Ideas and Ideals

The article presents a comparative analysis of theoretical positions of F. Tönnies and E. Durkheim on the problems of the relationship and the historical development of the social system, individuality and freedom. The author highlights the differences between substantial grounds (liberty vs activities), the correlation of the part and the whole, internal and external ("own" and "alien") applied to the relationship of an individual and society, the significance of personal and impersonal phenomena in different types of sociality. In the F. Tönnies`s concept of Gemeinschaft (community) creating the image of collective personality social system is evaluated as a factor of alienation, lack of freedom and moral degradation. According to the theory of Emile Durkheim individualization and personal development emerge as a result of objective processes of differentiation and complexity of systematically executed activities. The logic of an impersonal system development with its imperatives of efficiency and functionality expands the social space of personal self-determination to ensure the autonomy of the individual. The author argues for the thesis about the continuity of today`s alternative interpretations and evaluations of traditional and modern types of society in relation to the ideas of F. Tönnies and E. Durkheim.

The article considers the theoretical views of French monetary economists of the second half of the XVI century in connection with the price revolution of the period. The usual explanation of this inflation is based on the quantity theory of money, which was first propounded by Martin de Azpilcueta Navarro (1492-1586) in Spain and by Jean Bodin (1529-1596) in France. According to this theory, the precious metals, arriving in Spain from the New World, increased the quantity of metallic currency in the state. This in turn led to the increase in prices in Spain and to a balance-of-payments’ deficiency, as the demand for foreign merchandise, including goods supply from Spain to America, exceeded the Spanish own export abroad. This deficiency was financed by metallic currency which, respectively, affected price increase in foreign countries. However, the French theorists, besides the increase of precious metals in circulation, emphasized also other reasons for the inflation, such as a population growth, the actions of monopolists and the increased demand for luxury goods. In their works, they also offered a number of measures for a stabilisation of national currency. Their conclusions promoted the preparation of the monetary reform which was carried out by the government of France in 1577.

The artcile considers the Max Weber's interpretation of the interrelations between economy and religion. The concept of «elective affinities» which played one the central roles in explaining complex correlations between the material culture and the religious experience is in the focus. The article argues that Goethe's famous novel «Die Wahlerwanschaften» (1809) and various critical replies do help to understand better the logic of Weber’s essay “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” (1905). In addition, this interpretation gives an opportunity to show the formal similarities and the content differences of the role of Protestantism and Old Belief (Schism of the Russian Orthodox Church) in the economic modernization of Europe and Russia.

The paper considers a novel of antiquity-scientist A.N. Egunov who was writing under pseudonym Nicolev. Studying antiquity wasn’t considered to be antique. It led to the culture of the XX century and one’s own experience. In the 1920s it was insistently advised «to learn from classics». But the writer’s roles and social profile as well as his relations with his own gift were changing. A. Nikolev’s subtle and clever structures are involuntary perceived as «intensifying» editing. The novel is set in the specific topography. All the toponyms are acknowledged historically except for «the magical village Mirandino». «Ancient Tulsky district» represents the living tract, a museum «without walls». The names of Goethe and Tolstoy remind of definitive features which formed the world of culture. A slight touch on the meaning, writing-wandering, reading will become a storyline of the text. Physically «light hand» is a prevailing metaphor. The moments of revelation capture the turning points in a wonderful wandering. Essential is the suddenness of a crucial question. It concerns the semantics and function of the word «Faust» (fist). The character’s name is connected with the linguistic theory of nominations, with a long-standing argument about the nature of names. Semantics and grammar are opposed: the weaker sex is opposed to the stronger sex, «humane place» – to the chauvinistic culture. The main rhythm of emotions is repeated: violence, power, «weak» power. Egunov was a musically gifted person. In his translations from the ancient Greek language he kept the atmosphere of rhythmo-melodic inflexional features of the text. The novel is particularly in the need of contextualization. The context is constantly changing, and reminds of the Heraclitus river.

The article studies topical problems of teaching philosophy at musical colleges. The author proves that the main goal for students of creative specialties to study philosophy is in offering a set of basic visions motivating to choose consciously the purpose of existence. The article consistently expands on issues of cognitive theory, ontology, sociology, axiology, aesthetics, and ethics, essential for the formation of a student’s personal and professional status. In modern conception of Russian higher education, the searches of new role and meaning of philosophy are far from being finished. The process of decreasing the subject’s teaching hours in college programmes is accompanied with students’ significant loss of interest in philosophical problematics. This drastically decreases both the learners’ general thinking culture and their inability to confront challenges of life concerning their personal identity and behaviour. The possibility to group the essential topics of European culture philosophical experience around the current aspects of a professional musician’s formation is one of the ways to increase the efficiency of teaching philosophy at a musical college.

