Ideas and Ideals

This article is devoted to a review of G.I. Khanin’s new book, which presents the author’s assessment of the course and results of the first five-year plan. The article is not a summary of this book, but an attempt to re-think the process of implementing the principles of planning and directive management of the economy and social sphere in Soviet Russia. G.I. Khanin’s book presents and substantiates alternative assessments of the economic development of the country and it shows that the annual plans were not implemented and control figures of the five-year plan as a whole were not achieved contrary to the claims of the states’ leadership. The book concludes that industrialization has a high cost. This review paper explains the high relevance of this book, since the ideas of transition to a mobilization economy and the recreation of a centralized planning system in one form or another to accelerate economic growth and, more broadly, to modernize the economy and society have become widespread in current scientific literature and journalism. Based on the content of the book under discussion, the author of this review paper examines the problem of the correlation between modernization and economic growth. He shows that during the years of the first five-year plan, against a background of significant economic growth and serious efforts to expand education and the network of scientific institutions, the processes of archaization of the society took place as well as new mechanisms of social stratification were formed. The discussed monograph draws an important conclusion that domestic statistics during the first five-year plan falsified not only monetary, but also natural indicators. The book shows that the so-called ten-year plans resulted in the disorganization of economic life, disproportions and, according to G.I. Khanin, the transition from economic fantasy to “bacchanal planning”. The author of the review paper also shows that the historical and economic study of the USSR is far from being completed, and he concludes that quantitative estimates and especially qualitative conclusions need to be adjusted as new information sources are discovered and involved in the scientific turnover, as well as the previously obtained data should be compared and reconsidered.

The article considers the issue of the relationship between higher education and financial behavior of citizens of the Russian Federation. The points of view formed in the scientific literature on the factors determining the rationality of financial behavior. In addition, the role of education and training as a tool for the formation of responsible financial behavior of the population are presented. The observed manifestation of financial behavior was the demand for financial services provided by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation, as well as data on the availability of higher education, which were reflected in the All-Russian Population Census of 2020. As a result of the study, five groups of indicators were formed: accounts of individuals; placement of funds by individuals; loans /loans of individuals; payment services; insurance. The calculations were carried out in the context of the Federal Districts of the Russian Federation and allowed us to identify the following connections: strong direct (fixed for all groups of indicators), average direct (all except insurance), feedback (placement of funds by individuals; loans/loans of individuals) and weak communication (accounts of individuals; placement of funds by individuals; loans/loans of individuals). The presence of higher education shows a noticeable connection with the consumption by households and individuals of such services as: remote service and non-cash payments, exchange investments, deposits in banks, insurance protection. The level of involvement in interaction with the banking system, loans and overdue debts in non-bank financial organizations are at a comparable level in all federal districts. The higher the level of education, the lower the interest in such services as: placement of funds in micro-credit organizations and credit consumer cooperatives, loans that are small in volume and time taken in credit consumer cooperatives without the use of remote technologies. The assumption that higher education helps residents of Russia to make long-term decisions, avoid mistakes and follow models of responsible financial behavior has been empirically confirmed.

The article presents the experience of building an epistemological space of communication of the concepts of the philosophy of science. Based on his experience of teaching philosophy of science at three universities, the author raises the question of the conditions for building such a space. One condition is the analysis of different approaches to constructing the concepts of science. The second is the correction of one’s own approach and understanding of science, which would take into account other approaches to the study of science and the results obtained in them. The concepts of K. Popper, T. Kuhn, S. Toulmin, I. Lakatos are chosen for correction. In addition, the author’s concept of science is presented, carried out within the framework of the cultural-historical approach and general methodology. The author distinguishes two start-ups of science - the ancient one, where the ‘genome of science’ is formed, and the new European one, in which science and its genome function as an ‘institution of modernity’ are presented. He shows that in the construction of the theory of science, an important role is played by problems arising in culture, their resolution with the help of schemes, the construction of ideal objects based on schemes and logic requirements, which allow building a theoretical discourse, solving problems within its framework, comprehending empirical material. The methodological analysis made it possible to state that the development of science is not only a law-like process, due to the change of cultures, personality traits of scientists and forms of understanding science (“conceptualization” of science), but also a singular process in which each historical step in the development of science brings unique features with it. (they can be described, but cannot be subsumed under the concepts of ‘law’ or ‘regularity’). These provisions correspond to the ideas about science by Popper, Kuhn, Toulmin and Lakatos. At the same time, the author shows that they set themselves the task of explaining scientific revolutions or the historical development of science, but they took modern natural science as the ideal of science, often referred to the situation of the formation of modern science to illustrate these processes, and replaced the historical study of science by constructing it as a constant mechanism.

