Ideas and Ideals

This study is devoted to outlining the influence of Platonism on Orthodox theology.

Platonism, understood in a broad sense, is traditionally associated with Orthodox theology, but this connection itself remains not described sufficiently, which creates a number of difficulties. The last is represented by a scientific tendency to build historical and philosophical concepts, which do not correspond to facts, but also create such perspectives that lead to further misconceptions. This includes the idea that Platonism is more expressed in Eastern theology, and Aristotelianism in Western (or vice versa), the idea of theological disputes as conflicts of philosophical traditions, etc.

The influence of the Platonic tradition was expressed in the works of many famous authors, for example, Origen, Evagrius Ponticus and Pseudo-Dionysius, but this fact still did not receive proper analysis in the scientific community. So, although all these authors adopted some of platonic conceptions - they were condemned by the Orthodox Church, then their concepts were adopted and modernized, and only then they were written in Orthodox theology. Platonism is definitely connected with Orthodox theology, but primarily because of the philosophical language and in lesser degree due to Platonic concepts.

In Russian religious thought Platonism is becoming more and more popular thanks to Soloviev’s sophiology and German idealism, however, this philosophical and theological conceptions were condemned by Russian orthodox councils, remaining mostly in writings of individual philosophers and researchers.

Thus, we believe that reference to “Christian Platonism” in order to explain the whole system of orthodox theology is unjustified. But, on the other hand, philosophical and theological systems (such as, for example, the philosophy of S. N. Bulgakov or Gaius Marius Victorinus) may well have this name.

In connection with the growing manifestations of the systemic crisis of civilization – ideological, ecological and socio-economic, there is an urgent need for a holistic spiritual and psychophysical picture of the world, called ‘the plot-game’ by the author. The author investigates the concept of ‘causality’ within the frame of this paradigm, and then shows the expediency of generalizing it to the concept of ‘plot coherence’, which opens up new possibilities for applying the plot-game methodology. The methodology and methodology of the research are based on the categorical apparatus of the story-game paradigm, the main feature of which, the novelty, is the proposal to add a third parameter to the space-time model of the world – the individual, who at each moment perceives the first two aspects – space and time – in his own way as a certain plot. Thus, the art-historical concepts of plot, scenario and game are generalized to the level of ideological universals and at the same time natural-scientific terms – ‘cross-cutting’ units of Being.

It is shown that we see each object under study as a participant in the flow of story cycles, and its essence is the roles that it ‘played’, can play and will play in them, and which are reflected in its genetic and acquired scenarios. The plot stream of events is formed as the resultant of the attempts of all its participants to implement their own behavior scenarios, generated mainly automatically with the help of programs for processing all incoming information, which are formed from the moment of birth in each individual. On the basis of the story-game paradigm, the concept of causality is expanded to plot coherence, and it can be applied both in natural science and in the humanities. In the proposed model of communal reality, the rigid opposition of science and art is removed, since both there and here, as in ordinary life, we not only learn, discover, and observe something ‘from the outside’, but continuously reproduce, create the world and ourselves in it, regardless of our awareness of this fact; and the story-game picture of the Universe and its corresponding approach make it possible to realize the dependence of the ‘world plot’ on our ‘scenarios’ and games, to feel the responsibility for the future in each of our steps.

The article considers the problem of correlation of aesthetic form and social content in contemporary poetry through the prism of contemporary poetry criticism, in particular, the New Lyric Studies of 2008 (M. Perloff, Y. Prins, R. Terada, V. Jackson, etc.). A representation of the lyrics as a genre of poetry, in which historically structured subjectivism and identity of author are interrelated with poetic writing, is at the center of the New Lyric Studies. In this context the lyrics is relative and volatile but also is the closest genre to the poetic nature, that allows to merge an autonomous entity of poetry with ‘agendas’ in the poem, which were difficult to connect in either too formal or too contextual critical approaches to the poetry in the 20th century. This became possible in the conditions of New Lyric critics speaking up against a substitution of poetry and literary criticism for historical, anthropological and cultural criticism because of the high popularity of cultural studies in the 1990s and the ensuing incorporation of interdisciplinarity in literary studies. Despite the objective of New Lyric critics to revitalize a theoretical study of poetry in the spirit of academic criticism of the New Criticism, the modifications in the methods for producing, existence and broadcasting of poetry and therefore in poetry of the last 50 years, poetry itself prevented the New Lyric from becoming the regressive movement. Some representatives of the New Lyric Studies subsequently expressed the need to study poetry in terms of new historical poetics and to create different methods capable to analyze the relations between culture and poetic form – between the social and the aesthetic.

