Ideas and Ideals

The theme of abilities was constantly in Nietzsche’s focus of attention, the meaning transformations of which in many respects define the depth of his mythopoetic discourse. The opposition of aesthetic ability, which is realized in a Dionysian Dithyramb and an Appollonian dream - and abilities to argue logically - is the basis of Nietzsche’s analysis of the basic tendencies of cultural development in Ancient Greece. The German thinker understood harmonization of life as the process of tightening all abilities into one center, the main ability. However, harmonization of human life demands not only its deepening, but also the life’s expansion beyond the sphere of individual existence. This deepening and life expansion should be connected with a current state of affairs which is achievable here and now. Hence, Nietzsche’s interest in the problem of historical experience comes from, as well as the problem of differentiation between the historical and unhistorical. Free Spirit is, first of all, the ability for versatility and integrity, width and completeness. The thinker constantly points to the superindividual character of abilities, in its historical digressions the subject of abilities is mankind. Nietzsche’s thematization of abilities shows incompatibility of its creativity with the individualistic outlook. In a certain sense the "philosophy" of Nietzsche is a conceptually verified strategy of application the metaphor of ability to designate the limiting bases of creative life.

Plato considers the nature of a man in three different aspects: as a retrospective description of the achieved in the past and the lost state of a man; as the goal of his improvement, the acquisition by the empirical person of the completeness of his eidos, i.e. the merging of a real and eidetic person; as mass, stereotypical, wrong variants of soul and body connection. For the Plato’s philosophical anthropology, the thesis of a person’s existential insufficiency is essential. Plato considers this problem alongside with the problem of human integrity and includes constitutive as well as regulative judgments. Relationships of the sacred and profane, mental and somatic were the main themes in the anthropology of Plato. It has characteristics of radical pneumatology. Man is his soul. The soul determines the hierarchy of anthropological composition; the soul changes the state of the body, and the state of the body is an indicator of the state of the soul. Within this tradition, the somatic is devoid of subjectivity.

The philosopher develops pneumatology within the framework of essentialist and voluntaristic traditions. The first assumes that the correct hierarchy of the soul and body is predetermined by the very order of the universe. The "beginnings" of the soul, i.e. psychophysiological potentials, are created to realize a chain, which is responsible for control and submission of intellect-will-feelings. This chain will be completed if the potentials reach the limit of their perfection - the state of virtue. The hierarchy of the "beginnings" of the soul is established together with the attainment of virtue, and virtue is certified by recognition of the priority of thinking.

In the voluntaristic tradition, the essence of man is also represented by the soul, but the soul is not determined by the intellect, but by the will. In this line of Platonic reasoning, intellect is an optional factor of action. Knowing good does not mean choosing it as a guide to behavior. This means that there is not only an erring, but also a vicious (evil) will. The thinker substantiated evil: it is not a lack of good, but something that exists independently. Evil is connected with the soul. Evil in the human soul is like a cosmic situation. For the philosopher it is obvious that egoism can be combined with the rational organization of consciousness.

The recognition of good and evil creates the effect of pseudorational behavior. The instruments of consciousness are used to imitate virtue while preserving the intemperance of desires, and good is not associated with a highly developed intellect. To identify the good, neither intellect nor virtue are needed, there is enough to have intuition and life experience

The article investigates the ontological foundations of negativity. It shows dialectical relationship of nothingness and negativity. Negativity is understood as the being of nothingness, as a special process, unfolding in the deepest substrate of destruction and changing. The article considers a problematic and ambiguous interpretation of the category of nothingness in the history of philosophy. The article substantiates the thesis that various philosophical directions giving different definitions of nothingness, nevertheless, allow us to describe the negativity through the set of manifested characteristics of nothingness. The author reveals the natural-philosophical and anthropological approaches to the interpretation of negativity. As a result, the author criticizes the natural-philosophical concept of negativity and justifies the anthropological concept of negativity. Negativity is not able to come into existence without reflection. And reflection is carried out only by a man. The main bearer of negativity as such is a person who is aware of his mortality and finiteness