Ideas and Ideals

Two main themes are considered in the article: the author's understanding of sociality and the results of his research into the formation and the first stages (antiquity and the Middle Ages) of the development of European sociality. The understanding of sociality is defined by means of the characterization of the sociological approach, in which four basic features are distinguished. The first feature is axiological interpretation of sociality (righteous - unfair, conformity - inconsistency with the model or ideal) and the establishment of alteration or improvement of sociality. The second feature is the analysis of mass behavior and social order. The third is the study of sociality, beginning with ancient culture; the idea of the nature of sociality and the identification of its laws; a dilemma: what sociology does study or, more precisely, should study - modernity or postmodernity. The fourth feature - sociology considers sociality as a phenomenon of modernity, i.e. studies the mass behavior of people as such, outside the historical and cultural context. Outlining the results of studying the formation and development of the first stages of European sociality, the author first of all distinguishes between proto-sociality, by which he understands the previous state and the preconditions of sociality, where specific forms of social awareness have not yet emerged, and sociality proper. He points out two reasons for analyzing sociality: first, this analysis avoids illegal historical reconstructions (upgrades), when it is considered that sociality has always been, and secondly, it gives an opportunity to understand what is fundamentally new in the process of the emergence of sociality. Only in sociality there is a personality, without which the first type of sociality would not have taken place - polis sociality. Here the thinking is formed, for the first time it allowed to divorce social life and knowledge about it (putting social life as an object in the schemes and knowledge, the person as a person could begin to think out sociality and set the task of improving it). Further, the characteristics of the three main types of sociality are considered: the ancient sociality, which assumes the decision-making within the framework of the policy by free citizens; imperial sociality, subordinating polis sociality to the centralized management of the emperor and medieval sociality, which whimsically united both of these types of sociality. The bridge is shifted to the next stage of the study - the New European sociality and its postmodern crisis.

The article is devoted to the understanding of a settlement agreement as a responsible act of the conflict parties. Both parties, which concluded it, are responsible for the implementation of the terms of the settlement agreement. The agreement is based on reconciliation. The philosophy of the act is reinterpreted in various foreign and domestic works, scientific articles. The author considers the conclusion of a settlement agreement as a responsible act, using the conceptual apparatus of Bakhtin's philosophy, identifies the conditions, under which not only the probability of concluding a settlement agreement increases, but also its implementation is possible. Theoretical analysis will allow to consider the settlement agreement as a derivative of the responsible act. The act of concluding a settlement agreement forms a new reality, where there is no conflict, contradictions in the conflict of interests are settled within the framework of the points of the settlement agreement. The parties of the settlement agreement take responsibility for the implementation of the agreement, the level of legal awareness and responsibility of the parties shows the true intentions of the parties. A person, who has violated the terms of the settlement agreement, denies his own act to conclude peace, forgetting about responsibility, allowing himself to exist within the “non-alibi- in-being”. Under the conditions of legal nihilism, a person is not always able to realize the value of a moral image. Thus, despite the triviality of the thesis, the higher the legal culture in the society, the better the mediation mechanism in the conflict works, the more interested the members of the society in maintaining their own moral image are. The fulfillment of the terms of a voluntarily accepted settlement agreement is an example of a “non-alibi-in-being”.

The paper investigates organized Russian freethought as a specific sociocultural phenomenon. We make an attempt to construct a cohesive pattern of the development of the Russian Humanist Society (RHS) from its beginning (May, 1995) to the present moment. We consider the organization structure, social image, nature of practical activity, worldview of RHS members. To create an accurate account of activity of Russian humanists we have analyzed a large body of publications, including magazine articles, electronic publications, policy papers, treatises authored by leaders and theoreticians of the organization. Conveyed facts have been cross-checked for objectivity. RHS as nationwide union of secular humanists became the first Russian civil society that aimed to "uphold and develop the concepts of secular humanism, associated with thinking and spirit, humane way of living". We show that the specificity of theoretical and practical activities of RHS in many respects is connected with philosophical ideas of Paul Kurtz. Within the framework of our research we describe the RHS interpretations of the terms "atheism", "religion", "humanism", "religious and secular humanism". We prove that currently there is a deep crisis in the RHS, despite its remarkable methodological and discussion activity in the mid - 90's – the beginning of 2000's, and intense commitment to publishing, research and education. We conclude that Russian humanist movement in its current state cannot compete with Orthodox Christianity or other persistent ideologies either in the public sphere or in the private one. Nonetheless, the history of the RHS represents an important part of the complex processes of secularization underway in Russia.