Having considered advantages and limitations of the New Lyric studies in the context of contemporary poetry discourse, reflecting not only the nature of contemporary criticism, but also perhaps the history of poetry criticism of 20-21th centuries, which is the dynamical coexistence and the mutual succession of different movements, the author draws a conclusion that this movement defines the right vector for the reconciliation of the long-standing struggle of formalism and contextualism in the poetry criticism as well as social and aesthetic components which poetic work includes.

The article considers the erotic genre of traditional Chinese art, chun gong hua (‘spring palace paintings’), which was developed in painting. The study uses comparative - historical, cultural and historical methods, as well as methods of systematization, analysis and synthesis. The author traces the formation and evolution of the genre, reveals its specific features. The paper analyzes the system of artistic images of the works of chun gong hua, reveals that they are based on the ideas of Taoism, which are visualized through painting, which made it possible to reveal a second, meaningful plan of paintings filled with metaphors and allegories. Particular attention is paid to the characterization of expressive means, specific techniques and visual techniques of the genre.

The study shows that due to the richness of images, artistic and expressive means and techniques, juxtaposition of the conditional and the real, double transformation of nature, the first impression of seemingly pornographic images of naked bodies and erotic scenes is subdued. The high artistry of the ‘spring palace paintings’ allows us to attribute them to the unique works of Chinese traditional art.

The article is devoted to the analysis of the functioning of metamodernism in the field of Russian contemporary art. Researchers of metamodernism talk about the revival of historicity, depth and affect that were lost with the era of postmodernism. Metamodernism is characterized by oscillation, metaxis, new sincerity, neo-romantic sensuality, reconstruction, etc. In this paper, the author attempts to analyze markers of metamodernism in the visual arts using the example of the artist Vitaly Pushnitsky (St. Petersburg). The material for the study was a research interview with the artist V. Pushnitsky, as well as a semiotic and formal-stylistic analysis of his works (2015-2020). The author comes to the conclusion that through such markers of metamodernism as oscillation, reconstruction and appeal to new sincerity, the artist V. Pushnitsky seeks to show the reality in which the artist is at the stage of searching for new artistic means of expression. Along with this, through certain compositional and color features, V. Pushnitsky pays tribute to such artists as Pierre-August Renoir, Claude Monet, Leonardo da Vinci, Francis Bacon, as well as the Japanese poet I. Kosugi.

In the article the author considers the problem of using art as the political power instrument. The subject of the study is the analysis of applied arts possibilities as a means of political propaganda and agitation, the necessary qualities and political views formation in a person. The material for the analysis is the Soviet propaganda porcelain of the 1920s. The choice of this material is caused, firstly, by its great visibility in the framework of the discussed problem, and, secondly, by the negative result of its use in real politics (at first sight, paradoxical). At present, Soviet propaganda porcelain is considered to be a “unique phenomenon” of Russian and world art. However, the main reason for its appearance at the beginning of the 20th century was not the search for new art forms. After coming to power in 1917, the Bolshevists faced the need to form political views of the citizens that were compatible with the party course — in general, to form a “new man” capable of living in a new society. On the one hand, porcelain was a random choice at that period of time (1920-s) but, on the other hand, people assigned specific characteristics to it as a type of applied art. And, therefore, they ascribed to it the possibilities of an instrument of political power. But at the same time using it in that capacity is greatly limited due to other specific properties, as well as due to other historical circumstances. The main reason for the failure of Soviet propaganda porcelain as the political propaganda and agitation means is the contradiction between the course of political power and the essence of porcelain as a phenomenon, i.e. inconsistency between the goal and the means to achieve it. In general, the author draws a conclusion that there is a difference between the goals of art and power and, as a consequence, the groundlessness of the power attempts to consider art exclusively as its own tool.