This article is first in a series of publications on the problem of a special character of fundamental physical laws, which combine two opposite qualities: they are complex enough to allow fine-tuning to life,  yet simple enough to be discoverable by emerging intelligent life. In other words, the laws permit the emergence of not just living beings, but those capable of discovering these very laws. How could this be possible?

Known laws can be looked at from both logical, objective, and historical, subjective, perspectives. On the one hand – the logical – the successes achieved by physics testify to the adequacy of physical theories, to their conformity to the fabric of the Universe itself. This conformity is fundamentally different from fitting complex formulas to facts, like those implemented by the algorithms of Ptolemy, Copernicus or artificial intelligence. Fits describe only what is already embedded in them, whereas physical theories allow to predict phenomena that have never been observed, often unbeknownst  even to the authors of those theories. This predictive power  stems from the same qualities  as the ability to unambiguously falsify physical theories: the simplicity, universality, precision, and completeness of their mathematical principles. In addition to these qualities, and in addition to the fact that the fundamental physical laws possess numerous symmetries, invariants, and equivalences, they also permit that constructive richness of stable material configurations, that is chemistry, which is a necessary condition of life as we know it. Research of recent decades shows how finely tuned the physical constants are to meet this requirement: even small changes in their values would make chemistry impossible.  What is the reason for these amazing Pythagorean qualities of the Universe? Purposeful design of this rational elegance of nature, that is, the intelligent design of the Universe, appears to be the only passable answer to this question, as we intend to demonstrate in this series of publications.

On the other hand, the history of science testifies that the belief in the mathematical perfection of nature’s arrangement lies at the origin of modern physics, indicating both the possibility and, without exaggeration, the sacredness of cognition of the Universe. This belief is clearly visible in the worldview of the founders of mathematical physics, as a special, emotionally intense Pythagorean credo, a variant of Christian Platonism. The initial presumption of perfect design may not be recognized by the masses of scientists and philosophers who came later, and it may even be rejected by them verbally, but this does not cancel its status as the foundation of physics: there has been and is no other answer to the question of why the understanding of the Universe is possible and important for humanity.

The justification of the assumption of intelligent design as the cause of such specific laws of nature, on the one hand, and, on the other hand,  discerning and contemplating the meaning of the Pythagorean credo by granting it the status of a metaphysical working hypothesis, together form a dual objective-subjective logical structure, which the authors designate as the Pythagorean argument, as presented in this article.

This paper is a response to the article by V.I. Razumov “Effective Methodology and Its Place in Intellectual Culture”. According to Razumov, cognition can be viewed as a control system, within which the methodology plays the role of the structure of the management subsystem, while the available empirical material is the manageable subsystem. Philosophers and methodologists occupy a place in the control subsystem, playing a crucial role within the framework of the processes of collective cognition. However, modern trends in the development of technology have led to an unexpected loss by methodologists of their privileged positions. This article raises doubts both about the validity of Razumov’s argumentation and about the very premise of the existence of an effective methodology. It is demonstrated that the search for a ‘family’ of such technologies is possible within the framework of Cartesianism, which separates the subject and objects of cognition. Such a philosophy is enshrined in domestic scientific social practices, including the examination of the results obtained by the All-Russian Attestation Commission. Thus, the task of finding an effective methodology becomes legitimate. And such a methodology, in contrast to formal logic, is dialectical logic, which makes it possible to identify contradictions and construct conclusions necessary for the subject. Razumov is mistaken in believing that it is formal and dialectical logic that coincide; formal logic, in contrast to dialectical logic, often does not allow achieving the predetermined results desired by the subject. However, a no less effective methodology is the usual numerology, which allows the subject to find the cyclical patterns of behavior of social objects. All of these are variants of philosophical realism. Within the framework of nominalism, where the separation of subject and object is denied, the search for an “effective methodology” becomes impossible.

