Ideas and Ideals

Numerous publications indicate the presence of a deep political crisis in the United States. One of the most obvious indicators of the crisis is the authoritarian tendency in the development of the political system. Polarization between the two major parties has reached its peak. Polls show, with both sides perceiving the opposing party not just as a political rival, but as an enemy of the nation. The divergence of positions between them on important issues has greatly increased, which gives rise to extreme partisanship in decision-making. This article is the fi rst in a series about the “end of America”. The topic of “the end of America” or “the death of America” has become especially relevant in the publications of the last 20 years. These phrases are used so often that many people no longer notice that they are compound metaphors. The article analyzes the framework or fi elds of meaning in which these metaphors acquire their context and content. The following meanings of “America” are identifi ed and described in the article: a sovereign country, a social and political-economic system, civilization and culture, a geopolitical player, a superpower, and, fi nally, the “American experiment,” that is, a unique political and social project for self-government in the state. The answer to the question “is America dying” (“died”) depends on what features of America, what values and principles of its structure are considered the main or system-forming ones. Most modern authors call democracy the main characteristic of the political system and understand by the “death of America” the “death of democracy,” or more precisely, the degeneration of democracy from liberal to authoritarian. The article contains examples confi rming this trend. Predictions of the “death of America” do not mean its inevitable end, since not all changes are irreversible. The current crisis in the history of the United States is far from the fi rst in the history; its political system contains opportunities and mechanisms for resolving crises and restoring the foundations of the “American project.”

Studies of Chinese stratagem thinking in Russia still do not take into account works created in line with the Confucian philosophical tradition. “A Complete Book of Wisdom” by Feng Menglong (1574–1646) can be regarded as a collection of stratagems. The grounds for this assessment may be found in traditional bibliographic descriptions and the modern research and publishing tradition.

The fi rst edition was published in 1626, the supplemented edition – in 1634.

Formally, “A Complete Book of Wisdom” can be referred to encyclopediasleishu. The text is not a continuous narrative, but consists of individual short stories; the number depends on the edition, from 1061 to 1236. Each story describes a precedent for the application of a stratagem. The period of the narration covers years from ancient times to the Ming Dynasty. Feng Menglong selected proper stories, edited them, and added his own comments. Typologically, similar stories are organized into separate sections (28 in total), which, in turn, are organized into chapters (10 in total). One chapter contains from two to four sections.

“A Complete Book of Wisdom” retains the features of the “A New Account of Tales of the World” by Liu Yiqing (403–444), which are characterized by a value classifi cation of people’s deeds. All the stories are arranged according to the principle of “from the best to the worst”.

Feng Menglong wrote a large preface to the entire work, and provided extended prefaces to each chapter. Each section is preceded by a brief explanation. Feng Manlong’s own ideological views can be discovered as the paratextual elements: prefaces and commentaries.

The article consists of two parts. The fi rst part is devoted to the description of the peculiarities of the narrative language of “A Complete Book of Wisdom”, as well as the analysis of the socio-philosophical issues that stimulated the creation of this work. On the basis of quotation from classics in Feng Menglong’s works two types of author’s meaning formation are revealed. The author of the paper shows transformation of ethical models of Sung neo-Confucianism and the changing status of the category ‘wisdom’ in Feng Menglong’s ideological program. The second part of the article offers the author’s commented translation of Feng Menglong’s general preface to “A Complete Book of Wisdom” and ten prefaces to each chapter.

The article raises the problem of the lack of strategic planning in relation to the development of territories in the east of Russia. The author highlights the special status of the Siberian macro-region in terms of the integrity of the Russian Federation as well as the heuristic value of the concept “Asian Russia”, referring to the geopolitical risks of the early 20th century. The author analyses the challenges of its development that have not been overcome so far. These include the geographical remoteness of the center from the territorially vast periphery, the social alienation of the provinces from the capital enclaves, and the cultural distance between representatives of different ethnic groups. The resources of human potential in the east of Russia, the civilizational multi-vector nature of its Ural-Siberian core, and the stability of interethnic communities are designated as opportunities for the accelerated development of the macroregion.

The methodological basis of the study is the concept of V.L. Tsymbursky “Island of Russia”. On the basis of Rosstat data and the discursive analysis of the “Strategy for the socio-economic development of the Siberian Federal District until 2035”, the risks of underestimation of human capital for the future of Asian Russia and the country as a whole are shown. The main management risk in the long term may be the focus on “raw materials” specialization, which threatens to depopulate vast areas. It is concluded that there is no alternative to a real “turn to the East” and the accelerated development of the Asian regions of Russia as the core of the “Great Eurasia” project.

