Ideas and Ideals

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 author presents the attitude of Russian poets of the XVIII – XIX centuries to different aspects of economic life based on their works. The poetry of the XVIII century was rigidly differentiated by genre, and it was not supposed to reflect the specifics of economic relations in general. The only exceptions were satirical works whose authors criticized, primarily from the moral side, certain aspects of everyday life, and in particular, the practice of tax collectors. Nevertheless,  poets did not do without comments about the socio-economic division of society into separate groups, the significance of certain power decisions for the development of the country’s economy, and, of course, the role of money and trade in the development of society as a whole and in human lives. Some poems contain curious references to international trade, the development of which, especially in the reign of Catherine II, led some poets to hail progress and even characterize this time as a ‘Golden Age’. It is shown how the assessment of the epoch changes during the first half of the XIX century, and how the ‘Golden Age’ is transformed in common opinion into the ‘Iron Age’. The role of economic and socialist theories in the life of society is increasing. A poet of the XIX century descends from the position of an external observer watching the sinful earth and he is horrified to find himself at the mercy of money and related interests, which produce a highly negative effect on morality, subordinating all human aspirations to monetary relations and, therefore, coarsening the soul. We consider the disputes about the progress between the lyric poets and our quite straightforward Westerners. Alexander Blok sums up a certain result of the social orientation towards purely economic relations and the technological progress associated with it in the poem “Retribution”.

The annual outbursts of controversy surrounding the presentation of the main film awards of the planet in the last few years (primarily around the Oscars) are important for cultural philosophy because they are indicators of tectonic shifts in the paradigm of modern cultural knowledge. The concept of ‘high’ culture is increasingly losing its ontological significance. Criticism fell upon this concept almost a hundred years ago, but so far this has been a fact of ‘high’ theory. Today, the denial of a ‘high’ culture has become the reality of mass communication. The pressure, which used to be a problem only for academic classrooms, has become an order of magnitude greater. This is the line on which we need a clear accounting of the results, the balance of pro et contra. The answer of the ‘critical’ philosophy is understandable in principle: the contradictions between the ‘high’ and ‘low’ cultures are not an insoluble conflict. The axiom of the death of a ‘high’ culture is incorrect. The modern theory of ‘high’ culture is possible. But its construction is cumbersome and not fast. You need to start by protecting the ‘high’ culture from reproach for violence. The assemblage point of radical criticism of the ‘high’ culture is W. Benjamin’s treatise “A Work of Art in the Era of Its Technical Reproducibility”. Therefore, the defense of ‘high’ culture cannot but begin with an answer to W. Benjamin. At the same time, thinking specifically about this small treatise, we need a careful analysis of the whole structure, the words of Benjamin as a whole. And this word is peculiar. It is thoroughly public and political. Benjamin’s treatise is not a theoretical reflection. This is a manifesto, more precisely, two manifestos. The first is the manifesto of the new Marxism. The second is the manifesto of the artistic avant-garde. Benjamin saw the possibility of synthesizing these two ideologies and gave his model. It turned out, firstly, unfounded, and secondly, it was dangerous. It is dangerous because culture is the main barrier that holds back the advent of utopia. Having destroyed this barrier, we find ourselves defenseless against utopia.

In the middle of the XIX century the musical component of Russia’s cultural ties with Europe significantly increased. This was due to the emergence of romanticism – a revolutionary phenomenon in all forms of art. The touring activity of its creators was a characteristic feature of musical romanticism. Outstanding composers, masterly playing their instruments, introduced a lot of new things to the technique of playing them and to the imaginative sphere of music. They sought to promote their skills in major cities around the world, including St. Petersburg and Moscow.

The announcement of their performances and laudatory reviews in the press seemed to fully reflect the state of Russia’s relations with European musical reality. However, the organizational side of the tour, which required a lot of effort on the part of the host and on the part of the tour operators, was not disclosed in the official press. This hidden work was carried out thanks to acquaintances abroad of representatives of the domestic elite with the best musicians in Europe and through their private correspondence. It was done through personal contacts of the Russian enlightened amateurs, which more accurately reflected the depth and nature of our country’s ties with the culture of other countries.