The article considers alternative globalization as a form of international social and humanitarian movement that proposes to develop the theoretical and methodological "optics" of the perception of the dynamics of the Modern-World system (XVI-XXI centuries) in order to develop programs and practices that reduce the risks of negative scenarios of the crisis of the modern world economy, world order and geoculture. The author pays special attention to the process of dismantling postmodernist ideologies of the XIX-XX centuries as the most important practice of "resetting" the forms of social consciousness. In particular, the author believes that the “paradigm of alter-globalization” should work out: a) a new methodological and disciplinary canon of the social sciences and humanities; b) the modern forms of the energy channeling of antisystemic movements; c) alternative to the ideologies of Modernity - nationalism, racism, national socialism, colonialism, populism - ideological patterns of thinking. It is important to remember that history is an open and free process, and it continues beyond the socio-historical forms of modernity, which legacy also needs to be treated creatively, without breaking the social “fabric” created by it, but distinguishing intentions and forces that can revitalize its socio-historical dynamics. In the end, modernity, striving with all its might to break with the traditions of previous eras, has become a tradition itself, showing its historical certainty / limit of ideas, technologies, and practices.

The problem of normality in psychiatry has not been solved yet. Therefore, a philosophical understanding of the notion of the norm and abnormality becomes particularly important. These two concepts should be discussed together. To solve the problem the author uses the method of analysis of norm and abnormality in psychiatry and fiction. In psychiatry there are only disorders. Their classification was historically developed by means of social construction. The conceptions of normality are different in three kinds of psychiatry. In the state psychiatry it is the absence of social complaints to the person, in commercial psychiatry it is the patient’s mental comfort, in the scientific psychiatry the statistical criterion takes place. Science fiction is a kind of literature where the normality is specially questioned. The author shows that the statistical criterion does not work in defining the norm. We can distinguish the following criteria of normality: 1) normality as a possibility of communication. In the psychiatric situation the communication of the doctor and the patient is also possible. For this, the psychiatrist must carefully and delicately grasp the biased vector of patient’s senses. When the patient turns off, the doctor’s task is to carefully go round and avoid the defense, without breaking it. 2) Normality as a possibility of mutual interaction. For a patient, the interaction with the members of the family is important, as well as with the big society in the process of inclusion. 3) Normality as an adequacy. It is an adequate person who has a non-rigid personal basis, which allows him/her to open himself/herself to a new experience. The psychiatrist must constantly increase the patient’s adequacy with the same accurate ways, as in communication with him. The novelty of the approach is, first of all, to exclude the statistical criterion of the norm and to introduce the criterion of mutual understanding and interaction. The notion of adequacy is also introduced, based on the attitude to the world, openness to it and willingness to interact with it. Fantastic worlds are a model of abnormality, and the subjects of fantastic works are a mental laboratory for understanding and overcoming the mutual abnormality of different cultures and minds.

There is a fundamental difference between the human migration movements of the past and those of the beginning of the 21st century. The latter impose the need for a cultural assimilation of the migrants which they cannot master within one generation. This cultural transformation includes a human densification into a new living space, i.e. the essentially technology-based megapolises, which altogether represent the equivalent of an artificial planet. This new planet does not provide new resources or additional free spaces for an overall growth of material wealth. On the contrary, it asks for a drastic reduction of individual freedoms. The stability, even the survival of these mega centers is at stake without consistent subdivisions of the overall shrinking of spaces needed for all kinds of movements and of a consistent restriction of the exploding communicative interference within and between these mega centers. This essay is aimed at a first-hand analysis of a possible introduction of digital borders without which adequate legal spaces appear infeasible as an indispensable framework of this artificial new planet.

