Ideas and Ideals

The author of the article draws attention to the formation and development of consumption culture and its embodiment in architectural forms. The development of the consumer space and the retail space as its form developed in parallel throughout the history. The purpose of the article is to analyze the dynamics of organizational methods of the trading space from antiquity to the present day. The study is based on the wave theory presented in the works of E. Toffler, Yu. M. Lotman, where history is represented as a pendulum motion. However, each of the oscillations of the pendulum appears at a new point. The author examines the evolution of the retail space, starting from antiquity and one of its forms: the retail space or market. This type of space combined many functions: trade, political and religious. It was a type of public space accessible to everyone. The sellers and buyers in market conditions could also constantly change their roles. The spread of shops and stalls in the Middle Ages and at the beginning of modern times represented the movement of trade into private space, organized according to the principle of the public. It combined a place of residence and a place of work. The movement of trade inward meant a change: in the past, goods came to the consumer, but now the buyer went to get the goods. To a large extent, trade in small shops was monofunctional.

The second half of the 19th century gave rise to two forms of retail space: a street (passage) and a building. In terms of architecture, they replaced palaces and temples, had a very simple structure, used a large amount of glass, iron, and light. They were the first to use gas heating and elevators. These spaces were private but functioned according to the principle of a public space: open to everyone. The twentieth century introduced malls and supermarkets that combined many different functions: trade, entertainment, food service, credit institution, pharmacy, etc. As a result, we can conclude that the development of retail space throughout history proceeded according to the principle of a pendulum: from the free public space of the market, with its multifunctionality through the closed private space of shops and small shops with their monofunctional purpose, to the private-public or quasi-public space of modern malls and supermarkets, but on a different level.

The article deals with investigation into the conditions of loyalty of commercial as well as industrial and military-service administration to the central power. The analysis is based on comparing cases which demonstrate different levels of loyalty. A relatively high level of loyalty was shown by the “power” of the Stroganovs (merchants), including both the merchants and the population of their fiefdoms in the 16^th–17^th centuries, whereas the Volga, Don and Yaik Cossacks (16^th–18^th centuries) demonstrated a relatively low level of loyalty. It was revealed that the level of loyalty of military and commercial administration in Russia in the 16^th–18^th centuries was affected by processes of different social scale. The defeat of Novgorod by Moscow and the termination of the eхpeditions of Novgorod pirates named Ushkuyniks both in the North-East (Northern Urals) and in the South-East led to taking this niche in the Volga basin by the Cossacks that continued extracting revenues through the use of violence. The Cossacks’ growing dependence on the Tsar’s pay, combined with their skills and means of violence, caused revolts and rebellions in the 17th and 18th centuries that can be considered as a form of bargaining with the authorities for symbolic recognition and material supplementation. In the northern Ural, geopolitical changes resulted in introducing a new strategy in exploring the region – industrial (salt production) and agricultural colonization with tax exemptions and socio-economic patronage for the Stroganovs’ kholops (serfs) under conditions of underdeveloped state institutions, which resulted in relatively low levels of ethno-social conflicts in the region without the need to maintain a strong enforcement apparatus, which could become a resource for disloyalty to central power. Favorable conditions for the salt trade in the domestic Russian market (high price, limited competition) further strengthened the loyalty of salt producers.

In the philosophical discussions of Russia in the 19th century, an important place was given to the problem of the formation of a national idea, the search for new ways of civilizational development of Russia. This topic is still relevant today, it does not lose its problematic nature, since at present, just as in the 19th century, the process of comprehending Russia's place in the world is underway and the problem is being solved: “Which way to go? Choose your own, national path or follow the European tradition in the formation of modern Russian society? These questions were already raised in Russia in the 19th century, when the process of searching for and forming the Russian national idea was actively going on. The purpose of the article is to analyze the problem of choosing the paths of Russia's development in the disputes between Westerners and Slavophiles in the 19th century, to show the similarity of some historical positions on the main problems. The paper discusses the main approaches of the main representative of Russian Westernism P. Ya. Chaadaev and the philosophical ideas of the Slavophile I. V. Kireevsky. The study attempts to find common approaches of these authors to the problem of the development of Russian society and all-Russian ideals, since in modern scientific works, in our opinion, a simplified view of the development of Russian civilization in philosophical disputes in the ideological struggle in the 19th century is widespread. Both the Westernizers and the Slavophiles were looking for the best way for the development of Russia and were confident in its special mission in the civilizational world processes.

The work uses a dialectical and historical-philosophical method, which allows us to consider the complex ideological searches of philosophers in the context of the historical development of Russian society in the 19th century. To analyze the philosophical and methodological foundations of the theories of Westerners and Slavophiles in the course of the civilizational choice of the future development of Russia in these theories, the methods of analysis and synthesis, ascent from the abstract to the concrete, were used in the article.