The author studied the archival sources in search of information about the appearance in Russia of some guest performers, the structure of their performances and life. The memoirs of contemporaries contain interesting details and direct impressions of the musicians’ playing. This article attempts to show the true value of harpists’ concert touring in our country, their resounding success, noted by the official press. The author highlights the educational role of Russian highly educated music lovers in establishing ties with the best professional musicians in Europe in the middle of the XIX century.

Pierre Loti was a novelist and a marine officer who visited lots of countries. He gained popularity writing about his travels and travel impressions. This article analyses his travel to Nagasaki back in 1885 where he lived for half a year and had a ‘temporary wife’. His novel written during that travel is called “Madame Chrysanthème”. It’s one of his most extravagant and interesting pieces which made the author world-famous. It reflected common interest in the oriental life typical for that time and it predetermined the image of Japan in the European consciousness of the second half of the 19th century. Pierre Loti wrote about his ambition to make the novel as impressionist as possible determining impressionism not as an intellectual but as a decorative phenomenon related mostly to arts and translation of sensory perception. His interpretation of impressionism was expressed in “Madame Chrysanthème”, which is an attempt to describe the world around us, represented not only by the material world but by the author’s sensory perceptions and feelings. To be exact, this is impressionism in fiction. The world is a product of our sensory experience, and the author’s goal is to fix this experience, which is the sum of his observation and impressions. Pierre Loti creates his work where color plays the main role together with sounds and words. They are a sum total of the elements determining the reality in equal amounts. Stylistically “Madame Chrysanthème” is created according to impressionist canons, with lots of epithets, comparisons, metaphors, the author’s neologisms. The novel is written as a diary where separate episodes in chapters are separated from one another by large white empty gaps. The article discusses similarity of impressionism and the Japanese culture. However, a closer look demonstrates considerable differences between the European and the Oriental minds.

The author considers the factors, which determine interest to the German language in different regions of the world. The object of research is the role of the German language in international sociocultural contacts and the humanitarian sphere development, in the world educational space formation. The subject matter is practical experience of mastering the German language, linguistic achievements and problems of specific nations in this area. The author   considers practical application of the German language in the language policy of several countries, studies intercultural interaction difficulties, analyses international research projects in ethno-social dynamics. The goal of the research determined the tasks: to present a socio-anthropological approach to the consideration of the language situation in the countries, to comment on the institutional aspects of the German language dissemination, to substantiate the multilingualism significance as a tool of intercultural education. The chronological framework of the study covers the first decades of the XXI century.  At the same time, if we consider the problem in a historical aspect, we will inevitably turn to the earlier periods.  A systematic approach allows us to establish a logical relationship and interdependence of these periods, traces changes in the status of the official language in Germany. This issue is not only linguistic, but also historical and cultural. The author analyzes the problems of the ethnolinguistic situation associated with the study of the German language in a number of countries: among them, the United Kingdom, in which other languages (but English) have a lesser degree of social prestige and are being squeezed out of the language space.  The French Republic, along with the Federal Republic of Germany, as the leader of Europe, has always been on the axis of European construction.  The country continues the policy of promoting internationalization of the French language.  At the same time, Francophonie is a movement for cultural diversity. The Kingdom of Belgium and the Swiss Confederation are related to Germany in institutional architecture. It is necessary to study the situation in these ethnically heterogeneous and multilingual federal states, where German is one of the official languages. The author appeals to the history of Spain and the Republic of Korea because the citizens of these countries participated in the reconstruction of Germany after the Second World War. Issues related to the individual linguistic rights implementation determine national and political processes, educational and cultural policies. Learning several languages forms the idea that a multilingual society is the standard model of communication.

