Ideas and Ideals

The article describes the world of images in Czerny’s etudes, op. 740. This is the first work on this theme in Russian music literature. Nowadays etudes are considered to be only instructive. It is a mistake. Carl Czerny is an outstanding composer, a great piano teacher, «the King of Etudes», the first editor of «The Well-Tempered Clavier», a pupil of Beethoven, a teacher of Liszt and Leshetitsky. Czerny was a teacher of the transitional period - from positional classic technic principles to romantic free physiology principles. The etudes (op. 740) are the obligatory part of piano studies of every pianist in the whole world from the second part of the XIX century. At least 16 etudes (op. 740 includes 50 etudes) are not only instructive, but must be considered as artistic, creating images - like the etudes by Chopin, Liszt... The author of the article proves, that the world of etudes’ images contains the next ideas: images of Vienna, where Czerny lived (№ 9, 20, 29); «salon» images (№ 9, 33); images of dancing (№ 23, 42); imitation of timbres (№ 4, 18, 24); heroic images (№ 14, 46, 50); landscape lyricism (№ 6, 22, 36); nocturne images (№ 45). The article is based on M. G. Karpychev’s monography «Carl Czerny. Opus 740» (Novosibirsk, 2014) [5], in which every etude is separately analyzed in many aspects of performance

The article compares the views of the Orthodox patristics with the philosophy of Marxism. (The author considers the content of the Marxist philosophical theory, but not its ideology). This comparison takes place in three key aspects: general philosophical (the basic question of philosophy, theory of evolution), socio-philosophical (the basic question of social philosophy, private and public property, exploitation of labor) and ethical (freedom of moral choice, moral progress). Patristics is less known if compared with Marxism, that’s why the author focuses his attention on the presentation of its ideas in the given article. He shows that in patristics and Marxism there are many common (or at least compatible) philosophical theses. The article preferably considers these "points of intersection". The author comes to the conclusion that Orthodox theology, not being a philosophical ontology, goes beyond philosophical partisanship. It is also shown that the patristic heritage contains provisions incompatible with the class character of society, and above all with private property and exploitation of labor. The conclusion is that the general philosophy of Marxism (dialectical materialism), Marxist social philosophy (historical materialism) and Marxist ethics are compatible with the authentic Orthodox world view (not as a special religious-philosophical "hybrid", but in the format of an intellectual dialogue) in a single cultural space. This conclusion is of great theoretical and practical significance in the theory and practice of real humanism, it allows to establish a constructive ideological dialogue between different parts of Russian society

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