The article concerns the origin and development of the concept of "enthusiasm" in German philosophy, starting from the Reformation and ending with the philosophy of I. Kant. This concept is key to the philosophy and theology of the German Enlightenment. At the moment, the philosophical and even more theological thought of the Enlightenment in Germany is studied very little. At the same time, new studies of this period have appeared abroad in the last few decades. For the most part, these studies are aimed at identifying the key ideas of the German Enlightenment and clarifying the formation and development of some of them. “Enthusiasm” refers to one of the significant polemical ideas of this period, however, both in Russia and abroad, it has not been sufficiently studied. The article discusses the original meaning of this concept in the theology of Luther, who understood enthusiasm in the expanded meaning of any deviation from his own version of the Christian faith. Then, enthusiasm began to be understood more narrowly and associated with the predominance of attention to the inner sphere of religious experiences and the resulting neglect of the sphere of external religious practices. This understanding became more and more stronger over time and led to the fact that this concept began to be used to refer to religious movements of a mystical and quasi-mystical persuasion. Eventually, during the late German Enlightenment (second half of the 18^th century), enthusiasm became practically synonymous with defining the trends of late radical pietism. Such an understanding of enthusiasm, in turn, finds its foundation in pietism itself, going back to the criticism of P. J. Spener, the founder of classical pietism, against the representatives of radical pietism. We also find a certain influence of this tradition of understanding reverie in Kant, who divides it into two types - religious and moral enthusiasm.

The promotion and popularization of scientific knowledge among all members of society is one of the most important tasks of all scientific and cultural institutions. The related library also solves this problem. But does its functional structure change at the same time? The author examines the essence of communicative and intermediary functions. The purpose of the article is to find an answer to the question: what function does the library perform in order to promote the interaction of science and society. The author shows the differences between the communicative and intermediary functions of libraries of different types in the formation of a scientific worldview. The author comes to the conclusion that, due to the humanitarian education of their employees, municipal, city and regional libraries are able and obliged to perform a communicative function for solving leisure tasks, and intermediation – through a system of mass events – for the development of a scientific worldview. University libraries, depending on their direction, can perform both a communicative and intermediary function (this is especially true for libraries of technical and natural science universities). The author believes that theoretically it is possible to explain the intermediary function only on the basis of studying the more general ability of the library to "communicate". This function is the original universal. And in this universality intermediation tasks come to the fore in the library in the interaction of science and society. In order to implement the communicative and intermediary functions, librarians need to possess certain knowledge, not formal, but substantive: the communicative function requires not only "purely" library and bibliographic knowledge of service, but also knowledge ranging from the history of science to understanding its modern problems and tasks. It may seem that the knowledge that cultural universities currently provide is enough to implement the intermediary function. But advanced training courses are needed tо introduce new popular science literature on any scientific field, new names, new scientific achievements. This is necessary not just in order to hold mass events known from university library education, but to invite certain scientists and specialists.