The article explores the Kyoto Protocol, which was the first global-level agreement on climate change issues. The document demonstrated how effective international cooperation could confront the environmental threats. The object of the study is the solution of ecological problems on the basis of ethical attitude to nature. The subject of the research is academic and political debates on the problem of global climate change as an integral part of the historical process. The purpose of this article is to study the role of the Kyoto Protocol in shaping the environmental form of public consciousness. The goal predetermined the objectives of the study: to analyze the views on environmental problems of the representatives of different theoretical approaches in international studies; to study their discussions surrounding the Kyoto Protocol. In accordance with the purposes, the study is conducted in a synchronic-diachronic aspect. The chronological scope of this work includes the period from the 1980s, when the environmental agenda was formed, until now. The practical significance of the study is that it can be used in the study of the principles of bioethics, in the development of recommendations for human adaptation and adaptational costs. Comprehension of the document gives the necessary empirical material for philosophical analysis. In ecology the anthropological aspect, the role of legal requirements to the human activities is clearly manifested. The study is conducted within the boundaries of socio-cultural anthropology, based on axiological means that help to revive the value-semantic role of environmental problems. The combination of historical-typological, historical-functional methods helps to simulate general and local types of ecological culture. The Kyoto Protocol was replaced by the Paris Agreement, but the Kyoto Protocol (1997) was not once referred to at the recent UN global conferences on climate change. It was noted that the developing countries should comply with the commitments formulated in it until 2020. In Russia and in the West, the academic work devoted to this document is published. The author considers the provisions of the Kyoto Protocol in the context of the philosophy of economics and geophysical sciences. The paper explores the legal regulation of climate change issues in different regions of the world, human freedom and freedom of economic activity. The author studies the main stages of the document implementation in connection with the climatic, social and economic policy of Russia. The paper also analyzes the nature of economic activity, the type of economical thinking in the international context. Mass-media constantly mentions the agreement, which enables to resolve situations caused by irresponsible human activities. Therefore, the discussions around the Kyoto Protocol allow to present the ideal and real needs, interests of the society.

The article examines the role of religion in a traditional society and particularly in the Russian one. The author considers religion as the foundation of culture, which defines the ethical principles and values in the society. The author reveals the reason of anti-religious struggle in Soviet society as a goal of cultural revolution, which task was to form international culture and a new man with new values and atheistic world outlook. Using the evidence of eyewitnesses the author shows the main measures taken by the Soviet power to form an atheistic society. The article highlights antireligious work in the village because all layers of Soviet society (workers, the intellectuals, etc.) descend from peasantry. The study provides testimonies of antireligious struggle during collectivization. Basing on these judgments, the author comes to the conclusion that the Soviet power managed to achieve the goal of cultural revolution. One or two generations were necessary to transform the society into the atheistic one. Even traditionally religious peasant society was subjected to deep socio-cultural transformations. The reasons for it were the following: policy of repressions, atheistic upbringing of the younger generation, and the formation of negative attitudes towards the older generation as archaic and retrograde. Atheism influenced the transformation of mental reasoning and values in Soviet society.

After the dismantling of the Soviet socialist state, Russia was declared a social, legal, and democratic state in the Constitution (1993). By that time, there were already different models of social states in the world that had reached certain standards, but periodically experienced crises that questioned the regularity of the existence of such a state. The article reveals the concept of a social state in accordance with the Constitution of the Russian Federation, goals, tasks, objective and subjective diffi culties and contradictions of building a new type of state for Russia. The author considers the results of social transformations in the 1990s, the role of the state in them, the features of the Concept of the social state of the Russian Federation developed in 2004, and the main directions of social policy. The paper also analyzes the changes in the legal and socio-economic situation of citizens, the results of the “national projects” and the May Decrees of the President of the Russian Federation, the results of the activities of state bodies in the protection of human rights and freedoms as well as unresolved problems. The  author reveals the ratio of indicators achieved by Russia with the world criteria and standards of the social state. The article is written on the basis of published sources: statistical documents of state bodies, reports of the government of the Russian Federation, reports of human rights Commissioners of the Russian Federation and other types of documents. The author comes to the conclusion that for Russia the social state remains the ideological basis of the next social experiments. Social justice has not really become a priority of the state. Much has been done to restore the state after the devastating 1990s, but the effectiveness of efforts to create a social state still raises questions. Russia does not meet the international standards of the social state by any criterion. The system – forming function of the social state is social, associated with the provision of the necessary decent living standards for all citizens, and this very function is not really fulfi lled. The article analyzes the economic, socio-political, objective, subjective, internal and external causes of the discrepancy between the ideals of an equitable society, theoretical concepts of real practice, the reasons, which hinder the solution of social problems in modern Russia, the prospects for the population. The author concludes that the construction of a social state in Russia, the Declaration of many important tasks and mechanisms for their implementation made the process of building up a traditional state with huge stratifi cation of the society, social, regional, property inequality and its own concept of social justice less hurtful to people. The construction of the social state favored strengthening of the liberal policy with regard to people.

This is а translation of the interview with Saul Alinsky published in Playboy in 1972 and reprinted by the New England Review May 27, 2018.  American professional social organizer, he unilaterally created the new field of social engineering and the new profession of radical-organizer. His two books became handbooks for several generations of organizers. Magazine Playboy sent Eric Norden to interview him. “I accompanied him from the East Coast to the West and into Canada, snatching tape sessions on planes, in cars and at airport…”