Ideas and Ideals

Conceptualization problem of gender differences in Plato's philosophy (based on “Pir”, “State” and “Laws” dialogues) is considered in the article. In research literature there is a widespread unilateral interpretation according to which Plato's standpoint is reduced to “intellectual misogyny” (following Sergey Zherebkin terminology). The author of the article insists on a wider interpretation of gender concept in Plato's philosophy. Plato revealed an essential discrepancy of sexes concerning their social destination. On the one hand, Plato's philosophy includes the idea of female deficiency or weakness; on the other hand it discloses historical and social sources for gender asymmetry, suggesting the plan of its overcoming. A new look at the Plato's gender concept highlights the eternal exigency of his classic philosophy.

The author analyses the tendencies of the discipline formation such as philosophy of economy. The author hypothesizes that it was impossible to form autonomous philosophical-economic knowledge in Russia of the 18-th century. The prerequisites of philosophical and economic trends in Russia were investigated in the article as well as the history of scientific rational thinking formation within the framework of religiously-utopian discourse in the 18-th century Russia. According to the basic thesis of the article the philosophical-economic discourse could not be formed in Russia of the 18-th century because of the absence of cultural pre-conditions. The economic aspect was included into the religiously-utopian context, the author states the fact, that cultural space was not prepared to accept the economic ideas and concepts. Nevertheless, there was a need in scientific economic thinking able to specify the way of modernization of economy inspired by historical transformations of Peter I, who generated competition with the European states in such areas as: trade, military business and shipbuilding.

In the article the author attempts to describe the phenomenon of the hidden meaning of advertisement as the object of understanding, special attention is paid to cognitive and information aspects. The author treats the term ‘implicitness’ as components that are not explicated in the external structure of the advertised message, but they embody the inner essence of the advertised message. The author identifies the components of implicit information comprising the advertised message: presupposition and implication. It was concluded that the hidden meaning of the advertisement may be goal-oriented (when it was purposefully generated by the subject of the advertising) and spontaneous (when it occurs independently of the will and desire of the subject of promotional activities, including the effect of associated and inducible images, which emergence in the minds of consumers has been unplanned). Another important feature of the advertised message, in addition to having a hidden meaning, is its repetitiveness. These features contribute to the fact that the recipient in the process of perception and decoding of the advertised message will generate new meanings because of the subjectivity of perception. In other words, due to the combination of these properties, it becomes possible to realize the full potential, concluded in advertising communication.

The paper aims to give an interpretation of the rejection of master-theory in the feminist epistemology within the contemporary pragmatism context. Within the feminist field, the rejection is guided by the fundamental “instability of the analytical categories of feminist theory”, which is itself the consequence of an attempt to copy the androcentric way to make feminist theory (S. Harding). The interpretation of the rejection within the contemporary pragmatism field gives a possibility to represent the “instability” not as the consequence of the relativization of the discourse within the feminist epistemology, but as the consequence of the pragmatic interpretation of the theory “as an instrument”, representing a complex social phenomenon.

The article is devoted to the problem of determination of the specifics of social and philosophical knowledge in comparison with sociology. Despite their genetic relationship and substantial similarity they have essential differences. For a philosopher the initial object of critical analysis is not a society itself, but the way of its description, while for a sociologist the main objective is to create a descriptive model of the social phenomena. The mentioned above distinctions don't cancel the possibility of effective synthesis of the approaches developed both within the frames of sociology, and social philosophy.