The creativity of VVRozanov is a special kind of theory (speculation), allowing one to see things as potencies. The thinker perceives the phenomena and processes of the material and spiritual plane in the context of this speculation. Istria defines the internal and external relationship of these processes as a set of external and internal changes. External changes are defined by the concept of uncertainty, and internal definitions of a certain potency. Rozanov considers the interaction of these potencies simultaneously statically and dynamically. Statically, it presupposes the existence of regularities and the victory of order over chaos. Dynamically manifested as the primacy of randomness in life, since all potencies can not be realized. The interaction of these two forms of change creates life in all its complexity, Rozanov's theory helps us comprehend, therefore, at different periods of the thinker's creativity, both static and dynamic aspects of potentiality that create the history of the world as a sounding word and as a silence. This avoids subjective and one-sided interpretations of the thinker's philosophical heritage. The author uses the method of reconstruction in the work, which makes it possible to show that the philosophical heritage of Rozanov is a semantic field formed around the concept of "potentiality." The scientific novelty of the study lies in the possibility of isolating  broad contexts of Rozanov's work and considering its various aspects as a complete metaphysical and dialectical theory, that helps to integrate different aspects and sides of Rozanov’s creativity  and  makes it more understandable.  

The article is an attempt to reconstruct Paul Claudel's views on the tasks of art and the role of a poet. We find a connection between his thoughts and the philosophy of Thomism, and consider the problem of the world order, presented in his work "Poetic Art" (1907) and we show its connection with the question of the aims of poetry. The article explains the meaning of the specific Claudelian term co-naissance, simultaneously translated as "cognition" and "shared birth", "coexistence". This notion is important for understanding Claudel's model of the universe. The basic theoretical intuition that underlies his cosmism is clearly formulated in the mentioned text and developed both in Claudel's literary work and in his articles "Religion and Poetry", "Poetry is Art", "Art and Faith" and others. The notion of the reciprocal relationship of all that exists implies a view of the world as a harmonious divine creation in which man and the artist are directly involved. The duty of the artist is close to that of the Christian and the saint, but it also includes very special tasks. Poetry can even be considered as a priority type of creativity, but Claudel's interest in other arts, in particular painting. The genuine artist and, more specific, the poet are charged with both the knowledge of divine truths and the instruction of the public. In this connection, the conclusions also include an analysis of the question of the artist's moral responsibility, to which Claudel provides an answer that assumes the primacy of ethics over aesthetics. In the historical and cultural context, this answer itself may hardly seem original, unlike the way of justifying it — that was revealed by the author of the article.

The subject of the article is modern Russian poetry based on military themes. This poetry was not previously considered as an artistic system. It began to develop extremely intensively in 2022 in connection with the beginning of the special military operation in Ukraine. Such poetry existed throughout the eight years of the war in the Donbas, but now it has manifested itself as an established thematic community, with signs of a current, and has attracted considerable public attention. At the end of 2022, the publishing house "Peter" released the anthology "Resurrected in the Third World", in which this community is presented comprehensively. The anthology brought together poets belonging to different generations, as well as in some cases adhering to different aesthetic principles. However, their lyrics, presented in the anthology, have ideological unity and reveal common stylistic features. Comparative-historical, as well as phenomenological and hermeneutic methods were used to identify these features. Their application allowed us to formulate a number of observations that appear as the results of the study. These observations are as follows.

Modern military lyrics have a number of features that distinguished the art of Russian Art Nouveau. First of all, it is logocentrism, the belief in the substantiality of the word and its ability to change (in the language of modernity – "transform") reality. Hence, it is a belief in the theurgic potential of poetry. This is eschatology and apocalypticism, specifically characteristic of the Russian consciousness and clearly manifested in the literature of the Silver Age. This is a fundamental religiosity combined with neo-mythologism. This is a pronounced idea of nationality, a sense of the Russian world as God's people, and in the extreme case, as a divine people. This is the actualization of the idea of life-building.

Two conclusions follow from the observations made. First: military poetry, including the lyrics of military commanders, today represents one semantic whole, in fact, a formed current. Second: the above-mentioned properties of military poetry allow us to believe that at present the postmodern crisis is being overcome by Russian literature, and it is restoring its modernist identity, which was undermined in the 1960s.