Interpretation of cultural values and cultural heritage is one of the most common types of their development and creative understanding. However, the concept of ‘interpretation’ remains blurred among related processes, usually without getting much mention. In the field of cultural heritage preservation, interpretation is the main method of human development of cultural heritage objects. The process and results of interpretation, as shown by the long history of preservation of cultural heritage, also affect the preservation of cultural heritage. The proposed material is devoted to the consideration of a museum as an example of one of the most consistent built spaces and tools for the interpretation of cultural heritage.

The subject of the research is the methods of museum work considered in the context of mechanisms of interpretation of material cultural heritage. Museum as an instrument of interpretation has been known since ancient times. Human interest in ancient artifacts that act as visible symbols of historical and cultural memory of the past, eventually led to the development of collecting, and then, with the publication of collections, to the emergence of museums.

Museum and its activities occupy a special place in the methodology of interpretation. The museum space can set its own special rhythm of historical time and create conditions for comfortable perception of the presented artifacts. No other cultural institution has such a task, and if it is necessary to present an artifact, interested persons in one way or another turn to the method tested on museum sites.

As a result of the research, the author identified five stages of museum activities, which are generally typical for the mechanism of interpretation of cultural heritage. Therefore, the main goal of museum activities should be recognized as an interpretation of cultural heritage. In accordance with this goal, the museum's tasks are also implemented, including the preservation, publication and promotion of the collection's artifacts. Thus, the role and place of the museum as a specific space created for the purpose of interpreting cultural heritage is proved. These provisions allow us to look at the theory and practice of museum activities in a different way, in the context of interpreting cultural identity.

This article is about the rationality concept in the Ernst Cassirer philosophy of culture. The need for such understanding was made conditional for the philosopher upon the modern project (Enlightenment project). One of the key ideas around which the project was built is rationality. However, it is this concept that begins to be rethought and criticized at the turn of the XIX and XX centuries. Narrow sense of rationality raises the problem of substantiating humanitarian knowledge and embedding it in a scientific paradigm. A number of philosophers have attempted to resolve this issue. Two ways were outlined – a categorical break with the established tradition (for example, the intuitive approach) and work within the framework of the tradition (expanding the concept of rationality with the intention of including more cultural phenomena in it). The neo-Kantian Ernst Cassirer belongs to the followers of the second approach.

The concept of symbolic form, that he developed, allows us to build a new plural idea of the rationality. In his opinion, each cultural phenomenon has its own rationality. This view of the problem makes it possible to talk about humanitarian knowledge as scientific, that is, fit into the framework set by the New Time. Cassirer did not develop a complete system, but outlined important guidelines for cultural research. In particular, he especially singled out two categories of the humanities, such as form and style. In addition to them

The article is devoted to the interrelation between the epoch and music creation, basing on the experience of the USSR and the Azerbaijan SSR during 20–30s of the XX century. These geographical and time frames give us significant material for studying the problem. The establishment of Soviet power determined colossal changes in life, including art and culture. The essence of new features is the method of socialist realism. Mass character and collectivism are the most important peculiarities of that time. It is a direct response to the new economic relations. The research of the phenomenon “we” begins in Azerbaijan music – especially in mass, popular songs. The accent in the opera genre is shifted to the concept of people’s victory. The main tendency in Azerbaijan art before 1920 was the humanity tendency, after 1920 the Communist party ideals. We must mark the birth of a new musical style in Azerbaijan as the main result of the development of composers’ music after 1920. The Azerbaijan music came out on the world stage at that time.  It became a heroic one, whereas before 1920 it had been lyrical. The heroic line is expressed mainly by march intonations. We must also notice the concrete historical line instead of legendary character of music before 1920. The chief heroes of Azerbaijan music theatre are Medjnun and Kerogly, the opposites: contemplation and action, unresistance and struggle, makam and ashug genres. But in spite of differences there is continuity between the first epoch and the second one in such genres as: Russian folk songs and Azerbaijan tunes.