The problem statement concerns the actual issues of raising the status of the intellectual component of the Humanities education within the framework of the author’s investigation on “Cultural self-determination of the individual in the space of realization of intercultural communication”. The conditions of modeling communicative situations of the ecosystem of multicultural education are determined in the paradigm “From observation to generalization and replication through cooperation”.

The focus of this paper is on the strategic and tactic directions of the development of Russian education within the methodology and technology of the Self as a cultural personality.

Socio-philosophical perception and theoretical justifi cation of the problem under consideration have given grounds for mastering the communicative culture of the individual in the frames of intellectual architectonics of multilingual culture as the methodological basis of the many years of activity. The multicultural intellectual architectonics refl ects a humanizing core of the regional information and educational spaces. The social signifi cance of the formation of a multicultural mindset of the personality initiates creating of one of the possible models of the ecosystems of the synergetic effect of co-management in a communicative society.

The presentation of the effects of cooperation of the Department of the Institute of Continuing Education, educational organizations of Novosibirsk and Novosibirsk region, domestic publishers, as well as the effects of cooperation of regional, All-Russian and international universities is carried out within the framework of the project “Creating a unifi ed information and educational secure communication environment”. As the fi nal result of the generalization, the corpus of case-studies is considered, and the system of conditions for their implementation is substantiated as a multidimensional humanitarian project in the aspect of the integration of society and the reproduction of culture within the humanitarian educational practices. Such features of students’ perception of a different culture as the development of multilingualism and multicultures in artifi cial conditions of mastering the communicative skills of implementing the basics of intercultural communication are noted. Special emphasis focuses on the social signifi cance and cultural mission of educational organizations in the aspect of modeling the corpus of vital communicative situations/events in the space of scientifi c and methodological support within the socio-humanitarian sphere of regional events.

In conclusion, the system of methodological, pedagogical and methodological conditions for the effective implementation of the author’s model for the formation of intercultural skills and teaching/learning techniques of intercultural communication, which form the basis for the development of additional professional programs in the system of continuing professional education of specialists in various fi elds, is formulated.

The education system includes the main social institutions that perform the functions of upbringing and education. A common characteristic of any education system is the orientation towards the transfer of knowledge and the formation of skills in order to develop students. At the same time, each stage of social development corresponds to an education system that meets the requirements for the results and goals of education in a particular society. Historically, the evolution of educational systems is interconnected with the transformation of the socio-political structure.

The need for a serious reform of the Russian educational system arose under the infl uence of two interrelated factors: the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991 and its education system, and the rejection of the existing ideology of educating the younger generation. The protracted reform of the Russian education system is currently causing a lot of criticism from experts and the public, one of which is the deviation from humanistic traditions in teaching practice. The subject of analysis in the article is the conditions that ensure the implementation of the idea of developing the humanistic orientation of the modern education system in Russia.

At the origins of the implementation of any idea is a person, innovations in educational practice are embodied by a teacher. Consequently, the backbone components capable of ensuring the embodiment of the idea of a humanistic orientation of the modern education system in Russia are the goals of education that are consonant with this orientation and the pedagogical staff that ensure their achievement.

At the same time, the reforms of domestic education in the post-Soviet period led to the loss of the primacy of the educational component in the educational process. Currently, society and the state are making efforts to make up for this mistake. However, a signifi cant obstacle to solving this problem is often the unpreparedness of teachers to implement the educational functions of education based on the humane principles of pedagogy, the basis of which is to take into account the individual characteristics and personal needs of the pupil. The introduction of new forms and methods of working with students will not provide long-term results if it does not affect the foundations of the education system. The purpose of the article is to systematize and supplement information about the conditions that contribute to the development of the humanistic orientation of the modern education system in Russia.

The author evaluates the evolution of two ideas: the humanization of education and the formation of a professional orientation in the system of teacher training. The humanistic orientation is substantiated by the author as part of a professional orientation. The origins, problems and approaches to the scientifi c analysis of the idea of the formation and development of the humanistic orientation of future teachers in the conditions of university education are analyzed. To obtain substantiated scientifi c results, the author analyses the normative documentation of the Russian education system, dissertation research, current periodicals and the educational environment of the university. The paper also indicates the reasons preventing the mass dissemination of humanistic ideas in modern Russian education.

