post-truth is inextricably linked with the widespread dissemination of ideas that for any cognitive difficulty somewhere there is an appropriate operational algorithm that resolves all difficulties. Third, post-truth works as the organizing principle of the global meme space. Fourthly, post-truth is an important aspect of that each time anew initiated culture shock, which acts as a practical mechanism for “switching on” clip thinking and “switching” its acts. It can be concluded that the study of the mechanisms of the post-truth gestalt and the related aspects of the existence of clip thinking makes it possible to deepen the understanding of many relevant processes occurring in the modern sociocultural space.
Desire as a Criterion of an Action in the Theory of J. Lacan
Konstantin Zaitsev
This article presents the research results of Jaque Lacan’s ethics of psychoanalysis. Lacan suggested both the new theory of desire and the new ethics which is motivated by a desire as a criterion of an action.
In this article the author reconstructs the Lacan’s system of arguments, which proves the fact, that desire can be considered as a criterion of an action, not its motive. This paper shows that the ethics of desire, that was originally developed in relation to the problem of the criterion of an analytical act, is also important for the ethical position of the patient, and therefore can be presented as a universal ethic.
The article also provides evidence that psychoanalytic work can be considered as an ethical practice, since there is a transformation of the ethical position of the patient in it. Initially, the patient takes an ethical position that can be defined as the desire to achieve the good, it would lead the subject to satisfaction, comfort and tranquility. On the other hand, psychoanalysis reveals a different ethical perspective to the patient, where the desire defines how the patient chooses the path.
First of all, this is about the analyst’s desire. This term means a special formation that was resulted by the analyst’s own analysis. Lacan believed that a psychoanalyst is the result of his/her own analysis, one of the main effects of which is the analyst’s desire. The analyst’s desire serves as a criterion for the analyst to perform analytical acts in his/her psychoanalytic practice.
But the ethics of desire is important not only for the psychoanalyst. The author’s task is to show that a patient who came to the analysis for the sake of therapy also performs the transformation of an ethical position in the process of analysis. This is the basic condition of psychoanalytic therapy. The main purpose of psychoanalysis is the study of unconscious desire, as a result of which the patient becomes an analysand and gets the opportunity to face his/her desire and follow it. To follow the desire means to decide to abandon the perspective of satisfaction and to bet on what is opposed to peace and completeness, and what can be defined as life.
Religion in modern culture
The Doctrine of Degeneration and Antievolutionism in the Nineteenth-Century Religious Thought
Aleksandr Khramov
The paper deals with the history of the notion of degeneration in theoretical thinking of the religion-driven opponents of evolutionism. The notion of degeneration is commonly perceived as something that goes hand in hand with Social Darwinism and other trends of evolutionary thought. Evolutionists of the past usually understood degeneration as a reversal to the ancestral condition, and applied this notion to criminals, mentally ill persons and paupers. However, during the pre-Darwinian time, conservative supporters of the biblical literalism took the doctrine of degeneration very differently, construing it as a rival model to evolutionism. According to this model degeneration is a process of gradual descent from the exalted state in which Adam and its progeny were initially created by God. Prominent proponents of the doctrine of degeneration, such as Richard Whately, a Church of England Archbishop, and Nicholas Wiseman, a Catholic cardinal, argued that the primeval man, created by God, was civilized, far from being in a savage condition, called the state of nature by J.J. Rousseau and his disciples. Antievolutionary doctrine of degeneration suggested that the mode of life of modern savages could not be considered as an original one, because primitive tribes had degraded under the impact of harsh climate and other factors. Degenerationists underscored that humans were unable to invent civilization from scratch without help from God. The doctrine of degeneration enjoyed much influence, so that Charles Darwin himself, and other evolutionists, like Robert Chambers and John Lubbock, felt obliged to counter it. Nevertheless, the doctrine still had some support in the religious camp in 1870. The fact that the notion of degeneracy, initially used by opponents of evolutionism, has been eventually incorporated into the evolutionary worldview by the followers of Darwin is just another example of how triumphant paradigms absorb conceptual elements of their defeated rivals.
Man-and-Culture
The Role of a Person in the Formation of the Networks Social Capital
Raisa Zayakina
When the theory of social capital develops in conjunction with the network approach, it expands ways of understanding the nature of social ties and the principles of social organization. At the same time, it gives rise to many related theoretical and methodological questions. One of them is the role of a person in the formation of social capital. Since social capital is generated within the structure of the relations of subjects and cannot personally belong to any of them, the fundamentals of the theory are the primacy of the group over the individual. Meanwhile, the characteristics of people involved in network relations play a specific role. As favorable conditions for social capital, the article examines a person’s deliberate choice of network behavior, expectations from network contacts, and the measured pace of network life.
Conscious use of strategies aimed at joining social capital involves the selection of ways of networking. The criterion is the replenishment of common resources through cooperation, exchanges, investments in collective assets. Motivated participants in social communication establish mutually beneficial relationships, work with information, and look for opportunities for self-realization in social situations. Personal characteristics can improve the network position, affecting access to resource channels. By determining their usefulness, people focus on common needs, understanding of social contexts, and the increment of the collective good.
Certain expectations from relationships give rise to connections that are filled with appropriate resources. Depending on expectations, ideas about the significance of other people are formed, the circle of contacts is determined, a person is looking for his place in the social network. To get what you expect, you need to remain visible and recognizable. In this way, looking at other people triggers the alignment of network communications, coordinating the flows of social capital. In addition, since it takes time for people to evaluate potential contacts and establish trust, the pace of network processes should maintain network stability, in other words, be moderate.
Disputatio_en
How did Homo Sapiens Actually Form and in What Direction Is His Further Development Taking Place?
Wolfgang Sassin
This is the last article by Wolfgang Sassin, regular contributor to “Ideas and Ideals”, member of the journal’s international editorial board. He was very worried about the problem of the future, and the key idea in his reflections was the relationship between uncontrolled population growth and the corresponding transformation of man as a species, the transformation of Homo Sapiens into Homo Billionis (Wolfgang’s term). In the proposed article, controversial from the point of view of evolutionists, he reflects precisely on this. And he comes to the extremely important conclusion that a person of modern civilization should think not about control over nature, but about control over himself.
The author offers his own scenario of human evolution, based on the fact that in the process of evolution, a person managed to turn his weakness into strength, thanks to the ability to think abstractly, have a strategy of action and be future-oriented, use in strategy not only his own experience, but also the knowledge gained from observing the world around us, to be open to existing patterns and to see ourselves and others as part of these patterns. Man acquired the ability for strategic thinking, which gave him the opportunity at all times to oppose something to the conditions of existence, in the spatial and temporal sense. The author shows that one should distinguish between biological evolution and the evolution of consciousness. In the conditions of uncontrolled population growth, a person begins to change as a species: he evolves towards Homo Billionis - a creature that is comfortable only in a herd. Instead of improving technology, man should rationally control himself and set rigid boundaries for his own motives and dreams, and not control and correct the nature of a small and easily vulnerable planet that he still tries to subjugate.