In the article the First World War is seen as the transition from the ideology of Enlightenment to the emerging world of mass man. The specific features of this war are formulated which radically distinguish it from previous conflicts of different scale. It is shown that the First World War has discovered and tested a new control over human masses. The particular importance of the First World War for Russia is analyzed, for which it has become the beginning of the cultural catastrophe. The ideology and practice based on the belief that any person can be transformed by changing the external forms of his existence have succeeded, while the intellectual parties of opposition, particularly the KD’s aspired to democracy and respect for individual rights. After the formal end of the First World War it continued both in domestic and foreign policy of several European countries, primarily in Germany and Russia. This continuation is reflected in the labour armies, reinforced by the propaganda, in the shift from religion to ideology, in the establishment of totalitarian regimes, deriving its power from the idea of the constant struggle. At the end the First World War opened up the possibility of transition to mass man, united in humankind.

The questions for determination of cultural and creative ideas of the symbolical art focused on transforming reality in philosophy of Vyach. Ivanov are considered in the article. The attention is drawn to his work "Two Elements in Modern Symbolism" in which the content of new art is explained opening creative opportunities of culture. Differentiating Realistic and Idealistic Symbolism as significant activity of the realist artist and converting – the idealist artist, the author comes to the idea about opportunity in Realism to show the myth creation installations focused on the divine unity opening the cathedral agreement of opinion and unanimity, establishing real connection of separate consciousness in live unity. In Vyach. Ivanov’s ideas about the nature of myth creation in symbolical art the problem for coordinating religious experience of life with cultural development of the world is stated, this problem is solved through the appeal to comprehensive synthesis of a teo-centrism and a culture-centrism.

The article describes the experience of novels interpretation. The novels are written by an American writer of the Russian origin, the founder of the philosophical trend of rational individualism (objectivism) Ayn Rand. A comparative analysis of the two lists of values that form the basis of Western civilization, one of which is the subject of her criticism (refuting). A new formulation of the question concerning the relationship between the values of charity and justice is suggested in the article as a response to A. Rand. The author substantiates that the notion of justice is derived from the notion of charity. The value of charity in Christian consciousness binds together humanity and freedom. The author highlights the idea, that the principle of «rational personal gain», proposed by A. Rand is the principle of cynical reason and it cannot be a sustainable basis for the modern society.

The article analyses social, anthropological, cognitive and psychological causes and consequences of information explosion. The transformation of communications mechanisms under the influence of information overload is explored. Information as the essence of modern society is defined. Splitting phenomenon of social action into the actual and virtual is fixed. A theoretical sociological explanation of growing confrontation between social reality and social actuality is provided. The increase of contradictions between the private and the public as a consequence of the widening digital tension in a zone of social communications is examined. The author substantiates the claim that information explosion puts the destruction of the foundations of the existence of social – his systemic, up to a limit of exacerbating the conflict between the individual and the collective. It has been found that communication practices increasingly dominate the exchange and the use of information. Consequently, the structures of everyday life acquire the character of individuals’ absorption into the space of social alternatives constructed by communications. The author thinks that "individualized society" according to the one of the scenarios in the “Forsyte” genre has already become a reality and it has acquired the appearance of "quantified social reality". In this regard, the article describes the possibility of applying quantum paradigm approach in the version of “relativity states" by H. Everett in order to explain and understand what happened in the society with the growth of discreteness and its consequences. The author draws attention to development of the idea of the existence of many social worlds. "Quanta of information" are interpreted as "shadow particles” of social actions.

In this article the author offers arguments in defense of the view that philosophical-historical views of K. Leontiev and his historical vocation of Russia cannot be included in the system of Eurasian views without significant restrictions. The similarity between the views of Leontiev and views of classical Eurasians 20-30-ies of the XX century is only superficial. A comparative analysis of Eurasian concepts with the views of Leontiev, taken in their systemic integrity, on the contrary, reveals the deep contradictions between them. While the Eurasians were concerned to make relevant state-political form peculiar and coherent Russian (Eurasian) culture, Leontiev claimed that Russia is a loose, amorphous and heterogeneous in cultural terms "body", the integrity of which is supported by external bonds of Russian statehood and the Church. "East project" in the process of working out which philosophical, historical and political views of Leontiev became systemic integrity, called for the creation in Russia of a new cultural and political center in Istanbul, around which in the distant future needs to encounter a fundamentally new world civilization (cultural and historical type). This civilization will unite in the synthesis of higher-order Orthodoxy, Catholicism and Islam, would include the Greek, Slavic, Romanian, Turkish, Persian, and other ethnic and cultural components. Russian culture and culture of other peoples of Russia will join this new civilization only along with many other ethno-cultural components. Thus, also the "East project" and the concept of the Eurasian cultural-historical specificity of Russia differ from each other in such essential traits as K. Leontiev considered as a direct predecessor of Eurasianism, in the author's opinion, hardly acceptable.