Thus, the author draws reasonable conclusions about the set of conditions necessary for the development of the humanistic orientation of the education system of modern Russia. Among the conditions mediated by the system of training of pedagogical personnel are: respectful relations of the subjects of the educational process; selection of the content of education; use of active forms and methods of training and education; participation of students in volunteer activities, including leader activities; creation of a special educational environment of the university. The general conclusion of the article is the emphasis on the dependence of the embodiment of the idea of developing the humanistic orientation of the Russian education system on the organizational and pedagogical conditions of the modern system of training teachers. The teaching staff in this historical period is a system-forming component of the Russian education system, on which the results of its transformation depend.

This article discusses examples of the practical implementation of the ideas of anarchism or attempts at such an implementation. The author believes that without taking into account and systematizing these phenomena, the economic history of the world is incomplete. The author does not make it his task to promote these examples and attempts, he only believes that they cannot be ignored. First, the author considers the anarchies that existed in Europe in the Middle Ages: Free Frisia and Dithmarschen in the north of Europe and the ‘Forest Cantons’ on the territory of modern Switzerland. The phenomenon of the Wild West in the history of the United States is analyzed as a form of long-term existence of the economy on a vast territory without government control. It is noted that those elements of self-organization of the population that were formed during the development of new territories in the western United States are usually hushed up. The author also considers temporarily existing anarchist communities in Spain in the 1930s and modern anarchist movements in Latin America, as well as the problem of the so-called ‘optimal size of the state’, which was raised by the anarchist Leopold Kohr. The paper describes a zone of Zomia, in which 100 million people currently live, who do not recognize the authority of any state. The author explores ideological roots of the Makhnovshchina, an anarchist movement during the Civil War. It is shown that the Republic of Nestor Makhno was organized not spontaneously, but according to certain initial political principles. The author especially highlights the successful attempt to build an anarchist community in Libya, where the principle of the absence of state taxes was practically implemented, since the state had other sources of income. In conclusion, two events of recent years are analyzed, behind which it is not customary to see the practical implementation of anarchist ideas: the Ukrainian Maidan of 2014 and the ‘Yellow Vests’ movement in France in 2018. Both of these phenomena are currently usually interpreted as spontaneous or inspired from outside. However, the author believes that such an interpretation is one-sided, not taking into account the continuity of pre-existing ideological and political currents.

The article analyzes the main ideas of Alan Gilbert Nixon, a contemporary sociologist of religion and researcher of the new atheism movement. The subject of the study is the ideology of the new atheism movement as a special anti-religious worldview associated with the work of Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris, Daniel Dennett and Christopher Hitchens, which arose in 2006. Nixon himself, studying this movement, uses an original methodology, which he calls ‘grounded theory’ and explores the development of a new atheism in the actual contextual space of interaction between participants and the prospects of this interaction. The methodology of the authors of this article is based on the principle of the unity of the historical and logical interpretation of the key concepts and positions of A. Nixon in the process of a systematic analysis of historical background, ideological foundation, self-presentation of representatives of the new atheism movement. In addition, in the context of this study, a number of social changes (the globalization of capitalism, the development of the Internet and the related “leaps of communication”, the religious renaissance) are considered as a necessary context for the formation of a special “narrative mythology” of the new atheism, expressed in the idea of the greatness of Nature and Science. and suggesting a kind of piety within the worldview of the new atheism. As the main result of the presented analysis, one can single out the conceptual design of key aspects of the existence of a modern anti-religious worldview: hyperskepticism in the knowledge of the world, nihilism and the denial of classical metaphysics of rationality, criticism of the values of religious morality; a postmodern paradox that erases the boundaries between religious/non-religious and cancels the very possibility of discrimination on religious grounds, which nullifies the confrontational logic of the new atheism; the emergence of secular non-religious missionary work as a result of the process of competition of ideas in the space of “multiple modernities”; and, finally, the fact that the new atheistic message is gaining adherents because the anti-religious worldview is subject to the cultural logic of late capitalism with its postmodern spread of pluralism of cultures, discourses, organizations.