The article examines the potential of the library as a possible active participant in the interaction of science and society. The situation with the library nowadays can be described as the search for its new niche in the readers’ space. The purpose of the article is to analyze the possibilities of libraries for the development of communications between science and society. The first part of the article presents the history and analysis of the modern participation of libraries in the communication of science and society, the second part analyses the potential of libraries in this process. The authors come to the following conclusion: libraries can become one of the conditions for rational communication between science and society, which should act not only in the usual system of documentary communication, but also in the system of data communication, interpersonal communication. Libraries should expand their role in the society: to be an intermediary and serve not only “scientist to scientist” communication, but also “scientist to the society” communication. The study showed that various forms both one-time and repetitive mass events of a popular scientific nature have not yet become systemic. The practice of libraries’ participation in other facets of communication between science and society (increasing public understanding of science; involving the public in science) is not yet visible at all. The weak influence of libraries on the development of communications between science and society is also evidenced by the analysis of their activities presented on their websites. This practice is confirmed not only by the analysis of websites, but also by publications: their number is not large (31), and by the way, the authors tackle this topic only once. The paper suggests solving of the above-mentioned problems using huge potential of the libraries.

In the second half of the 18th century, an antique market flourished in Rome. That was largely due to the increased interest in the culture of the Ancient World, associated with excavations in Pompeii and Herculaneum, as well as with the activities of the German art historian Johann Joachim Winckelmann, who was convinced of the need to turn to the art of antiquity, which, in his opinion, had ideal beauty and was capable of cultivating a noble artistic taste. In European countries and in Russia, collections of antiques were formed during that period. Travelers who came to Rome tended to buy ancient sculptures, gems, vases. They turned to antique dealers working in this art market. A special place among the antique dealers belonged to the British, such as Gavin Hamilton, Thomas Jenkins and James Byres. It is largely thanks to their efforts that excellent private collections of ancient art have been formed in Great Britain and interest in art in general has been developing. The article examines the activities of these antique dealers on the examples of two English collectors depicted in the portraits of the Italian artist Pompeo Batoni: William Weddell and Peter Beckford.

The article discusses the methods of constructing an invariant in musical art. The problem of the invariant in its final form is formulated as the problem of the limits of music. The answer to the question “what is music?” requires the formulation of its invariable properties, which are preserved in any form of acoustic realization of a musical concept. The comparison of three influential models of the invariant of music presented in the works of E. Kurt, G. Schenker and Yu.N. Kholopov allows us to draw a conclusion about a unified method for constructing the invariant of music. It is based on the idea of ​​primary energy, which reveals itself in the course of the embodiment of an artistic conception and appears to us through the acoustic realization of a piece of music. Invariant properties permeate the structure of the musical fabric and then ascend to the most important principles of musical expressiveness, which allow the very possibility of perceiving music as a meaningful sound, in contrast to acoustic phenomena of a different origin. Therefore, the construction of the invariant of musical art requires taking into account its features at hierarchically correlated large-scale levels of organization of musical creativity, perception and thinking. This requirement remains the most general and conventional, uniting strategies for finding an invariant even in those cases when they try to search for the area of ​​limiting invariant properties in various existential and conceptual spheres.

The era of Peter the Great was a time of fundamental changes. New reforms and orders were very unfamiliar to Russians, which is why the new Russian state required comprehensive means of glorification of new cultural and political reforms. Planning of new architecture, urban space and composition in pieces of fine art were based on a system of concepts: the concept of glorification of battles and wars won by the Russian army and navy, introducing European traditions in fine arts, introducing the Table of Ranks for service, and bringing European science to Russia. In other words, the creation of art, architecture and country residences was not random. The glorification of new reforms in Russia was the basis for new art. Conceptuality as a basic element of creative culture was founded in the beginning of the XVIII century. It determined the evolution of fine arts for the next several centuries. This is the reason why analysis of architecture and fine arts in the culture of Peter the Great’s era in terms of conceptual art is important. In conceptual art the conception is crucial, not the form.

Many prints were made in the first quarter of the XVIII century, dedicated to military victories and the new flourishing city: Saint-Petersburg. These prints were created by invited artists from Europe (A. Schoonebeek, P. Picart) and their Russian apprentices (A. Zubov and I. Zubov). J. Tannauer, L. Caravaque and G. Gzel created conceptual paintings dedicated to Peter the Great’s deeds. The “Petrine Baroque” style of architecture and regular urban planning has determined the evolution of Saint-Petersburg as a European city.

