Ideas and Ideals

The COVID-19 pandemic refreshes the view of urban spaces as objects of consumption. The article describes the constituent elements of urban space and the process of human interaction with it, mediated by sign-symbolic perception. The socio-philosophical analysis of the phenomenon of consumption as a phenomenon developing within the framework of understanding the praxeological relationship of human to world is presented. The study contains a synthesis of several modern concepts based on a sociocultural approach. Based on the concept of A. Warde, the author proposes that consumption be seen as a process that is a moment in the many practices of everyday life which is characterized by evaluation, use and appropriation. The act of consumption is viewed as an internally-oriented, goal-rational human behavior aimed at achieving emotional experiences, as a part of the self-determination of the individual (G. Schulze). The conceptual link explaining the articulation between emotion and consumption is to be found in the notion of “imagination”, understood, following E. Illouz, as the socially situated deployment of cultural fantasies. In everyday practices of the development of urban spaces by man, a combination of creation and use is found, which seems to be possible to conceptualize through the moment of appropriation, in the course of the act of consumption, considered as secondary production (M. de Certeau). Changes in everyday practices and human attitudes towards urban spaces during the COVID-19 pandemic are analyzed based on domestic and foreign research. The possibility of consolidating new forms of everyday practices is comprehended. Strengthening of a person's intrasubjective orientation is stated.

The sociopolitical circumstances of people's lives are constantly changing, which is studied by science, philosophy and art. The twentieth century is a time of great upheavals that changed the approach to the concept of man and the field of his existence. Philosophers of the second half of the twentieth century pay attention to the destructive nature of state power, its institutions are interpreted as suppressing freedom and consolidating violence as an ideology (the Frankfurt School, J. Baudrillard, S. Zizek, etc.). Another important concept is the interpretation of destructive impulses as a normal component of a person (J. Bataille, Z. Freud, E. Fromm, J. Deleuze, etc.). This idea creates a pattern of behavior that is considered psychopathic in the article. Psychopathy is a genetically determined type of antisocial personality. The phenomenon of psychopathy is a subject not only of scientific study, but also of art: the psychopath became a central character in many works of literature and cinema in the second half of the twentieth century. The article analyzes the novels "A Clockwork Orange" by E. Burgess (1962) and "The Wasp Factory" by I. Banks (1984), where the main characters are teenage psychopaths. The article concludes that these works complement each other, exploring two main areas of human life (the world of the state and the world of the family). It is suggested that by referring to the psychopathic hero, writers describe the changes that take place in society, these changes are also analyzed by philosophers. The fact that psychopathic traits in novels are concentrated in the images of teenagers indicates the possibility of psychopathy developing and spreading in the future.

Abstract

One of the most studied, debated, noticeable and important gaps in history is the transition period between the Middle Ages and Modern Times. This is primarily due to the specifics of the civilizational development of Europe in this period. It is almost universally accepted that its essence is connected with the transition from feudalism to capitalism.

This era is ‘transitional’ and includes many different transformations: cultural, mental economic, political, when instead of an ethno-political space, a national-political world is formed. Therefore, it makes sense to call it so — the era of transformation, when the agrarian economy is transformed into a post-agrarian one, although not yet ‘industrial’, ‘pagan’ culture comes out from the ‘underground’ and actively pushes the Christian religion-ideology, ‘A Christian’ becomes a ‘free person’, etc.

It is during this period that civilizationally significant processes begin and end:

- The Renaissance, the Reformation, and the Counter-Reformation are coming to an end.

- There is basically a ‘progressive’ stage of absolutism.

- All means of ‘feudal redistribution’ of Europe have been exhausted (The Italian Crusades, the Thirty Years’ War).

- The final division into ‘national states’ takes place.

- Geographical discoveries are being fully completed.

- In general, the first stage of the technical revolution is coming to an end.

- A new bourgeois type of man is being actively formed.

This article offers a brief analysis of this period as a special Era of Transformation, within which complex processes take place:

1) Renovatio - as a ‘return’ to the state of culture ‘before the fall’ (first of all, ancient).

2) Reformatio - as a ‘return’ to the ‘correct’ form of Christianity (‘early Christianity’).

3) Revolutio - as a ‘return’ to the ‘correct’ form of government (a wide range from the ‘Roman Republic’ to the traditional German community or the Old Testament model).

They are difficult to relate, they do not go synchronously, during the period they significantly change their meaning, at the same time, the logic of civilizational development implies a movement from Renovatio to Revolutio, from cultural deformations and changes to the replacement of the social system.

The article explores such a kind of musical genre – a Soviet lyric song, its place in the Soviet everyday life, aesthetic task, and its fate during the 70-year period of life. The author substantiates the reasons why this genre in the Soviet era turned out to be so popular that it became a part of folk culture. The author also studies the phenomenon of some songs of that period, heavily propagated, but not popular among people. The author highlights the idea that even pseudo-folk songs, such as V.G. Zakharov’s songs for the Pyatnitsky Choir, although actively propagandized and often performed from the stage and on the radio, did not really become popular. The article attempts to explain the reasons for this spontaneous mass ostracism by “popular censorship”. Thieves' lyrics as such are not explored, with the exception of the “anthem of prisoners” - the song “I remember that Vanino port.” The author analyzes the reasons for the sudden end of the “golden age” of the Soviet lyric song, which nature ceased to correspond to the commercial interests of post-perestroika Russian song variety.