One of Plato’s dialogues, the Timaeus (ca 370 BCE), describes an abstract numerical pattern that is said to have guided the creative work of an artisan, the Demiurge, who designed both the soul that animates the material world as a whole and the souls of each of the sentient beings that live within this world. Any artist or artisan who took this creation story seriously might reasonably be motivated to take guidance from this same numerical design in his or her own creative work, hoping thereby to mirror the macrocosm in the microcosm of a work of art. Have any artists in history tried to do that? Three likely candidates will be examined here. The first is Plato himself (in a short narrative of the generation of the pantheon of Greek gods, which he recounts in the Timaeus). The second is an unknown Medieval author of an epic poem about Charlemagne (The Song of Roland, ca. 1100 CE). The third is Iris Murdoch (in a novel, The Unicorn, 1963).

Rock-music and rock-culture, which is formed on its basis, are methods of entering into culture of post-industrial society described by D. Bell, E. Toffler, F. Fukuyama and others. The correlation between rock-culture and post-industrial culture is established in the aspects of values, rules, practices and identities. In rock culture we can see the formation of the following values: creativity, initiative and individualism. Independence of creativity becomes an ethic imperative. It is more important than techniques and professionalism, which are characteristic of industrial culture. Exaggerated prevalence of innovation over playing tradition strengthens the status and role of the author striving for the permanent re-creation of his own image and style. Another quality, which helps rock culture penetrate into postindustrial society, is assimilation of daily routine by creative activity. This factor initiates consciousness emancipation and breakdown of hierarchical social structures. Rock-culture, as well as post-industrial society, experiences decentralization, de-synchronization and de-standardization. Such social-cultural disorder correlates with marginalization of rock-culture. It forms amateurism as a normative attitude that is opposed to professionalism. Finally the above-mentioned changes entail the collapse of the existing “big” identities, which are substituted by “small group” identities in rock-culture characterized by small potential for internalization. This change of identities, their overlapping triggers the formation of mental plurality, tolerance to mutually exclusive values, normative settings, practices and symbols. Mental pluralism allows a person to change quickly life strategies, respond to external challenges. The stable boundaries between private and public, between art and everyday life are being destroyed in the rock-culture. At the same time, the author highlights the fact that within rock culture entering post-industrial culture is carried out by non-linear way, with expenses and contradictions.

The article is devoted to Leonardo da Vinci’s “eye is less deceived than any other sense” maxima. Leonardo’s belief about painting being the most perfect instrument for one’s ontology and epistemology is shown. Based on Leonardo da Vinci’s “Treatise on Painting”, a compilation of Leonardo’s works, the author explores how visual arts (and painting in particular) had come up to the forefront of the Italian Renaissance. Moreover, it is shown how painting takes a leading cultural role in Europe even to this day following the Renaissance. The article reveals why Leonardo da Vinci viewed painting to be better than science, mechanical arts and other liberal arts. The article considers the possibility of transforming personal experience into the universal experience of mankind. It also considers the focus on experience, direct comprehension of reality and varietà concept. The article is dedicated to the peculiarity of Leonardo’s art style, including its unique sfumato technique and chiaroscuro. The article also deals with the idea of Leonardo being the personification of the Renaissance’s creativity. As a result, he was the one who encapsulated the Renaissance period and simultaneously laid the foundation for further development of the arts for several centuries.

The article is focused on the ritual practice of “NamMaReal”, the analysis of which allows to make a conclusion, that contemporary spirituality (also known as “new”, “post-secular”) can be transmitted through the ritual, which is similar to a religious one, despite the fact that religion and spirituality are mostly contraposed nowadays. The article presents the results of a qualitative study of “NamMaReal” based on the method put forward by A. Strauss and J. Corbin, with the help of which the author makes a conclusion that “NamMaReal” can be considered as a ritual of contemporary spirituality. The process of gathering the data and analytical procedures demonstrated great potential of qualitative research strategies in the empirical study of the phenomenon. The observation that lasted for one year and a series of interviews with participants in the practice and the subsequent categorization of the data obtained empirically revealed the presence in the worldview of participants of such semantic units as monism, the holistic nature of the worldview, the paramount role of personal experience and the path to individual truth, focus on achieving comfort and success in earthly life. It is established that NamMaReal has a pronounced three-part structure “concept-climax-denouement,” which, in accordance with their actual content, can be described in terms of the pre-liminal, liminal, and post-liminal stages highlighted by V. Turner in his theory of ritual. The presence in the structure of the event and specific symbolic actions of the elements of creativity of all participants, regardless of their ritual status, the dramatic filling of what is happening with their interactions and experiences, allows us to define NamMaReal as performance and agree with R. Schechner in his view on the performative foundations of ritual practices.