The article presents an analysis of the transformation of methodological discourse on the concept of diaspora in the framework of migration issues studies. The development of research in a certain area is always associated with methodological issues that give rise to different approaches, despite this, they require their own solutions. The study of the experience of conceptualizing the concept of diaspora seems necessary from the point of view of clarifying the instrumental capabilities and, consequently, the methodological productivity of this concept, which is necessary for the selection and consistent justification of research optics in the process of developing a strategy for studying various aspects of international migration and separately the diaspora as its significant component. The transformation of the theoretical debate is considered within the framework of its periodization proposed by R. Cohen. Based on the analysis of a number of Western concepts of diaspora, the main approaches to the interpretation of this concept are revealed: essentialist and relativistic.

Representatives of the first approach (W. Safran, R. Cohen) position diaspora as a kind of the model, which has fixed features that determine its unchangeable essence. The most significant of them are forced nature of migration, the connection with the homeland and the desire to return there. Despite the fact that R. Cohen proposed an expanded somewhat liberalized set of features of diaspora, it continued to be considered from the point of view of the necessary presence of certain features of this community, which makes it possible to define it as a diaspora. This approach has been criticized. Its opponents were representatives of relativism and constructionism (Clifford, Gillroy and Hall). They identified the flexibility of diaspora, the diversity of its causes, a number of acquired features and aspects of existence, in addition to the connection with the motherland. The second approach considers a new type of diaspora – trans-diaspora – in the context of transnational migration. The diaspora began to be positioned procedurally in the new conditions of a globalizing world and transnational living space. Thus, two types of definitions of the concept of diaspora have been formed: reterritorialized and deterritorialized. The author of the article reveals the features of these approaches and their methodological productivity from the point of view of a research strategy.

The article focuses on the problem of correlation between ethical norms and stratagem thinking. The analysis of the methods of description and representation of stratagem thinking in the works of Feng Menglong is aiming to achieve a complex research goal. Firstly, to supplement the information about the biography and work of Feng Menglong; secondly, to introduce new sources for the study of stratagem thinking; thirdly, to describe the complex of socio-philosophical views of Feng Menglong as he mastered stratagem thinking. The collection of stratagems A Complete Book of Wisdom is introduced as an academic source for the first time. The article is organized into three parts. The first part introduces the problem: China civil officials, as well as the military class, actively used stratagems in management practice. The second part analyzes the facts of Feng Menglong's biography that initiated his interest in stratagems. Everyday stratagem thinking in Feng Menglong's personal experience provides a basis for evaluating wisdom and foolishness as significant social factors. The analysis of Feng Menglong's biography may confirm the hypothesis that in Chinese culture stratagem thinking was limited by the Confucian ethical system, which, on the one hand, does not encourage the use of stratagems, but on the other hand, does not prohibit it either.  The third part focuses directly on the analysis of the literature source. The analysis of the structure and content of A Complete Book of Wisdom proves that stratagem thinking is a kind of practical and figurative-associative thinking, which does not destroy ethical frameworks, but shows an acceptable way out into the “gray zone” of ethics. The description of stratagems in A Complete Book of Wisdom is based on traditional Confucian values, but at the same time sets multi-option way to planned action.

Neoliberalism can be understood both as a practice of governance organized around economic norms of competition, flexibility and risk calculation, and as a technique of shaping and transforming modes of subjectivation. These two interpretations are closely intertwined: the institutions that capture neoliberal discourses become the starting point for the formation of a particular subjectivity known as human capital. At the same time, labour is understood very broadly: even pre-reflexive behavioural practices (e.g., sleep) are included in the idea of human capital. The purpose of this article is to analyse and criticise the neoliberal subject’s image of the life-world. The life-world is understood as an area of everyday human activity within which the pre-predicative resources of “common sense” are at work. The author takes an integrative approach, combining ideological theory and the study of everyday life. M. Foucault’s series of lectures, ‘The Birth of Biopolitics’, is used as the main source of content for the theory of neoliberalism. The critique of the neoliberal subject’s life-world is carried out through the ontological argumentation of the Ljubljana School of Psychoanalysis. The imperative of neoliberal ethics calling for unlimited pleasure is clearly evident in the mode of existence of consumer products. A certain commodity exists as a negation of its own idea: non-alcoholic wine, for example, is a negation of the idea of wine itself. In this sense, pleasure is stripped of any barriers, but just as importantly, the process of its reception becomes a meaning-in-itself that is institutionally supported. Pleasure is linked to the structurally constitutive absence of the object of desire. Thus, a critical analysis of ideology actualises the category of alienation. The overcoming of neoliberal subjectivity is only possible through the acceptance of a fundamental rupture (alienation) as the ontological basis of identity, a position that has been called an object-disoriented ontology.