The article investigates the throne imagery in the Homeric hymn "To Demeter", "Inanna's Descent to the Underworld" and in several Judeo-Christian ascent apocalypses: in the First and Second "Books of Enoch", "The Ascension of Isaiah" and "The Apocalypse of Abraham". These texts are united by the theme of transition to another world, death-rebirth, initiation and related revelation of the secrets of another world. It is noteworthy that in all thematically related texts, a significant role in the development of the plot is played by scenes with a fundamentally static image: a solemnly seated Demeter, the throne of the underground goddess Ereshkigal or the throne of God. The article consecutively examines these three images, their variations and their role in the development of the plot. The first part of the article is devoted to the analysis of the role of seated Demeter in the text of the hymn. It is suggested that the significance of the image of the seated goddess in the text about the main myth of Eleusis resulted in its reflection in the ritual practice of the mysteries and, subsequently, in the representation of such practices in the Athenian drama, in the ritual of θρόνωσις and in a parody of it in Aristophanes' comedy "The Clouds", which is briefly discussed in the article. The second part of the research is devoted to the climactic scene of “The Descent of Inanna” in the throne room of Ereshkigal. Approaching the throne becomes the final stage of “anti-initiation”, the immersion of the goddess into the world of the dead and the loss of her earthly and heavenly powers, the logical outcome of which is the death of Inanna and the beginning of a new storyline: the salvation from the world of the dead. The final part of the paper deals with the divine throne acting as a milestone, both requiring and signifying the completion of protagonist’s initiation and rebirth, resulting in them becoming a member of the angelic heavenly host. The latter is shown as a prerequisite for the character’s ability to receive the divine revelation – that is, to reveal the essence of any apocalypse.

The present paper examines the extent to which the mystery practices of the Classical period may have influenced Plato's philosophical views. The many quotations from dialogues of different periods give a clear picture of the fact that Plato's conception of philosophy was shaped by the mysterial experience. The notion of the mysterial experience itself is of course in need of serious reconstruction. However, on the basis of literary and archaeological evidence it is accepted as a working hypothesis in the article that the mysterial experience can be understood as overcoming corporeality, but not in the sense of rejecting the body, but in the sense of overcoming those cognitive distortions which are due to corporeality. In a religious context, the mysterial experience may have provided the initiate with some information about posthumous existence, but for Plato this was only a starting point. By going further and applying often poetic and religious expressions to describe his cognitive experience Plato extends the realm of the mysterial experience to knowledge of the true world order. Particular attention is paid to the notion of philosophy as a kind of divine frenzy. Thus, Plato appears to us as a philosopher interested, among other things, in the inner world of man. Plato's interest in personal experience, the notion of the soul and the awareness of his own mortality betrays a tendency to penetrate into the deeper layers of consciousness, revealing a mystical Plato.

At the round table, the participants discussed a number of issues concerning the organizational and fundamental aspects of the current educational reform. First, the goal of change is formulated either vaguely or purely negatively. Analysis of the situation shows that none of the major players in the educational process are ready to establish clear "rules of the game" and, therefore, do not demonstrate the enthusiasm to really reform the system of education. Also, analysis of the strategy that defines the direction of the current reform shows that it does not provide the basis for the concentration of resources to solve the problems of education and science, not counting the six universities, which will receive priority funding for the implementation of experimental programs, but it is not commensurate with the level of the challenges facing society in the educational sphere. It is also important to mention the fact that the choice of these universities reinforces the inequality of European and Trans-Ural universities. There is an obvious underestimation of humanities and philosophy. The key question here is whether the educational system should provide systematic knowledge or whether it can be structured to form certain individual competencies. It is also necessary to understand - and this is an extremely important issue - how the educational system should shape the national consciousness. Participants discuss whether it should build an anthropological model of Russian civilizational culture or continue to form individualistic values in the spirit of European rationalism. After all, it is no coincidence that serious worldview problems arose that required new courses at school and the course on "The Fundamentals of Russian Statehood" at institutions of higher learning. The main conclusion to be drawn from the discussion is that the proposed transformations do not correspond to the scale of the necessary reform and will not bring the results demanded by society.