The article is devoted to the role of modern culture in the situation of permanent reforms. This is an understanding of the problem identified by Orekhovsky P. A. and Razumov V. I. in the journal “Ideas and Ideals” at the end of 2021. The author continues the discussion about the consequences of the spread of “narcissistic culture” in different areas of life. The author of the article studies the problem from the standpoint of a systematic approach. This methodology allows us to see the built-in social changes in the structure of the social system, the stabilizing role of culture as a “supersystem”. Such a methodological position excludes the possibility of criticizing the system from within, being one of its structures. Instead of critical analysis, a humanistic-semantic one is proposed, based on understanding, explanation, prognostication.

The methodological complex is built on the combinatorics of the humanistic-semantic, constructivist, systemic approach. The author proves the thesis of the all-penetrating nature and the stabilizing role of culture in modern managerial processes of updating the subsystems of society. The methods of the constructivist approach help to explain the distribution of new social roles. Society is differentiated into reformers (dominant actors) and those who are subject to reform (statistical actors). The theatrical terminology of the dramatic approach explains the playful meaning of social actions. The main game of the reformers is a “mousetrap”. It reveals the ‘pure’ qualities of the initiators of the reforms. The author studies the social roles and the specifics of their distribution in the processes of reformation.

The article considers the processes of reforming and reformation. Differences in the meanings, goals and tools of these processes are shown. Reforming is a social process based on the principles of humanism and justice. Reformation is a game which action takes place on the ‘fields of attraction’of discourses. Reformism is defined as a fashion for reform, for novelty, a trend for constant renewal of the structures of the society system. The goal is to receive benefits and advantages from the social position of the reformers. This is a game of dominant actors defending the right to change the rules of the game, access to resources. Reformation does not lead to the solution of social problems, exacerbates the course of socio-cultural processes. The risks from the consequences of reformation are anomie, social changes of a traumatic nature which all relevant actors feel, regardless of their dominance in the ‘fields of attraction’.

The system is brought into balance by culture with its system-forming functions that provide normative order. Using the techniques of integral sociology, the author shows the stabilizing role of the value core of culture in the life of the ‘society’ system.

The “ruins” of cultural institutions have become the subject of sustained academic interest today. Traditional ideas about the educational mission of museums, the principles of museum exhibits are a thing of the past, are essentially rethought, replaced by new formats. The article aims to analyze the trends that have emerged in museum practice in the last decade. One of them is the actualization of the principles of museum criticism as a developing interdisciplinary field.

The gap between museum theory and practice has been considered and discussed many times. The 3rd issue of the journal “Ideas and Ideals” for 2021 published texts united in the heading “Museum in Contemporary Culture” and allowed to speak about the unity of views [3, 8, 16]. One cannot but agree with the opinion of the authors that museum criticism, along with criticism of art, literature, music (as, finally, restaurant or sports), predetermines various cultural priorities and extremely problematizes the sphere of taste preferences. In this regard, the need for critically informed practice takes on a pragmatic aspect. It is on this basis that a new idea is formulated about the possibilities of interaction between a professional museum worker and a modern visitor. The postulation of the significance of the “critical approach” in the professional self-determination of the museum is of fundamental importance. It is internal criticism as a necessary corrective factor that makes it possible to maintain the academic status of museology as an independent field of scientific activity.

The article reconstructs the framework of S.S. Averintsev’s culturology and outlines the contexts that make this theoretical model especially relevant today. The theory of the three stages of the word state, where, in addition to the poles in the traditional ‘sacred/reflexive (scientific, pluralistic)’ dichotomy is proclaimed an intermediate state, sacral-reflexive, and is interesting not only out of historical curiosity, it has significant heuristic potential. The current relevance of Averintsev’s culturology is ensured by the fact that his model is consistently and fundamentally realistic. A distinctive feature of this variant of culturology is the reliance on literary studies, on the typology of the word of M.M. Bakhtin. But this is culturology, the historical typology of culture, which leads to large-scale generalizations and universal models. In the late 1980s, Averintsev’s typology acquired the status of a historical model of types of rationality. This typology of culture turned out to be a ‘strong’ theory with many not only ontological implications, but also consequences important for epistemology and philosophy of science. Philosophers, art historians, historians and literary critics had reason thirty years ago to consider the challenges of such culturology provocative and nihilistic. It makes revolutionary demands on all humanities disciplines. But at the same time: the whole revolutionary nature of Averintsev’s theory remained precisely in the implications. The theory, which was ‘loud’ by the scale of universal claims, was pronounced in the published texts more than ‘quietly’, almost ‘in a whisper’. Perhaps, this antinomy is fundamental.