The article considers the iconography of Christian art associated with the rainbow motif. A rainbow is a beautiful optical phenomenon in the atmosphere that occurs when light is scattered on water droplets; it has the form of a multicolored arc or two arcs. The shining rainbow in Scripture is closely related to God's acts of communication with the chosen people such as Noah and the prophets. In such iconographic schemes as the Last judgment, the All saints’ Day and the Ascension of the Lord, the rainbow motif, based on the prophetic visions of Ezekiel and John the Apostle, is a symbol of the radiance of the Divine Glory and Majesty of God in His appearance to the prophets. In these iconographies, the rainbow is depicted with different degree of conventionality. Thus, it can be represented in one or two colors, but can also be made with expressive brightness in several colors of the spectrum. In these iconographies, the rainbow often represents the throne of the Lord within the mandorla - an oval or round frame around the figure of Christ or the Virgin, which has a complex symbolism associated with the image of a cloud, with the Divine Glory, as well as with the special nature of the image of Christ or the Virgin, which is outside the physical time and space. In a number of other iconographic schemes, the rainbow motif has the meaning of God's mercy. These are compositions associated with God’s Covenant with Noah, as well as with the Lord Covenant with the chosen people – the Church, which is reflected, in particular, in the compositions of Noah's Ark and the iconography of Our Lady of Mount Nerukosechnaya.

First appeared in the ancient world as the temple of the Muses, the museum became an expression of the idea to preserve the unique objects of the natural and artificial world necessary to satisfy the spiritual needs of a man. Historically, the reality of the museum has been repeatedly changing; it has been able to easily adapt to changing conditions. We find different ideas about the museum in antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the new and modern times. At the moment there are various approaches to understanding the museum as a phenomenon. The museum is presented as a symbol, sign, core, instrument, mechanism, intermediary, reflection, translator, generator, potential, center, project, producer, field, space, keeper, part, element, result, clipboard, value, category of culture. At the same time, the museum acts as a social institution, a social object of management, a form of social memory, social information, a mechanism for fixing social experience, achievements of the epoch. The museum has close relations with culture and society and it is considered to be their product and reflection, allowing to travel through centuries and territories. The author considers the museum as a category of thinking, basing on P. Findlen’s thought about a museum as a mental category (intellectual experience of collecting and preserving “the past in the mirror of the present”), the thought close to understanding of the museum by Z. Stránský as one of the forms of a person’s specific relationship to reality, and the author also applies categories of the system methodology and the theory of dynamic information systems of V. Razumov and V. Sizikov. The author considers the museum as a category of thinking; using the triadic method. The system of interrelated concepts has been formed, reflecting the basis for the creation and existence of the museum. The paper creates the foundation for further discussions on the essence of this socio-cultural phenomenon.

In this paper, the main techniques as well as the heuristic and cognitive possibilities of the exegetical theology of Isaac Newton, are analysed. The Newtonian method of hermeneutic interpretation of the prophetic texts of the Old and New Testaments, is studied. The main constituents of this method are as follows: 1) in prophecy, a literal meaning of physical, historical, social and political reality, is hidden; 2) the interpretation of prophecy must be systematic, and not sketchy; 3) the interpretation must be complete and inclusive; 4) in the interpretation, a clear structure of events should be elaborated; 5) in prophecy there are no superfluous, unnecessary and just poetic details; 6) to determine the correct chronological sequence of historical events (sometimes specially confused in the original prophetic text), it is necessary to create a system of synchronisms - chronological reference points; 7) on reconstructing the full picture of encrypted events, one must use the whole range of available sources: biblical, near biblical, non-biblical (pagan, Sumerian, Arabic, etc.), textual and non-textual, historical, archaeological, geographical, anthropological, architectural sources; 8) it is necessary to establish the hierarchy (priority) of sources; 9) the basic logical method for interpreting prophecies is induction; in our conclusions, it is obligatory to have a necessary and sufficient condition for understanding the text – and this will be complete exegesis; 10) ultimately it is necessary to achieve both external and internal consistency of the hermeneutic interpretation of a prophetic text; 11) it is compulsory to have test points in historical chronology so that it should be possible to trace the correctness or incorrectness of any exegetical conclusion; 12) the constant self-control and discipline of the exegete, the Bible researcher is required; 13) exegesis should not be carried out on translations, if there is such an opportunity, but on original, native textual sources; 14) a system of deciphering images in the form of hieroglyphics is needed. It is shown that Newton developed a dictionary of historical, political and ecclesiastical equivalents for images and symbols in the prophetic literature. In the interpretation of prophecy, he applied the principle of constancy: throughout the prophecy, it is necessary to use the same hieroglyphic dictionary – this will ensure the consistency and continuity of exegesis. It is demonstrated that Newton was able to obtain a systematic picture of the Apocalyptic events on the basis of the interpretation of many prophetic books (Daniel, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Hosea, Joel, Zechariah, Amos, Revelation of John the Theologian), the main of which are the Book of Daniel and the Apocalypse.

This paper is written on the basis of many years of research. The author studied the specifics of social memory functioning. Historical memory is an element of social memory. In times of stability of social processes all elements of social memory operate in complementary mode. But historical memory contains latent paradoxes in its structure. In crisis situations, the historical memory begins to interfere with the social memory. Crises are times of a contradictory policy of memory. In times of crisis, historical memory attacks public consciousness with ambiguous interpretations of events. This generates pseudo patriotism, ideological excesses, distortion of traditions, prohibitions to remember “inconvenient” events. Social memory becomes a “field of stabilization” of the structures of social consciousness. The field and layers of social memory retain the experience of their ancestors in their structures, as well as the stock of knowledge, the necessary community for survival. Although the interpretation of information stored in memory structures is socially differentiated, it is cleared of politics and ideology. The methodology of investigating the interaction of contradictions between social and historical memory is interdisciplinary, sociocultural. It also applies cultural centrism, multilevel approaches, methods of qualitative analysis (narrative interviews with representatives of different ethnic groups, restoration of family histories, content analysis of memoirs, journalism). The result of the analysis is the systematization of the contradictions of social and historical memory in crisis conditions.