The Internet allows a huge number of people, including those living abroad to feel like a single community. Internet-based technologies represent a new social capital of migrants that has not existed before. Obvious aspect of computer-mediated communication (CMC) is that it goes beyond time and space. Virtual communities have the potential not only to bind the individuals, but also to unite them, creating an emotional connection. Internet-based technologies increase quantitative and qualitative indicators of communication, supplementing already existing structure of interaction, acting sometimes as a factor initiating the subsequent interaction in reality. A research devoted to the process of communication among migrants (including CMC), deserves special attention, since migration is global in nature and has increasing rates. We can select 4 categories of using Internet-based technologies: search tools, e-mails, forums and chats. Using Internet-based technologies may vary depending on the stage of migration, which can be divided into three: pre-migrant, post-migrant and settled migrant. CMC is used by migrants to build new relationships, maintain existing and restore the lost ones. Internet-based technologies almost allow migrants to be in a different reality. Sometimes the frequency and activity of virtual contacts making them for the individual much more real than those that do not take place "online". Internet-based technologies are an important resource in the field of communication of individuals and provide them with plenty of opportunities previously unavailable. Reality mediated by the internet-based technologies transforms, slowly becomes a new previously non-existed reality.

The subject of this article is the role of philosophy in the history from Antiquity till nowadays. Namely in Ancient Greece the idea of the omnipotence of speculative knowledge appears, which has found its particularly strong expression in Pythagorean doctrine. The idea of omnipotence belongs is common to great researchers who are prone to unjustified extension of the scope of their methods. In particular the harm caused to the scientific knowledge of Plato is analyzed. The success of science has brought to life the fantastic philosophy of rationalism, and this science was undoubtedly the Greek geometry. Under the influence of Plato and of Euclidean geometry theology arises in the Middle ages. Only in the eighteenth century science in our sense has become the catalyst of progress. The crucial role was played by Newton, who, by establishing differential and integral calculus, had substantiated the philosophy of empiricism, and had secure its historic victory. Communism as well as fascism grew out of the so-called "German classical philosophy", which was the continuation of the medieval philosophy of rationalism. Yet scientists, unlike priests of the past, do not undertake the attempt to build the unified worldview. The appearance of the objective science was a rejection of important types of previous knowledge. At the same time the humanistic weltanschauung of the New age stands in accordance with science and ready to take her new discoveries. It opens up the creative freedom to shape the future of humankind.

“Scientific communism” was introduced into educational programs of all soviet higher education institutions in 1963/64. It is important to study the history of this discipline for it effectively displays transformation of social sciences into a coherent system of disciplines during “The Thaw”. This discipline emerged in the period of destalinization as a result of mass request for renovation and rationalization of social knowledge. During the period of its institutionalization, “scientific communism” was perceived by many specialists as a new, truthful Soviet sociology. In the 2nd part of the article the author shows how the discipline was influenced by the changes in the World socialist movement, in which the Communist Party of China challenged ideological leadership of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. This article shows that the discipline emerged as the result of changes in the official ideology, institutional changes in the Soviet higher education and in the global ideological rivalry.

The article is dedicated to the discussion of controversial issues of modern noospherology. Global deformation of the biosphere under the influence of human activities has led to the fact that Humanity has no alternatives to the transition to the noosphere. The article also justifies the need for the following items: a) to interpret the noosphere from the perspective of co-evolution of society and nature; b) to replace the orientation towards sustainable development into the orientation towards the co-evolutionary development.

The author considers problematical character of the relations of Christianity with different cultures as one of the bright features of European civilization. Attempts to understand it were made throughout the whole history of Christianity. It is necessary to examine continuous penetration of the most diverse cultures from other continents into Europe which faced the existential conflict with this religion. At the same time the author analyzes the problematic relations of Christianity with the European mental and cultural compositions. They naturally contradicted Christianity which had been created outside the continent. This conflict can be easily observed during the period of early Christianity when Christianity was more represented by a set of ideas, than by a sum of artifacts. Besides, Christianity was formed not due to the evolution of certain initial paradigm knowledge but as a result of synthesis of the elements of almost all known at that time cultures. The author considers the history of interaction between Christianity and the European cultural streams, and he also reviews some forms and methods of that opposition. Church played a special role in that opposition and Christianization can be presented as the movement of the Church to a greater extent, than a religion. At the same time Christianization is the information conquering of new space. Also the role of this religion in the preservation of the European information unity should be highlighted as well as its role in the struggle against cultural interventions from the outside.